Okay, so my family is booking our trip for Dec 5 - 12 and we can't wait. :xmas: One pair of our group has suggested we try using DME. Now I have heard some good and some bad. One of the worries we have is that our luggage won't arrive when we get to the hotel (staying at Saratoga Springs as that's all that was open and we wanted to avoid possible Pop Warner).
Can anyone help to further comfort my folks in realizing that DME is a good way to go? :shrug:
DME was launched on May 5, 2005 as part of Disney's Happiest Celebration on Earth, and it was meant as a pilot program that had a projected ending date of November 4, 2006, to coincide with the end of the Happiest Celebration on Earth promotion. But in March of 2006, DMe was extended through the end of 2011 because of how wildly popular it was with guests and with Disney management. A few months ago, it was again extended through the end of 2016. DME is made possible, in part, through a contract between Disney and the Greater Orlando Airport Authority, so that's why dates are so well defined.
Disney tells you to expect your checked bags to be inside your resort room about three hours after you check-in at your resort. It is a specific part of DME that you don't need to be in your room to get your luggage; it will be delivered to the inside of your room whether you're in there or not. You are free to go out and play!
So it is a 100% guarantee that your luggage will not be at SSR waiting for you when you arrive. When you land at MCO, you skip baggage claim and go directly to the Disney Welcome Center. You are shown to your bus queue. You will share the bus with guests from up to 3 other resorts. The average time from airplane exit to resort drop-off is 70 minutes. Your DME-tagged luggage, meanwhile, is being pulled from the luggage stream and won't go to the baggage claim carousel. Instead, it is gathered up and sent to Disney's luggage sorting facility on the grounds of the airport. There, it is sorted my zone and then by resort, is loaded into locked cages, the cages are loaded onto dedicated DME delivery trucks (which are tracked by GPS), and then those cages are dropped off at the correct resorts. From there, the resort's Bell Services department takes care of the delivery to the inside of your room. During this process, the barcode on your DME tag is scanned 5 separate times along the route.
Yes, you can choose to get your own bags at baggage claim (by simply NOT putting a DME tag on your suitcase), but please keep in mind that if you do this, you'll be delaying your own arrival at your resort ... in the time it takes you to detour to baggage claim and then bring your bags to the DME area, it's very likely that you missed the bus going to your resort and you'll be waiting for the next one (they run roughly every 30 minutes).
Many of the DME complaints I've read over the past 5 years have been the result of the complainers not understanding what is and is not promised as part of the DME service. My "favorite," for example, was the guy who was ranting about how terrible the luggage delivery service was because his bags arrived at his room 90 minutes after he checked-in at his resort; he thought his bags were supposed to be in his room when he checked-in, but in reality he got his bags 90 minutes EARLIER than the promised 3 hour timeframe. Or there was the parents who bitterly complained that they didn't have immediate access to their luggage and therefore had no formula and diapers for their baby for a few hours; as a parent, I can't imagine trusting my AIRLINE with ALL of my diapers and formula.
Which brings me to the subject of carry-ons. No matter where I fly, I always pack my carry-on with the first 24 hours of supplies, just in case the AIRLINE delays my checked bags. So I do the same thing when I use DME. In this way, I'm not in a big rush to have my bags delivered because I already have what I need. Like I said, this is just a smart way to fly no matter where you're flying.
I hope all of this has helped you get more comfortable with DME.:wave:
