Magical Express & Art of Animation Questions

[SarahBella82]

Hello, all.

I have been to WDW several times, but I usually stay off-site at my sister's house. This fall, I'll be staying on-site with my daughter and my mother, and I have a couple of random questions.

1. We will be using Magical Express to travel from MCO to our hotel, but for the second half of our trip, we'll be staying with my sister. We need to rent a car and figure it's easiest to pick-up and drop-off at the same site (MCO). Do you know if ME will transport us to the airport when our stay at the resort is over even though we won't have a flight out that day? We'd ideally like to use ME to get to MCO, then rent our car from there. Is that possible?

2. For those who've had advance access to Art of Animation, do you know if any of the rooms open directly onto the pool? Last year we stayed at ASMusic and had a room that was immediately beside the pool, and we loved that access. Is that a possibility at AoA?

Thank you!

 

[Monty]

Yes, you can have DME take you to MCO on your check-out day. You will need to find flight info for a flight that leaves about 1-2 hours after the time you want to pick up your rental car.

I would recommend choosing a flight early in the day [before noon] and you can have just the driver of the rental go to MCO and return with the rental to get your luggage from AoA and check out. No need for your whole party to traipse all the way to MCO, they could be at the resort finishing up packing while one goes to get the car.

As for pools, there are three pools at AoA by the look of it [map]. You can request a room facing one, but there's no guarantee you'll get it. Since a lot of people ask for rooms away from pools [it's noisy], I'd think your odds would be good.

 

[SarahBella82]

Thank you. Great advice regarding ME.

 

[CleveRocks]

You don't NEED to tell Disney the number and time of a phantom flight that you'll never take. If you call DME directly (866-599-0951) you can explain your circumstances honestly, and they will schedule a DME ride for you back to the airport. There is no requirement that you have to fly out of the airport on the day you get the DME ride back to the airport.

If you try to make this arrangement using the main Disney line (407-W-DISNEY), the cast member there won't know how to help you, and may even incorrectly tell you that you can't have the ride if you don't have the flight. And forget about trying to do it this way on the website. But if you deal with DME directly, you can be honest and you won't have to research a suitable flight.

If you do call DME, wait until you're no more than 60 days from your arrival date. The DME folks don't have access to your resort reservation info until 60 days before arrival, and if they can't see your resort reservation then they can't do anything regarding your DME reservation.

 

[timeman]

The only rooms that would have direct access to the pool like you are talking about would be in the Little Mermaid section which opens in September. The other sections which have a pool will not have that direct access as the doors to your room will open up into a hallway and you will have to walk down the hallway to exit out of the building. Of course some of those rooms will have windows that will look out over the pool area though.

 

[SarahBella82]

Thanks, all!

 

[DisneyJoe]

There are car rental locations at the Swan/Dolphin and the MK Car Center. You can rent from there and return to MCO if that is what your plans are.

Mousesavers.com has a large section on car rentals.