Early Morning MCO and Magical Express Question

[ParamedicDrew]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on the forums.

Me and my wife will be flying into Orlando on 2/21/15 and staying off resort because I had bought her floor seats at the Amway Center for Luke Bryan. So we will be renting a car and returning to MCO earlier in the morning.

To get to my question as to not waste anyone's time is...Is there a time frame that is busier/slower in the mornings for the Magical Express? We will be staying at All Star Movies Resort and I've read several places that the ride could possibly take up to 2 hours depending on how many resorts the bus has to stop at.

My reason for asking is so that if mid morning to late morning is busier then we will look at going back to the airport earlier to avoid a bigger rush on the Magical Express.

This will be a big trip for us and we are celebrating quite a few things! Me and my wife were married on 9/20/14 and this serves as our "Disneymoon" trip as well, both of us graduated from college this past year(both are firsts in our families), and both of us started new jobs in our career field!

Thank you for your time and responses it really means a lot to us!

Drew and Mel

 

[BigRedDad]

DME Is relatively fast. I am not sure of the legalities of using DME on a day you are not flying in. I have flown in the night before, stayed at an airport hotel, and taken DME the next morning, I did this because the flights in the night before and the cost of the room saved us $200. For the DME registration, I contacted them, explained the situation. They just used a flight number coming in the next morning and told me we just had to bring our luggage with us.

DME time is about 75 minutes to the resort from the time you get off the plane. I have never seen it take 2 hours. The longest it took us was about 90 minutes once. The lines at the queue area were beyond the counters. They moved efficiently, had buses there and ready. With the bus completely full, it was only about 35 minutes and we were the 2nd of 3 stops while on the bus.

 

[ParamedicDrew]

Thank you for your Response BigRedDad. I already spoke with Disney and the Magical Express Cast Members. They said I would be able to use Magical Express on the day after I flew in. It had to do with the wording of their rules/regulations that didn't say you couldn't use Magical Express on a day you don't fly in, just as long as you have a current hotel stay. They are required to give you 1 transport to your hotel upon your arrival and 1 transport to the airport upon your departure. Gotta love grey areas of rules/regulations.

 

[Mot]

Usually the All Stars get combined with Corondo and Animal Kingdom resorts, we've never been over an hour. All Stars is usually the first stops. Normally Sports, Music and Movies in that order.

 

[ParamedicDrew]

Thanks again Mot for your insight. I'm a little on the OCD side for planning trips. So this information really does help a lot!

 

[Weather_Lady]

In our experience, the later in the day we arrive, the more likely ME is to have a longer line. That being said, the difference in time-to-resort between a short line and a long line is relatively small. Our shortest transportation time (from checking in at DME to walking off the bus at our resort) was 50 minutes, with an early morning arrival, a bus that was leaving in 5 minutes and being the first stop on the route). Our longest time (arriving mid-afternoon during Easter break and needing to wait at least 25 minutes for a bus, and being the last of three stops at resorts) was still only about 90 minutes.

 

[SamandChel]

I've always seen ME as busiest from 10-5. Outside of that it's pretty manageable.

 

[SDisney90]

I've been on the ME twice, two separate years 2013-14. Both years we had no issues (most likely because it was indeed off season). The lines were short..too short in fact that we spent more time waiting for more people to fill the bus up. We waited inside the motor coach for maybe a half hour, then we were off to our resort. We stayed at All Star Sports and were the 3rd stop. Other than the waiting game in the beginning for more passengers, it was definitely not a 2 hour ride, especially with you going in February you should be perfectly fine..

 

[Redsoxfn79]

Just remember the earlier you get to the hotel the more likely you'll have to wait to get in your room.. My experiences is anything before 1130 am at hotel and you'll have to wait for the room.

 

[SDisney90]

Just remember the earlier you get to the hotel the more likely you'll have to wait to get in your room.. My experiences is anything before 1130 am at hotel and you'll have to wait for the room.

Good point, luckily our flight lands around 10:30 or so by the time we get to the resort, its all set to go

 

[dreamfinder]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on the forums.

Me and my wife will be flying into Orlando on 2/21/15 and staying off resort because I had bought her floor seats at the Amway Center for Luke Bryan. So we will be renting a car and returning to MCO earlier in the morning.

To get to my question as to not waste anyone's time is...Is there a time frame that is busier/slower in the mornings for the Magical Express? We will be staying at All Star Movies Resort and I've read several places that the ride could possibly take up to 2 hours depending on how many resorts the bus has to stop at.

My reason for asking is so that if mid morning to late morning is busier then we will look at going back to the airport earlier to avoid a bigger rush on the Magical Express.

This will be a big trip for us and we are celebrating quite a few things! Me and my wife were married on 9/20/14 and this serves as our "Disneymoon" trip as well, both of us graduated from college this past year(both are firsts in our families), and both of us started new jobs in our career field!

Thank you for your time and responses it really means a lot to us!

Drew and Mel

I can't say I've ever had more than 4 stops on a DME, and didn't have any of those take more than 5-10 minutes. While I do believe DME runs 24 hours, or close to it, they will run less buses in the off hours, so you may have more stops. But more people in line usually means the buses get dispatched quicker, and may even have just one stop. I'd think that crowds start to pick up around 9 AM (Most flights don't seem to start until 6-7 AM) but is probably heaviest from say noon to 5 or so. All Stars may very easily be just the 3 All Stars on a bus since they are right next to each other, but depending on anticipated arrivals may have a different route.