Magical Express or Town Car?

[Horizon93]

DW and I always use a town car. We have used Happy and were thinking of using them or trying Quicksilver on our summer trip.

We have never used Magical Express. Would it be worth it for us to try it? We are staying at Animal Kingdom Villas. Is ME just glorified Mears or is it a Disney experience? Will it add a great deal of time to our trip? Does the way ME handles the baggage make it easier?

Thanks for any and all opinions.

[CleveRocks]

DW and I always use a town car. We have used Happy and were thinking of using them or trying Quicksilver on our summer trip.

We have never used Magical Express. Would it be worth it for us to try it? We are staying at Animal Kingdom Villas. Is ME just glorified Mears or is it a Disney experience? Will it add a great deal of time to our trip? Does the way ME handles the baggage make it easier?

Thanks for any and all opinions.DME is run by Disney. Mears is the subcontractor that supplies the buses and drivers ... but it is run by Disney's policies and procedures, which makes sure it is a Disney experience and not the old Mears experience.

Some surface differences ... Mears made multiple stops at the airport before leaving, DME has a single departure point. Mears waited until a bus was full before leaving. A DME bus must leave the airport no later than 15 minutes after the first guest boards. Mears stopped at an almost unlimited number of hotels. DME stops at a maximum of 4 resorts.

A Disney "welcome" DVD is played during the ride.

The automatic luggage handling is a truly wonderful experience. You check your bags at your home airport just like any other time you fly. But when you land, you totally skip baggage claim and go right to the Disney Welcome Center. You check-in, get into the bus queue, and then board your air conditioned bus.

Your bags will be inside your room within about 3 hours after you arrive at your resort. They will be in there whether you are in there or not. And Disney even picks up the in-bound Bellman gratuity for you.

But don't let me make it sound like you are being fliwn to your resort y Aladdin himself on a magic carpet. DME is still just a bus ... a comfy, plushly upholstered motorcoach, but still a bus. You are sharing the ride with a bunch of other people, and might make up to 3 other stops before your own.

A car service, as you know, gives you private and personalized service. If you hate the idea of riding with other people, then DME isn't for you.

But if you like the idea of more money in your pocket, if you don't mind riding with others, then give DME a try. I've used it twice and I TOTALLY love it.

By the way ... time-wise, they're even. Yes, a car service goes right to your resort, but you must also first wait at baggage claim, and then it's at least a few minutes for the driver to get the car. With DME, you skip baggage claim, and there is your time savings.

[KateMW]

We are up in the air about using ME or a car service as well. I can't decide what is worse...riding a bus to WDW with a ton of other over-excited kids (my own included!) or waiting for my own bags! LOL Can you still check your bags back home if you don't use ME?

[CleveRocks]

Can you still check your bags back home if you don't use ME?Yes.

Resort Airline Check-in is a separate service from DME. You can use RAC regardless of how you get back to the airport.

HOWEVER ...

In order to be eligible to use RAC, you must be flying one of the "participating airlines" ... so anyone staying at a Disney owned-and-operated resort can use RAC, as long as their airline is a "participating airline."

[KateMW]

We'll probably fly Delta, since it's the only airline that has a direct flight, besides SW, which I hate.
I think I saw Delta's name on the list of approved airlines.:mickey:

[J.T.Toad]

Dear

For Four years in a row we used Tiffany Town Car We loved the service and the fact we didn’t have to wait. We had a driver by the name of Berkley who we had requested every year. The trip to and from our resort became part of the Disney experience. Two years ago due to Budget concerns we decide to give DME a try. We no sooner got on the bus and sat down, we were on our way. Our stop was the 2nd out of three stops. After checking in at the Boardwalk we walked over to Beaches and Cream for Dinner we returned to our room our luggage had been delivered. Last year was almost a repeat of the year before except we had must have just missed the previous bus and we had to wait about 30 minutes before departing. The only drawback with DME that I have found is that you need to be at the bus 3 hours before your departing flight. When departing at 7:3o a.m. this was a real drag.

Good Luck
JT

[faline]

The quality of your service on Magical Express will vary from driver to driver. The last time we used Magical Express, we arrived very late in the evening. We sat on the bus for far longer than 15 minutes (and, yes, we did wait for the bus to fill up) before leaving for Disney World.

If you want personalized attention and a direct route to your resort, use a car servicd such as Quicksilver. (http://www.quicksilver-tours.com/)

Magical Express will get you there and back but, in my opinion, the most magical thing about the service is that you don't need to pay an additional amount of money for the service.

[MNMS]

We're big fans of car service. Not that we like to waste money, but in the scope of a Disney trip the $100 roundtrip service hardly breaks the bank. We just like the convenience and speed of using a car service. I know DME in general is very good, but I've heard of long waits once in a while and I just don't want to risk waiting. I guess I am too excited to get to the parks as soon as possible and stay as long as possible!

[Catzle]

We really enjoy the Magical Express, it's easy and nice to sit and relax both ways. We have used it twice now and haven't had any problems. This year we don't get in until 8 at night so I hope it will be good this late and we won't have to wait too long. I would give it try!

[Bri]

we have never used a private service but we have used DME 2. we really liked it both times. we didn't wait long to leave the airport and we got to our resort quickly. as someone stated above, you do have to be at the bus 3 hours prior to take off the day you leave. the first time we went we were leaving at 7am so waking up that early was a downer. but we've learned our lesson and will just book later returning flights. i would suggest DME, it's free, they take care of delivering your bags, and you watch the welcome video which gets you more excited!

[teambricker04]

My DH and I wanted to rent a car this last time as we were staying at FW and knew it would be easier to get around that the resort transportation with two little people and a giant double stroller. BUT, we didn't want to pick up our bags.... SO, my DS#1 and I rode ME and my DH and DS#2 (a baby) went and got the rental car and met us at the resort. We were all there within 5 minutes of eachother!!!! Neither of us could believe it. Now, if we hadn't taken ME, then we would have had to add on bag time; probably another half hour at least.

We did it on the way back so #1 could enjoy the ride in the bus (very amazing when you are 2). DH and #2 ended up waiting for us about a half hour.

We love taking ME and have never had a problem with it. It isn't overly "magical", but always a fun way to start the trip. Plus, our bags have always gotten to our room quickly, even when we have an early check in. After this last time we decided that we would take ME and rent our car from the alamo on property.

[TheMartellFamily]

For us and with 2 DS ages 4,and 9 it is the prep and anticiapation of riding DME that we choose this every time. We feel that it is so much easier to have our luggage delivered to our room with in a short time after arriving rather than wait for it at the airport. To go on a disney bus to start our vacation with the welcome video just gets the kids so excited along with mom and dad too. This is just our opinion but we really like DME and feel that we do not need to pay for a towncar service to get us to WDW resort.

[comicguy]

We use to use a car service but switched to DME for a couple of reasons:

1) It's free (the 100 dollars that i would of spent is now spent on some special item at WDW)
2) NO touch luggage once I get to my home airport until I get back.

[Horizon93]

Thanks to everyone for your responses. DW and I are going to give ME a try. It is just the two of us, so it will be an experiment. I will use the $$ I save to get an Owner's Locker. It will be a trip where we try many new things!

[azdisneymom]

We used a Towncar service on our last trip because we wanted to stop at the grocery store first. It was nice because they picked us up in baggage claim and helped with the luggage. On the way back we got picked up 2 hours before our flight. Had we taken ME we would have gotten picked up 3 hours before.

The only problem we ran into was the 'free' grocery stop we had asked for. The driver drove past the exit and took us to a gas station covenience store on Disney property instead. No selection and very expensive.

[Taja]

If grocery service works for you, go for it! We never have a large enough order--and we have a rental car when there is a group.

I've used Tiffany and Quicksilver on solo trips, and both were excellent. I discussed the grocery stop with the driver while waiting for my luggage so we were both on the same page. :thumbsup:

I'm currently debating between DME and towncar service for a potential WDW visit in December 2008. It's so iffy at this point that I can't think seriously about it! *LOL*

[dteed]

When we fly we have always used a town car. Just like the fact that they are there for us and only for us. Never any waiting, no additional stops, just us in the car, and we get straight to the resort to do what we wanted to do. We have recently started driving because I like to be in control of my luggage, and departure time. I just drive right through the night and we are there first thing in the morning.