Mgkcjohnson
New Member
Any reports on how well Magical Express has been working out? How long has it been taking? Have bags gotten to rooms on time? Anybody hear anything?
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
How has Magical Express been working out so far?
- Thread starter Mgkcjohnson
- Start date
I posted a reply in another thread about my Magical Express experience, however I cannot locate the thread. In brief, it wasn't very positive.
Now for the lengthy details: I dont think they have their act together in planning yet. The time it takes to get between your hotel and the airport is way too long. Arrival took 1 hour 45 min on the bus alone from the time I sat down in my seat until I was getting off at Coronado Springs. The return trip took 1 hour 15 min, however that isn't including the additional 45 min I had to wait due to buses being severly delayed. A cast member was on the phone at the baggage check area, telling someone that there were several families who were within their flight departure window and needed immediate transport to the airport as the Coronado had not had a Magical Express bus arrive for over an hour, even though they are scheduled every 30 min. Plus, none of us were "scheduled" for a bus as we were told we were supposed to be. The sheet of paper I received the night before I departed, and also a Magical Express person on the phone told me to allow at least 3 hours prior to my flight and "choose a time I'm comfortable with" to be at my bus stop, and be there at least 15 min before that bus arrives. The buses have a scheduled time for each resort that you are provided for that day. Since guests aren't being scheduled for a bus return, the potential for overcrowding exists. This happened at the Boardwalk - with too many guests attempting to get on the same Magical Express bus. A fight nearly broke out between a few people who had been waiting for 2 hours for the ME bus, as it too had not been showing up as scheduled for that hotel.
I understand there can be issues with any new service, and there will be inevitable kinks to work out, however, this looks like very poor execution of a plan from a central planning office - - not a bad system or plan, just people dropping the ball when it came to actually doing what they were supposed to do. My assumption is there wasn't proper time allowed for traffic delays or luggage loading delays due to guests slowing up the process, and possibly improper staffing at the bag tag processing office as well as with the number of busses and drivers. The problems ran from the still delayed luggage tags, to non-scheduling of return trips, to no one actually having answers to questions that even frustrated hotel cast members couldn't seem to get, to lengthy delays of busses arriving at their scheduled times, to bus drivers who clearly weren't fully trained and mine barely spoke English well, to substantially lengthy trip times from the airport to your resort, to too many stops at hotels instead of the system of only 3 or 4 resorts per bus (we had 5 resort stops), and also, from what I hear, there were serious luggage delays in many instances. Magical Express folks even lost my info concering my return flight and it had to be provided to them again.
It is a "free" service - though it's being included in your package in some way, so for that, I guess we shouldn't be complaining. I know they will work this out and it will be a great system eventually, but it was a very rough start and it was painfully obvious that many people involved in Magical Express weren't prepared to start it at this time.
Now for the lengthy details: I dont think they have their act together in planning yet. The time it takes to get between your hotel and the airport is way too long. Arrival took 1 hour 45 min on the bus alone from the time I sat down in my seat until I was getting off at Coronado Springs. The return trip took 1 hour 15 min, however that isn't including the additional 45 min I had to wait due to buses being severly delayed. A cast member was on the phone at the baggage check area, telling someone that there were several families who were within their flight departure window and needed immediate transport to the airport as the Coronado had not had a Magical Express bus arrive for over an hour, even though they are scheduled every 30 min. Plus, none of us were "scheduled" for a bus as we were told we were supposed to be. The sheet of paper I received the night before I departed, and also a Magical Express person on the phone told me to allow at least 3 hours prior to my flight and "choose a time I'm comfortable with" to be at my bus stop, and be there at least 15 min before that bus arrives. The buses have a scheduled time for each resort that you are provided for that day. Since guests aren't being scheduled for a bus return, the potential for overcrowding exists. This happened at the Boardwalk - with too many guests attempting to get on the same Magical Express bus. A fight nearly broke out between a few people who had been waiting for 2 hours for the ME bus, as it too had not been showing up as scheduled for that hotel.
I understand there can be issues with any new service, and there will be inevitable kinks to work out, however, this looks like very poor execution of a plan from a central planning office - - not a bad system or plan, just people dropping the ball when it came to actually doing what they were supposed to do. My assumption is there wasn't proper time allowed for traffic delays or luggage loading delays due to guests slowing up the process, and possibly improper staffing at the bag tag processing office as well as with the number of busses and drivers. The problems ran from the still delayed luggage tags, to non-scheduling of return trips, to no one actually having answers to questions that even frustrated hotel cast members couldn't seem to get, to lengthy delays of busses arriving at their scheduled times, to bus drivers who clearly weren't fully trained and mine barely spoke English well, to substantially lengthy trip times from the airport to your resort, to too many stops at hotels instead of the system of only 3 or 4 resorts per bus (we had 5 resort stops), and also, from what I hear, there were serious luggage delays in many instances. Magical Express folks even lost my info concering my return flight and it had to be provided to them again.
It is a "free" service - though it's being included in your package in some way, so for that, I guess we shouldn't be complaining. I know they will work this out and it will be a great system eventually, but it was a very rough start and it was painfully obvious that many people involved in Magical Express weren't prepared to start it at this time.
Upvote
0
Just Got M.E packet!
My family and I leave friday evening for WDW. Fed Ex just delievered our magical express materials around 10am. (monday). I still called to confirm that they have all of our flight and arrival information and it appears everything is ready for our late arrival Friday night. I'm still crossing my fingers for a smooth trip to POR!!!!!!
My family and I leave friday evening for WDW. Fed Ex just delievered our magical express materials around 10am. (monday). I still called to confirm that they have all of our flight and arrival information and it appears everything is ready for our late arrival Friday night. I'm still crossing my fingers for a smooth trip to POR!!!!!!
Upvote
0