Ask Magically Speaking

In each issue we like to answer questions from you. What are your questions? Are you wondering about a certain attraction? Are you curious about a resort or cruise? Do you have some nagging little trivia question that you are just dying to know the answer to? If so, please send them to us. We have a great team of Disney experts and sleuths that would love to answer your questions! If you have a question, send it to us at magicallyspeaking@themouseforless.com.

Ask Magically Speaking is a regular feature in the Magically Speaking newsletter. The following Ask Magically Speaking was published in the February 26, 2007 issue
of Magically Speaking ISSN: 1556-3863

Q. After hearing about long delays for people using the free Disney shuttle (especially luggage delays), I've been debating paying for my own transportation to WDW. The free grocery stop is a big plus and what we'd save in snacks would pay for part of the Sunray price. I've also read that resort pickup for returning to the airport is 3 hours before your flight. That means our family of 8 must board the shuttle at 4:30 AM. Ugh!! Can anyone talk me out of paying for my own transportation and give me some positive input regarding the Magical Express service? (submitted by Donna D.)

A.Hi, Donna. As you might imagine, there is no clear-cut winner when decided your transportation options between Orlando International Airport (MCO) and your Walt Disney World resort. In order to make an informed decision, we have to look at two primary aspects of the two choices - time and money - and decide which is most important to us.

We'll start with money. You've already made a sizeable investment in your vacation, so is that extra transportation fee going to be worth it? Let's weigh our options. For your party size, Sunray will cost you $102 roundtrip (including your TheMouseForLess discount) or about $120 total when you consider tips. On the other hand, Disney's Magical Express is free. You are absolutely correct in that buying food offsite will end up saving you money, but will you really buy enough food in half an hour to equal $120 savings or at least enough that you'll feel justified with your decision? On the other hand, taking DME doesn't mean you're stuck with what WDW's shops and parks have to offer. Many guests either ship food to themselves at the resort ahead of time or use personal shopping websites such as wegoshop.com or gardengrocer.com and have food delivered to them at the resort. In those cases, the money that would have been spent on transportation would go much further.

Now let's look at time. Arriving at MCO is where you'll find your biggest differences. With the private car, you will lose some time having to wait for and claim your bags yourself, but you will be on the road soon after you do. With Disney's Magical Express, you won't need to claim your checked luggage. But you will have to check in with the DME desk, stand on line, wait on a bus until it's ready to depart the airport and take you to your resort (probably stopping at other resorts before yours, depending on your luck and where you're staying). Here, there is a clear winner. Private transportation should get you directly to your resort (with luggage in tow) about 60 minutes after landing, should all go right (and of course a little bit later with that grocery stop). Under best conditions, that's probably the minimum timeframe DME will get you there (90 minutes is probably more likely). Something else to consider is that when you arrive with your private car, you immediately get on line to check-in, whereas with DME, you are essentially competing to get on line with every other family that's arriving on the DME bus with you.

As for transportation from your resort back to the airport, it is true that DME will schedule you to leave about three hours prior to your flight (it's actually slightly less than that) whereas private transportation such as Sunray will schedule you to leave your resort two hours before, so it just comes down to how important that extra 45 minutes is to you.

Now just to address a couple of your added concerns. Regarding having DME deliver your luggage, it's very true that it can take anywhere between 2-8 hours to get the luggage to your room (usually on the lower end however). However you always have the option of taking your luggage on the DME bus yourself (it will be stowed underneath the bus) or even just dedicate one checked bag to your needed items for the day and not use the yellow tag on that particular bag and let DME handle the rest.

You also don't need to take advantage of DME both ways. For example, if you decided that you don't need a private car to go to the resort but would like that time when departing, you can do just that (and vice-versa). And while it doesn't apply in your case because of your early departure, if you are taking a domestic flight on a participating airline when you leave the resort, you can still take advantage of remote airline check-in even if taking a private car back.

When it comes down to the bottom line, it's all about your personal comfort level. Free travel means you give up some freedom in terms of time and some have said they feel like cattle being herded through DME, but the service has come a very far way from when it first started. However if you aren't comfortable with being on a bus with several other families and traveling at the discretion of DME, private transportation is the way to go. Sunray has a very happy and loyal customer base, so you won't go wrong there either.