Is DME worth the hassle?

[Daniel1726]

We are just back from our most recent trip, our first staying on property.
As such we used DME, all I can say is never again.
We flew with Virgin and the hassle we had having to get our luggae from level 1 terminal B to level 1 or was it 2 terminal A was a nightmare and not what was needed after an 8 hour flight.
We then waited for almost an hour on the bus, a Mears bus, before leaving the airport.
We had already made a booking to hire a car whilst in resort and wish we had done so from the airport.
Whilst it is a convenience if you are travelling from a US airport and Disney will colect your luggage I don't feel this can be said for UK passengers.

[Dzneeprincss]

I never use DME. I hire a car service that gets my luggage and takes me to the resort before DME has even left the airport, so I am headed to the parks as the bus pulls in.

[Daniel1726]

As we normally staye off-site this is how we have always started our trips.
We hired a car from Budget at Doubletree Suites on Hotel Plaza Boulevard, they picked us up from Coronado and took my wife back when we dropped the car back on our last day.

[Dzneeprincss]

Since most of my trips consist of Disney and just Disney I don't hire a car until the decision has been made to go off property. We used to drive down from New York (when we couldn't afford airfare for 6 of us) and now we fly almost every trip.

[JasonC]

We are just back from our most recent trip, our first staying on property.
As such we used DME, all I can say is never again.
We flew with Virgin and the hassle we had having to get our luggae from level 1 terminal B to level 1 or was it 2 terminal A was a nightmare and not what was needed after an 8 hour flight.
We then waited for almost an hour on the bus, a Mears bus, before leaving the airport.
We had already made a booking to hire a car whilst in resort and wish we had done so from the airport.
Whilst it is a convenience if you are travelling from a US airport and Disney will colect your luggage I don't feel this can be said for UK passengers.


We've never used DME and having read your report and several others with regard to UK travellers I don't think we ever will, the only time we were going to use it we decided against it at the last minute and hire a town car to take us to our resort as we weren't collecting our hire car for another 4 days or so - i'm really glad we did that.

Thanks for the advice Daniel:thumbs:

[ashleyfallis]

Wow thats so not cool!!

We must have been the lucky ones, we had no problem moving our luggage and got on a bus about 10 minutes after we got to the desk, then we were on the move after around 5 minutes. We'll prob be using it next year, just because it's free and it feels like the start of Disney for me! Plus driving when we've come straight off that flight, no thanks!

[Disney Dad]

Gee,
Maybe the issue is with the oversea's flights. I used ME on our last trip and it was great. We arrived on time to the airpoirt, went th the queing area for ME and after they confirmed our reservation directed us to the loading zone for our resort. Our luggage was transported seperatly and arrived about 4 hours after we did and was brought to our room. We were on the ME and at our resort in less then 2 hrs from touchdown...no rental car no hassle. Returning to the airport at the end of our vacation was less happy. South West dosen't participate in the luggage end of the ME so we had to check our cases ourself. The bus was full and late and once we got to the airport we had only an hour until our filght left. We made it...this time we will leave on an earlier return bus.

[Rosie0610]

Gee,
The bus was full and late and once we got to the airport we had only an hour until our filght left. We made it...this time we will leave on an earlier return bus.

Did you ask for a later return time? I thought our pickup time was way too early. We sat at the airport for 2+ hours. That was my only complaint.

I was very nervous using DME for the first time but I thought it went quite smoothly for our domestic flight. I would use it again, and I am in 15 days! :hehe:

[Mickeymad]

I've never used DME always take the car, i was gonna use DME this year, then collect the hire car the following day on site, i dont think i'll bother now...

[Pilotdog]

We went DME in Dec and it worked out fine. We did seem to wait in line to get on our bus for a long time but once on the bus we were off as soon as the luggage was loaded. We did get to the airport on the return early, but we are calmer being early rather then late.

[AlanandAli]

We usually do DME but hired a car from the airport this year. We arrived at the Boardwalk at exactly the same time - but enjoyed the DME much more, as the car hire Virgin queue was very long and disorganised. Having said that - have they changed the luggage pickup for DME? Last year we only needed to collect it the first time and then it magically appeared in the room even though we were UK guests.

We were intending to go back to DME next time, so would be interesting to hear if you now need to pick up your own luggage with Virgin. Thanks.
Ali

[jarretth]

The car hire lines are always going to be intersting with the international flights coming in. If they run to time you have the VA flights from MAN and LGW coming in within a fairly short timescale together with the BA flight from LGW. That's 800+ people coming in so immigration gets mobbed, squeezes them all together and makes the baggage reclaim and car hire areas very busy. Any VH customers will be with Dollar as will some other tour operators who use VA. Other tour operators will use Alamo so they will also get busy. If you are booking independently you are probably better off booking your car with Budget, Avis or EZ as they will have less international customers coming off of those flights.

If you don't need your car that evening or first thing the next day, DME can be less hassle than having to queue for a hire car and then driving off when overwrought and overtired after a 9.5 hour flight (not forgetting your jouorney to the airport in the UK and all the joys that security checks have given us these days).

Just remember to pack your swimming costume in your hand luggage so when you get to your resort, get off the DME bus, go to your room, get changed and chill in the pool until your luggage turns up.

[ashleyfallis]

Lol, or do what we did and totally crash out so they have to pretty much batter the door down to wake us up!

[leggettjohn9]

We had no probs when we used DME we found it to be very good. We had no problem in moving our luggage through the airport to the desk, and the the time spent waiting on the bus was very short indeed, abut 10 mins. We are using it again when we go in December.

Sorry to hear you had a bad expierience using the DME, but i'm sure it's not like that all the time and you just caught it on a bad day.

[Spridge76]

I guess it must just be luck of the draw on the day.
We used DME in December and it was perfect compared to the transfers Virgin Holidays used to provide. We had a very short wait time, met friendly staff who provided great service and we thought it was quick and easy to find at the airport.
Also, not having to get our luggage twice at the airport made the difference to us, that used to irritate the life out of me.
I think we were out of the airport and on our way to OKW at least 30 minutes faster than if we had booked a taxi or hired a car.

We will be using again in September :)

[PhoneboxAngel]

I quite enjoyed DME, and it left me without the hassle of having to hire a car and a bit of extra money as well. The only complaint I have with it is that we had to be picked up around 8am when our flight didn't leave until 2pm. I had thought I'd have a bit more time to pack before that.

[JaneyS]

We used the DME and it was okay - it took about an hour. The bottom line for us is do we want to have an 8 hour flight from Manchester, then pick up a car (which will take ages in paperwork), then drive to a strange place on the wrong side of the road with tired kids in the back, or just get on a coach and let them do it. The alternative would be to take a cab, which would be about £30. We just decided to let Disney sort it out. There was quite a bit of waiting involved but there would have been if we had gone for the hire car option, not to mention one of us would have not been able to drink on the plane and I am a very nervous flyer - I need my 2 G&T's as soon as we are airborne!!:whistle: and then a little:sleep:

[Cooks]

I know that as a international traveler, you need to collect your own luggage unlike after a domestic flight.
However if you were to fly from the UK to Atlanta or Detroit and then change to a flight for Orlando, do you still need to collect your own luggage?

Eh yeah, just a side step question that popped up while reading this topic...

[PhoneboxAngel]

I know that as a international traveler, you need to collect your own luggage unlike after a domestic flight.
However if you were to fly from the UK to Atlanta or Detroit and then change to a flight for Orlando, do you still need to collect your own luggage?

Eh yeah, just a side step question that popped up while reading this topic...


I would assume you'd still have to collect your luggage at the connection airport and then re-check in. That's a good question, though. :)

We always fly into Atlanta and visit my parents for a week or so before heading to Orlando so I'm not entirely sure about whether you'd have to collect your luggage or not. I would assume so since most flights have at least one stopover.

[Cosmic Reas]

We havent had any problems with DME and find it much better than the off property transfers to the likes of I-Drive where you have to stop of at multiple hotels usually.

We are using it again in September, so fingers crossed there are no problems.