Late Flights and Magical Express

[Grimsby]

I got a call from Magical Express last nite, telling me that i may *not* want to use the Yellow Tags due to the fact that our flight was getting into MCO around 10 and they have a *NEW POLICY* not to deliver bags after midnight.

Now, i had already planned on telling them not to deliver the bags until the morning and packing appropiately. But i am curious if anyone else had heard of this. Most recently, i had read that people had to request NOT to have their bags delivered because they were getting knocks on their guest room doors at 2:30am..

Anyone with *recent* experience with later flights and Magical Express?

 

[Phonedave]

I got a call from Magical Express last nite, telling me that i may *not* want to use the Yellow Tags due to the fact that our flight was getting into MCO around 10 and they have a *NEW POLICY* not to deliver bags after midnight.

Now, i had already planned on telling them not to deliver the bags until the morning and packing appropiately. But i am curious if anyone else had heard of this. Most recently, i had read that people had to request NOT to have their bags delivered because they were getting knocks on their guest room doors at 2:30am..

Anyone with *recent* experience with later flights and Magical Express?

Last time I had a late flight (can't remember what month that was, somtime in 07 though) I was told that if my luggage arrived at the resort after midnight, they would not deliver it to the room untill the morning. However they would leave a message on the phone (not call, leave a message) and if I wanted it I could call and they would deliver it. Of course you have to notice the blinking light on the phone for that plan to work.


-dave

 

[smk]

I got a call from Magical Express last nite, telling me that i may *not* want to use the Yellow Tags due to the fact that our flight was getting into MCO around 10 and they have a *NEW POLICY* not to deliver bags after midnight.

Now, i had already planned on telling them not to deliver the bags until the morning and packing appropiately. But i am curious if anyone else had heard of this. Most recently, i had read that people had to request NOT to have their bags delivered because they were getting knocks on their guest room doors at 2:30am..

Anyone with *recent* experience with later flights and Magical Express?

We used ME one time and did not use the tags and got our own luggage to take with us on the bus. It worked out very well, we had what we needed and still did not have to hassle with our own transportation. The next day we hit the ground running and it would not have been possible if we had arrived late and been up again to recieve our luggage. I guess a policy was needed to work around late night flights. I wouldn't want to have luggage delivered after midnight anyway so I would opt to take my own if I arrived late at night.

 

[dcessna]

Magicial Express

Last August, they didn't deliver my Grandson's luggage (Magical Express lost it even thought we got in at 11:00 AM. They didn't deliver it until 4:30 AM the next day.

 

[JDM]

I got a call from Magical Express last nite, telling me that i may *not* want to use the Yellow Tags due to the fact that our flight was getting into MCO around 10 and they have a *NEW POLICY* not to deliver bags after midnight.

After my flight got in at 3pm and my bags didn't get to me until after 10pm, I assumed maybe they had a policy not to deliver them UNTIL Midnight.

Seriously, claim your bags yourself in Orlando, put them on the bus yourself and you skip the whole inefficient process.

 

[swimmom]

We used ME one time and did not use the tags and got our own luggage to take with us on the bus. It worked out very well, we had what we needed and still did not have to hassle with our own transportation. The next day we hit the ground running and it would not have been possible if we had arrived late and been up again to recieve our luggage. I guess a policy was needed to work around late night flights. I wouldn't want to have luggage delivered after midnight anyway so I would opt to take my own if I arrived late at night.

This is exactly what we did once. Since we were visiting for a long weekend, we were going to be up and out of our room probably before our luggage would have arrived the next day. And since we have had lost luggage before, I didn't want to return from a long day in a park to find that we needed to pursue a lost luggage issue.

 

[cabihler]

have used magical express many times

every time up to my last trip, january 08, i used teh yellow tags but i was told that since my flight was getting in so late just past midnight, airtran from memphis arrived at 12:20 am, that if i used the yellow tags that my bags would not make it to the resort until the next morning... so if i wanted my bags with me that night then i should just do NORMAL airline checkin and get my bags from baggage claim and then proceed with them to checkin at the magical express and the driver would load them under the bus for me..

that is exactly what i did and that worked great. i thought about just packing an over night bag for on-board and using the yellow tags but honestly i was in no hurry since i was arriving past midnight anyway so i figured i would wait for the bags at baggage claim.

i know others have had delays but honestly having used the service maybe 12 or so times since disney started it i have never had a complaint about it at all. just beware... if you think you will need something in the first several hours after you arrived then carry it on-board with you because it can take several hours to get the bags... i have also gotten to the resort and after checking in went to get something to eat at a food court and then proceed to my room and was surprised to find that my bags beat me there.

 

[Disney05]

We used DME last year, like we usually do. But did not have them deliver our bags. Our flight only got in at 7:30, but by time we got to our resort it was like 9pm. We planned on picking up our bags ourselves which worked out fine.

 

[CleveRocks]

Sometimes it's the airline's fault!

You know how sometimes AIRLINES delay luggage?

What happens when you are using DME, but your airline didn't fly your bags to Orlando on your airplane (like what if your bags were mistakenly flown to MCI, Kansas City, instead of MCO)?

I'll tell you what happens ... your bags arrive at the airport many hours later than you did, DME delivers your luggage, and then you blame DME for being lousy and inefficient. :brick:

I'm not saying that DME is perfect (no system is). But there are many times that the luggage delays are based on the airlines not getting the bags to Orlando. SO you get your bags 12 hours after you arrive at your resort rather than the promised 3 hours ... and you automatically blame DME when in such a case DME had nothing to do with it. In fact, in such a case, DME saved you lots of time and trouble.

If you have DME tags on your bags, and if you have checked-in at the airport's Disney Welcome Center, then the computer expects your bags to be scanned into the system within some reasonable amount of time. If they are not, DME CMs go looking for them (carousels, airline baggage office, etc.). If they still aren't found, they'll interface with your airline and have your bags found. Once they are flown to MCO where they belong, the DME bags then go in with the rest of the regular DME bags to be delivered.

In this type of case, DME saved you the TIME and bother of waiting at baggage claim only to find you don't have all your bags, then waiting in line at your airline's baggage office with a lot of other annoyed passengers ... all that time wasted when you could already be at your resort and changed into the swimsuit you packed in your carry-on.

Another frequent cause of baggage delays is weather. At MCO, the rampers (the baggage handlers) aren't permitted to off-load luggage during thunderstorms when lightning is seen, and this delay persists for some amount of time after the last lightning strike is witnessed. In other words, if you land just as a thunderstorm is approaching, you would be waiting at baggage claim for a very long time waiting for the storm to pass, rather than being at your resort already if you'd let DME handle the bags. Of course, your DME bags would be delayed just like all the other bags ... and again, you'd not suspect that the cause was thunderstorms and again would blame DME for being inefficient.

I'm just trying to help people realize that DME isn't always the villian when bags are delayed.:wave:

 

[Fluxuated]

We got into MCO at 12:35am our last trip, and were the last group of people on Magical Express. We grabbed our bags from the airline, and loaded them onto the bus ourselves, problem solved. You'll have them with you. The only advantage to having them delivered, is you don't have to spend the extra 10 minutes of lugging them around to the bus, and to the room.

Up to you. It worked well for us, plus I don't trust anyone else to get my luggage.

 

[Phonedave]

I'm just trying to help people realize that DME isn't always the villian when bags are delayed.:wave:

Thank you. I have explained that to a number of people myself. It's not the time saved in waiting for my luggage and putting it on the bus that I like so much about DME. It's that fact that Disney is now my agent. If my bags dont show up, it's DME's problem. As you said, instead of waiting on line, or on the phone, or finding out my luggage was routed to Sri Lanks, I can be having fun at WDW, while the DME people track down my stuff.

-dave

 

[bgraham34]

Late flights going to the world I just bring with me. I dont want to take a chance of not getting them.