ME vs Car Service

[David and Missy]

In our town car service experiences, we really don't handle our luggage either. The only thing we do concerning luggage is to pick our bags off the carousel, but I would rather do that to make sure my luggage arrived in Orlando anyways. Disney and ME have nothing to do with your luggage arriving in Orlando, that is up to the airline company we fly with. I would rather see in person my luggage and know that it did not end up in Texas or something. Once we pick our baggage off of the carousel, we don't touch it until we are in our resort room. So, the few minutes I touch (and touch is all we do because our driver waits behind us at the carousel and as soon as we pick it off, he loads it onto a cart) my luggage at the airport is actually better for me, then I am not worrying about it until I see it (or don't if something happened) sometime later.

As far as time goes, last summer, it was about 1 hour, from the time we stepped off of our plane until we arrived at the resort. That included a 20 minute grocery store stop.

[DizneyRox]

Originally posted by SamG:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by DizneyRox:

Originally posted by Patti:
[qb]
Again, not every option is right for everyone. If you're worried about time, I believe town car IS the best option. Less can go wrong that will impact your precious time.

Here's where we disagree. I don't think a towncar saves you that much time. According to you and Patti, it takes about an hour 15 minutes (give or take) "from when you get your luggage" to checkin. It took me less than an hour from when I walked off the plane. (Keep in mind, you've got at least a 10-20 minute travel time from the gate areas to the baggage areas of MCO). If you add that into your time, it's now taking you an hour and a half from when you walk off the plane to checkin... 30 minutes more than it took me on ME. (Granted, includes a grocery stop) </font>

Were you lucky enough to be the first drop-off? ME doesn't NOT guarantee direct non-stop transport to your resort. It will be going to Disney, but there are several loops they run, you may or may not be the first stop. This goes both ways as well. You may have to travel to other resorts when you go back to the airport.

Those are the chances you take.

The original question is/was:

We were too afraid to use ME with time being so limited for us.
With another trip coming up in August, we're interested in your experiences.

I still need to say that town car is the way to go.

We'll have to agree to disagree maybe...

[Piglet822]

Ok, I'm gonna jump in here. Who knows best than the DME driver, right?

DME is a FREE shuttle service. Free is good. Shuttle is not so good. It's based on personal preference and it's not going to work for everyone.
BUT! For some people it's going to make the difference between onsite and offsite, a special dinner or counter service. Leaving Thursday, or leaving Friday. You get my drift.
It does not offer a grocery stop, it's a shuttle service so there are going to be multiple stops. Maybe 2, maybe 3, maybe 4. Who knows? Many people are trying it out because of the price. As DisneyRox states, it's free. Who can resist free?
Coming from the airport really isn't too bad because we (the drivers) usually don't have luggage to unload, just the people and we're done in no time. It takes me about 45 minutes to get everyone dropped off. Now, keep in mind you may be held on the bus at the airport for up to 30 minutes while Disney waits for other flights. They are not waiting for the bus to fill up, I've left the airport with 5 people, I've left the airport with 40+ people. This is the time frame that Disney has decided it will hold a bus for. That's it. No other reason.
For the return, the folks at DME recommend you catch your return shuttle around 2 3/4 hours prior to your scheduled flight departure. I have no idea where they came up with that time frame. Why not 2 1/2 hours? Who knows? The time frame takes into account possible stops after your pickup, local traffic, breakdown and/or accidents, long lines at check in and/or security. I would not recommend leaving the resort area any less than 2hours prior to scheduled flight departure regardless of your method of travel.
So, bottom line is, each individual needs to decide what is best for them, time-wise and budget-wise.

[offwego]

I have not done ME but did take mears twice and then happy limo twice.

DH & talked about this and even though it costs will go with happy limo again for two big reasons and two little ones.

Big one #1 timing on the return leg we fly from/to Canada and need to be at the airport roughly two hours ahead ME is not yet dependable on that (see Polygirls post for more ont that)

Big one #2 comfort my ds is a good flyer my DH is not the trip on our own in the town car (or upgrade splurge we have done) is fantstic to decrompress as we normally don't fly direct and DH is super stressed on landing.

Little one #1 luggage we have little carry on and DH loves having someone help with the luggage and yet we know where it is. (before you all worry about it our credit card offers lost luggage insurance DH prays to the luggage gods to lose our stuff each and every time we fly but not lucky yet!)

Little one #2 grocery stop case of water aprox 5 bucks case of water in parks 2.50 a peice big diff!! As we can't bring any food accross the boarder this is handy.

Re the time issue frankly we have always made better time with the town car by roughly half an hour as our mears trips always had multiple stops and we were never first!!

[DisneyGiant]

After reading through this thread, we've decided to stick with Tiffany Towncar. Our prior experiences have been too reliable, to take a chance on the shuttle.

We had been waiting for the reviews before making a decision - and since the reviews appear to be mixed ....... Tiffany it is!

[CanadianWDWFan]

It is posts like this that makes me LOVE this site! [img]graemlins/clappy.gif[/img]

Everyone has an opinion, experience or preference on just about everything.

That said, I feel the need to put my $0.02 worth in. We are trying ME for our trip this year. We like the idea of not seeing our luggage from the time we drop it off in Toronto. We are travelling with our DS 7 and DS 2. Travelling with the little one sure does make for HEAVY suitcases. Not having to lug it aroung is one big plus.

We can afford a car or limo but feel we should try ME at least once. Maybe we will like it maybe we won't, but the fun part of the whole experience is being on vacation!

Brian [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]