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!
This is incredibly short-sighted. Not just in increasing the costs to guests, but not looking at the overall economy in general. Millions of people are out of jobs; the middle class in the US was already shrinking and this will accelerate the shrink. After the pandemic starts to ease up, the will likely still not see the numbers pre-pandemic due to people being in worse financial shape. I would understand if the changes were temporary during the pandemic, since the park occupancy is restricted and the hotel occupancy is still low.
They are also not taking into account Super Mario Land opening in Universal in 2024, which is going to garner huge crowds. They’ll be in a very similar situation to post-911 when crowds got low, and then The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opening in Universal. In this case it may be worse, as WWHP, Volcano Bay, and now Super Nintendo Land will make Universal far more competitive. Eespecially when you look at how many new and *beautifully* themed hotels have been built in Universal with added perks: 1 hour early entrance to WWHP and Volcano Bay and the potential for free Express Passes (and these are REAL advantages, since the number of on-site hotel rooms at Universal is significantly smaller and the Express Pass is far less utilized than FP+ due to it costing an extra fee).
I would be very surprised if we didn’t see these benefits come back in another 5-10 years as attendance struggles post-pandemic.
I am heart broken and disappointed. This was a major benefit for those in property. No reason to stay on property anymore. Loyal for almost 40 years. So sad. I loved EMH as well.. benefit for on property. All gone are the reasons to stay on property or buy another annual pass. Very sad day. The almighty dollar is all Disney cares about.
This news is very upsetting. The main reason I stay on property is because of the Magical Express. I have 4 kids and it was nice having one less thing to worry about and one less cost. I honestly would be really surprised if this sticks. Disney is smart and has always wanted to keep guests on property as much as possible. I’m sure they know that this will upset a lot of people. I really do hope they have a plan to create a different bus option.
I agree and I hope so too. Uber, etc are expensive.
I think the lack of DME will really impact those of us who travel from overseas and those with small children. We visit Disney from the UK every 18 months. After a 9 hour flight, and 5 hour time difference, getting a car to drive on the opposite side of the road, possibly in the dark is a nightmare I have always been relieved to not have to deal with! Given that most UK visitors come for a longer period (we usually do 10-14 nights) on-site parking costs would be $$$.
Most ride shares in the UK do not have child car seats and I assume the same applies in the US. (I know this was an advertised benefit of Minnie vans). So which would be a major worry and concern for me (I appreciate DME doesn’t have child seats but it’s safer in a big coach along the freeway than a car).
It seems really hard to think how Disney can feel this is good news for their guests. We really hope to get an October 2021 visit in so we won’t need to worry about this on our next trip at least.
Loved the Magical express! What a bonus to not have to deal with finding transportation once arriving at Orlando airport. Just get on the bus and next thing I know, I’m at my hotel.
The extra magic hours I’m not so upset about. We always choose what park we were going to based on who had EMH which meant a lot of other guests did the same thing. The new entry for guests means I can go to any park early and others can too! Spread the wealth!
Agree 100%!
Disney magical express was one of the best things about Disney- we’re international visitors and before we discovered the express the pain of car hire to Disney was really bad.
Disney are YOU MAD? This was a huge USP for you and you’re dropping it?
Makes me question the option of another luxury hotel on the coast- they’ll organise airport transfers I’ll bet.
Yes! If we have to pay for transportation it’ll certainly cut into our budget. This is so disappointing.
Flying has never made sense for us: Even factoring in a 1-night hotel stay coming and going, plus gas, it’s more economical for us to drive, even with the insult that is the car fee when staying on property. Flight times can be all over the place. I like the power I have to get up early in Lake City, drive to WDW, and get in the parks so I can max out the First day, and leave as late as I want on the last day back to Lake City, get up the next day and head home from there.
We mostly stay on property, but we do use our car to get to the parks, ADRs and Disney Springs much more often than using the buses (hooray for Skyliner!). But we do venture off property for Wal-Mart, shopping and fast food, though rarely to other theme parks.
But I’ve always admired the Magical Express concept. for its ability to have guests contained on property. I think you’re right and something else will replace it.
The replacement of EMH, with 30 minute early entry is not impressive. The flexibility is nice, but this is limited to early risers, so there’s a loss of flexibility for night owls. Sure, 30 minutes early is better than 0, sure, WDW’s not cutting costs. But the loss for night owls cancels the benefits for many of us.
I’m honestly so disappointed, I really don’t know where to start. I feel like everything good about Disney is being stripped away and it feels like it began happening around the time Chapek became CEO.
Disney is using the pandemic to mask that they’ve wanted to make these changes for years. And it’s sickening. Meanwhile, they continue to pay their stockholders and execs what they always have.
Enough is enough. I’m angry.
Yes! Enough already.
Disney World is my happy place! We could fly into Orlando and have our suitcases brought to our hotel while we took the Magic Express to our hotel. No stress on our part. We don’t do Lyft or Uber and at our age I don’t think we will be starting. We have been coming to Disney World since we honeymooned there in 1975. This is very sad news for me.
Wow! Can’t believe they can’t negotiate to continue this service. We loved the ease Magical Express offered. No stress. Just get on the bus and arrive with bags in room. Really poor decision. Makes you want to stay offsite to pay for the rental or price of Uber to save costs. Bad, bad, bad decision.
I love Walt Disney World. I’ve loved visiting the parks multiple times per year, I did the Disney College Program three years ago (and LOVED being a part of making the magic), but I think that my frequent visits are coming to an end. I haven’t been back since February 2020, and with many of the reductions that have been made (lack of street performers, night time entertainment, FastPass+, and now no MagicBands or Magical Express included with my pricey $$$ resort stay) I don’t know when I’ll be back. I still love the parks and want to spend time in them, but it is hard to support them knowing that it encourages the executives to consider making poor decisions. Next time I need my Disney parks fix I’ll probably head to Tokyo instead of Orlando, assuming borders reopen for international travel in the next year or so.
Also, I can see how the 30 minutes entry is a small benefit to on-site guests, but for any local APs or guests staying off-site, the disadvantage is huge!! That means that they can’t ever rope-drop an attraction without paying for a Disney resort. I’m a business traveler who will often tag 1-2 days onto the end of a business trip to visit the parks, so now I’ll be at a huge disadvantage of not being able to avoid EMH and choose a park I can rope-drop.
We have not been regular users of Magical Express but have used it to get to and from the Airport when we had a Disney Cruise in the middle off our stay. This allowed us to use the Disney Cruise Line bus to get from our resort to the cruise and then back to our after cruise resort.
Without a Disney Cruise in the middle of our stay we normally rent a small car and with an annual pass for the free parking at the parks, close to, offsets the price of the car rental and allows us to get ‘off-post’ to get to a real grocery store or do the other theme parks in the area or get some (better) off-post food.
We have noticed, over the years, that the in-park sit down food gets more and more expensive and of lesser and lesser quality and harder to get a reservation. I do not want to plan 90 days ahead of time what I want to eat on a particular night.
DVC since 95
This early entry REALLY hurts day guests and AP holders (or non resort guests, depending how you want to call it) more than it helps Resort guests………Now all day guests and AP holders cannot rope drop for an opportunity to avoid long lines………..Way to alienate the people that have been supporting Disney the most during the pandemic (since theres nobody booking hotel rooms)
This is very sad to hear, we looked forward to taking the Magical Express to our resort. If I have to rent a car then I wont be staying at Disney World. Disney has been taking away things for a few years now but prices keep rising alot. Their pocket keeps getting fatter. I am 68 years old n my husbabd 72 n we enjoy gojng to Disney but this will change for us.. makes me sad.
I really wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall in the meetings where these decisions were made by Disney. In my opinion as the end customer, and not having the whole situation, these decisions are mind-boggling.
Agree 100 percent
Very disappointing. This was a phenomenal benefit. Always put my mind at ease that we had guaranteed transportation once we arrived at the airport that we didn’t have to worry about our luggage. Not to mention this now adds an additional expense on an already very expensive vacation. As I said extremely disappointing.
I brought my family to Disney for the first time in October of 2019 and Magical Express was one of the big reasons I decided to pay the overinflated prices to stay on property. With three kids, not having to worry about dealing with luggage and setting up transport from the airport helped tremendously to make our Disney, a smooth and seamless experience. Two days ago I booked our December 2021 vacation at Caribbean Beach and last night I created a back up booking for an off site Good Neighbor hotel for half the cost, waiting to see what Disney services came back and whether there would be more price drops. I have to tell you Disney is really working hard to push me off site. They are dropping everything that makes the cost of staying onsite tolerable. You can’t give less and charge more and expect people to keep coming. I love Disney but I don’t need to donate to them.
I find it interesting that a lot of the complaints I see on this blog are something along the lines of “We go to Disney X times every year, it’s been getting worse and worse and I’m not sure it’s worth it anymore.” Respectfully, customers like you are why decisions like this get made. You continue to pour more and more money into a product that by your own judgement is becoming a worse and worse value, which has taught Disney brass that they can basically do whatever they want and a large portion of people will keep paying no matter what.
If you are really that upset, I hope you stick by your guns and don’t return to Disney anytime soon. If you huff and you puff (and maybe even cancel your next scheduled trip) but are back at the resorts within a year, I promise you the only part that Disney actually cares about is the “back at the resorts” part. As long as they keep getting your money, they will have zero incentive to change how they are currently operating.
I agree; the only exception is people who own DVC who really need to visit, at minimum, every other year. When we first got DVC we used to go every year, now we just upgrade to a 1-bedroom and go every other year. Overall, it still means less money spent on Disney when food is taken into consideration (we’re not big souvenir people).
This is terrible. We enjoyed Disney vacations so much because we could make plans, show up, and relax and let Disney take care of us. The extra 30 minutes seems to be something they announced at the same time, hoping they could placate us. Not happy with DME announcement. Most parks are opening early already to disperse crowds
Wow the increasing costs to take my family! No magic bands, no bus to/from airport all add up a lot.
Looking at the cases in Florida AND WDW (that they don’t release-but workers have, not sure if/when we will go back. So sad but my $18,000 trips every other year where at the top to what I’d pay for what we got. I think they are making a mistake.
Think next family vacation will be to Costs Rica.
Dad for my 5 year old grand daughter as she has only been twice. I LOVED WDW but now I don’t have any real fuzzy feeling about going