For those of you who do not care for Magic Express

kniquy

kniquy

Active Member
Original Poster
I have been hearing mixed reviews about the magic express - those getting to the resort in 1 1/2 hours after landing to those waiting a few hours, with waiting for the bus then waiting with all the stops and then on top of that not having your luggage with you for hours later. I have been looking at limo companies and to get a town car to the resort it would cost around $65 plus tip. I recently used a town car in Las Vegas to our hotel and it was pretty quick to gather our luggage and just hop in the car. It seems as though renting a town car could get us to our hotel in less than an hour. It might be worth the money to avoid the waiting game.

If you don't use the magic express what form of transportation do you prefer? Any companies that you recommend?
 
ToTBellHop

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
There is no way you will be able to get off the plane, hop the monorail ride over to the main building at MCO, grab your bags, hire a towncar, and get to Disney World in less than an hour. You need to adjust your expectations (as everyone said in your first thread on this topic). It's a 35-minute drive from MCO to WDW even without the walk/monorail to the main building and the time it takes to get your bags.

My experience:

Town Car gets you to WDW in 90-120 minutes for $80 w/ tip
Magical Express gets you to WDW in 60-150 minutes for $0
 
Disnee4Me

Disnee4Me

Well-Known Member
Just curious ... if by some chance we CAN afford to fly down next year, how late does the Magical Express pick up people at the airport. If we land in Orlando around 11 p.m., will they pick us up?
 
disney4life2008

disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
As others have said it takes no less than 30 minutes to get from MCO to Disney - and that is even on a clear traffic day. If traffic is bad - add another 30 minutes (unless you take side streets).
 
C

Cendure

Active Member
Disnee4Me said:
Just curious ... if by some chance we CAN afford to fly down next year, how late does the Magical Express pick up people at the airport. If we land in Orlando around 11 p.m., will they pick us up?
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We have arrived that late, and yes Magical Express will pick you up at the airport. There were plenty of busses available and lots of people arriving at that time. They pretty much run a 24 hour service these days. We just returned home on the weekend and our pick up time at ASMovies was at 3:15 am. By the time we picked up at Music, Sports and Coronado, we had a full bus going to the airport. However, you will need to pick up your own luggage and take it to the bus with you (they will put it in the compartments under the bus), so you wouldn't put your yellow ME tags on your suitcases before you left home. They don't pick up and deliver luggage to your rooms after, I believe, 10 pm at night.
 
Ember

Ember

Well-Known Member
I think it really depends on what time of year you are travelling to the World and which resort you are staying at. It only took us about 45 minutes from landing to checking in at PORS. There was no line and we only had one quick stop at Saratoga. The lines for the value resorts were quite a bit longer, but I imagine they got to their destinations in about an hour.
 
kniquy

kniquy

Active Member
Original Poster
Thanks for the info! -- I am hoping that the kids will just be so excited about getting to Disney that hopefully they won't be crabby from all the traveling. We are arriving on a Wednesday - new years eve so that is probably a crap shoot -- It is a Wednesday so maybe not many people traveling mid week, but it is new years eve -- i'm not sure if that is a big travel day or not.
 
Tinkerbell 8

Tinkerbell 8

Well-Known Member
I was very lucky on my last trip, my plane pulled up to the gate at 9:22 and I boarded DME at 9:35, I only had a carry on so I was able to skip baggage claim and a bus was waiting for my resort (Pop) I got to Pop at 10:11, and that was after we stopped at Art of Animation first to let people off. I was also lucky that my room was ready and a bus was waiting for Magic Kingdom and I was in the park at 10:50, so it was less than 2 hours for me to get to my hotel, unpack and get to the park. Again, I was lucky, but I've never had a bad experience using DME.
 
R W B

R W B

Well-Known Member
BuddyThomas said:
One huge benefit of taking a town car is that almost all of them will give you a 30 minute grocery stop for free, and that way, we always have reasonably priced snacks for the room, water, booze, etc. Saves us a TON of money.
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After paying for the town car/tip ($80ish), how much are you really saving though? Honest question. I guess for a family with multiple kids I could see it being close to breaking even or saving some but for just me and my fiancé I can't see it saving us anything. I still wouldn't mind taking a town car but it wouldn't save us.
 
BuddyThomas

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
R W B said:
After paying for the town car/tip ($80ish), how much are you really saving though? Honest question. I guess for a family with multiple kids I could see it being close to breaking even or saving some but for just me and my fiancé I can't see it saving us anything. I still wouldn't mind taking a town car but it wouldn't save us.
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It saves us. That's all I know.
 
s&k'smom

s&k'smom

Well-Known Member
We love taking the town car, we also take advantage of the 30 minute grocery stop for snacks/drinks and save so much money on that that we splurge on the town car. Hubby doesn't like to drive on vacation so for him it's really the start of his trip.
 
G00fyDad

G00fyDad

Well-Known Member
We would never use ME. We always prefer to rent a vehicle for the duration of our trips. The bus service with Disney, while a good option if it must be used, is horribly slow. Plus, we just like being able to come and go on our schedule and not be held to waiting for a bus service to and from the parks. We also spend an entire day at Clearwater Beach during the trip so a rental is a must have anyway. When we get off the plane we would prefer to get straight to Disney. I have heard horror stories about ME such as cramped buses, long travel times (90 to 120 minutes), etc. For those that have had better experiences I say good for you, but I'd never risk it. If we did not rent a vehicle each trip I would choose a town car from the two options.
 
Disneydreamer23

Disneydreamer23

Well-Known Member
My trip in September we arrived in Orlando around 10 in the morning we had two stops before ours which was Caribbean Beach we checked in at 10:16 got to CBR checked in by 11!
 
Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Well-Known Member
BuddyThomas said:
One huge benefit of taking a town car is that almost all of them will give you a 30 minute grocery stop for free, and that way, we always have reasonably priced snacks for the room, water, booze, etc. Saves us a TON of money.
Click to expand...

Last year my DH & I used DME and ordered a grocery delivery through Garden Grocer. We ordered 6 cases of water and snacks delivered for our trip for less than the cost of renting a town car... something to think about if you're trying to save some money! Everything was waiting for us in our room when we arrived and they also gave us 36 packs of Dasani water instead of the 24 packs we ordered. Great selection of items. Can't recommend them enough!
 
daisyduckie

daisyduckie

Well-Known Member
I'm not a huge fan of DME. It is free, which is the main plus. However how long it takes to get to your resort is a crap shoot--I've had trips where I have been put in line, on the bus, and to my resort in just over an hour. I've had trips where it has taken almost 3 hours.

If you are not in a hurry, DME is fine. If you are in a hurry and want a little more control, either rent a car or pay for a towncar.
 
WDW 3

WDW 3

Well-Known Member
We don't qualify for DME, don't want to deal with a rental, so we always get a car company. We've had to find a new one after 10 years of great service from our favorite. A lot of choices so it's really hard to pick one. We used Mears once and after what seemed like forever and being dropped off last, we tried the town car route and prefer being the only stop.
 

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