TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
The last 2 or 3 times I’ve taken mears from the airport to Disney they have taken me in a van.
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Resort Airline Check In Service testing a return
- Thread starter castlecake2.0
- Start date
plutofan15
Well-Known Member
Clearly that is not the case as seen by the comments here. Yes some valued the bus service more than the baggage service and vice versa for others. No need to get all worked up, try some decaf.
easyrowrdw
Well-Known Member
We're the same way. I decided to book Frontier for my next trip due to cost and flight times. But 48 hours after I booked the flights, they canceled my direct flight and rescheduled me for a 13 hour flight with an overnight layover. I told them to cancel the trip and went back to Southwest
bpiper
Well-Known Member
Why would there be baggage transfer between terminals? MCO is not a hub airport with connecting flights. Its an end point airport. What little connections would be on the same airline at the same airside terminal. None of the airlines are split across terminals.
bpiper
Well-Known Member
Why? That's easy. Covid was an unexpected immediate slowdown/shutdown. MCO like other places/companies had no idea what the future was going to hold. Was the population going to be decimated like the black death in Europe? What would travel look like when Covid is done? Back to normal? 50% 10%.... They and just about every other company hunkered down and hoarded cash and didn't start any new spending projects.... By the time everyone realized that we would get through it mostly intact, it was to late to start major projects to take advantage of the lower population movements. Revamping the baggage system would require bring in experts to design a new system that would fit in the existing building. That takes time to design. Also, even without supply chain shortages, you just don't order a new baggage system for installation next week. That's a lot of equipment that has to be built and installed. And tested... And the kinks worked out. Also, you need to bring in the TSA into the mix since the belts go to their scanners and then onto the airlines baggage loading carousels. An incredible complicated task.
Terminal C opened on September 20 2022. They have only recently realized that they have a problem. The incidents of misplaced bags have sky rocketed in 2024 and when they started to look into why, they found the mess in the basement. They finally opened the door marked Authorized personnel only.
Its so bad that according to the article, the only way to fix the problem since they can't shut the current system down, is to build new buildings at each end of the terminal to house the whole baggage system and then cut over to it one night. There isn't room in the basement to make a new system around running the old system.
Other than the EOL problems with the old system, my pet theory is that its the airlines fault.
The current system can only handle so many bags per hour, especially since the TSA scanners are now in the middle of it. When it was designed, they must have done calculations on how many bags would come per hour and sized it accordingly. The problem is that they probably didn't foresee that the airlines would shrink the seat pitch and cram in 10 or more rows of additional people per plane. Also, planes have gotten a lot larger. You use to have MD80's, 737-300, and A320's landing. Now you have much larger planes landing like 737-800, 737-900, A321's. The airlines are shoving a lot more passenger luggage into the system on taking off that it wasn't sized to handle.
SoFloMagic
Well-Known Member
There are international airlines at Terminal C which have codeshare partner airlines based in A/B. You could book a United flight into MCO with an connection to Emirates or Copa for an international flight. In 99% of airports in the world, that would result in bags checked through to final destinations, even if they're in another terminal. I guess the transfer desk at MCO would just tell you to walk the bag to C yourself. That's wild.
dmc493
Well-Known Member
Its poor planning on MCOs part 100% but also the reality of what a lot of airports are dealing with, grappling with improvements needed to meet demand. It’s just MCO’s system was so poor in the first place that there is no incremental solutions to help ease the situation. Spot on though about BHS system design and construction timelines, this is no simple fix and will take a long long time
SoFloMagic
Well-Known Member
They failed to make incremental updates when they should have - decades ago. 9/11 was what changed the TSA screening process, and that was 25 years ago. No excuses for their inaction for decades. I understand that it became a crisis in 2024, but there are steps between "ok" and crisis.
Universal seemed to be pretty confident about a return of tourism to Orlando and invested in capital expenditures- it's just a shame that MCO didn't do the same.
Anyway, this isn't on topic. Sounds like a win-win for Disney and MCO.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
By laying off most of Creative and cancelling a bunch of projects?
SoFloMagic
Well-Known Member
Velosicoaster & epic Universe
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Well…someplace do nothing in their parks for 10 years at a clip and take forever to build anything…so perfection is hard to come by
PocahontasSmith
New Member
As someone who doesn't know what it used to be like, but works for a company that also exited its own "Golden Age," I agree with this. I won't know what I'm missing when I go because I've never been. So, while I absolutely feel for the folks who have lost the magic, staying positive that better times are coming (even slowly) is something I love to read about. Thanks for this reminder/perspective (even as a self-proclaimed "Disney-Debbie-downer." Haha! Nice alliteration!!)
bmr1591
Well-Known Member
I skimmed Tom’s article. I rarely have the attention span to read all the way through his articlesI’m very surprised he mentioned Mears buses never being full and even being picked up by vans. I’ve used them 3 times in the last few years and the buses are always packed. Both to and from the airport. And it seems no matter where I stay, I’m always the last stop
My wife and I have taken MEARS most times we go down and only once has it been full. Most times it's fairly empty. I do think the time of day matters, though.
As for all the hate toward Spirit/Frontier, I fly them almost exclusively and have had zero issues. In fact, American has always given me problems, but if my flight gets rescheduled with Spirit, I edit the time and move on.
SamusAranX
Well-Known Member
Let em rot.Southwest has been in a downward spiral for 10+ years
It’s why you don’t buy valuejet
These latest changes finally ticked me off enough. There’s NOTHING that differentiates them from other airlines and their killing the culture Herb instilled. I am cancelling my card and never flying with them again unless it’s 100 percent necessary
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
I was done with them over the 737-MAXs. This just solidifies things.
bpiper
Well-Known Member
They had nothing to do with the Boeing's Max design issues.....
Do you fly?
United: Max 8 116 in use
Max 9 93 in use
Max 10 167 on order
American: Max 8 73 in use
Max 10 115 on order
Delta: Max 10 100 on order.
easyrowrdw
Well-Known Member
The last time we used Mears we waited well over an hour to ride a (not full) bus and wound up not getting to the hotel until 2:00am. They kept saying the driver was on the way. It was awful and we haven't used them since. The other times on Mears weren't as bad as that, but they were typically longer than when it was Magical Express. If the service does return, I hope it returns to the previous level of service.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
I fly JetBlue because they don’t use Max. Not going on a Max.
SoFloMagic
Well-Known Member
Jetblue, spirit, frontier, breeze. Delta doesnt have a ton of max, but they'll throw you on a 25 year old 757 and pretend that's OK.