Magical Express

We always use it. I love the convenience!!! I love not having to schlepp suitcases through a crowded airport. I love the money it saves us. I love the corny video they play after you leave MCO. I love the tangible excitement in the bus as you approach Disney property. I even love the fact that our resort isn't the first to drop off, so I get a quick peek at another resort or 2.

Just be sure to pack a bathing suit or whatever you'll need to hit the parks in a carryon, as it may be a bit of time before your suitcases arrive at your room.

(Oh, and Ms. Mouse, we'll be celebrating our 25th anniversary this year too!!! We were married on 7/1/89!)

Quick question on ME..This year Thomas Cook airlines are flying into MCO instead of Sanford...That's from the UK...We are hoping to book our flights with them and book our resort at Disney with WDW holidays..Can we still grab our suitcases from MCO terminal and get onto the ME bus.?

It's up to you.

Basically, if your bags don't have the Magic Express luggage tags on them, they will be treated just like regular luggage and you must retrieve them from the luggage belt at MCO. You can then take your luggage to the ME bus and it will be stowed in the bus and travel with you to WDW.

If you use the luggage tags, airport staff recognize them at MCO and automatically send it to WDW via a separate truck and then deliver right to your room.

Yup I totally agree and will never go to Disney without using DME.

Cheers Ken..I thought only USA internal flight luggage went automatically from carousel onto ME bus..But I have no problems wheeling our cases from luggage belt out to the ME bus...As a matter of interest..Is it Disney who send the special luggage tags out with your paperwork.?...

Hmmm... to be honest, I'm not sure what the procedure is for travel from the UK or if it's any different. We're in Canada and Disney ships the luggage tags to us a few weeks prior to departing. Our bags are handled automatically at MCO for us as long as they have the luggage tags.

We also booked a last minute trip to WDW in 2012 and there was no time for tags to be shipped. So, we just did the regular routine of grabbing the bags at the luggage carousel at MCO and took them on the ME bus with us.

I'm sure someone here will have a better answer for you regarding how it works in the UK.

Cheers Ken...We bought these super duper cases two years ago..Their Samsonite cases in bright turquoise blue..hard cases..Cost $220 per case and we have three of them...So I'll be taking them off the carousel and putting them on the bus myself..LOL..

One of my favorite things about a WDW trip is not having to fuss about anything. That is, everything being taken care of. I LOVE knowing everything is handled for me. That's a big part of what a vacation is to me. With the addition of MExpress, it makes it even better - the extent of my responsibility is to simply show up at the airport.

The few minutes I've used a car service/limo, I have to book the car, get my luggage, find the driver. And if they've blown the reservation (it happened two trips ago), I have to deal with that.

Magical express is good option to travel Disney as they provide free transportation and take care of your luggage. But they provide transportation only if you are staying at their resort and staying at Disney is expensive. There are a lot more options to help you travel with ease. I recently used the services at United Luxury Transportation. We hired a Limousine and we were given a driver who was really good at his job. Hiring a service like this would allow you to move around much easily and they will help you in planning the entire trip well.

Used DME once when i found out my drivers liscence had expired only when i got to the hire car desk .Found it to be nice and prompt with a helpfull driver (to a stressed traveller who was nearly killed at the airport by his wife).Other than that i always hire a car at the airport because it makes visiting up the road so much more convenient.

Hey George could you please tell me a little more about United Luxury Transportation? I would be going there soon and want to find out about a lot more options to get there.

Sure dear! You can visit their website to know more. It is quite informative and you would get all the necessary information you would like to know. I usually contact them online and seldom over the phone.

Mein sister and I use the Magical Express because neither one of us drives. But this is only if we go without our parents (who *do* drive). I don't know about mein sister, but I just find ME to be a lot easier than trying to find a cab or something.

I love ME because it is free (although am sure we are paying for that somewhere...lol). Free, no stress just seat back and relax and so the Disney vacation begins.

Our TA had to do a last minute switch of our reservation last nite and so I spent part of the morning trying RE-link our friends and make sure all the ADRs are still secure. BUT there is no ME listed again and the very hoarse Disney CM told me to go to disneysmagicalexpress.com and enter our flight info. But that site is informational only and our My Disney Exp doesn't have a place for it.

Any idea where I might go to re-enter the data needed?

Whenever I've had to make changes or provide the info, I always call the regular reservation number and the CM on the phone takes care of it. Hmmmm, not sure why they referred you somewhere else. I'd call again.

Speaking of the Magical Express, we received our luggage tags today for our upcoming August trip!!!

As oldtink mentioned above, you call a separate number to give your flight information now - so much easier than waiting on hold to talk to the next CM. The gentleman I talked to said I would receive the tags and info in about 2 weeks - I was unsure of this since in the past it came in the mail in the last month. Well, he was right!! We have paid our trip in full, so not sure if that is also why we received them now, but who cares? I got Disney Mail today!! woohoo!!

Oooooo! That means ours should be coming next month for our Sept trip!

I got really sad when I first started to read this because in my head I thought "Hey, we haven't gotten ours yet and we're there at the same time!" but then I realized I haven't called and given them our flight info yet... I'll have to do that tonight!

JanJ