Disney's Magical Express -- Luggage Tag Info

[HollyJoy]

Looking for opinions -- We are flying in on December 1, arriving around 6pm. We plan to go straight to the hotel and hang out there for the night. Debating on whether or not to claim our own luggage and bring on magical express with us, or just have Disney deliver it. Thoughts & Suggestions?

 

[ninafeliz]

Looking for opinions -- We are flying in on December 1, arriving around 6pm. We plan to go straight to the hotel and hang out there for the night. Debating on whether or not to claim our own luggage and bring on magical express with us, or just have Disney deliver it. Thoughts & Suggestions?

I say let them handle it - that's practically the biggest draw for DME for us. Skipping baggage claim is great. We also have 4 kids and thus a lot of luggage. Just keep in mind that they say give your luggage something like 3-4 hrs from when you check in to your resort - not when you land. So you might not (probably won't) get it until after 10:00 at night. I would still let them get it, but make sure you're ok with that time frame. It's kind of a pain waiting that late when you don't have a morning flight, but we've decided the pain of schlepping our luggage plus kids after waiting at baggage claim is worse . If the flight came in much later I might change my mind.

 

[tlmadden73]

This isn't a luggage tag question - but a DME question.
The Magic Bands for the upcoming trip were shipped to me. My parents live in another state and are flying down and using DME (already signed up and already have tags).

Do they need their Magic Bands in hand to ride DME? My family should be at the hotel already (they won't arrive until probably 8pm or so), so I was just planning on giving the bands to them when they get to the hotel.

Also . .my parents are arriving fairly late - landing around 6:00 pm or so. I would suspect they wouldn't get to the hotel until 7:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
How late could their luggage arrive? Don't want them staying up late waiting for their luggage so they can get to bed at a decent time.

 

[FCDub]

This isn't a luggage tag question - but a DME question.
The Magic Bands for the upcoming trip were shipped to me. My parents live in another state and are flying down and using DME (already signed up and already have tags).

Do they need their Magic Bands in hand to ride DME? My family should be at the hotel already (they won't arrive until probably 8pm or so), so I was just planning on giving the bands to them when they get to the hotel.

Also . .my parents are arriving fairly late - landing around 6:00 pm or so. I would suspect they wouldn't get to the hotel until 7:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
How late could their luggage arrive? Don't want them staying up late waiting for their luggage so they can get to bed at a decent time.

No. Non-US visitors don't receive Magic Bands in advance anyway, and they have no problem riding the bus.

Figure 10:30 to midnight on the bags at the hotel. Could be earlier.

 

[tlmadden73]

No. Non-US visitors don't receive Magic Bands in advance anyway, and they have no problem riding the bus.

Figure 10:30 to midnight on the bags at the hotel. Could be earlier.

Okay . .good to know about the Magic Bands.

Hmm. That is pretty late to wait to get settled in for the night. I will let them know they may want to pack some overnight items in their carry-on (they were hoping to just put all their toiletries in their checked baggage).

As an option, could they pick up their own bags and get on the bus with them to speed up that process? I probably won't tell them to do that . .will be easier for my parents (who have flown only a few times ever) to not worry about that.

 

[FCDub]

As an option, could they pick up their own bags and get on the bus with them to speed up that process? I probably won't tell them to do that . .will be easier for my parents (who have flown only a few times ever) to not worry about that.

Yep

 

[ninafeliz]

This isn't a luggage tag question - but a DME question.
The Magic Bands for the upcoming trip were shipped to me. My parents live in another state and are flying down and using DME (already signed up and already have tags).

Do they need their Magic Bands in hand to ride DME? My family should be at the hotel already (they won't arrive until probably 8pm or so), so I was just planning on giving the bands to them when they get to the hotel.

Also . .my parents are arriving fairly late - landing around 6:00 pm or so. I would suspect they wouldn't get to the hotel until 7:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
How late could their luggage arrive? Don't want them staying up late waiting for their luggage so they can get to bed at a decent time.

I think DME says luggage will take 3-4 hours to get to your room from the time you CHECK INTO THE RESORT. The capitalized info is the part I had missed the year we landed around 5 and I was irritated we didn't get our bags until late, after 10. I had thought it was 3-4 hours after you arrive at MCO. Unless that has changed, keep that in mind. They could come sooner, but you can't count on it.

 

[Fangorn]

This isn't a luggage tag question - but a DME question.
The Magic Bands for the upcoming trip were shipped to me. My parents live in another state and are flying down and using DME (already signed up and already have tags).

Do they need their Magic Bands in hand to ride DME? My family should be at the hotel already (they won't arrive until probably 8pm or so), so I was just planning on giving the bands to them when they get to the hotel.

They do not need their Magic Bands to ride DME, but they will need the letter from DME that came with their yellow luggage tags. That letter has a bar code on it that can be used by DME to get them on the correct bus. Alternatively, they can stop by the DME desk at MCO and have the good folks there look them up in the system and get them on the correct bus.

Steve

 

[HollyJoy]

I think DME says luggage will take 3-4 hours to get to your room from the time you CHECK INTO THE RESORT. The capitalized info is the part I had missed the year we landed around 5 and I was irritated we didn't get our bags until late, after 10. I had thought it was 3-4 hours after you arrive at MCO. Unless that has changed, keep that in mind. They could come sooner, but you can't count on it.

Thank you for pointing this out!!! I do have a question... what if you check in to your resort through the app?

 

[goofy4tink]

Pretty much the same thing....3-4 hrs after arrival.

 

[ninafeliz]

Thank you for pointing this out!!! I do have a question... what if you check in to your resort through the app?

Good question lol- they wrote that before a lot of people did check in up to 60 days ahead! As the pp wrote, I would assume it’s still like 3-4 hrs after you get to the resort on the DME bus.

 

[WawaCoffee]

Thank you for this info!

 

[MarBee]

I tried skimming through the thread but didn’t see...
Years ago Disney sent luggage tags with characters on them (the kind that you write your name and address on). Did they stop sending these with the Magical Express paperwork? I haven’t received any my last couple of trips...

 

[McMonsters]

I tried skimming through the thread but didn’t see...
Years ago Disney sent luggage tags with characters on them (the kind that you write your name and address on). Did they stop sending these with the Magical Express paperwork? I haven’t received any my last couple of trips...

They have those tags with your Magicbands only if you book a package. We do "room only" so we never get them

 

[MarBee]

They have those tags with your Magicbands only if you book a package. We do "room only" so we never get them

Ah that’s why. We are room only as well since have APs.
Thank you!

 

[disneyworldsk]

I haven't been reading this thread so not sure if this has occurred to anyone else. Last night my dad arrived off united to mco from newark. He DID NOT put the yellow tags on his checked under luggage because it was an evening flight and he wanted to take his bags to the mde bus with him to the room immediately. one bag. checked under. no tags. Well he went to the carousel and no luggage. disney took his bag automatically and he went on the bus without his bag not knowing where it was and it was sent to the room at 1 a.m. old key west. He had no pajamas obviously and fell asleep. I just don't understand why they thought they had permission to take his luggage when there were no tags to do so. He could have even been not going to the hotel that night and went elsewhere who knows. maybe his intention was to take his bags and sleep somewhere else. they just took them before unloading onto the carousel. This is a first for us for sure.

 

[AngiTN]

It's not the first time that it's been reported to have happened on here but it's not normal.
Something about it seems really strange too. There's no way they can go through a list of every single guest arriving that day and find the bags and pull them based on name alone. It would be way too time-consuming. So it's not SOP for sure and I sure can't figure out what would prompt them to do it in the first place.
I'd complain and make sure it's noted that it happened and have someone review procedures with whoever was working that night to remind them NOT to do that

 

[disneyworldsk]

It's not the first time that it's been reported to have happened on here but it's not normal.
Something about it seems really strange too. There's no way they can go through a list of every single guest arriving that day and find the bags and pull them based on name alone. It would be way too time-consuming. So it's not SOP for sure and I sure can't figure out what would prompt them to do it in the first place.
I'd complain and make sure it's noted that it happened and have someone review procedures with whoever was working that night to remind them NOT to do that

omg same thoughts here! sounds paranoid and a conspiracy theorist person but we were all speculating on how exactly someone with no tags to disney was pulled before carousel. what if he wasn't going to that hotel directly and staying with his kids in the area? his bag without a tag is not even linked to the resort then. thankfully he got his bags and has clothes for today but certainly odd and questionable procedures. never heard of this so glad you did though so he's not the only one!

 

[goofy4tink]

This is truly strange. There is no way baggage handlers would know an in-tagged bag was going to WDW! I wonder if it was misdirected by the airline and got to mco late. Still not sure how they would discern where it was going though. Unless there was a luggage tag with a name in it and they looked it up in the database.
That would make me very nervous. I would probably sneak to both the front desk and bell services about it.

 

[disneyworldsk]

This is truly strange. There is no way baggage handlers would know an in-tagged bag was going to WDW! I wonder if it was misdirected by the airline and got to mco late. Still not sure how they would discern where it was going though. Unless there was a luggage tag with a name in it and they looked it up in the database.
That would make me very nervous. I would probably sneak to both the front desk and bell services about it.

Yes, super strange. I was thinking the same thing. how? and yes, possible it wasn't put on the flight at all. But then they looked him up to find out where he was going and tracked it down.