Has anyone used Magical Express lately?

[Denise L]

We will be at Beach Club Villas next month !

I was thinking of using ME for our luggage, but don't know what the delivery times have been lately. We don't arrive until 9:20 PM, and don't want to wait 3-4 hours for our bags. We can get them ourselves and lug them onto the ME bus, but it might be nice to just walk to the bus....opinions?

 

[rhonda]

My folks are there now ... having used ME. Their flight touched down around 3:30p ... bags arrived in their room between 9:45-11p. Quite a delay.

 

[TomH]

DME

Was just at the BCV. DME was great as usual. About 15 minute wait at the airport and then on to the WORLD. Luggage was in our room in approximately 2 hours. Have a great time.

Tom

 

[tashamen]

I used it two weeks ago. I arrived at Old Key West at about 11:30 am, went to lunch and was able to check into the unit at 2:30 pm, and my bag was already in there waiting.

 

[joestein]

We used it in May 2008. I thought that it worked great! We arrived at BWV at 11:00am and when our room was finally ready around 4:00pm, our luggage was waiting for us.

Bus service was very easy as well.

Joe

 

[RahRah]

We stayed at Disney (Contemporary) in September and I drove in so we'd have a rental car and my parents used ME to get to the resort since they arrived at a different time than we did....and it was easier for them to use ME rather than us picking them up.

Everything went very smoothly and their bags were in the room about an hour after they arrived.....they did tell the bell captain that if the bags would be delayed until after 10:00pm, to deliver them in the morning instead. So that's an option if you have your carry-on with you and it has your essentials for the morning - the bell captain will keep your bags overnight if you don't want to be disturbed after a late arrival!

 

[spiceycat]

Denise - the Orlando airport had a pretty bad system - they (the airport not the airlines) for me twice send the luggage to the wrong place.

so waiting in the airport for your luggage for 2 hours - or waiting in WDW.

WDW wins for me hands down.

they did that to me twice once with SW and once with Delta - it is the airport.

the airline may lost a luggage or two - but for the entire plane's luggage - it is the airport.

so would go definitely with DME. just bring an backpack with you on the plane for the stuff you will need immediately.

 

[Denise L]

Hey everyone, thanks for all of your advice!

Wow, such different experiences. I think we will have to decide once we are packed. I have the DME tags, so I can use them or not. The CM with DVC told me to get my own bags and put them on the bus since it was so late at night. She said that they won't drive an empty luggage bus to the resorts, so it might be many hours until the bags arrive.

Oh, how I dread packing . We will try to pack light, but 2 years ago, there were record lows and we had to layer the kids in three layers of clothes. We are wondering if we need to bring cool weather clothes in case it happens again, and those jackets and sweatshirts are a lot bulkier than shorts and t-shirts.

At least we booked before the per bag luggage fees were announced. I hope AA can figure it out somehow. Do you think I need to confirm that with the airline, or could they care less ?

 

[bobcat]

Hey everyone, thanks for all of your advice!

Wow, such different experiences. I think we will have to decide once we are packed. I have the DME tags, so I can use them or not. The CM with DVC told me to get my own bags and put them on the bus since it was so late at night. She said that they won't drive an empty luggage bus to the resorts, so it might be many hours until the bags arrive.

Oh, how I dread packing . We will try to pack light, but 2 years ago, there were record lows and we had to layer the kids in three layers of clothes. We are wondering if we need to bring cool weather clothes in case it happens again, and those jackets and sweatshirts are a lot bulkier than shorts and t-shirts.

At least we booked before the per bag luggage fees were announced. I hope AA can figure it out somehow. Do you think I need to confirm that with the airline, or could they care less ?

Stayed at SS in August. Bus ride was great . Luggage was not. First bag arrived about 7pm. Called it in. Second bag arrived at 10pm. They said it was lost. Good luck...

 

[rhonda]

Hey everyone, thanks for all of your advice!

Wow, such different experiences. I think we will have to decide once we are packed. I have the DME tags, so I can use them or not. The CM with DVC told me to get my own bags and put them on the bus since it was so late at night. She said that they won't drive an empty luggage bus to the resorts, so it might be many hours until the bags arrive.

My folks were told the same thing when they asked about their delay. Grab your own bags from the luggage carousal and drag them to the ME bus.

 

[Twinkstarr]

Hey everyone, thanks for all of your advice!

Wow, such different experiences. I think we will have to decide once we are packed. I have the DME tags, so I can use them or not. The CM with DVC told me to get my own bags and put them on the bus since it was so late at night. She said that they won't drive an empty luggage bus to the resorts, so it might be many hours until the bags arrive.

Oh, how I dread packing . We will try to pack light, but 2 years ago, there were record lows and we had to layer the kids in three layers of clothes. We are wondering if we need to bring cool weather clothes in case it happens again, and those jackets and sweatshirts are a lot bulkier than shorts and t-shirts.

At least we booked before the per bag luggage fees were announced. I hope AA can figure it out somehow. Do you think I need to confirm that with the airline, or could they care less ?

Hey Denise, we were there for Thanksgiving 2yrs ago also. . I start checking accuweather 15 days out, then weather.com 10 days out to see what I need to pack. We have convertable pants, that new high tech long underwear and gore tec jackets. Doing the dance that the weather is as nice as it was last year.

We can do a week with 4 carry-on roller bags for the 4 of us. I make good use of the w/d in the unit.

We use the DME on all our trips, the one where we did check bags, we to them at about 4pm(arrived in orlando about noonish).

We'll be at SSR 11/21-11/28 for our 3rd Thanksgiving at WDW.

 

[tomandrobin]

We just got back from AKV Tuesday night. We used magical express (again) with no problems. We arrived at the resort at 11 am, went to the Epcot. When we came back toi the room around 2:30, the luggage was in the room.

We have normally recieved our luggage in 2-4 hours after check-in. We always pack a carry-on with a change of clothes, bathing suits hust in case the luggage does not make it.

 

[clsmit]

We used ME a few years ago when staying at the Grand Floridian. I didn't care for it much, but then I can be a control freak. :ignore:

One rollerbag per kid should get you enough space for packing a sweatshirt per kid. I have my kids bring their jackets on the plane and wear a pair of long pants anyway because they usually get cold on the plane. Coming from the west coast for you makes the cold plane even more likely.

The travel/packing forum has some great ideas. PM me if you want a copy of my packing lists (for me and the kids. The DH is on his own).

Hope to see you there!