Magical Express

[Belster]

I have a few questions regarding DME:
First, I will be arriving at the airport at about 10:00 P.M., will DME pick up that late? If so, are there usually many people arriving at this time of night? I am concerned about the amount of stops the bus will need to make before we get to our hotel. We are staying at Pop, anyone else used DME at this time of night and stayed at the Pop? If so how was it?

I am traveling with small children, is DME more of a problem when traveling with small children, especially at this time of night?

I have read that it can take a while to receive your luggage from DME, is this true?

Does DME ever loose luggage?

Do you receive tags for your luggage in the mail? If so what if you need more then what they have sent?

Sorry about all of the questions. To whomever replied I thank you for taking the time to do so. :thumbsup:

[yjgirl32]

I know DME will take you to your resort anytime of the night. I had friends that arrived at midnight and still used DME. Not sure how wuickly you will get dropped off- depends on many other vacationers there are.

As for your luggage- I have not seen very many complaints on here about them losing their luggage and they did not lose my luggage and I traveled with 6 other people in my group. They also sent me two yellow DME stickers per person. I would assume if you are taking more then 2 bags per person you might to tell your travel agent, Disney, whoever is booking your trip for you. It can take up to 3 hours to get your luggage so you might want to pack your bed clothes. Also if you don't want them to deliver it thru the middle of the night let them know at the front desk that you would be picking it up in the morning or to deliver it after a certain hour.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your trip.

[Pirate Granny]

Hi there...we've arrived as late as 12:30am...and there were six ME buses with various people on them waiting to leave. We did wait 20 minutes...but we were going to Pop and we were the first to be let off (only one other hotel was on our bus)...we took our luggage with us as hubby was golfing in the morning...they claim that they will NOT deliver luggage between midnight and 7am. so either take your luggage with you or make sure to pack a bag so you have everything you need. You can leave a message at the front desk about what time you would like your luggage to be taken to your room. I'm not sure about travelling that late with small children outside that they may be very tired and cranky...but oh well...children can be cranky at any time...so I would take the free ride...Taxi's are over $50 and you will have to lug your luggage unless you get a cab service which meets you...more $$$ and now you have the problem about car seats...you must have your children in a car seat in the cabs. Disney ME will not allow a car seat to be used in the bus (perhaps an infant seat, but not a toddler seat)...they must be put under the bus in the luggage area. There are no seat belts to secure a child seat in the bus therefore quite dangerous to use. Just relax and enjoy the start of your trip...chances are everything will work out perfectly.
:pirate:

[disneyfan328]

Here are my thoughts on DME - We had 5 people on our trip last september. Each of us with a carry on and a suitcase so thats 5 checked bags. We arrived early in the day - at about 10 am. We had packed pjs for that night and all necessities medicines, toothbrushes and toothpast ect. in our carry ons. We used DME (we got the yellow luggage tags in with our package from the Travel agency). We checked our carry ons with bell services and headed to Epcot for the day. When we got back to our hotel at around 7pm we got to our room and - we had NO luggage. None. We called bell services to delivery our carry ons and the water that we had shipped to the hotel separatley and also to ask if they had our luggage. We were told that all they had was our carry ons and the water. We asked for them to at least deliver that. We then went down to the little building outside the front doors to speak to them about our luggage. We were told that they did have record of 4 suitcases for us but that they were very backed up and as soon as they could get them to us they would. Now we had been up( with little sleep the night before) since about 5am and needless to say we were tired. I explained to them that we had 5 suitcases - to make a long story short it took us almost 2 more hours to get our luggage and the final bag (which somehow took a vacation of its own to the Polynesian) arrived at about 2am and they did bring it to our room at that time.

Now - being that our luggage was not lost and only delayed I will say this - we were told the next day that there was a huge delay of luggage shortly after our flight had arrived at MCO. There was lightning and such for about 4 hours. When this happens we were told that they do not allow the baggage handlers out there to deal with luggage. it all stops. Hence the back up not just at our hotel, but I am sure all of the Disney hotels. Also, had it not been for DME services we would have been left standing around MCO for about 6 hours on our day of arrival waiting for them to release our luggage. Since it was being handled by DME we were able to head off to the hotel and start our vacation never being the wiser to the delay.

While it was frustrating at that point becuase we were tired and cranky - I am glad that it was only delayed, and not lost and that we didn't waste our whole first day sitting in the airport with some very upset kids. That would have been way WAY worse. All in all I think that DME is great and would not hesitate to use them again.:mickey:

If you decide against using it DO NOT put the YELLOW DME tags on your luggage. If you do, your luggage will never even hit the carousel - it is taken off the plane and put somewhere else, but it will not be coming out on those conveyor belts so if you are going to pick up your own luggage don't use them.

As far as stops go I belive that each bus is maxed out at 3 stops to make the trip to your resort as quick as possible and all of the hotels are close to each other so even if you are the last stop it shouldn't be that bad.

[Belle619]

When we first used DME, we arrived in Orlando around 11pm. We had packed some essentials into our carry-on bags, but with the FAA regulations, we only had those toiletries that were less than 3oz. We were going to WDW for a week, so for most things we just packed a full size in our checked bagage.

Unfortunately, we didn't get our luggage until the next morning - so this did complicate things a little.

On the following trip, we decided to take a cab instead. The ride from the airport to the Contemporary resort was still a fair distance, so as far as time saved, it really didn't make much difference without the other stops. On a side note -the cost was ~ $70 and the cab driver was a bit sketchy.

So, all things considered, I'd say to do DME but be sure to bring enough in your carry-on to get you through the night.

[thumperbug]

We have never had a problem with ME on the arriving end. On a last minute trip this past February, there was not enough time between making our ME reservations and the travel date to receive the yellow tags. It was not a problem. When we got to the ME counter, we gave them our reservation # and a description of the 2 bags and they got to our hotel with no problem. I had even taken a picture of our bags and gave it to them but they said they didn't need them.