Hi all~
Well, I was one of these worriers about Magical Express. Our trip was last week May 7-13, and I had NO tags.

I'm a little ****, so I bought bright blue luggage and put bright orange luggage tags on it. I thought that may make it easier for them. THEN, I took a picture of my packed bags with my digital camera and printed it.

Upon exiting the airplane, there were Magical Express people ALL OVER the terminal. They direct you to the magical Express counter downstairs.

So...you go to the counter and the line was HORRID. However, I only waited about five minutes!!!! They have TONS of people working.

All you do is go to the person behind the desk and give them you claim ticket information. Plus, they have pictures of bags and you have to give a description. MY biggest problem was that the person that I had behind the desk was very computer illerate! He was trying his hardest, but it just wasn't working well for him.

My glitch was with my return flight. They did not have my return flight information in the system for whatever reason....and he looked FOREVER. I was starting to get frustruated as I was now beginning to worry about this being the beginning of a frustrating adventure.

Eventually, he told me to call Magical Express with my return info....and away I went.

I did ask if I could have one of the booklets (they seemed to have a ton of them behind the desk) because I had heard that there was a coupon for a free lanyard and pin. They guy said that he couldn't give them out because they were "demo books". By this time, I was so frustrated with him that I left.

Wouldn't you know...a different CM from ME heard the whole thing...he tracked me down IN LINE for the bus to give me the coupon!!! I thought that was great.

From the ME desk, you go to get in line for the bus. This takes about 2 minutes....you are ON the bus and ready to roll. VERY EFFICIENT!!! The line looks enormous, but it's really not.

30 minutes later, we arrived at AKL. There were cast members there to MEET the bus (and trade pins with my sons!!). We checked into the resort and went to the park.

Then, we arrived back at the resort around 4pm and what do you know? Our bags were THERE in the room and waiting!!!!! We were amazed!!! It worked!

Now, the return trip home was different. We used US Air unaware that they did not participate with ME. So, instead of taking my luggage onto ME and doing that whole mess...we took a limo/van back to the airport. That was worth it to me.

So....hakuna matata to all. It will work out. Disney WILL make it right. I was the biggest skeptic...but it went well.

julie