NEW Changes to Disney's Magical Express

[JPVonDrake]

As of November 1st:

To take advantage of this free service, you must add a reservation for the Magical Express on your room / package reservation PRIOR to your arrival to Florida. The Disney Welcome Center at the Orlando International Airport will no longer be able to provide this service to guest who have not made an advance reservation. It is recommended that you book at the same time you book your room, and provide your flight information at least 30 days (or more) prior to your arrival to ensure the timely arrival of your Travel Documents. Remember you must add Disney's Magical Express through your original booking location only; meaning if you book your room with a travel agency you must contact them to add or change your DME.

Disney will no longer have Magical Express Greeters on the third level of the airport (the level you enter the Main Terminal from your plane.) Our DME Welcome Center is located on level 1, Side A in the main terminal. We will have some Greeters on level 2 on both A and B sides of the airport to help lost Guests.

If you arrive at the airport after 11 PM or before 6 AM (due to a flight delay or it's your originally scheduled arrival time) you will be asked to claim your own luggage and it will travel with you to your Resort to ensure timely delivery. Otherwise the delivery of your luggage to your room is estimated to arrive within 2 hours from your arrival at the airport. You are always advised to pack a day bag with medications and maybe a change of clothes to start your reservation, as you will not have immediate access to your bags.

Hope this helps! :sohappy:

 

[lewisc]

The lawyer for the livery operators disagree with that. They state the agreement requires an advance reservation. The Disney press release announcing DME, which I quoted above, said reservations must be made 10 days in advance.

I'm finished, this is really an issue between Disney, MCO and the other transportation companies. You have one version of what the agreement calls for and the transportation companies have another. If the agreement clearly allowed for non-reservation transport I doubt Disney would have backed down.

I have witnessed Disney and Mears selling DME to non-Disney guests as an alternative to guests taking a taxi. I'm not sure how often this occurred but the two people next to me on line waiting for the AKL bus paid Mears to ride the bus.

If you believe the Disney PR on this site guests should expect their luggage to beat them to their rooms.

Correct. This was allowed in the original agreement with MCO and was advertised as such.

Per Disney's original FAQ's as released to Travel Agents, Disney Cast Members, and the press on 12/31/04:

10. Can I book Disney's Magical Express upon arrival at the airport?
We are encouraging you to book your reservation pre-arrival so that you fully benefit from the service and a seamless luggage delivery to your resort room. If you arrive at the airport without a reservation, every effort will be made to accommodate you. In this instance, you must claim your luggage.

As of November 1st, this policy will change, and only guest with a pre-arranged reservation on DME will be able to use the service.



As posted by wannab@dis it is requested that you write to Walt Disney World Guest Communications. This will give Disney a paper record of violations witnessed by Guest.

:sohappy:

 

[wannab@dis]

The lawyer for the livery operators disagree with that. They state the agreement requires an advance reservation. The Disney press release announcing DME, which I quoted above, said reservations must be made 10 days in advance.

I'm finished, this is really an issue between Disney, MCO and the other transportation companies. You have one version of what the agreement calls for and the transportation companies have another. If the agreement clearly allowed for non-reservation transport I doubt Disney would have backed down.

I have witnessed Disney and Mears selling DME to non-Disney guests as an alternative to guests taking a taxi. I'm not sure how often this occurred but the two people next to me on line waiting for the AKL bus paid Mears to ride the bus.

If you believe the Disney PR on this site guests should expect their luggage to beat them to their rooms.

Can you post a link to where the lawyers state advance ressies were required? I haven't seen that in any stories and would like to read more about it. As I said earlier, the number of people this affects is probably so insignificant that Disney thinks it's better to look good than to fight it.

As far as paying for the service, you're the first person that I've heard say anything about that happening. That issue should be up to the airport to address.

 

[Marijil]

(sorry, this is off the argument thing...but we're going next year August 2006 flying with Virgin Atlantic...how would we go about doing the DME?

Ben)

...I'm sorry to interrupt the argument theme?????
....its so funny....the posts herein can be separated into two categories:

1. disney fans just trying to get some info

2. know it alls who just want to debate and show off how much they think they know....

come to think of it ....this is true on most threads....any way, I for one am just trying to find out A. is the service worth doing (time wise); B. do we tip, if so who and C. all ads for the service indicate its "free" (very relative word) during the current celebration, are there plans to charge for it....if anyone can answer, great, if not please feel free to battle on

 

[wannab@dis]

...I'm sorry to interrupt the argument theme?????
....its so funny....the posts herein can be separated into two categories:

1. disney fans just trying to get some info

2. know it alls who just want to debate and show off how much they think they know....

come to think of it ....this is true on most threads....any way, I for one am just trying to find out A. is the service worth doing (time wise); B. do we tip, if so who and C. all ads for the service indicate its "free" (very relative word) during the current celebration, are there plans to charge for it....if anyone can answer, great, if not please feel free to battle on

:lol:

A. Depends on what you want. I won't use it because I want a grocery stop. Others find it perfect.
B. No, you do not need to tip anyone as tips are included (posted by JP in this thread)
C. There's no guarantee that it will be free past the end of next year. If it's a hit, I could see Disney leaving it as a 'free' incentive.

Be careful of labels... it appears you want information from the ones you seemed to be knocking.

 

[Marijil]

Appreciate the info and the advice

 

[Gucci65]

Sure you can make comments, but it usually accepted better if the comments have something to do with the topic.



Most people would find that unacceptable. :wave:

What is unacceptable about my comment? That I didn't say your comment was bs OR go fight with someone else.

I commented on (1) the topic of discussion and (2) someone elses opinion.

 

[shoppingnut]

...I'm sorry to interrupt the argument theme?????
....its so funny....the posts herein can be separated into two categories:

1. disney fans just trying to get some info

2. know it alls who just want to debate and show off how much they think they know....

come to think of it ....this is true on most threads....any way, I for one am just trying to find out A. is the service worth doing (time wise); B. do we tip, if so who and C. all ads for the service indicate its "free" (very relative word) during the current celebration, are there plans to charge for it....if anyone can answer, great, if not please feel free to battle on

A. I have used the service this summer and it worked fine. It takes about 1 hour from checking in at the DME desk to getting on the bus and arriving at your resort, which isn't too bad. Just if you are going to arrive in FL from a place where the weather is drastically different, I would suggest you pack a change of clothing in a carry on bag so that if you are arriving early and want to go to the parks or swim, you can do that right after checking in at the resort. Your luggage does take about 3 hrs to arrive in the room.

B. Tips are included, but the one time that we had our luggage with us and the driver did load it for us, I did tip him. This was my choice because I felt it was the right thing to do, but if I didn't have luggage I wouldn't have tipped.

C. They originally said it was to be free for the 18 month celebration and after that they would charge. If and when and what amount they would charge no one knows for sure, but I would imagine it won't be anything more than what Mear's was charging.

Finally, please don't criticize us for wanting to debate our opinions on the subject, it is something we are enjoying, but it might not be for you. I don't claim to know everything on a subject, but I am entitled to an opinion on it. Many of the threads have more than one thing going on in them at a time anyway and this one isn't that different.

 

[CTXRover]

My family and I used DME earlier this month and were very pleased with it. With that in mind, I have two comments

1 - Our driver had little handwritten pieces of paper that said 'gratuities accepted' and he advertised his 'on the side' business of being an entertainer/voice over guy. I should have reported him to Disney.
.

Might be a different driver and bus, but was his name Rapheal Diaz? My parents just came down to stay at the Poly and they said DME worked wonderfully. However, the bus they were on had pieces of paper scotch taped (or it might have been masking tape...I didn't go into specifics) to the tv screens that said gratiuties are appreciated. Also, they were not shown the WDW intro video but instead watched Shrek....oops