Magical Express to end in 2022

[Krandor]

Will the cost of rooms go down if it doesn't include ME? Probably not.

lol. of course not. In fact they will go up.

 

[dclpluto]

We probably should of seen it coming. They said they were afraid of covid why you had to get your own bags now. I wasn’t buying it. Knew it was too save money. . Airlines handle bags all day long.

 

[abner1776]

I'm not losing a lot of sleep over this announcement even though I always use DME. Think of it folks...Mears actually owned and ran the DME busses under contract to Disney. Come 1/1/22, you will still have thousands of WDW guests who need to get from MCO to WDW and back and walking is not an option. Mears has hundred of busses that need to be used and hundreds of employees who need to work. When all is said and done, DME will still be there on 1/1/22 just under a different name and guess what....yup...the FREE DME bus will now be a $25 pp Mears bus each way...now there's a surprise, right ???

 

[mshanson3121]

How many people are more inclined to visit universal if they’re staying offsite vs on? I wonder that.

if I have to drive, why not check out universal

Absolutely. If I'm on site, we're not going off Disney property. Off site, I'm going to have my own car and do other things besides Disney.

 

[mshanson3121]

We probably should of seen it coming. They said they were afraid of covid why you had to get your own bags now. I wasn’t buying it. Knew it was too save money. . Airlines handle bags all day long.

Also makes sense why they said they're no longer sending out luggage tags. Why mail out something that won't be needed. We should have suspected...

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

lol. of course not. In fact they will go up.

They absolutely will and, I predict, less and less meaningful discounts will be offered. By announcing 30 minutes early entry to all parks/all days for on site guests they have eliminated rope drop for off site guests. When capacity returns to normal that is a huge incentive for on site versus off. Thirty minutes is a long time to wait outside the gates as thousands of on site guests go past you even during slow times of the year. It is unthinkable (to me) for times like Christmas/New Years, Easter etc. especially if free fp's also become a thing of the past.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We probably should of seen it coming. They said they were afraid of covid why you had to get your own bags now. I wasn’t buying it. Knew it was too save money. . Airlines handle bags all day long.

Well there is a pandemic and DL still hasn’t reopened, so why wouldn’t they cut costs? They can’t fill the resorts, either.

 

[SgtTibbs]

I think I'll miss the luggage service more than the bus itself. Going directly from Airport to park was fun and a great time saver. Yes, more than once I booked my bags onto MDE and took Lyft directly to my first park.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

How many people are more inclined to visit universal if they’re staying offsite vs on? I wonder that.

if I have to drive, why not check out universal

Or just stay at Universal - especially as a family of 5 those $129 two bedroom suites are looking more and more attractive

 

[71 Truck]

I have not read through all 14 pages.
My wife and I visited Disney for many years before Disney Magical Express. We have been DVC members for 24 years.
We always either drove or flew and rented a car. We never used DME.
It will just go back to the way it was in the past the only difference will be you will have pay for parking if you are not a DVC members.
The idea for DME was to keep people from leaving Disney property to visit other parks or shop. Think captive audience.
Now with Uber,Lift and other ride share platforms guest are no longer a captive audience for Disney.
Disney is probably now thinking " why are we going pay to bring guest from the airport to keep them on property if they are going to leave anyway".
Just my thought.

 

[Krandor]

I have not read through all 14 pages.
My wife and I visited Disney for many years before Disney Magical Express. We have been DVC members for 24 years.
We always either drove or flew and rented a car. We never used DME.
It will just go back to the way it was in the past the only difference will be you will have pay for parking if you are not a DVC members.
The idea for DME was to keep people from leaving Disney property to visit other parks or shop. Think captive audience.
Now with Uber,Lift and other ride share platforms guest are no longer a captive audience for Disney.
Disney is probably now thinking " why are we going pay to bring guest from the airport to keep them on property if they are going to leave anyway".
Just my thought.

that is an interesting thought. That the idea isn’t there are More ways for people to get to property but more ways today for people to leave property.

 

[Eldon32]

I have not read through all 14 pages.
My wife and I visited Disney for many years before Disney Magical Express. We have been DVC members for 24 years.
We always either drove or flew and rented a car. We never used DME.
It will just go back to the way it was in the past the only difference will be you will have pay for parking if you are not a DVC members.
The idea for DME was to keep people from leaving Disney property to visit other parks or shop. Think captive audience.
Now with Uber,Lift and other ride share platforms guest are no longer a captive audience for Disney.
Disney is probably now thinking " why are we going pay to bring guest from the airport to keep them on property if they are going to leave anyway".
Just my thought.

You also forget that people don't even need to leave for food. When you're paying $18 a sandwich, you can easily get a great local meal delivered for a family of 4 for way less than $72 via Doordash or similar.

BUT, just wait until Disney starts charging Uber and Lyft those "pickup fees" like Airports do. They will get you: coming, going, staying, parking, whatever.

 

[skeeter31]

I have not read through all 14 pages.
My wife and I visited Disney for many years before Disney Magical Express. We have been DVC members for 24 years.
We always either drove or flew and rented a car. We never used DME.
It will just go back to the way it was in the past the only difference will be you will have pay for parking if you are not a DVC members.
The idea for DME was to keep people from leaving Disney property to visit other parks or shop. Think captive audience.
Now with Uber,Lift and other ride share platforms guest are no longer a captive audience for Disney.
Disney is probably now thinking " why are we going pay to bring guest from the airport to keep them on property if they are going to leave anyway".
Just my thought.

This was exactly what DW and I were discussing this evening. Rideshare has burst the Disney captivity bubble a few years ago. Disney no longer needs DME to keep people captive at Disney since they are easily leaving to go other places in Ubers. Now they’ll just have to get to WDW on their own. People will still stay onsite, just like before 2005.
The only thing that surprises me a bit is that they instituted the parking fee before getting rid of DME. I think in a perfect, non-COVID world, they would have eliminated the DME first and then started charging for resort parking a few years after that. But they got stuck doing it this way.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I have not read through all 14 pages.
My wife and I visited Disney for many years before Disney Magical Express. We have been DVC members for 24 years.
We always either drove or flew and rented a car. We never used DME.
It will just go back to the way it was in the past the only difference will be you will have pay for parking if you are not a DVC members.
The idea for DME was to keep people from leaving Disney property to visit other parks or shop. Think captive audience.
Now with Uber,Lift and other ride share platforms guest are no longer a captive audience for Disney.
Disney is probably now thinking " why are we going pay to bring guest from the airport to keep them on property if they are going to leave anyway".
Just my thought.

It is a good point and obviously they feel the cost of operating it wasn't worth the additional revenue it was creating (or perhaps where they saw the coats heading if a new contract was going to have to be negotiated)

Definitely will make traveling to WDW more challenging for some (many?) people - we shall see how it shakes out

I do hope they offer some sort of transport even if there is a cost related to it for those that really want/need something to make their trip easier/safer/etc

 

[5Tulips]

This will lead to more traffic on property. The perk of staying onsite will be access to Disney transportation/walkways.

 

[mattpeto]

Everyone knows that 2022 is going to be the rebound year. Maybe Disney knows that and wants to secure more bookings for 2021. We are tentatively scheduled for Dec, but was eager to push back to 2022. Now I’m more likely to push toward with 2021.

I still hope they have something up their sleeve long-term. If they don’t make it easy for me, they won’t get me coming as much as I planned.

 

[Krandor]

It is a good point and obviously they feel the cost of operating it wasn't worth the additional revenue it was creating (or perhaps where they saw the coats heading if a new contract was going to have to be negotiated)

Definitely will make traveling to WDW more challenging for some (many?) people - we shall see how it shakes out

I do hope they offer some sort of transport even if there is a cost related to it for those that really want/need something to make their trip easier/safer/etc

yeah you need a way to get there. I’m driving distance to wdw but back when I also took trips to dlr I would often used the paid bus service. My offsite hotel wasn’t officially In the route but from airport they would drop me off there. Coming back I had to walk a few blocks and pickup bus at Disneyland hotel.

howrver my last trip there before rundusney stopped doing events there I used uher. Price was close but more convient, picked me up where I wanted and when I wanted vs going off bus scheduke.

but dealing with transportation can be one of the more stressful parts of trip planning. Being stranded at an airport or some place Is ways a fear of mine.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I am sure there will be a transportation option offered. I am also sure that most people here will not be happy either way.

 

[skeeter31]

This will lead to more traffic on property. The perk of staying onsite will be access to Disney transportation/walkways.

It really won’t. They’ve done a bunch of road construction over the past few years. And there are still a ton of people that drive, rent cars, or only come foe the day. The property is so huge there are tons of ways to get from point A to point B.

 

[mattpeto]

I am sure there will be a transportation option offered. I am also sure that most people here will not be happy either way.

If it's a paid service, people will be aggravated. And that's fair.