|
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2005 |
|||
|
Free transportation between Orlando International Airport and your “Yester World” resort hotel is good. Free luggage transfers are even better. But there’s a catch. You won’t have a rental car at your resort. That means no trips to off-site restaurants, outlet malls, or non-Disney attractions. From the moment you leave Orlando International until the moment you return, your wallet belongs to Disney. |
|||
 |
|||
|
To use Disney’s Magical Express, make sure you’re arriving between May 5, 2005 and December 31, 2021 (except when the service is temporarily suspended due to a global pandemic). Let’s call it DME. Disney’s Magical Express is too wordy. You can book DME when you book your on-site lodging at any Disney-operated resort at Walt Disney World. It doesn’t matter if you’re paying the rack rate or a heavily discounted rate. It doesn’t matter if you’re booking a complete package or just a room. And you can use DME at on-site Disney Vacation Club resorts, even through a timeshare exchange. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2005 Eagerly awaited DME packet |
|||
|
Your DME packet arrives in a regular business envelope around three weeks before you travel. It contains instructions, yellow luggage routing tags for each guest, transportation vouchers, and (if you’re traveling in 2005) a certificate for one free DME pin and lanyard. The instructions are good, but there are no gratuity guidelines or even any clues on when to tip and when not to. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2005 Luggage tag, applied at home |
|||
|
Before you go to your home airport, attach a yellow DME luggage tag to each of the bags you intend to check. At your airport, a counter agent or skycap will attach a usual “MCO” tag to each bag in addition to your DME tag. You don’t have to handle your bags again—not at Orlando International, and not when checking in at your resort! They will be delivered to your room, usually less than three hours after you check in. Don’t put yellow tags on your carry-on bags and personal items. Keep your valuables, medical items, sunscreen, and anything you’ll want during the first four hours after you land with you. Ideally, make that the first 24 hours. (That’s always a good idea, even if you’re not using DME.) Have a pleasant flight to Orlando. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007 Navigating Orlando International |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2008 To the ground transportation level |
|||
|
When you arrive at MCO, take the automated shuttle from your airside to the main terminal. Follow the signs to the “A” or “B” side, whichever is indicated in your instructions. Ride the escalators down to the ground transportation level, below the baggage claim level. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007 Welcome Center |
|||
|
Look for the DME Welcome Center. A DME agent will examine your DME packet, ask how many bags you checked, and direct you to a series of queues a short distance away. Enter the queue with a sign for your resort. Depending on your luck and timing, you might be directed outside to a motorcoach immediately—or, more likely, you’ll have to wait. The wait is seldom more than 20 minutes. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2008 Motorcoaches ready for guests to board |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2005 Baggage bay |
|||
|
You can take personal items such as purses and laptop computer bags onto the motorcoach. There’s an overhead rack above your seat, but it’s too small for a 20-inch rollaboard. For anything that’s too large, the motorcoach has a baggage bay below the passenger level. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2008 Sit anywhere you like |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007 Plush red seats |
|||
|
As you board, someone scans your barcoded vouchers. This is not a city bus. This is not a Walt Disney World transportation bus. This is more like an airliner on wheels—only newer and cleaner than many airliners. Pick your seats. While you were making your way to the motorcoach, your bags were making their way to a baggage truck. They bypassed baggage claim because of the yellow tags. You also bypassed baggage claim. At MCO, that can mean avoiding a half-hour wait. Guests who choose to retrieve their own bags instead of using the yellow tags almost certainly wind up on a later motorcoach. You might have read or heard that your bags will already be waiting for you when you arrive at your room. Disney never made such a claim. If you think about it, it makes sense that bags take longer to get to the room than guests. The bags need handling and sorting at various stages in the process. The employees who do that work can get backed up. You could be boarding a motorcoach before the baggage handlers at the airport have finished unloading your airplane. The bell services staff receives batches of bags on luggage trucks, and they need to bring those bags to many different rooms. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2008 Onboard video |
|||
|
The driver closes the door and you’re off. Your DME motorcoach is equipped with flat panel video displays. Disney created special DVDs to be shown to DME passengers. Designed to be entertaining and informative, the video explains how the Magical Express service works once you reach your resort, what wonders await you at Walt Disney World, and how the trip back to the airport works. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2005 Door at the back of the motorcoach |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2008 Behind the door |
|||
|
What happens if someone desperately needs a restroom during the journey? There’s a door in the back of the motorcoach. Behind it, there’s a toilet room. It’s tiny, even compared to an airliner lavatory. It looks and smells clean. It’s good to know it’s there. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2008 Getting close to your resort |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2008 Arrived! |
|||
|
It takes around a half hour to get to the first stop. DME motorcoaches do not have fixed routes or even fixed combinations of resorts. There are usually guests for three resorts on each motorcoach. The actual combination depends on the demand at the time. If you’re lucky, the first stop will be yours. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2008 Bag waiting in the room |
|||
|
With DME, you don’t need to be in your room when your luggage arrives. Normally, a hotel’s bell service won’t deliver to an unoccupied room. After all, empty rooms don’t tip. But with DME, Disney pays an inbound bell service gratuity. After you check in, you can go to your room and change into park clothes or swimwear from your carry-on. Go to a theme park, or to your resort pool, or to a restaurant, or to Downtown Disney, or whatever seems fun to you—and while you’re away, your bags will “magically appear” in your room. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2005 On the day before departure |
|||
|
The day before you check out, you find an envelope slipped under your resort door or hanging from our doorknob. The “Transportation Notice” inside tells you the scheduled pickup time to get you back to the airport for your return flight, and that you should be in front of the resort at least 15 minutes prior to that time. There are also instructions for the return trip and an explanation of Resort Airline Check-in. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2005 Resort Airline Check-In at Disney’s Old Key West |
|||
|
Resort Airline Check-in is just like curbside skycap service at the airport, except for the distance to the terminal. Cast members in snappy uniforms, much like the uniform that Mickey Mouse wears on the DME artwork, check your bags through to your home airport and issue boarding passes. These remote skycaps don’t work for Disney. They appreciate tips. Be sure to check the opening time and cutoff time. It won’t work if you have an early morning flight. You can use DME with any airline, inbound and outbound. However, you can only use Resort Airline Check-in with “participating airlines.” The list changes as additional airlines are added, as airlines merge, and as big airlines eliminate their “low cost” offshoots. DME and Resort Airline Check-in are separate services. You’re allowed to use Resort Airline Check-in even if you’re not using DME to return to the airport. |
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007 Should it be “Motorcoach Stop”? |
|||
|
You arrive at your resort’s “bus stop” early, as instructed. The DME motorcoach also arrives early. At your scheduled pickup time, everyone is on board and you’re on your way to the airport—with the possibility of one or two stops at another resort. This time, the video on the motorcoach is essentially an infomercial to get you to start planning another trip to Walt Disney World. As you approach the terminal at Orlando International, your driver announces that there will be stops on the lower level of the “A” and “B” sides. You’re thanked for riding Disney’s Magical Express. Your driver might point out that tipping is allowed. If your driver is polite and professional, perhaps has handled your bags, and is not too blatant in the plea for a tip, consider having a tip ready as you exit the motorcoach. After all, there’s no other cost to using Disney’s Magical Express. |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Walt Disney World began Disney’s Magical Express and Resort Airline Check-in on May 5, 2005. It was originally promoted as part of The Happiest Celebration on Earth, the 17-month-long celebration (May 5, 2005 through September 30, 2006) marking the 50th anniversary of the first Disney theme park. When the celebration ended, DME kept operating and remained “free.” Of course, DME was never really free. Guests paid for it indirectly. By funding DME and Resort Airline Check-in, Disney increased revenue and margins elsewhere, including:
|
|||
Photo by Werner Weiss, 2020 Magical Express newer livery |
|||
|
In the years since DME began, it experienced fine tuning, but not fundamental changes. Some tuning was in response to early challenges from the Greater Orlando Livery Association, whose member towncar businesses were hurt badly. (It’s hard to compete with “free.”) The Welcome Center moved from the airport’s “A” side to its “B” side. DME could only accept guests who had advance reservations. The onboard videos were updated. Newer motorcoaches had seatbelts. The most noticeable change was a new design on the exteriors of the motorcoaches. But it seemed the guests would be able to depend on complimentary DME as a permanent feature of Walt Disney World vacations. When Walt Disney World shut down in March 2020 during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, DME and Resort Airline Check-in shut down too. When the Walt Disney World reopened in July 2020, DME transportation returned too, but without inbound DME baggage service and Resort Airline Check-in. Then, in January 2021, around the time that COVID-19 vaccinations began and it seemed life would return to normal, Disney made a surprising announcement: DME would be discontinued at the end of 2021. The executives at Disney had considered DME to be good for the bottom line since 2005, but now, apparently, it had become a cost that could to be eliminated. The final day for arriving guests was December 31, 2021. The final day for guests who had arrived with DME to depart from Orlando with DME was January 10, 2022. |
|||
Image: The Sunshine Flyer, 2021 The Sunshine Flyer |
|||
|
Mears Connect is the official replacement for DME. It’s run by Mears Transportation Services, the same company that operated DME for Disney. In addition to shared motorcoach transportation similar to DME, Mears Connect has new premium service with dedicated vehicles at a higher price. Transportation Management Services (TMS), another experienced transportation company, offers a competing motorcoach service. On February 1, 2022, TMS will launch The Sunshine Flyer, with motorcoaches wrapped as 1920s era railroad equipment and drivers and staff dressed as 1920s conductors and engineers. There are still towncar services, limousines, taxis, Uber, Lyft, and rental cars. They will all get you from Orlando International to your resort—just not for free. |
|||
|
|
Click here to post comments at MiceChat about this article.
© 2022 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated January 7, 2022 |
||
