It took 2.5 hours to get from the airport to the hotel aboard Disney (far less than) Magical Express last Thrusday November 20th. A Disney employee stated this is normal time right now. This is totally unaccetable to me and my family. I plan on telling everyone I can about the wait and the VERY RUDE service
For those of you who do not read your transportation booklet that Disney sends you, it is your own fault. The booklet tells you that your luggage will take some time to arrive at the resort. The booklet also suggests that you pack a bag with items you may need during the day. For those of you with kids, this means pack some clothes for them, bathing suits, snacks, etc. The common sense part should remind you to take any valuables in your carry on, this includes cameras, laptops, jewelery, MEDICATION, video cameras, game systems, etc. Magical Express is a great service. Once you are on the bus, you will not wait more than 1 hour. The buses also don't stop at more than 3 or 4 resorts. Travel time from the airport to the resort is roughly an hour from the time you leave the airport until the very last stop. Did you ever think that the Cast Members that are there are trying to help you? Don't yell at them for losing your luggage, the airline lost your luggage. The cast members at the airport are trying to help you but yelling at them will not do anything. To the person i saw at the desk when i was checking in the other day, it is not nice to yell at people. how would you like it if some one started yelling at you for something you had no control over? Be nice!! Disney's Magical Express is awesome!
We were staying at the All Star Movies. If any of you know the park this hotel is at the end of the line so to speak. In the morning some busses would come to the hotel already full. We would have to wait sometimes for three busses to come to get on. Then of course we had to stand all the way to the parks. One evening we had reservations at Hollywood Studios. We waited 35 minutes for a bus while at least 5 Epcot and 3 Magic Kingdom busses came and picked up 3 or 5 people. When we told the Epcot bus driver about not seeing any Hollywood busses, they said "OK", nothing else. I thought they could at least say they would call in and tell them we needed a bus, but apparently they are not allowed to think for themselves. The most personable drivers were the Magic Express drivers who of course were allowed to accept tips. That made them much friendlier! All in all, the system works relatively well. I especially like taking the boat when I could. Very cool way to travel. I still love Disney, but will reconsider where I stay from now on. You get what you pay for, right?
I love taking the monorail, it's fun and most times there are seats available. It's fun going from TTC to Epcot and seeing the park.
Most of the bus drivers were very friendly and got us to where we were going. The only downside is having to wait 20+ minutes with sore feet in some cases.
DME was so painless and simple, it was fantastic! We will definately use DME again. The busses are so comfy, too!
Of course, there were some drivers who were better than others. DW didn't like having to stand a couple times; she wanted to rent a car. I, on the other hand, enjoyed not having to drive at the end of the day.
Who couldn't love the monorail?! It's always a fun time, since I was young at it was always packed, and now still to explore the hotels and parks. I think it holds a place in my heart, as I always thought the technology was pretty cool. And you can memorize how to say "stear clear of the doors" in a new language!
I was grateful to have transportation to the theme parks. It is so nice not having to drive everywhere. At the end of a long day just hop a bus and head back to the resort. We did drive our car to the parking lot that was near our bus pickup. We only did this in the evenings when we new we would be staying in the park late and did not want to carry to tired if not sleeping children all the way to our rooms.
My family and I have only used Disney's Magical Express once back in January of 2007. We had no problems when arriving to Orlando. We found the Magical Express check in desk no problem. We just followed the directions on the brochure we received with our luggage tags. Because of the time of year we were there we walked right up to an agent and were sitting on the bus within 5 minutes. Because we were the first on the bus we had to wait awhile until more passengers boarded before leaving but this really was no inconvenience. Leaving to go back to the airport was a little bit of a different story. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. The Magical Express desk was supposed to open at 5:00 am. It didn't open until 6:00am. Fortunately for us this didn't matter but there were other guests trying to make an early flight and needless to say were quite upset. Once we were helped it took forever to get out boarding passes. They tried telling us they always have problems with American Airlines boarding passes. Even with the little problem we had when leaving we are going to use this service again when we return next month. It will be interesting to see if the same thing happens when we come to leave next time since we are staying at a different resort and flying a differerent airline.
I admit the only part of Magical Express I've used is the luggage check at the hotel going home and it's fine...just drop your luggage at the bell stand and you don't have to deal with it at the airport. Everything I've heard about Magical Express is awful...from the wait times to and from hotels to the wasted hours waiting for luggage to "magically appear". You're on vacation; who wants to wait around for all that? Face it folks, Disney started this service to keep you on Disney property (God forbid you should wander up the road to Universal). The service is free and, frankly, it sounds like people are getting what they pay for.
I returned home from Disney yesterday morning. We had a 5 am pick up at Saratoga, earlier than it needed to be as we were travelling with a person in a wheelchair. We made our way up to the main building and the bus was waiting. We were berated by the driver for not making them aware that we required special services. We informed him several times that we did in fact inform them that we had a wheelchair. He kept insisting we did not tell them then he asked us why didn't his office inform him? Unfortunately we do not know why he was not told. This driver would not lower the wheelchair lift to accommodate the wheelchair and we had to remove my son from the chair and carry him into a bus. Once the bus was underway he radioed his office and they informed him that there was a special service (guest in a wheel chair) he then asked his office why they didn't tell him. He was informed they forgot to tell him. I called their office last night and the customer service person on the other end listened but offered no further assistance. She did not ask for my name or any details. She clearly had no intention of passing on this information. I am disgusted by the way that we were treated and the fact that it does not seem to bother Mears that their driver has represented them like this.
We've used DME at least 3 times since it started and never had problems with it. The last time we used it was in Sep 07, there were 10 of us, each with at least one bag, some more and the wait for the bus was probably about 20 minutes due to heavy crowds when we arrived. Once on-board the bus, we were taken right to our resort (Pop Century) and dropped off. The shortest time we've experienced from plane to resort was probably 50-55 minutes, the longest was probably in Sep 07 at close to 1 hour and 40 minutes. We've always scheduled morning flights that got us in before or around noon, and never had problems with getting our luggage. Of course, we usually don't get to our rooms until after 9 or so, which usually gives them more than 8 hours to get the bags in. For a hassle-free, worry-free trip, I really like this service, and recommend it to everyone. Sure, there are occasional problems, as with everything, but from our experience, they do their best to try and make it as worry free as possible.
I used it and I loved it. Its kinda like they roll the red carpet out for you and only you. Very good service and great people. Highly reccomend!!!!!