i have not read one good thing about the express yet. on mouse savers.com there is a really good report on there. it really sounds bad. you would think they would ahve most of these things ironed out already. but not to send the luggage tags out. that is terrible. i go in december i would rather pay the 100 for the van then to go through the not so magical express. i just hope they fix this soon
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not so magical i guess
- Thread starter bears163
- Start date
I'm so sorry that you had such a bad time with ME. Your story sounds like the many that I heard while I was at Disney last week and what I have been hearing since being home. Disney should have had a much smoother transaction into ME since they have been doing it for so many years with the Cruiseline.
QuickSilver was a good choice. They are the best car service out there.
Pam
QuickSilver was a good choice. They are the best car service out there.
Pam
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Ok, I'm very scared. 38 of us leaving the 12th. Of course no tags and at this point I don't think I'm using them even if they come. My plan is to direct my family to baggage clame where we will pick up our oun luggage and go to ME.
What do you think? Will there buss have room for all of us and our luggage? Will we have to wait for ever? Should we just pay Quicksilver?
What do you think? Will there buss have room for all of us and our luggage? Will we have to wait for ever? Should we just pay Quicksilver?
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38 people??? You should have called me! :lol:
I hope and pray that they have things worked out by then. If you don't recieve your tags, go to the desk that they have set up and check in. You should be in their system. (let's hope) I would stick with the ME with 38 people. Although I know that Gregory from QS would love the business, that would be quite expensive. You would need a few vans. (at least)
If your tags do not show before you go, head to the desk at the airport and go from there.
Here is the number for QuickSilver in case you get in a bind. Write it down.
Toll Free: 1-888-GO-TO-WDW (468-6939) - USA and Canada
Local call: (407) 299-1434.
Our Customer Service Line is open 7 days a week from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm EST.
Tell Gregory that Kingdom Konsultant sent you! :wave:
Pam
I hope and pray that they have things worked out by then. If you don't recieve your tags, go to the desk that they have set up and check in. You should be in their system. (let's hope) I would stick with the ME with 38 people. Although I know that Gregory from QS would love the business, that would be quite expensive. You would need a few vans. (at least)
If your tags do not show before you go, head to the desk at the airport and go from there.
Here is the number for QuickSilver in case you get in a bind. Write it down.
Toll Free: 1-888-GO-TO-WDW (468-6939) - USA and Canada
Local call: (407) 299-1434.
Our Customer Service Line is open 7 days a week from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm EST.
Tell Gregory that Kingdom Konsultant sent you! :wave:
Pam
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cj2me
New Member
Here is a little background of the process that I experienced at the airport. The Disney Welcome Center is at Baggage Claim A, (so if your baggage goes to Baggage claim B you have to get your bags and then go to baggage claim A ) you have to go to the Car Rental level. You then wait on line to "check in" for DME, ( this line was basically out the door) they stamp your vouchers if you received them, if you did not you have to fill out a form. Then after getting your voucher stamped you have to go wait on another line. We waited on line for a hour to get on the bus. What was supposed to be 4 zones was broken up into about 6-7 lines not to mention the DCL lines. There are 4 DME express busses alotted in the loading area at a time and only 2 DCL. Apparently they could not rent anymore space and DME is using some of the DCL spaces.
There are 2 problems I see with the opertion main problem is that anyone can use this and you dont have to pre-register so how are they gaging how many people are coming in at a given time. I think every part of the DME should be limited to the participating airlines at least unitl they get ALL the kinks out. The other problem is MEars is running the bus loading part of the operation. In fact when I was there I saw several Disney Suits over-riding decisions made by Mears. They kept yelling at MEARS to get the people on the busses and go there was a lot of tension.
Everytime I saw a DME bus pull up at the hotel there were a lot of unhappy people, and strangely enough I never saw anyone get on a DME bus to leave, and there was never anyone at the DME counter to get a boarding pass, they were just there to complain.
There are 2 problems I see with the opertion main problem is that anyone can use this and you dont have to pre-register so how are they gaging how many people are coming in at a given time. I think every part of the DME should be limited to the participating airlines at least unitl they get ALL the kinks out. The other problem is MEars is running the bus loading part of the operation. In fact when I was there I saw several Disney Suits over-riding decisions made by Mears. They kept yelling at MEARS to get the people on the busses and go there was a lot of tension.
Everytime I saw a DME bus pull up at the hotel there were a lot of unhappy people, and strangely enough I never saw anyone get on a DME bus to leave, and there was never anyone at the DME counter to get a boarding pass, they were just there to complain.
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shoppingnut
Active Member
Thrawn said:
On the departure from the DCL not everyone is going to the same place, some the airport (different airlines) and others to WDW (different resorts). It may be less luggage, etc., but the underlying principles of the system are the same. I understand that there can be some problems, but what has been reported seems to go way beyond "some" and the fact that they had to pull people over from the DCL is a clear indication of severe problems.
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linkinparknumb0
New Member
This is a little different but does anyone know if the magicl express busses labeled so you know which bus to get to your resort? And in what order do the buses stop? We are staying at Fort Wilderness and leaving in 45 days...just hope they get this fixed up by then...any replys will be helpful. thanx
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DiPSU224
Member
jcldtrek said:
I didn't recieve mine either and I leave on the 15th as well. I wasn't really expecting the tags to come in till Friday though at the latest. From reading this thread I'm getting nervous and thinking I might cancel my DME and go with Quicksilver. I didn't book a flight at 6:00 am with plans on getting to my resort after noon. Last trip I used Quicksilver and was at my hotel less than an hour after we got off our flight. I hate passing up the service since it is free, but maybe I'll try it out on our next trip when everything has been ironed out. I'm sure with just a little time it will become a great service.
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After a few phone calls I was reassured that everything was in the computer and was set for all 38 of us to arrive at POR on the 12th. Our hotel reservations are confermed and the DME is expecting us. The new tags were sent out in bulk and were expected to arrive 10-14 days from shipment (whenever what was). If they don't come in time we can pick up our oun luggage but there may not be enough space on the bus so it may have to travel sepreatly. OH no! When I talk to them on the phone they make it sound like everything is all set and will go smoothy. For some reason l feel like I'm being lied to. I really hope all this goes smoothly. It would be a shame to state out our family gathering with big inconviences.
Also I booked through Disney's Leasure Group, got discounted tickets and paid $111.00 per night, with tax at POR.
Thanks for everyones help.
Also I booked through Disney's Leasure Group, got discounted tickets and paid $111.00 per night, with tax at POR.
Thanks for everyones help.
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Ok, here's a reprint of a post I made in another thread: sorry for the length
My exprience with the Disney Magical Express is that they should remove the word "Express" for the time being. In brief, the experience wasn't very positive. If you want more, read on.
I dont think they have their act together in planning yet. The time it takes to get between your hotel and the airport is way too long. Arrival took 1 hour 45 min on the bus alone from the time I sat down in my seat on the bus at the airport until I was getting off of it at Coronado Springs. The return trip took 1 hour 15 min, however that isn't including the additional 45 min I had to wait due to buses being severly delayed. A cast member was on the phone at the baggage check area, sounding very frustrated with the DME folks and telling someone that there were several families who were within their flight departure window and needed immediate transport to the airport as the Coronado had not had a Magical Express bus arrive for over an hour, even though they are scheduled every 30 min, so we had missed 2 busses already. Plus, none of us were "scheduled" for a bus as we were told we were supposed to be. The sheet of paper I received the night before I departed, and also a Magical Express person on the phone told me to allow at least 3 hours prior to my flight and "choose a time I'm comfortable with" to be at my bus stop, and be there at least 15 min before that bus arrives. The buses have a scheduled time for each resort that you are provided for that day. Since guests aren't being scheduled for a bus return, the potential for overcrowding exists. This happened at the Boardwalk - with too many guests attempting to get on the same Magical Express bus. A fight nearly broke out between a few people who had been waiting for 2 hours for the ME bus, as it too had not been showing up as scheduled for that hotel. It got pretty ugly with fathers and mothers yelling at each other as to why their kids should get on first.
I understand there can be issues with any new service, and there will be inevitable kinks to work out, however, this looks like very poor execution of a plan from a central planning office - - not a bad system or plan, just people dropping the ball when it came to actually doing what they were supposed to do. My assumption is that there wasn't proper time allowed for traffic delays or luggage loading delays due to guests slowing up the process, and possibly improper staffing at the bag tag processing office as well as with the number of busses and drivers. Since the bag tag issue hadn't been worked out, guests had to bring their own luggage to the busses (both arrival and departure) which lengthened the time.
The problems ran from the still delayed luggage tags (I never got mine), to non-scheduling of return trips, to no one actually having answers to questions that even frustrated hotel cast members couldn't seem to get, to lengthy delays of busses arriving at their scheduled times, to bus drivers who clearly weren't fully trained and ours barely spoke English well, to substantially lengthy trip times from the airport to your resort, to too many stops at hotels instead of the planned "only 3 or 4 resorts per bus" (we had 5 resort stops), and also, from what I hear, there were serious luggage delays in many instances for the folks who actually didn't have to haul their own bags. Magical Express folks lost my info concering my return flight and it had to be provided to them again - TWICE - during my 5 day visit.
It is a "free" service - though of course it's being included in your package in some way, so for that, I guess we shouldn't be complaining. I know they will work this out and it will be a great system eventually, but it was a very rough start and it was painfully obvious that many people involved in Magical Express weren't prepared to start it at this time, even with the past experience with the cruise line process and the many week trial run that had been going on. However, all of these issues weren't isolated, they seemed the norm, not the exception, and it did create a negative situation that disrupts your otherwise pleasant vacaction.
My exprience with the Disney Magical Express is that they should remove the word "Express" for the time being. In brief, the experience wasn't very positive. If you want more, read on.
I dont think they have their act together in planning yet. The time it takes to get between your hotel and the airport is way too long. Arrival took 1 hour 45 min on the bus alone from the time I sat down in my seat on the bus at the airport until I was getting off of it at Coronado Springs. The return trip took 1 hour 15 min, however that isn't including the additional 45 min I had to wait due to buses being severly delayed. A cast member was on the phone at the baggage check area, sounding very frustrated with the DME folks and telling someone that there were several families who were within their flight departure window and needed immediate transport to the airport as the Coronado had not had a Magical Express bus arrive for over an hour, even though they are scheduled every 30 min, so we had missed 2 busses already. Plus, none of us were "scheduled" for a bus as we were told we were supposed to be. The sheet of paper I received the night before I departed, and also a Magical Express person on the phone told me to allow at least 3 hours prior to my flight and "choose a time I'm comfortable with" to be at my bus stop, and be there at least 15 min before that bus arrives. The buses have a scheduled time for each resort that you are provided for that day. Since guests aren't being scheduled for a bus return, the potential for overcrowding exists. This happened at the Boardwalk - with too many guests attempting to get on the same Magical Express bus. A fight nearly broke out between a few people who had been waiting for 2 hours for the ME bus, as it too had not been showing up as scheduled for that hotel. It got pretty ugly with fathers and mothers yelling at each other as to why their kids should get on first.
I understand there can be issues with any new service, and there will be inevitable kinks to work out, however, this looks like very poor execution of a plan from a central planning office - - not a bad system or plan, just people dropping the ball when it came to actually doing what they were supposed to do. My assumption is that there wasn't proper time allowed for traffic delays or luggage loading delays due to guests slowing up the process, and possibly improper staffing at the bag tag processing office as well as with the number of busses and drivers. Since the bag tag issue hadn't been worked out, guests had to bring their own luggage to the busses (both arrival and departure) which lengthened the time.
The problems ran from the still delayed luggage tags (I never got mine), to non-scheduling of return trips, to no one actually having answers to questions that even frustrated hotel cast members couldn't seem to get, to lengthy delays of busses arriving at their scheduled times, to bus drivers who clearly weren't fully trained and ours barely spoke English well, to substantially lengthy trip times from the airport to your resort, to too many stops at hotels instead of the planned "only 3 or 4 resorts per bus" (we had 5 resort stops), and also, from what I hear, there were serious luggage delays in many instances for the folks who actually didn't have to haul their own bags. Magical Express folks lost my info concering my return flight and it had to be provided to them again - TWICE - during my 5 day visit.
It is a "free" service - though of course it's being included in your package in some way, so for that, I guess we shouldn't be complaining. I know they will work this out and it will be a great system eventually, but it was a very rough start and it was painfully obvious that many people involved in Magical Express weren't prepared to start it at this time, even with the past experience with the cruise line process and the many week trial run that had been going on. However, all of these issues weren't isolated, they seemed the norm, not the exception, and it did create a negative situation that disrupts your otherwise pleasant vacaction.
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jcraycraft
Member
RebeccaQ said:
Bummer.... I thought it was a new 19" LCD Display with the new Golden Mickey ears!!! :lol: j/k
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GSpiff
Member
I hate to say it, but the old saying is true...you get what you pay for. I'm not even going until August and I'm already considering changing my plans to eliminate the need for the Magical Express. I've never used Quicksilver before, always been a Meers person. Anyone have a preference between the two? I know Meers can be a pain to use, last time I went I ended up waiting for over an hour at the airport for a bus.
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swimmom
Well-Known Member
GSpiff said:
We used Quicksilver on our last trip and it was great. Prompt (as a matter of fact early for our return to MCO) and courteous. We used to use Mears until we had two bad experiences very similar to the posts on this thread.
I would love to take advantage of the free DME service. Luckily, I have until December to see how things get worked out.
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GSpiff
Member
Cost wise, for a party of 3, would Quicksilver be a better value than Mears? I was looking on the website and couldn't really get a good feel for the prices.
I'm still hoping things will smooth over by August. I do understand that DME is in its infancy and will have to overcome operational speedbumps, but they have had over a month to work out a lot of the kinks they seem to having right now.
I'm still hoping things will smooth over by August. I do understand that DME is in its infancy and will have to overcome operational speedbumps, but they have had over a month to work out a lot of the kinks they seem to having right now.
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wannabeBelle
Well-Known Member
hey there everyone!!! I hope that the kinks get worked out pretty quickly. I Am not even sure if Mears ( as such) can come onto Disney property at all any longer in terms of the shuttles. Why would someone book Mears when DME is free would be the thought. Then again, I dont think anyone anticipated these problems!!!! Belle
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JPVonDrake
Well-Known Member
Belle is correct, Mears cannot be booked other then through DME. The delays, luggage claims and other problems, although not yet perfected are being quicky corrected. Some of the major problems stem from
The outside company that is printing and sending out the luggage tags (hopefully to be replaced soon.)
The number of guest that are not booked at all or booked without calling back with flight information are expecting to use this service. (Disney really cannot say no to these guest)
The number of flights comming in at the same time is overwheming the staff. Staffing is currently being increased as quickly as possible with both Mears and Disney.
Hopefully all these and other challenges with the system will be resolved in a few days.
The outside company that is printing and sending out the luggage tags (hopefully to be replaced soon.)
The number of guest that are not booked at all or booked without calling back with flight information are expecting to use this service. (Disney really cannot say no to these guest)
The number of flights comming in at the same time is overwheming the staff. Staffing is currently being increased as quickly as possible with both Mears and Disney.
Hopefully all these and other challenges with the system will be resolved in a few days.
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