late flight on your last day...

[dolce]

has anyone ever taken the last flight back when leaving orlando?
in thinking of taking the latest flight and maybe spend time in the parks until then....
if thats possible, does the magical express automatically take your luggage to the airport, where you can go straight there when you are ready to fly out?

 

[Rob562]

has anyone ever taken the last flight back when leaving orlando?
in thinking of taking the latest flight and maybe spend time in the parks until then....
if thats possible, does the magical express automatically take your luggage to the airport, where you can go straight there when you are ready to fly out?

DME will pick you up to go to the aiport 3 hours before your flight, no matter when your flight leaves. So if you have a 9PM flight, you'll be picked up at 6PM. No matter what you end up doing with your luggage, you need to return to your resort to catch DME. There are no pickups at the parks (nor can you be picked up from a different hotel than the one you were staying at)


A few points:
-If your airline particpates in the Resort Airline Check-In service (see list below), you can check your luggage as early as 12 hours before your flight (9AM inthe above scenario). You'll get your boarding passes and they'll transport your checked luggage to the airport and onto your plane. You can then play in the parks, making sure that you're back at your hotel for your pickup time. Note that the RAC desks are only open 5AM-1PM.
If you have a carry-on, Bell Services will store it for you until you return to catch your DME bus.


-If you are *not* flying a RAC participating airline, Bell Services will store your luggage for you. When you return to your hotel for your DME pick-up time, you can retrieve your luggage from Bell Services. (Just make sure to leave enough time before your DME pickup for Bell Services to retrieve your bags) The bus driver will put them in the storage compartment under the bus. When you get to the airport, it will be up to you to take your bags and check in for your flight.


Current RAC participating airlines are: AirTran, Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Northwest, United (including TED). USAirways is supposedly in a testing phase at about half the resorts. Southwest is rumored to be in talks with Disney about joining RAC this year.

-Rob

 

[kstella]

I think you have to go back to your hotel and pick up your luggage from bell services before catching DME at your scheduled time.

 

[fosse76]

A few points:
-If your airline particpates in the Resort Airline Check-In service (see list below), you can check your luggage as early as 12 hours before your flight (9AM inthe above scenario).

-Rob

Actually, when I was there last week and called to inquire, they told me that I had until 1:00pm to check-in my luggage for my 8:45pm flight. So the best advice is to call them the day before you leave just to be on the safe side. I think it depends on when they send the truck with luggage to the airport (your checked-luggage goes to the aiport in a truck, the same way it arrives)

 

[Rob562]

Actually, when I was there last week and called to inquire, they told me that I had until 1:00pm to check-in my luggage for my 8:45pm flight. So the best advice is to call them the day before you leave just to be on the safe side. I think it depends on when they send the truck with luggage to the airport (your checked-luggage goes to the aiport in a truck, the same way it arrives)

That falls under my comment that the desk is only open 5AM-1PM.
Which actually means that anyone with a pre-8AM flight is out of luck as far as RAC is concerned. They can't check you in less than 3 hours before your flight (and DME would have already been there to pick you up)

-Rob

 

[papercut]

We usually try to take the latest flight possible on our last day. Obviously, we're trying to get in as much time in WDW as possible and using that last day as more than just a travel day is a good way to do that. If you didn't have off work the next day i could see leaving earlier though.

 

[swimmom]

We've done this many times, but we usually go shopping in DTD rather than to a park. We check our luggage & get our boarding passes at the RAC then we leave our carry-on with bell service. Last time we decided to ship our big purchase from World of Disney only to find out that they couldn't ship any purchases that day because of an issue with the computer system that tracks their shipping. I tried every excuse to get them to ship my purchase to no avail and ended up stuffing the carry-on and my husband got to carry a giant bag through the airport. We probably looked pretty funny in the WL lobby stuffing things into our carry-on!!!!!:lol:

 

[disneygirl1024]

We always get a late flight back home cause I like to go to MK one more time before we leave. We check our bags at the desk before we go in the morning and then we come back about an hour before our bus picks us up to go to the airport. My husband hates it cause he doesn't want to get home at 3 or 4 in the am but I have to get my disney fix before I go to hold me over for another year.