The Magical Express driver was a riot. He kept us laughing during the ride to the airport. Eli Lipez is a great asset to the organization. Thank you for a great ride to the airport! Satisfied Magical Express rider.
The bus took 20 mins to arrive and an hour to actually depart. Even though I arrived at Orlando at 10 pm...I will arrive around 1 am to my room at Old Key West.
I've never had any major issues with the service. Its free so you can't really complain. The staff always has been extremely friendly and helpful when we arrived. And there's nothing more magical then when you officially pass onto the official WDW property. However I would suggest packing a bag with the stuff you'll be needing for that day because the luggage takes forever to get to your room. So if your gonna go swimming at your hotel pack a swimsuit in an extra bag.
We use the service at least from the resort back to MCO every time (I don't want the hassle of driving, returning a car, and checking my bags) and when we go straight to WDW. Our trip this year will be our 6th time on the ME, and while we've had waits, it sure beats the irritation of the above mentioned items. If you want to park your car at home and not drive again until you return, use the service and expect potential delays. If you don't, grab your bags from the baggage merry-go-round..get in line for the rental car..find your car..figure out how to get off the airport..figure out how to get to WDW..AND then reverse the process on your return (oh you'll probably be tired and grumpy at that time). I'm glad they offer the service and plan to continue using it!
A terrible first impression for the WDW customer service. I would suggest making other travel arrangements from the airport unless you don't mind completely wasting the first several hours of your vacation. The wait for the bus to leave was over an hour and then 30 plus minutes to your resort depending upon which one you are staying at. Just plain awful....
Honestly had no problems. Knew it was gonna be an hour ride and prepared for our luggage being there late. It's called pack some emergency clothes in a carry on. Got to our hotel at 10 am our room was ready. Went to the room, dropped off carry on, and headed to the parks for fun. Came back at midnight and luggage was there. It's free so you can't expect much right? Its all part of the vacation experience and story. I actually say to my gf, enjoy your hour ride time on the DME on the way from the airport because before you know it it'll be heading back to the airport.
If I could take away stars I would. The bus from Saratoga Springs to the Orlando airport was 30 minutes late, the driver was extremely curt and cranky. Instead if going straight to the airport he was called to pick up passengers from two other resorts. Even though I was booked to leave the resort 3 hours before my flight, the bus picked me up late, made additional stops, and it was an hour before we got on the freeway. I missed my flight - and the driver had the nerve to tell me I should have left earlier. I come here annually but I will never use the buses to get to the airport again.
Plane landed at 3pm. Was told luggage would arrive within 3 hours at Pop Century. First 3 bags arrived after 10pm. It is close to midnight and we still do not have the last bag. No reason provided for the delay and no phone calls from the resort letting us know what is going on. Disappointing to say the least.
Upon arrival, baggage arrived at the hotel 5 hours after we did. When we were coming back home,we checked our bags at our hotel's magical express check-in service.Everyone else who did the same arrived at our home airport waiting for their checked items to arrive, but they never got loaded the plane. We were told that they would arrive in about three hours on the next flight in from Orlando.
We have made 3 trips to Disney and used DME each time. The first two trips it went well. This time airport to Disney was very good. Disney to airport is another story. We were supposed to be on the 4:30 bus from Port Orleans Riverside. We arrived at 4:15 and found out that the 4:00 bus had arrived full. Supposedly another one was on the way to take those passengers. But at 4:30 the bus came and picked up the 4:00 passengers. We waited and waited. We had three drop off buses come and tell us that another bus was on the way. Finally at almost 5:30 a bus arrived for us. Now these people know how many people are scheduled. There is no excuse for not having enough space for everybody.
I would not pay for this service!!!! My family got on the bus at the Contemporary 3hours and 15 minutes prior to our flight time and the bus then stopped at Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian and Grand Floridian that put us at the airport 40 minutes before our plane took off. After going thru security and getting to our concourse they were announcing FINAL CALL TO BOARD our flight. I would never use that service again!
We took our first trip to Disney World in November. We weren't sure about taking the Magical Express, but decided since it was free we should. We were staying at the Contemporary Resort.Arrival: Once we arrived at the airport, it was very seamless getting checked in for the Magical Express. Unfortunately, our hotel was the last stop and we were on the bus for over an hour. But, it wasn't too bad. HOWEVER, when we got to the hotel they told us that our luggage would show up in 3-5 hours! Everything I read and the Disney people I spoke to said that it would be only 3 hours. Our bags did not show up until 11pm. (We had arrived at 6pm.) So that was a bit aggravating. Still, we got over it very quickly.Departing: The entire return trip on the Magical Express was TERRIBLE! Our departure time was for 10:50, approximately 3 hours before our flight. My family (and a lot of other people) were waiting on the bus. It showed up almost 20 minutes late! (There were no previous stops, the bus was empty.) And the bus was a Mears bus. It was old and dirty. Then the bus driver took a long time to load our luggage. It seemed that the bus was full, but we had to stop at another resort. We were there for over 25 minutes! There was only one family getting on the bus and one member was an older gentleman in a wheelchair. We felt so bad for this man and his family. First, they tried loading him onto the bus, but the driver parked too close. She had to move the bus. Then when they got him on the bus, she could not get his wheelchair secured. It seemed she did not know how to use the straps to do this. Finally, this man's sons had to move him to a seat for the trip. After all of this fiasco, we arrived at the airport only an 1.5 hours before our flight. If we travel to Disney again, we will probably arrange for different transportation to our resort.
The trip to the resort was painless and fast, and the driver even slowed down some so you could get a picture of the entrance gate (though the sun was reflecting off the glass so that unfortunately didn't work). I expected the same with the luggage service, but it is most definitely not. Your luggage is supposed to arrive at MAX 3 hours after you check in to the resort. It has been six hours since I've been here and it doesn't look as if my luggage is coming anytime soon. I called after the 3 hours were up, and a cast member told me it should be to my room within the hour, but that definitely didn't happen. Based on other reviews, if you get in in the morning or around noon, you should be fine, but if you get to Disney in the afternoon, you're much better waiting the 10 minutes to pick up your suitcase at the baggage claim, instead of staying up worrying that your baggage is lost or that you won't be able to get dressed in the morning because your luggage seemingly disappeared.
This service is great as long as you read the magic express booklet and follow instructions you will have no problems. Yes they do stop at 3 or 4 hotels but the stops are breif, we have used this service five times and had no issues. We usually spend the afternoon at animal kingdom on arrival day and have always found our lugguge to be in our room upon our return.
I loved it! The trip was fun and easy! Although our resort was one of the last ones to be reached, the trip was magical!
This is a great service that I will use again in April, "09". The only problem we have had is the TV's were not working on our last trip to the resort. I would not even bring that up but it was our first trip with our grandkids and it would of been nice if they were working. This is not a big deal compared to what we saved for not having to rent a car or other tranportation. I must say the person who wrote in about it taking 2.5 hours does have a valid complaint (this is not the norm no matter what the cast member said) but to the rest of you squawkers out there rent a car or limo and handle your own luggage if it is so bad. Also I agree with the person who wrote in and said don't yell at the cast members. Treat them the same as you would want to be treated and you will get outstanding service. I never have figured this one out because it does not work anywhere in the common sense world and that includes WDW.
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!
DME was so painless and simple, it was fantastic! We will definately use DME again. The busses are so comfy, too!
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!!!!!
Used it love it. Almost like the mouse picks you up at MCO and you are on your way.
I had a good experience with the magical express. I got at the hotel at 12pm, my room was not ready so I went to downtown disney. When I got back my room was ready and my luggage was there. It is nice that you dont have to worry about dragging your luggage all over the place. And the bus ride is nice. And best of all it is free.
I have taken the Magical Express two times (12/05 & 4/06). In both cases our luggaged arrived extremely late. In December, we stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Our flight arrived around 4:30pm and we did not get our luggage until 9:30pm and that was only after going to the holding area in the hotel and picking it up ourselves. In April, we were staying in the very full All-Star Music Resort. Our flight came in about the same time, 4:30pm, but our luggage did not arrive to our room until 1:30 in the morning! Fortunately we had learned a little from the first trip and packed our 3 year olds things in a carry-on. Next time we will take advantage of the shuttle but we will be claiming our own bag and carrying them on the shuttle with us. The saddest part was the canned excuses we were given from several cast members & never an apology.
Rode DME last Sept (05), and had few problems. The bus takes you to 3 to 4 resorts and drops you off. The Wait at the airport is seems long, but everyone\'s always impatient to get to WDW. The movie was entertaining for 1st timers and kids. It\'s not a taxi or limo it\'s Disney\'s form of mass transit. If I had to pay for it, I would look into other options. If your looking for a the cheapest (free) to get from MCO to WDW it\'s the way to go.
Easyiest way to the World, You dont have to worry about bags, a rental car, or expensive taxi fee, because Magical Express is FREE!