News Disney's Magical Express to end after 2021

[el_super]

Universal/Merlin/Six Flags are not threats to Disney's theme park dominance. Never will be. That's why IP is so important in the theme park business.

The biggest risks to the theme park business are changes in the market: pandemics, climate change and global travel. Those will impact everyone in the business to some extent, but Disney World (and even Universal) would be exceptionally prone to changes in international travel.

 

[GrumpyFan]

I emailed WDWGuestCommunications the following:

For more than 10 years we’ve been coming to Walt Disney World and enjoying the Magical Express bus service to and from the airport. Hearing that this service has been discontinued beginning January 1, 2022 is very saddening and also quite puzzling. Why would you end something that seemed to hit all four of the four keys so well?

For safety it creates a potential unsafe condition for guests having to rely on some other transportation method that may be questionable. It puts more vehicles on the road adding potential accidents and congestion, plus adds more carbon emissions, harming the environment.

It completely removes the courtesy aspect and adds even more complexity to an experience that’s already challenging and adds an extra expense for guests. Plus, add to the fact that you previously left a note with the time for pickup, guests now have to worry about this themselves to ensure they get to the airport in time.

For show, this creates a very negative image and feelings from guests that Disney doesn’t care about them. It also adds the potential that guests will choose to spend part of their time (and money) in Orlando, visiting other places.

Lastly, this will make things a LOT more difficult and less efficient for guests who will now have just another thing to have to plan and pay for in what is already a very confusing and expensive Disney vacation.

While I don’t understand how such a decision like this is made, my hope is that thru mine and many other’s comments you will reconsider. For my family and I, the loss of this convenient service will likely mean we decrease the amount of times we choose to visit. Last year, thanks to some inexpensive flights, we flew from Houston and stayed on property at least 8 times, and at least 4 times in 2019. Sadly, I think those days are gone, now that Magical Express is gone.

Sadly, and sincerely,


Below is their response:

Neva (Disney Parks) Jan 9, 2022, 9:52 AM EST Thank you for your email regarding our recent announcements concerning the future of our airport transportation options. We greatly appreciate the feedback you have provided and understand the questions and concerns that these changes may introduce. Guests currently have more options than ever concerning transportation methods around Orlando. The introduction of services such as ride-sharing and online rental car offers more flexibility to allow Guests on vacation to travel directly to their destination. In light of this shift, we will no longer offer Disney’s Magical Express service for transportation to and from Orlando International Airport (MCO), effective January 1, 2022. We will continue operating Disney’s Magical Express service through the end of 2021, including for existing and future reservations. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes. Complimentary transportation options – such as buses, monorails, and the Disney Skyliner – will continue to be available within the Walt Disney World® Resort, including to and from all four Theme Parks. We understand that this may feel like a big change and are happy to continue to help you plan the transportation accommodations that best suit your family. Many of these new services allow you to directly reserve specific components of your transportation needs such as car seats or booster seats, or large vehicles for larger parties. You are able to explore these alternative transportation methods for travel dates in 2022 on our website. For more information regarding transportation for your vacation in Orlando, please visit the Car Rental and Airport Transportation Frequently Asked Questions pages on the Walt Disney World® website. Please note that while both links will guide you to pages on our website for more information, the online booking processes will redirect you to external partner websites. We appreciate your dedication to your Disney vacations and look forward to future opportunities to entertain you and your family!

 

[John park hopper]

What a crap response their closing statement should read.

"We appreciate your dedication to your Disney vacations and look forward to future opportunities to take your money from you and your family!

 

[GrumpyFan]

What a crap response their closing statement should read.

"We appreciate your dedication to your Disney vacations and look forward to future opportunities to take your money from you and your family!

Clearly it's a canned response.
They didn't even attempt to address ANY of my concerns or issues, which just reinforce the points I made.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Clearly it's a canned response.
They didn't even attempt to address ANY of my concerns or issues, which just reinforce the points I made.

I can't believe they're seriously including the ability to reserve a car rental online as some new advancement in technology that justifies eliminating DME. What year is this???? Next thing you know they'll use "the introduction of traffic signals" as a reason to not offer monorail service to BLT and the Contemporary since it's now "safer than ever" to walk to Magic Kingdom.

 

[John park hopper]

If they can get you to rent a car bingo they can charge you a resort parking fee pure profit they probably get a kick back from the car rental service

 

[pdude81]

One thing i forgot about is that they always drop you at terminal B. This didn't matter much with DME pre-covid because they handled the baggage from resort.

Since then I have taken a cart service which dropped me right at SW area of triba terminal A. But today was the first time I had to schlep my bags across three airport and try to figure out where the check in counters were. Not impossible but more annoying than expected.

 

[mattpeto]

@GrumpyFan - really great email.

The brutal part of the boilerplate response is that they mention they are still including complimentary services to the theme parks. Those services will always be included for resort guests and it's a very obnoxious they even mentioned it.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

If they can get you to rent a car bingo they can charge you a resort parking fee pure profit they probably get a kick back from the car rental service

There's an easy way to avoid parking fees: just buy into DVC. I'm actually surprised they haven't included that in their canned responses to customers upset about losing DME yet.

And they already get money from Alamo (aka the official rental car company of Walt Disney World). Killing DME just made that relationship more advantageous for both companies.

 

[UNCgolf]

I think it's hilarious the way they keep framing "flexibility" as a reason they're eliminating the service.

It makes it sound like if you were going to Disney, you were required to use DME or you wouldn't be allowed on property. People have always had flexibility to use whatever type of transport they want; eliminating DME is actually reducing flexibility by eliminating an option.

 

[GrumpyFan]

And they already get money from Alamo (aka the official rental car company of Walt Disney World). Killing DME just made that relationship more advantageous for both companies.

I guess they're just tossing out the four keys (Safety, Courtesy, Show, Efficiency) to heavily favor the fifth one they added, INCLUSION.
Now, all the other vendors in Orlando will get a cut of the Disney pot.
How thoughtful of them!

 

[el_super]

I think it's hilarious the way they keep framing "flexibility" as a reason they're eliminating the service.

Why? It's probably true. The only way they are justified in eliminating the service, is if they believe that attendance/profits will not decrease further past the point of spending the money on the service. If they know a lot of people are already getting rental cars/ubers/other buses, why should Disney waste money on their own transport?

DME just wasn't profitable anymore and that's why it's gone. It's simple.

 

[John park hopper]

DME was never meant to be profitable it was a service to guests and I am sure they recouped the cost in other ways. It's just another example of Disney's making a profit over guests. They can do both but greed has taken over

 

[Ayla]

I despise driving in/around WDW, but I'm seriously considering renting a car for our week-long trip this spring. I'm renting DVC points, so parking will be free and it will give us much more flexibility in eating offsite. I have Mears Connect booked, but may cancel it.

You did this, Disney. I'll be spending as little money onsite as I possibly can. No park tickets, rented DVC points (for a STEAL) and we're doing non-Disney things while we're there.

 

[Dan Deesnee]

I've posted this before over the past year or so and I think their boilerplate response warrants posting it again.

Something Disney seems to have lost sight of is the "life long fan" aspect of their fan base. To make this post as short as possible it comes down to this:

1. Families take their kids to Disney
2. They have a magical time and continue to go
3. Those kids grow up and in turn bring their kids
4. Repeat

Now with the price increases and making it VERY difficult for families with more than 1 child requiring a car seat to actually get to their resorts, far fewer families will even bother to go. In turn, they are losing out on hundreds of thousands (possibly millions? Not sure how many people visit per year) of future "life long fans". Those kids in turn WILL NOT bring their kids except for maybe once to check-the-box.

Their decisions and declining attendance will have long lasting ripple effects in their attendance for decades to come.

Obviously they could drop prices over the next few years and reinstate removed things but under Chapek I highly doubt that.

Bonus Fun fact, Chapek once told me that his favorite ASMR video's are just people gently rubbing two pennies together.

 

[James Alucobond]

DME was never meant to be profitable it was a service to guests and I am sure they recouped the cost in other ways. It's just another example of Disney's making a profit over guests. They can do both but greed has taken over

It was meant to be profitable, just indirectly by encouraging guests to spend their entire trip on site.

 

[castlecake2.0]

Why is Disney going to give you a “free” ride to their resort so you can then Uber over to the Olive Garden for dinner? Bob didn’t kill DME, rideshares and online grocery delivery did. DME never existed because Disney wanted to be warm and cuddly, it was to get you on property with no way to escape. Now that there are multiple ways to leave property or order things to the property DME’s existence is no longer warranted. Was it convenient? Certainly. Did people find their own way to WDW for the first 30 years of its existence? They sure did. I don’t agree with many changes they’ve done lately, and this is definitely a loss, but I can’t blame them for making this decision. I also prefer that the Mears driver now can just be a Mears driver instead of masquerading as a questionable cast member.

 

[Ayla]

Why is Disney going to give you a “free” ride to their resort so you can then Uber over to the Olive Garden for dinner? Bob didn’t kill DME, rideshares and online grocery delivery did. DME never existed because Disney wanted to be warm and cuddly, it was to get you on property with no way to escape. Now that there are multiple ways to leave property or order things to the property DME’s existence is no longer warranted. Was it convenient? Certainly. Did people find their own way to WDW for the first 30 years of its existence? They sure did. I don’t agree with many changes they’ve done lately, and this is definitely a loss, but I can’t blame them for making this decision. I also prefer that the Mears driver now can just be a Mears driver instead of masquerading as a questionable cast member.

There were always ways to get off property before the advent of Uber and Lyft. Garden Grocer has been in existence for at least a decade, if not longer.

It's nothing more than penny pinching. No amount of excuses will change that.

 

[el_super]

DME was never meant to be profitable it was a service to guests and I am sure they recouped the cost in other ways. It's just another example of Disney's making a profit over guests. They can do both but greed has taken over

They only "save" money in eliminating the service, if they can be sure that they won't lose enough reservations with it gone.

They have way too many people taking surveys and analyzing numbers, to not understand the relationship between the number of people using DME and some other form of transportation. Long story short: they already know they will come out ahead by removing DME, and that's why they did it.

 

[castlecake2.0]

There were always ways to get off property before the advent of Uber and Lyft. Garden Grocer has been in existence for at least a decade, if not longer.

It's nothing more than penny pinching. No amount of excuses will change that.

Someone that’s worked here since before smart phones existed I have seen first hand the difference they have made in Guest behaviour. Yes you could always take a taxi or use garden grocer, but now there are multiple apps for both of these services that make it 100x easier to access than a decade ago. I’m not making excuses for them, I don’t think they need any, the function DME was made for no longer exists.