Magical Express / Baggage / Check out questions

[Craggle]

Hi everyone

I've now completed the first part of this holiday plan and that's the hotel and flights all finally booked.

Now I have a couple of questions on what happens after we arrive.

We're staying at Disney's All Star Sports
Flying BA/American Airlines ABZ - LHR - MIA - MCO arriving in MCO as a domestic flight from Miami so immigration will be cleared in Miami.

I've put in the requests for the Magical Express pick up (super early, we're not going until October)

From what I can see it looks like we simply walk off our flight and go to the bus and they will pick our baggage up from the airport and it will arrive at the hotel at some point later. Is that correct because that seems like a whole load of stress removed for a family of 6 after a day of flying.

Likewise, we're flying BA/American Airlines on the way back and it seems to suggest we can check in for our flights at the hotel and drop our bags off so we don't deal with them again until we get back to Aberdeen?

This all seems too good to be true, am I understanding this correctly?

[loves2plan]

You need special luggage labels to get your bags picked up by Disney, and they only send them to US customers. I believe there is a way of doing it with the barcode stickers that they put on your bags and passports, but not sure what it is.

I do know that your bags can take up to 4 hours to arrive at your resort though. Personally, we find it much easier to just take them with us on the ME and have them at our resort so that we can get unpacked and settle in. I'm also of the mind that if they've made it to my destination with me, then I'm keeping them with me!

With regards to airline check in at your hotel, I've read mixed reports about whether they let international passengers use it or not - some have had success, some not.

[Robsie71]

You can leave your bags with Bell service at the hotel at the end of your stay, if you are travelling later in the day and want a last trip into a park etc. Just pick them up from them yourself before getting on the Magic express and you know they will be at the airport in plenty of time for your flight.

[sprocket]

Last year we checked into our flight MCO-CLT-DUB at the hotel (AKL) with no issue. Meant we only had hand luggage and we collected our luggage in Dublin.
As long as the first flight is internal then your fine. We have done this 3 times in a row, all different airlines.
2 benefits of flying indirect, you arrive at MCO and have no queue for immigration and you can check your luggage at the hotel in Disney.

Walt Disney World Resort Guests must present a valid government-issued I.D. for domestic travel or a valid passport for international travel. In addition, Guests must check in no later than 3 hours prior to their scheduled flight departure. (Flight delays do not extend this check in time.) All Guests must be present at check-in.

People will say no you cant, but they are probably reading the old rules that changed years ago.

Advise. Checkin earlier than 3 hours at the hotel, just in case. If you want a little longer at MCO before departure, phone magical express and get an earlier pickup. As you will be marking down an internal flight, they will pick you up later than international guests, but when you get to the airport you will have to join the longer security queue.
One year we were running for the gate, no time for even toilets.

[Craggle]

Thanks for the input folks. 😀

[BevS97]

We were not allowed to use hotel checking with delta to Atlanta. I’m sure the staff were wrong but they were having none of it and we had to take our bags to the airport.

[chmurf]

Bev, you were connecting in ATL, right ?

For Delta, resort airline check in is only available for US domestic flights (disney's service T&Cs)

the thing is that your bags could not be checked through to the UK

technically, they could have short checked your bags to ATL, but that would have meant you'd have had to collect the bags, recheck them and clear security at ATL ... not a fun thought.

with Delta, you can't use the service if one segment is international

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by chmurf

Bev, you were connecting in ATL, right ?

For Delta, resort airline check in is only available for US domestic flights (disney's service T&Cs)

the thing is that your bags could not be checked through to the UK

technically, they could have short checked your bags to ATL, but that would have meant you'd have had to collect the bags, recheck them and clear security at ATL ... not a fun thought.

with Delta, you can't use the service if one segment is international

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Does that only apply to Delta as Sprocket has done it 3 times (not sure which airlines) ?

[chmurf]

for delta it's domestic only

other participating airlines operating to europe are United and American, and the conditions of service does not exclude international flights

or so the policy says ...

[sprocket]

We have successfully done this for AA, Delta and United.
AA was the most recent in 2017. United was the first year they started allowing international indirect flights, so some staff werent sure, but it worked. Delta was 2016 (i think).
This is why I advised to check in at the hotel early, just to be sure.

Originally Posted by loves2plan

Does that only apply to Delta as Sprocket has done it 3 times (not sure which airlines) ?

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