Disney’s Magical Express Info, Tips & Review
Disney’s Magical Express is free airport transportation for on-site Walt Disney World hotel guests. This guide to the shuttle service offers tips & info about DME, a review of whether it’s worth your time, or renting a car or using Uber/Lyft is better. We’ve used Magical Express 30+ times, and have lots of experience with it. (Updated July 25, 2021.)
Disney’s Magical Express is available to guests staying on property in Walt Disney World-owned hotels only. In other words, if you’re staying at a hotel with the possessive Disney’s in front of its name, you’re good. If you’re staying at a Disney Springs hotel, the Swan/Dolphin, Shades of Green, or “Cleetus’ Luxury-r-us Motel, Now with COLOR TV!” down on I-Drive, you’re out of luck.
As for what Disney’s Magical Express offers, let’s start with a brief overview. The service operates to and from Orlando International Airport (MCO) only, where it is located on Level 1 of the B-side baggage claim area. Disney’s Magical Express runs whenever the airport is open. Whether you have the last flight of the day or the first, you’ll have shuttle service to or from your hotel. In fact, those late and early options are usually the most efficient and least crowded!
To take advantage of Disney’s Magical Express, all you need to do is indicate that you want to use it when booking your hotel reservation, and the agent will automatically walk you through the process. If you want to add it to your reservation after you make it, you can do that online or by calling 866-599-0951.
Alternatively, if you’re like us, you can fail to do all of those things and just show up to the Disney’s Magical Express kiosk where they will scan your MagicBands and let you board the bus. This is the easiest way to go about it for us, especially since many of our trips are last-minute. This is also an option if you lose your vouchers, your flight is delayed, etc.
As long as you’re a registered guest, they will make sure you get to your hotel. So don’t fret–after all, Disney wants you to get to Walt Disney World so you can start spending money…err…enjoying your vacation! 😉
2021 & 2022 Disney’s Magical Express Updates
Before we get into the Disney’s Magical Express basics and review, we should probably cover the significant changes and cutbacks that have already happened in the last year with Disney’s Magical Express, and what else is on the horizon. We’ll start with current issues and changes, as those are impacting anyone visiting Walt Disney World now and planning on using Disney’s Magical Express.
First, luggage delivery for those arriving to Orlando International Airport is no longer available. This means that guests who use Disney’s Magical Express will be responsible for picking up any of their checked luggage from the airport’s baggage claim area, so that it can be loaded onto the motorcoach to their Walt Disney World resort hotel.
Additionally, Resort Airline Check-In Service is no longer available upon departure from your Walt Disney World hotel. This means that you’ll need to have your luggage with you to load it onto the motorcoach, and you’ll need to check it in with your airline once you reach the airport. Basically, all luggage handling is now done by guests. Not having to hassle with bags to and from the airport was a huge convenience for many guests, so this is one big loss that has already occurred.
Second, lines can be very long for Disney’s Magical Express at Orlando International Airport. There’s a bus driver shortage and that compounded with high pent-up demand can mean long lines during peak travel times. Unfortunately, there’s also a rental car shortage and Uber/Lyft driver shortage, meaning higher prices and longer waits for both.
The best way to avoid all of these issues is arriving into MCO in the morning or later in the evening. During the middle of the day is when these problems are most pronounced. At off hours, you might not experience any of these issues at all. While it might seem “extreme” to plan your flights around airport transportation, it really isn’t.
Do not underestimate just how bad these issues with DME buses, rental cars, and Uber/Lyft really are. There have been reports of hour-plus waits at rental car counters and/or Disney’s Magical Express during the midday hours. (I wish I took better photos to fully illustrate just how bad things are at MCO, but after our first negative experience earlier this year, we’ve started taking the very first flight of the day to avoid further issues.)
Now let’s turn to the what’s happening next year: Disney’s Magical Express is ending in 2022. The shuttle service will no longer be offered starting with arrivals January 1, 2022. Guests who arrive at Walt Disney World before this date will still be able to utilize Disney’s Magical Express for transportation to Orlando International Airport following their hotel stay until January 10, 2022.
Walt Disney World attributed the decision to the rise of Uber of Lyft, saying there has been an the expansion of transportation options for guests: “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.”
Following that, guests will need to utilize private transportation or ride-share services. Disney’s Magical Express will also have a spiritual successor in Mears Connect, which begins service in 2022. Mears is the vendor that currently operates Disney’s Magical Express, so there should be good continuity of service. The only difference between how the transportation works in 2021 v. 2022 is that there won’t be Disney branding and you’ll have to pay for Mears Connect directly.
If you don’t want to rent a car or use Uber/Lyft, Mears Connect will be your main option for the next several years. 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. Construction hasn’t even started yet on the MCO to Disney Springs line, and the tentative target opening year for that line is 2026. Given the delays to date, we’d bank on it being finished late, not early—and certainly not next year!
With all of that out of the way, here’s basic info about Disney’s Magical Express…
Disney’s Magical Express Info
The Disney’s Magical Express buses are coach-style buses operated by Mears. They have restrooms and on-bus displays that go through a video covering the basics of Disney’s Magical Express and Walt Disney World that’s pretty fun. There’s also an hour-long background music loop that plays on the bus (which is also conveniently available online–it’s nice background music to put on at home!).
If you’re “fortunate” enough to still be on the bus after this video finishes, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck shorts play after it. In total, the commute from your plane (via walking and an airport monorail) to the Magical Express area will take about 10-12 minutes, the wait from the time you arrive in the Magical Express area until your bus departs will be about 10-30 minutes, and the commute from the airport to the Walt Disney World main entrance is about 30 minutes.
After that, add about 7 minutes for each hotel at which the bus stops. In other words, plus 7 minutes if you’re stop 1, plus 28 minutes if you’re stop 4. The whole process will take a minimum of about an hour and a maximum of just under two hours. Oh, and trying to bribe your bus driver with a generous tip will not get you there any faster (although it is customary to tip them, regardless).
If you would prefer a private ride but don’t want to rent a car, Uber or Lyft airport pickups are now an option at Orlando International Airport. How long that’ll take and cost depends largely upon demand and traffic. Arriving at off hours will always be your best bet.
The whole Disney’s Magical Express process is similar when leaving Walt Disney World resort. You will need to schedule your DME ride in advance, and you will receive a voucher slipped under your hotel door the day before you leave with a pick-up time about 3 hours before your domestic flight or 4 hours before an international flight.
Security at MCO can get really backed up during busy travel times on normal days, and the holidays are downright chaotic. If you have it, you’ll be very thankful for TSA PreCheck. In terms of procedure for using Disney’s Magical Express for your return trip to MCO, it’s pretty simple.
Simply go out to enjoy the parks on that precious last day of your vacation. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get back to your hotel to catch your assigned bus. Unlike the ride to Walt Disney World property, Disney is not nearly as flexible in accommodating you on the way back to the hotel.
If you’ve never used it before, it can sound complicated, but it’s actually incredibly easy to use. It’s actually fairly idiot-proof, too. As long as you can find Level 1 in the airport, you’re set. Someone there will help you with the rest of the details and herd you to your hotel.
Review
Some of you are probably wondering how something that’s “free” might not be worth it. Well, free is in quotes at various places in this article because it’s truly not free. You probably don’t need a reminder of this, but Disney is a for-profit company that doesn’t offer things out of corporate benevolence. Don’t let those cute characters fool you.
As such, there are a couple of costs associated with Disney’s Magical Express. The first is your freedom. This is the big reason Disney offers the service, as it makes guests much less likely to rent cars when visiting Walt Disney World, and thereby makes them less likely to visit competing theme parks, eat off-property, or even go to the grocery store.
In short, it makes tourists a captive audience, and Disney has determined that the average increase in 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. There’s probably a bit more to Disney’s calculations than that, but that’s the basic gist of it.
If you plan on spending your entire vacation on Walt Disney World and thus don’t really care about your freedom, this is not really a cost at all. Even if you do care about having some freedom, services like Uber and Lyft have made it so much easier to go off-property at a relatively low price. These days, we don’t really view “freedom” as that great of a cost.
The second cost is your time. As you can see from the information above, using Disney’s Magical Express can be a time-consuming proposition. It’s usually going to take more time using Disney’s Magical Express than it will take to pick up a rental car and drive directly to your hotel. Unless you are awesome at getting lost in Orlando.
Depending upon how you value your vacation time, the cost of these couple hours on the front and back of your trip may not be worth it. You may see better value in just paying for a rental car for the duration of your trip. These are the two main costs of Disney’s Magical Express. When planning your Disney trip (or living life in general), it’s sometimes important to remember that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
As for the service itself, we generally like Disney’s Magical Express. That much should sort of be a given, as we use it almost every time we travel. Efficiency with DME can be hit or miss; sometimes we wait 10 minutes from the time our MagicBands are scanned until the bus departs, sometimes we’ve waited 40 minutes. We’ve been taking red-eye flights lately that arrive into Orlando at around 5:30 a.m., and our average wait this early has only been around 15 minutes, and often we have a bus nearly to ourselves–not bad!
Even though it does take longer when using Disney’s Magical Express than when not using it, we believe the difference is negligible. You’re probably looking at a grand total of two hours of vacation time (round-trip, and that’s at the absolute most), which isn’t a big deal to us. Granted this time is at the front and back of the vacation, when you’d do just about anything for “one more hour” in the parks, but in the grand scheme of a trip, it’s not much.
The big benefit of Disney’s Magical Express, as we see it, is convenience. All we have to do is show up, and we’re put on a bus and dropped off right at our hotel. We can even sleep on the way there. Of course, sleeping means you miss out on the video on the way there. Watching that video has become a tradition of our vacations, and although the video itself is a bit corny, it always makes us smile. Disney’s Magical Express, in general, has become such a part of our trips that vacation doesn’t really start until we get on that Magical Express bus.
When discussing Disney’s Magical Express, it seems the topic of renting a car instead always comes up. Aside from the above (using the rental car instead of Disney’s Magical Express to get to and from the airport), it’s important to remember that using Disney’s Magical Express and renting a car for your trip aren’t mutually exclusive. You can take Disney’s Magical Express, and then rent a car once at Walt Disney World for just a few days of your trip (or the whole thing, if you really want).
If you’re on the fence about renting a car for your Walt Disney World vacation, getting to and from the airport shouldn’t really be a consideration either way. Since this is a Disney’s Magical Express review and not a post weighing the merits of renting a car, I won’t go any further down the rental car road in this post. Additionally, taking Uber instead of Disney’s Magical Express can be an option (with some caveats). We touch upon that and some other transportation issues in our Walt Disney World Transportation Tips article.
Overall, we believe that Disney’s Magical Express is still a useful service that offers a fun way to start out your vacation. Granted, it’s not a “signature” experience like riding the monorail, but it still has a “Disney feel” that we’d miss if we didn’t take it. As far as efficiency goes, it’s unquestionably less efficient than renting a car and driving directly to your hotel, but the trade-off is convenience and lack of additional out of pocket cost. It’s not going to be for everyone, and rent-a-car die hards are unluckily to change their ways due to Disney’s Magical Express, but for everyone else, Disney’s Magical Express is a good service that’s worth using. Because of this, all things considered, we recommend using Disney’s Magical Express.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts…
Are you a fan of Disney’s Magical Express, or do you prefer to get yourself to the hotel? What have been your experiences using Disney’s Magical Express? Disappointed that DME no longer handles luggage? Upset that the service will end entirely in 2022? Planning on using Mears Connect next year? Do you agree or disagree with our review? 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!
You may wish to fix your online link to the registration form: https://secure.reservations.disney.go.com/ibcwdw/en_US/dme/dmeform
A couple of things to keep in mind:
1. Just because you’re using the Magical Express, you’re not guaranteed to have Disney pick your luggage up and deliver it to your resort room. Disney only provides that service if you’re flying on certain airlines and if you’re flying domestically. They also only do that between 5 am and 10 pm. so if you arrive outside that window, you’ll need to get your own luggage and take it to the Magical Express.
2. Wait times for the bus are usually less than 30 minutes, but don’t count on it. Like everything else at Disney World, it all depends on when you go and what time you arrive. One year we went in August and arrived around 10:30 am. We waited over an hour for a bus. The lines were as bad as the lines for Splash Mountain.
3. Since Disney is “the happiest place on earth,” you can have it both ways. We always take the Magic Express because it saves the cost of a week-long car rental and we don’t have to worry about our luggage. I schedule non-park days together, then rent a car at Alamo at the Disney Car Care Center for two days. They’ll pick you up at your resort when you’re getting your car and drop you off at your resort or any park when you return the car.
How do you arrange for the rental car company to collect us all and drop off at the resorts ?
Does the Magical Express cover 1 bag per person only and what happens if a person has more than 1 bag. Do you have to pay for the extra bag and how do you do that? When do the baggage tags get sent to us prior to our trip and how many do they send?
Thanks,
Do DME drop off passenger at Hilton Buena Vista Palace? i have my family staying there and want to swing by can i take the DME?
Please advise?
Vin
Just spoke to DME representative. She told me that “unfortunately even though Hilton Buena Vista is an official Disney Hotel, Magic Express doesn’t serve it. It has to be a Disney Property”.
Used it to go from airport to carribean beach on 04.05.18 put on bus to hotel to be hauled off 5 mins later to be told to sit and wait ,ignored until 17.30 to be put on bus so arrived at hotel nearly 4 hrs after arrival at airport ,,
This year we decided to go with a car service and it was soooo much better. If you have the extra money (and in the scheme of things, it’s really not very expensive) the car service is faster and more convenient. Plus we got to ride in a black Escalade with blacked out windows like Barack Obama! Lol.
Hello Christian,
Could you please give the information for this car service. It sounds like a good idea.
When I made my reservation for the return trip to the airport I put in a dummy flight out because we are actually leaving on a cruise that day, my question is if I check my luggage at the hotel will I be able to grab it when we exit the bus at the airport or does it get sent directly to the airline on a different vehicle?
You will need to take your luggage with you when you board the Magical Express if you want to be able to retrieve it at the airport. The bus driver will help load your luggage on and off the bus. Do not use the hotel checked-baggage desk as that is transported separately to the airline.
Hey Gang,
Finally making a trip to Disney in March, after a cancellation in December 🙁
If I take the Magical Express from MCO to my resort, when I get off the ME can I just head right to Magic Kingdom if I have pre-check in online?
We arrive at 8a, just trying to make it to the park as quickly as possible without paying for a cab, or handling our luggage.
Thanks
Yes. You will be able to get MK with no problem. What I have done in the past is, when you get off the ME go into the lobby of your resort to let them know you are there. They will then get your phone number to text you when you’re room is ready. We have used the concierge service to hold our carry-on luggage. They will deliver it to your room later after you get back from the park. Hope this helps.
We just travelled back from Disney yesterday (January 9th) after a 10 day stay and used ME too and from the airport. I can confirm that the absurd 4 hour pick up time for traveling back to the airport is still in effect. We had an 8:10am flight and ME wanted to pick us up at 4am. We just slept in a little longer and caught the bus at 5:30am. Arrived to the airport at 6:15, checked our bags and were thru security by 6:45. My kids and I were TSA pre check but my wife had to go through regular security and it took her about 20 minutes.
This article was so informative. I really enjoy your website and have been pouring over it while planning for your upcoming trip to Disney. THANK YOU!
This will be our first time flying to Disney and using Magical Express. We usually do the 21 hour drive! One question I have is about babies on the Magical Express. Have you noticed, or do you know, if they can ride without a car seat? We don’t plan on bringing one on the flight.
Our* upcoming. Sorry ☺ï¸
The DME isn’t suitable when someone in your party has a disability. The front seats are supposedly reserved for such passengers but my wife and I just boarded with our portable o2 concentrator and the 4 able bodied adults occupying these seats, along with JC our driver couldn’t have cared less. I will never subject my wife to this ‘service’ ever again. Passengers will the disabilities should or assume that policies are followed, or that the average Disney guest gives a shit you are disabled and will simply pretend they don’t see you.
Does anyone know what stop number POFQ is?
Hi guys.
Can someone tell me how to schedule to get back to the airport if I don’t have a flight. We need to get to the airport to meet a cruise shuttle but it won’t let us book Magical Express without flight information. Or will they really just leave you stranded at the hotel and not take you back to the airport without a flight?This is silly.
I think you can enter a fake flight number with a time similar to when you need to be at the airport.
â€(866) 599-0951‬ I would suggest calling and booking return by phone, not as convenient as online (which has some limitations like the situation you find yourself in) Disney should be happy to accomodate you.
Does anyone know if DME will drop you off at a different resort than your own if you request a switch at the airport? We have dinner reservations at the Grand Floridian on our arrival day, and while we budgeted enough time assuming our flight goes according to schedule, I am afraid if there are snow or other delays we may need to head straight to the restaurant.
We used the DME yesterday (11/19/18) for our trip home and were given the 4 hour prior to departure time (which meant being at the front of the hotel with a 4 and 6 y.o. at 5 am). Fortunately, Bell Services was very accommodating and actually sent someone with a cart to bring us and our bags to the check-in desk on time.
Having read blog posts and Disney’s own information, we were expecting the 3 hour prior time and inquired at Bell Services. They said MCO had adjusted their suggested arrival time for passengers to 3 hours prior to departure, so that is what they were scheduling based on.
We actually arrived at the airport more than three hours early, but after restroom breaks and stopping to finish bottles of water we may have been going through TSA just under 3 hours prior to departure. There was no mention of us being too early to get in line, that others have mentioned, so they may have pushed this rule back based on their own recommendations. At 6:15 am on a Sunday morning, it took us about 20 minutes to get through security.
We were early enough that our flight was not listed on the screens to learn the gate information and since we checked in and were given our boarding passes at the hotel, we did not have that information. All we had to do was inquire what gates our airline used and gate information was available after the tram ride. Of course, we were early enough that we had our gate changed while waiting, which was a new experience.
It was a bit of a rough morning due to the early start with the kids, and we had to skip the urge to get every last minute out of our last night in the parks in order to make sure we got at least some sleep. However, at least we were early enough to make sure we were able to board during family boarding and were not rushing to get the last available seats, because of a longer than expected wait for the rental care shuttle – like another family with small children on our flight.
We have used DME several times. We always stay at the Yacht Club and it seems to always be the last stop which makes for a very long ride. We have varying results on the return ride to the airport – sometimes getting there too early and other times getting there just in time which just added unneeded stress.
On our next WDW vacation we booked through a TA that offered a selection of perks for booking through her. We chose the private car service to and from the airport. I look forward to not having to stand in line, only to then sit on a bus for an hour.
All that being said – for first timers, I think DME is a ton of fun. It really gets you in the mood. But at this point in our lives, we just want to get there.
We have used DME since it became available. We only go every few years, but have used it enough to figure out what works best for us in terms of maximizing time in the parks.
First, we buy our passes from Park Savers in advance, but do not go to the parks on the day we arrive. We try to arrive at the airport late in the afternoon. After checking in we do things at the resort, hop a bus to the Magic Kingdom stop, then ride a monorail to TTC, where we watch the fireworks. The key for us here is that we don’t use one of the days on our passes on a half-day in the parks, and still have great (free) seats for the MK show.
At the other end of the trip, we schedule a late flight out, check our bags at the resort’s bell service, and have an almost full day in the parks.
Before ME, we would sometimes stay at a local motel the night after our arrival, but that meant renting a car, or getting a taxi (no Uber back then), and not being able to do non-park things that first evening. It also meant spending a chunk of the first morning checking into the resort, rather than falling 13 stories at ToT. There was really not much of an advantage to this, in hindsight.
Hi, how does Disney handle tipping? It appears we would tip our driver for the DME – how about transportation to and from the parks? If so, what’s customary?
As Tom indicated, tipping the ME driver is good form. Tipping is not encouraged (and would cause a bottleneck) on the buses between the resorts and parks.
I actually tried to tip a bus driver taking us to a park very early one morning. We had a breakfast reservation at Chef Mickey’s, and as we were the only ones on the bus, he dropped us right at the Contemporary. He thanked me for the offer, but said it was prohibited.
I love magical express when I arrive, especially if I have checked bags, but I’m not as big a fan for leaving day. Upon leaving, the first time I tried to use magical express, our bus just never came. Then we waited for another one, but they said they weren’t the right bus for us. We were getting really nervous by the time a bus came that they would let us get on. It was very nerve wracking. We prefer just calling an uber.
Enterprise is the best from mco as you drop it off one way at the dolphin…best deal out there and super easy esp for any of the Epcot hotels