Will DME deliver my luggage even if we never scan our magic bands and board the bus ourselves?
Our flight lands at 3:00 and we have an ADR at 7:15 on the boardwalk. We’re only staying 3 nights at the Yacht Club and we have limited time to enjoy the pools, so that stretch between landing and dinner is prime time.
To save time I’m thinking of grabbing an Uber or Lyft immediately upon exiting the plane and heading straight to the resort with swim stuff in the carry on. Will they still handle the luggage if we do this?
Feedback has been that you are taking a risk, but that it has worked for those that do. The two systems are separate and bags go when they go, people go when they go. There doesn’t seem to be any system for verifying people were on the bus before the bags ship. You could be having a fastastic airport happy hour at Cask and Larder before leaving security. Your bags will be sent ahead of you while you drink a nice Chocolate Porter. They have really no idea nor do they care.
There was a post a couple days ago where someone thought the MDE line was too long and told the CM they were grabbing an Uber. Cast member had no issue and bags arrived fine.
My take is Mears probably gets paid per reservation or trip rather than people actually in a seat. I don’t recall one report of people doing this and not receiving luggage delivery. Just fyi.
We contemplated this when we were there last week. We landed at 11:30 and had to make it to Disney Springs for the Void, an ADR, and then to MK for MNSSHP. I read where technically, in order to get your bags, you do have to check in or scan your magic band at DME and if you don’t, there is no guarantee your bags will e delivered. So, we ended up not risking it and took a Lyft to the hotel, dropped our bags then continued to Disney Springs. I still think it saved us a ton of time but did cost extra and involved the stop at the hotel.
I’m wondering if we can scan our bands, but then leave the area?
Since we’re going to the resort anyway maybe I’ll just skip MDE altogether. It means I’ll need to wait a few extra minutes at baggage claim, and we’ll have to manhandle our own luggage, but that’s a small price to pay for the flexibility of grabbing an Uber and being immediately on our way.
There have been some reports of folks being told to come back to the airport to get their bags - perhaps from Chat. Others have made it work, but the official policy is at least 1 person needs to ride DME for the bags to be delivered. Doing anything else might work, but it does run some risk that it won’t…
I’ve been looking, but I haven’t found those reports. Every report I can find worked out for the person. I honestly don’t think anyone cares. Mears gets paid, so does the luggage service. Someone would really just have to want to make your day bad to actually go out of their way to check if someone rode the bus. Nobody is told they have to get on the bus immediately, yet your luggage leaves as soon as the trailer is ready. You could easily still be grabbing lunch.
If you can find a report of someone with DME tags on their bags being asked to come back, I’d be interested in seeing it.
I think I’m confused, isn’t TP chat what we are chatting on right now? As I mentioned, I looked through the search feature and cannot find a single instance of someone with DME tags on their luggage being asked/told to go back to the hotel. It may just be really rare.
No! This is the forum! In the touring plans app there is a chat feature . You cannot search it and it can move quickly . It has been reported there (some of us crazies are there too- ok- maybe a lot)
I would directly ask on chat if anyone has had to go back to airport for their lugguage. Answers come fast but you can always click “my chats” to see if you’ve been answered.
I asked this question last April on lines b/c we were in the airport and reserving an Uber but obviously our bags were already tagged. The ME line was insane and there was no way we were even going to wait an hour to scan our band (yes it was insane) I asked the castmember if we could just take an Uber and they just waved us on and said ," Go. No big problem."
While it is discouraged among these chats and forums I’ve never seen anyone actually say they had to go back to the airport.
On lines I was told, and it makes good sense to me, that the bags with tags get scooped up in the back and placed on a truck that delivers them. They aren’t going to sit around and wait to see which bags were scanned in at the bus. They are going to grab them and toss them on to be delivered. When we arrive at CBR later that afternoon I told the gentleman at Bells services what had happened since I was worried that our bags may not be delivered and he said “Yeah, they’re here. It’s totally fine.”
Again, always a chance you take in life, but I feel like this one isn’t as risky as other things.
I’ve built in a number of contingencies into my plan that I think incorporates all the advice I’ve been given.
I bought inflatable travel booster seats, so that I can take the kids in any Uber or Lyft without needing to request a car seat.
I’ll pack our swim stuff and day 1 park gear in the carry-on, just in case.
When we land, we’ll walk to DME and check-in with a CM. If they give us an unequivocal “go ahead”, we’ll all take an Uber.
If we get any whiff of a problem, my wife will ride DME with the luggage and I’ll take the kids ahead in the Uber. (For her, a quiet bus ride where she gets to read beats getting in a pool any day of the week!)
On Saturday 10/20, we arrived at MCO, saw the monster DME line, and went straight out to the curb and booked an Uber through the app. Car arrived in about 5 minutes, 35 minute ride to HS. We were changed into our shorts and touring the park 1 hour after wheels touched down in Orlando. When we first went to our hotel room at ~10pm, our bags were awaiting us. We did use the DME yellow tags. Good luck!
The fact is, nobody involved in the process has any reason to make your life harder. Mears gets paid per reservation. The luggage delivery company gets paid for the delivery. Nobody is waiting for a scan before the bags are scooped up and delivered. The inefficiency of taking that step would bog the whole process down.
To me it seems like a problem that has no reason for anyone to spend time on a solution. Nobody (Disney, Mears, or the luggage delivery) loses money. It is a money making operation in central Florida. Unless enforcing the bottoms on the bus rule made someone more money, nobody is going to invest in a solution.
The staff that work DME are not Disney employees. Disney pays Mears for the service, right? I think the reason Disney has arranged this service for people is to ensure people stay on site. Renting a car gives guests a freedom to leave Disney property they pay Mears to prevent.
Either way, nobody has any reason to invest in enforcing that people ride. There just isn’t enough additional money to be made by anyone in the process.
