Disney Magical Express

[lujanoh]

Hi!

I am planing to travel to WDW next june with two friends. We´ve already booked for resort/food plans (at Pop Century resort). Now comes the big question of the transportation.

We are travelling from Venezuela so i assume no ME Booklet (luggage tags) is going to be sent to my house. Can I just pick my own luggage at Orlando airport and take them with me to the resort in the same bus? Although I´ve read from many people that the best choice is to let them carry my bags , I prefer doing it myself. Is it ok with that? Can I bring the luggage with me to the bus?

On the other hand. Once we are happy with parks visits , there comes the shopping hours. I am planning to rent a car 4 days after our arrival just to let the three last days of our week trip to visit the malls.

Has anyone done the same? If someone has. Where did you rent your car? Car rentals are usually not near resorts ( i assume) so i think i should be taking the magical express bus to the airport and rent a car in one of the rentals over there .. Any suggestions?

Thank you

 

[swimmom]

You can claim your own luggage and then take it with you to the ME bus. We have done that when we had a late flight and it's really not a problem at all.

I haven't rented a car, but I know you can at either the Swan or Dolphin.

 

[Rob562]

As you suspected, Disney has stopepd sending DME tags to foreign visitors (or soon will be). You simply get your bags, pass through immigration, and then keep the bags with you as you head to the main terminal and down to the DME check-in desk and onto the bus.

As for rental cars, there are a number of rental companies all on Disney property. The two main ones are Alamo and National which sahre a desk at both the Car Care Center near the Magic Kingdom and at the Dolphin resort. You can arrange to have a free shuttle pick you up for travel to the CCC location, and the Dolphin location is within walking distance of Epcot, Hollywood Studios and the Epcot resorts.

Other rental car companies have desks at the hotels along Hotel Plaza Blvd. I believe Avis, Budget and Dollar all have desks there. When searching for rental locations, look for an address on Hotel Plaza Blvd. (sometimes they're listed under Orlando, sometime Kissimmee, sometimes Lake Buena Vista) I do not know about availability of pick-up service at any of these other locations, but they're all a short walk from the Downtown Disney Marketplace bus stops.

Also, if the rental car is for the end of your stay, you can arrange to return your rental car at the airport without having to pay a drop fee. (It's Florida law that they can't charge a drop fee if pickup and dropoff are both within Florida)

Lastly, because you're flying internationally, you won't be able to use the Resort Airline Check-In service when you check out of your hotel.

-Rob

 

[lujanoh]

Thanks for all the information Rob. It´s very helpfull.
Have a nice day

 

[TURKEY]

As you suspected, Disney has stopepd sending DME tags to foreign visitors (or soon will be). You simply get your bags, pass through immigration, and then keep the bags with you as you head to the main terminal and down to the DME check-in desk and onto the bus.

-Rob

I don't think there are very many flights from Venezuela to Orlando so if the original poster is coming in from another US city, they won't have to go through customs in Orlando. They will have already done this in the city they land.

 

[Bulldog1653]

Hello lujanoh,

Typically, Disney will go ahead and claim your bags for you unless you tell them not to. As far as coming from another country, I have no clue.
My reccommendation would be to call Disney directly and ask them.
I flew to Orlando back in September and used the airport bus to my hotel (I stayed at Port Orleans Riverside). We were assured that our bags would arrive a short time after we did with no worries. They were absolutely correct. It defined convenience for us because we had 3 kids with us and a ton of luggage, as you can imagine.
Provided everything goes ok and Disney will take care of your bags for you, keep in mind that it may take a little while to get everything. For us it took them about 90 minutes to bring our bags to our room. That was from the time we landed.

 

[CleveRocks]

Typically, Disney will go ahead and claim your bags for you unless you tell them not to.

This is inaccurate. You must "opt in" two different ways. You must make a DME reservation (this is NOT automatically done during the resort reservation process), and for them to claim your bags you must put the supplied DME luggage tag on each piece of checked luggage that you want them to claim.

I don't mean to make this sound gruff or rude :wave:, but I also don't want someone reading this thread to think that if they do absolutely nothing that DME will take care of them anyway.