magical express modifications

[ErickainPA]

If you wait to rent a car on property (usually cheaper to do) you can call Alamo/National the day you want a pick up and they will send a shuttle to your resort to pick you up and take you to CCC. When you are done with the car you just return it to CCC and they will shuttle you back, or if you prefer to keep the car the whole vacation you can keep it and just return it at the airport at no charge.

 

[CleveRocks]

I do not agree with the first bullet point, b/c there is a cost associated with providing DME. However, everything else is correct.

Well, of course there's a cost, but it's not coming out of YOUR pcoket, at least not directly. My point was that if you spend $100 on taxi rides, there is literally $100 less in your wallet that you can spend within WDW. Whether you use DME or not, you pay exactly the same rates as those who elect not to use this complimentary service.

Let me share my experience with you.

October 2004 -- I priced three or four different weeks for the spring of 2005. Two happened to be before the start of DME (May 5, 2005) and two happened to be after. The price quote for all 4 weeks was identical, to the penny. DME hadn't yet been announced to the public (that was around January 2005 or so), but Disney obviously knew they were about to roll it out.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is, at least at that time, there was NO PRICE DIFFERENCE TO THE CUSTOMER whether it was before DME started or after DME started.

One of the larger poitns I was trying to make was that they don't need to "pass on" the cost to the customer because it is itself a revenue generator. It's akin to a "loss leader" in retail -- a store has a bombastic sale on a popular item, pricing it BELOW their actual cost. They aren't crazy. They are actually taking a loss ON THAT PRODUCT, but their aim is to make more money overall by luring customers who will them buy other products in the store that they wouldn't normally buy.

The other thing is that Disney raises its resort and theme park rates every year or so, and there have not been bigger or more frequent increases since the launch of DME.

 

[disneyfan20ny]

cleverocks hit it square on the head!!!!!! The reason why I started this thread to begin with is because of the way I feel.I don't want to be forced into taking the bus because I want to get to the resort as quickly as I can,check in,and shoot over to the parks asap.but disney knows if they don't force you to take the bus then you could rent a car and thus not be so limited in your choices of where you go from day to day!You wake up every morning and plan your day around the disney transportation system.which keeps you at disney!! I personelly think that If I'm asking them to just do me a favor and transport my bag to my room that they can save money by not using another bus to carry me.But like cleverocks said they won't can any perks out of that and therefore won't do it.I just want to say I go to disney twice a year and love the way they take care of you on property and let you forget about the worries of getting around but like magical express this is just another way of keeping you on property!!

 

[JikoMarie]

cleverocks hit it square on the head!!!!!! The reason why I started this thread to begin with is because of the way I feel.I don't want to be forced into taking the bus because I want to get to the resort as quickly as I can,check in,and shoot over to the parks asap.but disney knows if they don't force you to take the bus then you could rent a car and thus not be so limited in your choices of where you go from day to day!You wake up every morning and plan your day around the disney transportation system.which keeps you at disney!! I personelly think that If I'm asking them to just do me a favor and transport my bag to my room that they can save money by not using another bus to carry me.But like cleverocks said they won't can any perks out of that and therefore won't do it.I just want to say I go to disney twice a year and love the way they take care of you on property and let you forget about the worries of getting around but like magical express this is just another way of keeping you on property!!

I am so confused. Is there a reason you don't want to transport your own luggage with you in the rental car? You know you don't have to use DME right?

 

[Eyorefan]

^
I'm confused to. What is the perk in having them take your lugage instead of you just putting in your rental car with you? seriously this whole thing doesn't make sense.

 

[CleveRocks]

^
I'm confused to. What is the perk in having them take your lugage instead of you just putting in your rental car with you? seriously this whole thing doesn't make sense.

I'm not sure.

But I look at it this way. I want to get my vacation started ASAFP. Let's say I'm renting a car. If I can rent the car AND skip baggage claim, that can get me to my WDW resort maybe 15-30 minutes earlier than if I had to wait at baggage claim.

WAIT! It gets even better. Let's say I rent a car, AND bought park tickets in advance. If I'm not delayed by waiting at baggage claim, I can throw my carry-ons in the car and drive DIRECTLY TO A THEME PARK rather than first go to my resort (which is the only place DME will take me).

So I can understand a scenario where avoiding baggage claim AND renting a car could get you maybe an extra couple hours of park time (no bus ride to resort, no checking in, no waiting for Disney Transport to get me from my resort to a park, etc.) on your first day.

Hey, that sounds like a plan! Except that it won't happen with the current requirement to ride the DME bus if you want the luggage delivery.

 

[donaldfan]

We split up on our last trip. Some of us took DME while the others went to rent a car. Those of us on DME got to the WL about 20 minutes before the rental car crew. DME is GREAT, but we don't use the bus service around property (former CM, bus service is waaaaay to slow for me).

 

[Rob562]

I'm not sure.

But I look at it this way. I want to get my vacation started ASAFP. Let's say I'm renting a car. If I can rent the car AND skip baggage claim, that can get me to my WDW resort maybe 15-30 minutes earlier than if I had to wait at baggage claim.

WAIT! It gets even better. Let's say I rent a car, AND bought park tickets in advance. If I'm not delayed by waiting at baggage claim, I can throw my carry-ons in the car and drive DIRECTLY TO A THEME PARK rather than first go to my resort (which is the only place DME will take me).

So I can understand a scenario where avoiding baggage claim AND renting a car could get you maybe an extra couple hours of park time (no bus ride to resort, no checking in, no waiting for Disney Transport to get me from my resort to a park, etc.) on your first day.

Hey, that sounds like a plan! Except that it won't happen with the current requirement to ride the DME bus if you want the luggage delivery.

I don't want to get into a huge discussion about this, but one question I have on your above statements:

What would you have been doing when you arrived at the airport and DME didn't exist?

Basically, you're saying that because Disney added a benefit for WDW resort guests and require an all-or-nothing use of that benefit (bus and bags), that you're unhappy. On the reasoning that they won't handle your bags, which you would have had to claim and schlepp around on your own anyway if DME had never been introduced.

So you're just complaining because a complimentary service's rules don't jive with how YOU want them to work. Am I missing something?

And to those who are saying that Disney is trying to stop all car rentals, I'd think that Alamo, the official rental car company of WDW and an in-park sponsor, would have quite a bit to say if Disney was trying to stop car rentals completely. Also, DME isn't the only choice when you make your WDW reservation. The online reservation screen also offers towncar and limo transportation, and I think a rental car, too.

-Rob

 

[dvitali]

Way I see it... If a person want to go to Universal or SeaWorld from the Airport then Universal/ seaworld should have their own Magical Express buses at the airport. DME should be just people going to Disney. But if Disney and Universal / Seaworld and Orlando tourist commision want to get together and to share the cost of buses between themself for buses between the three parks then they should have done it by now. This arguement about Magical express buses is just like the rumor of Disney just wanting to build a monorail between themself and the airport so that people would only go to Disney.

 

[frank4369]

We used DME on our last trip in Oct 2005, and I wasn't too impressed with it. Going in, I was under the impression I'd be going from the plane to the bus to the hotel. Got off the plane and had to wait on a long line to check in, to wait on a long line for a bus which was SLOW in arriving. It was actually the longest it took me to get to the resort than previous trips. If I remember correctly, it was over 2 hours before we got the the resort.

We're going back in December and giving it another shot. I hope it was just catching them on a bad day for the slow times.

 

[ErickainPA]

We plan to use ME this upcoming trip. We used it one other time and it was great. We did pick up our own bags though as it was Christmas Eve and we had Christmas decorations we wanted to start hanging as soon as we got to our room. When we got off the plane and got our bags, we headed to the ME counter, no waiting, got right up and told where we needed to head to. Once we were in the line to get out to the buses, we were able to board promptly as the bus was right there and already had a bunch of people on it. We waited about 5-10 mins more and then we took off, with no one else getting on the bus for our resort. It was nice in that we didn't have to pay extra for a car (we did get one that we returned to the airport, but that was because we visited some family and had a conference in another part of FL to attend) I hate having to drive in FL traffic, so much construction going one (at least where we were having to head) was nice to start a vacation off without having to drive for a few days)

This time we are letting ME do it all. We will have the baby, his stroller, his diaper bag and we will have our bathing suits in there so we can hit the pool once we reach the resort.

 

[karjame]

Hi, we did the DME on our last trip august 2006. It was wonderful. From the time our plane landed till we where sitting in our room was about 1 1/2hrs. We didn't have to rent a car, get lost on our way to the resort (which for some reason we always do) and we didn't have to carry our bags all over the place. We will use the service on our next trip.
It was great.:king:

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

I like DME :lookaroun

 

[Cole'sMom]

I love DME and plan to use it as long as it is offered to us. It exceeded our expectations every time we have used it. It is a lifesaver when it comes to, like EricainNJ said, carting a baby, stroller, bags, etc. It is a wonderful start to our vacation. Ours bags arrived very quickly to our room, while we were out playing. When we are at WDW, we never want to go anywhere else, so we don't mind being "locked" at WDW. IMO, Disney keeps getting better and better as far as making the guest's vacation a lot easier.

 

[WDWFigment]

And to those who are saying that Disney is trying to stop all car rentals, I'd think that Alamo, the official rental car company of WDW and an in-park sponsor, would have quite a bit to say if Disney was trying to stop car rentals completely. Also, DME isn't the only choice when you make your WDW reservation. The online reservation screen also offers towncar and limo transportation, and I think a rental car, too.

-Rob

I can't imagine Alamo is too fond of DME, but say they offer Disney the ultimatum of discontinuing DME or dropping their sponsorship. Disney lets them out and picks up another car rental company eager to cash in on the WDW cow and willing not to complain about their profits not being completely maximized.

As for the argument that point one (you'll spend transportation dollars at WDW instead of outside) is not correct: let's say it costs Disney $10 to transport you to the resort. That's $10 they've lost, but if you're spending $100 more in the parks, and if at least $11 of every $100 in merchandise is profit (it is), the service is profitable overall for them. Even if that isn't how much it costs them to transport you, use the same formula for determining profitability. I'll bet they still come out on top.

 

[MommytoMJM]

Does anyone know if you can have your bags picked up at the airport and delivered to the hotel if you don't take the bus? We want to rent a car!

One person could rent the car and one could take DME with the bags I would think....I'll ask my husband

 

[Monty]

One other factor that comes into play with wanting to have DME deliver your bags without delivering you so to speak is check-in at the resort.

I'm under the impression that your actual room isn't assigned to you until you physically check in. So, if DME starts delivering bags without delivering guests, they won't know which room to deliver them to. So now, you've got a scenario where guests check in after going directly to the parks while their bags have to be held somewhere awaiting check-in. Will you be complaining then that your bags weren't "magically" in your room when you got there?

DME is a great system, set up to function in very much the same way as the transfers were with Mears prior to its implementation, the only basic difference is they get your bags. Prior to DME, you took your bags to the Mears bus and they drove you to your resort [no option to have them take your bags to your resort while you went to the parks]. If you wanted to rent a car or use the towncar service, you did the same then as you do now.

Other than the instant gratification mindset prevalent in today's society, there is no logic to Disney doing anything different from what they're doing.

 

[Monty]

One person could rent the car and one could take DME with the bags I would think....I'll ask my husband

Bonnie has provided an alternative that works.

 

[Unplugged]

We used DME on our last trip in Oct 2005, and I wasn't too impressed with it. Going in, I was under the impression I'd be going from the plane to the bus to the hotel. Got off the plane and had to wait on a long line to check in, to wait on a long line for a bus which was SLOW in arriving. It was actually the longest it took me to get to the resort than previous trips. If I remember correctly, it was over 2 hours before we got the the resort.

We're going back in December and giving it another shot. I hope it was just catching them on a bad day for the slow times.

We've been doing a rental car or Taxi for about the past 8 years (which unfortunately does raise the cost of a vacation quite a bit). We're usually at the resort in 1 hour 15 minutes from plane departure which includes: deplaning, waiting for luggage, acquire & check-out rental car, drive. Not bad, but an extra hour each way can save you a lot of money. It's a personal choice you can't possibly win until the planes start allowing you to jump out and parachute directly into the parks.

 

[WDWFigment]

Last time I was at WDW, time from plane to resort was about 45 minutes using DME. It all depends on time you flight arrives, time of year, etc.