Disney World Ending Magical Express Airport Shuttle
Walt Disney World is ending its Magical Express shuttle service to resorts from Orlando International Airport. This comes after the company “temporarily suspended” Extra Magic Hours, FastPass+, the Dining Plan, and more.
All of this is still top of mind for many Walt Disney World vacation planners, which is clear to us based on the number of questions we receive asking when the Disney Dining Plan, FastPass+, Extra Magic Hours, etc. will be brought back. In most cases, our expectation is that Walt Disney World will restore these things this spring and summer.
When it comes to resuming normalcy at Walt Disney World, it’s clear that this won’t be a simple matter of reverting to the status quo, pre-March of last year. Instead, Walt Disney World will use this period of abnormal to retire and transition away from various offerings to new things, and offer a “soft reset” on the guest experience. We now have our next glimpse of what that means for later in 2022…
Walt Disney World will end the Disney’s Magical Express service for airport transportation starting with arrivals on January 1, 2022. Disney has attributed this to the expansion of options for guests, including the rise of Uber and Lyft. “Vacationers have more options to choose from than ever for transportation, including ride-share services that save time and offer more flexibility to go where they want, when they want.”
Disney’s Magical Express will continue for arrivals and departures through 2021, but anyone planning a Walt Disney World vacation in 2022 will need to rent a car or plan on using Uber, Lyft, or whatever other options are out there. (Although not yet confirmed officially, it’s entirely possible that Minnie Vans have been permanently retired.)
Note that complimentary transportation options within Walt Disney World — such as buses, monorails, boats, and the Skyliner gondolas — will continue to be available without changes. This only impacts Disney’s Magical Express, the airport-to-hotel transportation service, and does not have any bearing on internal or resort-to-park transportation.
It’s worth noting here that the Disney’s Magical Express airport shuttle service is operated by Mears, not Disney itself. Mears is a transportation company with coach buses and taxis that enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the Orlando market for years…before Uber and Lyft debuted.
Last year, Mears furloughed 83% of its workforce and ended up permanently laying off nearly 200 workers. Even prior to that, the company had run into trouble–Mears has been extensively involved with ride-share lawsuits and other litigation over the past few years.
It’s also possible that the relationship between Disney and Mears soured when Minnie Vans were rolled out a couple of years ago. Up until that point, some guests were reticent to use Uber and Lyft due to horror stories, and still opted for the overpriced Mears taxis. From then on, Walt Disney World had a monopoly on overpriced private transportation–it made almost no sense to pay triple the price of ride-share for a taxi when Minnie Vans offered a more polished and “magical” experience.
This is all to say that there might be more to this story than meets the eye. Disney could see the writing on the wall for Mears, or the relationship between the two companies might’ve been irreparably damaged to the point that they could not negotiate a new contract once the current one ends.
Basically, we have a tough time taking this cut at face value–or being entirely due to the reasons given by Disney. As discussed in our Guide to Disney’s Magical Express, the “free” service is incredibly valuable to Walt Disney World because it makes tourists a captive audience, less likely or able to dine off-site, visit other theme parks, or spend money elsewhere.
Long ago, Walt Disney World determined that the increase in average per guest spending with Disney’s Magical Express plus the perceived convenience and goodwill obtained from offering the service outweighs the average per guest cost of offering the service. It’s unlikely that has changed, especially as on-site food prices have increased and Central Florida theme park competition has become more fierce.
Beyond that, this change is being announced at a time when hotel occupancy at Walt Disney World is abysmal–and that’s even with several resorts still closed. With no convention business, minimal outside events, and a travel recovery expected to take until 2023, cutting Disney’s Magical Express will only exacerbate that problem.
We’ve been discussing Walt Disney World’s Disappearing On-Site Advantage for years now, and the elimination of Magical Express only makes that worse. The airport transportation service has been routinely cited by on-site advocates as one reason to still stay in a Disney-owned hotel. Uber and Lyft are great, and we’ve taken them instead of DME several times, but this is still a big blow for consumers.
It’s also potentially going to be detrimental to Walt Disney World. We’re anticipating a ton of negative feedback about this change–likely on par with the addition of resort parking fees a few years ago. As with that change, we can’t help but wonder if Disney will come to regret this move as being one that pushes more guests off-site and ends up costing Disney money in the long run.
We’ve also long been asking Is Walt Disney World Eroding Fan Goodwill? with previous decisions like this. We maintain that they have, but the booming economy has insulated Disney from the negative short-term consequences of so many cuts and guest-unfriendly decisions. Unfortunately, the current hotel woes are pretty easy to hand-wave away given all that’s happening in the world. But we nevertheless question whether occupancy remains low even as park attendance is rising because more guests have already determined staying on-site is simply not worth it.
Finally, while some Walt Disney World fans might point to the Brightline train station at Disney Springs being the eventual replacement for Disney’s Magical Express, that’s still several years away. (The South Florida to MCO link has a scheduled 2022 opening date, but that does not include the Disney Springs station.)
Moreover, that route from the airport to hotels will be convoluted and time-consuming, so it’s not really a viable alternative. To the contrary, the whole reason the Brightline station is being built at Disney Springs instead of the more logical location by the ESPN Wide World of Sports is because Disney did not plan on the train serving as airport transportation for many guests.
We still would not be surprised if Walt Disney World announces a replacement for Disney’s Magical Express before 2022. This just seems like a really ill-advised and short-sighted decision. As discussed above, it’s also potentially a decision that’s out of their hands…
In other breaking news, Walt Disney World announced a permanent replacement for the temporarily-suspended Extra Magic Hours, and has confirmed that EMH will not return. Dubbed Early Theme Park Entry, the new perk will allow Walt Disney World resort guests to enter any of the four theme parks 30 minutes early each day.
Disney indicates that the new Early Theme Park Entry benefit helps better spread visitation across all four theme parks, while providing added flexibility by giving guests extra early park time on each day of their vacation and in the park of their choosing. Please note that guests need valid admission and a park reservation made via the Disney Park Pass system to enter a theme park.
The new Early Theme Park Entry offering will debut later in 2021 and will be promoted as part of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary offerings. No specific start date has been provided; our assumption is that move is deliberate. Walt Disney World can hold off on rolling it out until hotel occupancy and attendance levels dictate, with the latest debut date being October 1, 2021.
While we’re incredulous about the Disney’s Magical Express news, this announcement we do take at face value. In that same “Disappearing On-Site Advantage” article, we derided Extra Magic Hours as a mostly illusory benefit. Prior to the closure, we actively avoided Evening Extra Magic Hours due to the noticeable spike in crowds as compared to non-EMH evenings.
There are a number of reasons this has happened, but is primarily because the pool of Extra Magic Hours-eligible guests continues to increase. Walt Disney World has cut deals with third party hotels and also built several new Disney Vacation Club properties and otherwise added to its hotel room inventory.
For us, the jury is still out on this new Early Theme Park Entry benefit. We have every reason to believe this will do a better job of spreading out crowds, and could end up being a net positive for guests. Thirty minutes per day is obviously less than than the previous hour, but it’s better than nothing.
There’s also the reality that 30 minutes times 4 parks is a total of 2 hours per day across all of Walt Disney World, which is a net gain as compared to Extra Magic Hours. Obviously, a single guest without the resources for time travel cannot take advantage of that 2 hours, but the point is that this may not be a simple cost-cutting measure by Disney.
It could end up giving on-site guests more time before the wave of crowds hit–or it could amount to being pretty similar to the current unpublished policy of quietly opening the turnstiles before official park opening time. We’ll withhold judgment on this one until experiencing it ourselves.
While the specifics here are not exactly what we anticipated, that Walt Disney World would choose now to make these announcements is not unsurprising. As we covered months ago in What Will Replace FastPass+ at Walt Disney World? we expected these “temporary suspensions” to be a natural transition to new systems.
Ultimately, we expect plenty more announcements in the coming months about other, similar changes. As discussed in that article, we’d be shocked to see FastPass+ return without any changes. We’re also expecting the Disney Dining Plan and other experiences will have modifications once they return later in 2021. Then there’s the potential transition from My Disney Experience to Disney Genie (or whatever it ends up being called) which is another can of worms. In short, brace yourself for plenty more changes announced between now and October 2021…
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about Walt Disney World ending Disney’s Magical Express? Upset that you’ll have to rent a car or use Uber/Lyft, or did you find DME too inefficient, anyway? Thoughts on Early Theme Park Entry v. Extra Magic Hours? Disappointed that the amount of time is being cut, or optimistic that it’ll be less crowded during that time? Other thoughts on this? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Without DME as my transportation to the resort, will probably rent a car spend 3 days at Universal and 3 days at Disney. Instead of the 8 or more days I spend at Disney
OMG Are you kidding me! This is awful! We love the magic express. It starts the trip with an element of ease and magic that just envelopes Disney. Plus, my mom is handicapped, making an uber or lyft all that more difficult, if not impossible. Whoever thought of this idea should be fired from Disney. I hope they get enough blowback to reconsider.
This is horrible!!! I loved this feature with two kids in car seats. So if I rent a car I have extra costs associated with it. We are going this year but next year if this isn’t returned we will have to look at offsite resorts with airport transportation.
The past few experiences I’ve had trying to check in for return trips at Magical Express kiosks have been abysmal. 1+ hr waits on your last morning really puts a damper on an already depressing day.
Heads up: I’ve already updated and added info to this article 3 times, and will continue to do so as people ask questions and raise possibilities in the comments.
I’m expecting this will generate a lot of outrage/comments, so that route makes more sense (to me) than responding to the same questions or concerns repeatedly in the comments.
(Now if only I could figure out how to make a comment “sticky”…)
Universal will still feature the optional pickup from the airport right? They have really good hotels and will certainly see a rise on guests.
I will miss the Magical Express. Even when we rent a car, we do so at the Car Care Center near MK as it is less expensive than renting at the airport. We have used the Magical Express many times. And for large family groups, the Magical Express is invaluable. A large group might need 2 vehicles which would be a significant extra cost.
Do you think that there will soon be a train from the airport to WDW, and this is part of the reason for the demise of Magical Express?
While I agree that ride sharing is convenient and inexpensive for many–hello? What about my kids, who all need car seats!? I’m hoping we’ll hear something related to the new high speed train line? I seriously doubt it’ll be free with a package for on-site guests, but maybe it’ll be discounted or at least affordable? I’d gladly take a train over a bus any day!
Losing the Magical Express is terrible news. The ease of getting off the plane and not having to worry about waiting for a rental car and retrieving bags really set a WDW apart from other vacations. Our kids have finally grown out of the full size cars seats, but before that WDW was so much more convenient than other destinations because you didn’t need car seats. With ME we were able to avoid bringing these huge seats on vacation by just staying in the Disney bubble. This move is going to push a lot of families with young children away from WDW. I still need booster seats. Now that it seems likely I’ll need to rent a car or at least bring seats for an uber I see myself exploring other Orlando destinations for dining and entertainment. Previously I would never leave WDW on my trips. I’m sure Disney’s competition is ecstatic about this announcement. It’s to early to say if this will reduce the number of trips I take to Orlando overall, but it will definitely change what these trips are like
If a guest has to rent a car, Disney reaps the benefit of the ridiculous parking fee that they would not have collected with the Magical Express running.
I would love to see Fast Passes never return. I hate standing in line at say, Frozen and watching hundreds of Fast Pass people pass me in line. I have been to the parks many times since they re-opened and I think the lines run MUCH faster with out Fast Pass.
I like the new Early Theme Park admission. It would spread the hotel crowds across 4 parks instead of one. A half hour gives you 1, maybe 2 short lines in the morning. Would like to see it expanded to an hour earlier.
We rarely enjoyed the extended hours for on-site guests. DME was the thing that kept us staying on property. We recently stayed off for a short trip and forgot how much bigger a room (with free breakfast) you get for a fraction of the price. Car Rentals helped off set some of the difference, but Disney just took that away, so with the huge selection off property for 50-70% off the rack rate of Disney, they’ve made it an easy choice. Not to mention the savings on food for breakfast and snacks. They really are catering more and more to the 1-time visitor that has mega budget for their vacation.
What a slap in the face! Honestly, I don’t know what else to say.
The busses made traveling to Disney so easy! It made me feel confident in taking my child on my own – I knew all I had to do was get on the bus. Now my options are getting into a sketchy ride share car with my young child? Nope. Not happening.
Plan B – rent a car and pay to park it at an already overpriced resort? Disney, what the hell? The magic express was what helped make an annual pass do-able for me. Now I’m not sure I even want to stay on site. Or go at all.
The new train goes to Disney Springs, right? When it’s finished it’s still not going to be comparable to the busses. You’ll be hauling luggage only to get off the train and find a bus or whatever to your resort, same story going home.
Not ideal. Not family friendly. Not seamless. 2 thumbs way down.
Chalk me up for another being disappointed that Disney’s Magical Express is leaving. Before then, I believe I had to pay and arm and two legs for transportation. Maybe the cost was built into the resort total, who knows? I did get a rental once but it was a pain in the neck and now that they charge for parking on site, a rental cost has increased significantly if you look at the two as one. I still don’t think I’d stay off site again, I like the convenience and the magic of staying at their resort but if it’s going to cost me $200 from and to the airport now, an extra night at a resort may have to be cut out, who knows. Then again, maybe I’ll see about going to Universal for a few nights towards the end of the week, just more to consider now.
So this would mean you now need to lug a car seat to Disney without the bus transportation
This makes me sad. I still have kids in car seats and this makes our travel experience a lot more stressful and complicated. We will have to hire whatever company is offering pick up and drop off with a car seat in the vehicle because toting all our luggage two small children and two car seats is NOT a relaxing way to start or end a vacation. Very upset. I’m sure they do not care!
Yikes. I agree with everyone, the lack of transportation from the airport is a HUGE bummer for families with little kids. It will be a ton of work now, to rent a car, rent (or fly with) 4 heavy car seats, have to then install them in the rental car and all our luggage, before we can be on our way to our hotel…blah. Come on Disney. I would rather they start charging for the service over doing away all together.
Our family of 7 has enjoyed over 15 Disney vacations, and for all but the first (we learned from our mistake) we stayed onsite and used the Magical Express Service. In fact, the last several times we were there, the ONLY reason we stayed on site was because of DME- not having to hassle with renting a car, driving, paying parking fees and lugging cars seats and luggage was part of what made the vacation enjoyable and affordable. The last year (pre-pandemic) Disney and Bob Chapek really chipped away at the magic of being on site, and this is the nail in the coffin. As far as we are concerned, no DME and EMH, no reason to stay on site. If we are already hassling with renting a car, driving and paying parking fees, no reason to go to Disney- plenty of other places to go to where we can have that experience and not drop $$$$$. So long Disney- we will miss what a magical place you used to be!
WDW made a huge investment in the Minnie Vans–why do you see them not coming back?
And for all that onsite perks are disappearing, there still remains the main one: you’re already in the resort at the start of the day, rather than needing to navigate the entrance and TTC prior to getting anywhere. That time savings is still a substantial one, from what I understand–whether it’s substantial enough, is open for discussion.
I can understand if Disney needs to cut out the “complimentary” DME service, but it might be advantageous to offer bus type transportation even if there was a charge for it. As many others have mentioned the increase in traffic from ride share services and/or rental cars will make getting to WDW a huge act of frustration.
I would be 100% fine with Fastpass never returning (but I know it will.) I think I’m fine with Early Theme Park Entry (although I assume the duration is going to be modified over time.) The elimination of MDE is pretty hard to swallow though. Particularly with little kids, the ease of just walking to a vehicle and not having to juggle picking up and then lugging luggage AND little ones through the airport is something I cannot overstate.
I haven’t stayed off site since 2012. I love the Disney hotels. But they need to find other perks to justify their outrageous pricing.
I think you’re DME analysis is likely on the mark- this has more to do with Disney and Mears than anything guest related. Announcing it now means there’s no initial blowback (since anyone with a current reservation is unaffected) and it gives Disney a year to, if there’s truly enough benefit to DME, develop an in-house version (or find a new vendor). If they do, that announcement give Disney a positive PR bump for what would just be maintaining status quo.
Worst case, there’s some sort of non-compete clause with Mears, and it takes a year or two before Disney can roll out a replacement. Then, ripping off the bandaid when attendance will likely be soft for a few years is the wise choice- if there was always going to be an interruption in DME to get away from Mears, this is the time with the least opportunity cost. That would probably mean this was a long time coming- which jives with the idea that their relationship hasn’t been great the last few years.
I used the wrong “your” right off the bat. Homophones are two tricky four may
We have reservations for Jan 2022 and am not happy about this change. 6 of us will have to now Uber or taxi?! Sometimes I take one child and felt safe landing late and relying on magical express. I will not fell safe getting in a car with a stranger and I’m sure other parents will feel similar. I will not buy annual passes now, knowing this is happening. Breaks my heart that this service is gone.
I’m so sad about the magical express. Somewhat because of the way it bracketed our trips, but also because I loved not dealing with my luggage. It was so great to arrive in Orlando early, have a go bag as carry on and then zoom off to the parks or the pool before our room was ready. Not having to wait for our room to be ready was wonderful. As DVC owners I think we will likely overhaul our whole strategy. Rather than visiting a couple of times a year or popping over on a direct flight for a quick trip with one kid, etc., we will likely take less frequent, longer trips. Might as well drive ourselves, too with all the other hassles this creates. Or maybe they will develop a new and better alternative. I’ll sure miss the excitement that started as soon as I checked our luggage here at home though. It was like I checked those bags and I was officially on vacation.
Good analysis! Hope you’re right and a replacement will be forthcoming in a couple of years.