Disney’s Magical Express Successor Coming in 2022 via Mears Connect
Earlier this year, Walt Disney World made the bombshell announcement that Disney’s Magical Express is ending in 2022. This post details the spiritual successor to that, Mears Connect, which will be the new shuttle from Orlando International Airport to hotels next year. (Updated May 31, 2021.)
When announcing the end of Magical Express, Disney 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.”
As we’ve pointed out, Disney’s Magical Express is operated by Mears and not Disney itself. This is why Mears Connect is a spiritual successor to Magical Express–it’ll literally use the exact same buses, just minus the Disney-branded wraps. Mears is a transportation company with coach buses and taxis that enjoyed a virtual monopoly on Orlando for years. That is, until Uber and Lyft debuted, at which point Mears sued in an attempt to protect their marketshare.
As with many Central Florida tourism-centric businesses, Mears faced significant challenges last year, furloughing and laying off a large portion of its workforce. This led us to speculate that the original announcement about Magical Express ending resulted from a relationship breakdown between Walt Disney World and Mears, with an alternative offering potentially coming down the road from either or both.
Mears Transportation Group since announced exactly that, releasing a statement that the company will continue offering transportation services to visitors between the airport, area theme parks, and resorts. Starting January 2022, Mears is launching a new service called “Mears Connect.”
According to Mears, this announcement is being made in direct response to overwhelming demand and inquiries by future guests to Central Florida’s theme park and resort areas. Earlier this year, in reaction to news reports of changes in transportation service between the Walt Disney World area and Orlando’s International Airport, Mears made clear their intention, “to continue offering transportation services between the airport and all area theme parks and hotels to meet the demand of our visitors now and in the future.”
Per the company’s press release, “Mears Connect will offer the same safe and reliable service the company has provided millions of guests for decades.” The Mears Connect service will initially operate between the Orlando International Airport and resorts in the Walt Disney World area.
Mears Connect will provide fast and convenient transportation service for visitors in high occupancy vehicles, thereby reducing traffic and lowering environmental impacts. Guests can expect scheduled service, luggage handling, convenient airport terminal staging, and return trips from resorts to the airport.
“We plan to offer the same level of experience, service, and convenience we’ve provided for the last 16 years, on behalf of our longtime partner, as returning guests and first-time visitors can expect nothing less,” said Roger Chapin, a Mears spokesman.
“It is important for visitors to know they still have many of the same safe transportation options for their Orlando visit, all offered by the same company who has been providing seamless, economical, and hassle-free transportation for decades.”
In addition, Mears will offer enhancements to ensure greater convenience and vehicle options. Pricing for all services will be announced later this year, along with the launch of a custom reservation platform.
Per the Mears Connect website, reservations were originally starting in May 2021 (see above). However, this page has been updated and simply states that reservations will begin in “Summer 2021” (see below). It’s entirely possible that this is a normal and unremarkable delay. Mears might be working on ironing out specifics, building its booking system, etc.
However, it’s also possible that the same bus driver shortage that Walt Disney World is experiencing is also negatively impacting Mears’ efforts to get Connect off the ground. As we recently reported, Disney has contracted with outside companies from as far away as Miami to provide additional bus coverage (if you’ve seen Academy-branded buses at the parks or resorts, that’s why).
While the Central Florida labor shortage is particularly pronounced right now, the difficulty finding bus drivers is not a new development. Walt Disney World has offered signing bonuses for bus drivers the last several years. We don’t anticipate that this will prevent Mears Connect from debuting on its January 2022 timeline, but it very well could impact pricing. If labor costs more and the indirect competition (Uber, Lyft, rental cars) are all more expensive, Mears Connect will also have higher price points.
Obviously, Mears Connect will not be a direct successor to Disney’s Magical Express to the extent that it won’t offer Disney branding, on-ride videos featuring characters, music, or any other Disney intellectual property. So from that perspective, it’s sure to be a disappointment for many Walt Disney World fans looking for a “Disneyfied” way to start and finish their trip.
There’s also the practical reality that this will not be free, or built into the cost of hotel reservations. So those are two big strikes against this right off the bat, which may make Mears Connect a total non-starter for many Walt Disney World visitors.
However, the problem and concern many of you expressed in the 542 comments to the original announcement was that there were no good alternatives, period, to Disney’s Magical Express. Its retirement would either require using Uber or Lyft, hiring a private transportation service, or renting a car.
Many people are downright uncomfortable with some or all of those options. There’s also the practical reality that rental cars and rideshare services have all soared in price this summer as those also experience significant shortages. We’re hopeful most of that will resolve itself by January 2022, but there are no guarantees.
Mears Connect should adequately address all of that. It sounds like it’ll essentially be the same service, in the same vehicles, with the same staff. From a continuity perspective, that’s about as good as it gets.
The wild cards at this point are really just pricing, scheduling, and frequency. All of that will likely be driven by the guest adoption rate for Mears Connect, which we’re guessing will be reasonably high. (Especially if Orlando International Airport continues to have a rental car shortage, thus driving up the price of rental cars…plus Uber and Lyft along with them.)
For years, we used Super Shuttle to get between Disneyland and Los Angeles International Airport. It was an awful company and that service is no longer offered, but that’s not really the point here. For all of its faults, Super Shuttle was fast and relatively inexpensive–we regularly paid $10 to $25 per person, and that’s for a much longer distance than WDW to MCO.
Our expectation would thus be similar pricing–and much better service, comfort, and efficiency–for Mears Connect’s routes between Walt Disney World and the airport. Having a similar schedule and routes to Disney’s Magical Express but charging $20 per person sounds about right. For many families, the economics of that won’t work out and Uber/Lyft or a rental car will make more sense. For others, Mears Connect will be perfect.
The other silver lining that could come out of this is Mears expanding its airport shuttle service to the Swan & Dolphin, Bonnet Creek Resorts, Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels, Hyatt Regency, and other options that are more or less on-site.
This would be great for guests of those properties and facilitate more Walt Disney World guests staying in third party hotels. It would also be a way for Mears to poke Disney in the eye, so to speak. Heck, Mears Connect could even service the resorts at Universal Orlando, which could help those hotels–and hurt Disney in the process.
As we’ve been saying for a while, Walt Disney World’s on-site advantage is disappearing. This should be yet another reason to look at nearby third party hotels–some of which are even on-site–before booking your 2022 Walt Disney World vacation.
If you’ve never even considered venturing outside the “Disney Bubble,” we would strongly encourage you to rethink that and check out our Off-Site v. On-Site Walt Disney World Hotel Comparison for a balanced assessment of the pros & cons.
Ultimately, this is a positive development who we’re upset with the practical side of the news about Disney’s Magical Express being retired. While we’re not the biggest fans of Mears taxis, their service with coach buses to and from Orlando International Airport has been solid. The downside is that it’ll cost money, making it “worse” than Disney’s Magical Express from that perspective, but almost certainly “better” than the alternatives presented by ride-share or rental cars.
For those who were upset at the emotional side of the news that Disney’s Magical Express would end, this doesn’t really change anything. Unless Mears works out some licensure deal, this will not be the same magical service…even though it’s literally the same service. There’s still an outside possibility that Walt Disney World will introduce its own shared airport transportation service before the start of 2022, but with this development, we now find that highly unlikely. Mears Connect is probably it.
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
What do you think of this Mears Connect news? Will you use the service, or is the lack of “Disneyfication” make it a non-starter for you? Will you opt for Mears Connect over Uber, Lyft, or renting a car? Thoughts on pricing, efficiency, or anything else regarding Mears Connect? What do you think about Walt Disney World ending Disney’s Magical Express? 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!
Depending on how the pricing works, this could be incredibly attractive for couples or solo travellers. I don’t see how the business case avoids price parity with ride-share at a party size of four, or maybe three bearing in mind luggage convenience and unease about Uber from some quarters. If I were constructing their pricing I’d probably make it “kids go free” to counteract the party size effect.
That said, it clearly won’t be anything like the DME fleet in terms of volume and frequency. If they can’t get the same level of custom (and clearly they can’t) they’ll have to either add more stops per bus or reduce the frequency, both of which will be major downgrades.
‘Kids ride free’ would be a great idea to make the Mears service cost competitive, but I also wouldn’t underestimate the aversion many people have to Uber and Lyft (or it simply not being viable for other options).
While I’m not happy at praying for it on to of my room, I’m happy that this is an option, and hope luggage service comes back with it.
There are not a lot of hc accessible options out there and felt really disappointed in Disney dropping this service without taking that into consideration. No ride-share service is wc accessible, there are very few taxis that are, and they’re very expensive and not always available. Would’ve been willing to pay for the Minnie vans bc they do have wc be accessible ones, but…. They’re gone too.
Yep just another WDW perk taken away, while their resorts, tickets, food etc. are still rising at a staggering rate. At $20 per person this is not a positive feature, for a family of 4 that adds $160 to a trip:(
If they pick up my luggage like ME did I will use it. Otherwise I’d rather just grab an Uber snd not have to deal with a bus stopping multiple places. I don’t mind paying for it, but the only reason I loved ME was because if luggage service!
I will b at Disney in September 2021. We may still want to do Magical express if its still offered. I heard they stopped luggage handling. Wasn’t that part of the Convenience???
We r debating a car rental cause having to pay for parking at Resort. Hopefully we can get Discount with Handicap
Do you think the Mears Connect transportation will eventually service Universal Studios Orlando as well?
I think they will service every Orlando hotel that is profitable to service. With so many Universal hotels all in a clustered area, that would absolutely make sense.
I just don’t know about Disney anymore… the magic is waning… We have reservations at the wilderness lodge for Christmas for $3500 with basically no perks. With the refurbished rooms it looks like a Wyndham or similar. No free bus to the resort. No real perks that I can see. I also have reservations at an Embassy Suites at the same time, just in case… free breakfast! I’m hoping Disney does something as our family has fond memories of staying on property but those are swiftly fading.
It’s not free like the Magical Express was. End of story. The ME was a pain between its location in the airport, the long wait in line to get on a bus (we’ve waited over an hour some years), and sitting on the bus while it stops at other resorts before it gets to yours. But it was a livable annoyance because it was free. I’m certainly not going to pay to be annoyed.
But you’re right. Except for those wanting to be totally immersed in the Disney bubble, there’s fewer & fewer reasons to stay on site, especially with half the restaurants being closed. We’re using the ME for our trip next month, but I’m still needing to rent a car from the Disney World Car Care Center just so we can leave the property on the busy weekend days to get a decent meal.
IF we go again next year (and this is the first time that’s even been debatable), we’ll be renting a car and staying at Shades of Green, the military deluxe resort that’s 1/4 the cost of the Disney deluxe resort right next to it. We’d never stayed there before because we didn’t want the hassle of renting a car. Now that excuse is out the window
Over a period of 20+ years I attended the Gartner Symposium conference held at Walt Disney World. Prior to the creation of Magical Express, I used a Mears service for transportation to and from MCO and the Disney hotels. This service was more expensive than a SuperShuttle option, but was less expensive and more reliable than cabs (no Uber/Lyft back then), and was a lot more comfortable than either. It was essentially the Disney Magical Express without the airport luggage pickup and return. Mears even had their own terminal boarding area at MCO similar to what Disney has now. If Mears were to bring this service back with the same quality as before, and perhaps with a luggage pickup/return added, I would not hesitate to use it. For me, a comfortable, reliable, and professional transportation option is definitely worth paying a little extra.
I agree. With a family of 4, if the price is going to come in at that $10-20 per person mark it just doesn’t make sense to use a bus. I’d rather schedule the Uber/Lyft to arrive after we grab our luggage and have the convenience of direct to hotel transportation with no extra stops.
I’m glad this will be an option in the near future. Given the cost I’m considering spending more on a Minnie Van (if/when it returns). I like the idea of arriving/leaving on our own schedule while still being in the Disney bubble – a Minnie Van experience would be all of that.
Here’s to hoping that option returns.
I just returned from Orlando and spent 4 days at all Disney world parks. Uber is a nightmare now. I had to $60 for an Uber X for just me- 1 person at MCO airport last Tuesday at 6pm, with a drop of at a Disney springs hotel. The app noted the prices were increased due to heavy demand. I asked my Uber driver why the price doubled since ore pandemic and he told me there was also a Uber driver shortage – only 30 drivers in that airport circuit compared to 130 drivers before pandemic. He said the Uber shortage is due to drivers being on unemployment so they don’t want to work, and or they switched to Uber eats because they make more in tips and it’s safer than having to ride with guests in the car in covid times. He also told me the airport rates on a weekend during spring break last week were up to $130 for 1 person going to Disney resort area- due to the shortage.
Furthermore, I felt very unsafe trying waiting for an Uber at the Vineland outlet mall a few days ago, closed at 8pm and it was dark- my Uber times kept increasing from 10 minutes to 20 minutes, and finally they cancelled my ride. Other families were waiting for Uber’s and also seemed frustrated. Luckily I went across the street to Ford garage restaurant where I could safely wait for my sister to pink me up. We also waited an hour for a Green cab to pick us up at AK because our hotel shuttle was not operating at the Marriot – the parking lot was empty and it was unsafe. With UBer and rental car shortages, it is key that Disney keep the bus transportation, especially was helpful since we got park hopper and used the bus to go to Epcot each evening.
I am getting to hate Disney as much as Comcast. Taking away prior benefits and charging more and more.
Interesting development. Our first ever Disney trip is scheduled for January, and I was sad to learn that we’d be missing out on Magical Express, but learning that I could get an Uber XL for my family of 6 for about $60 each way made things more palatable. Mears is going to have to price this aggressively to beat Uber. The luggage handling is a nice perk, but I’m not sure that it outweighs the convenience of having a personal minivan that goes straight to our hotel on our schedule. For $5 per person each way, sure, I’ll do it. But if we’re talking $10 or more per person, then Uber wins.
I always used the Mears Motorcoaches in the 1990’s, so this is a retro option. (We Disney fans love nostalgia). My last couple of trips opened my eyes to the freedom and flexibility of having a car in Disney World. I’d place driving myself at about 10 times more enjoyable and twice as quick as waiting on Disney buses or boats. I’m watching to see how the early entry changes shake out, but am leaning heavily toward Windsor Hills with a rental car for my next trip.
I’m happy to hear this news. While it is not perfect, it is a viable option, IMO.
I travel with my husband and we are seniors. My husband hates, hates, to drive in Florida, especially around WDW. So the DME was perfect for us.
I will certainly miss the start of the disney bubble at the airport, but we can get along just fine with a safe bus ride to and from. This is a much better option for us than Uber or Lyft, as we dont’ have smart phones (gasp!),but only an old flip phone. So that was never an option for us. We used a taxi to and from Universal which was fine, just a little more spendy than an Uber, I guess?
So, I am happy to hear this news. Now if WDW opens up all the resorts (I’m looking at you POR and POFQ), all restaurants, all previous shows, and gets rid of the masks and restrictions, we will be back to WDW again. If not, we love Universal and it’s hotels.
No way. It will cost double of uber for a family, the money just doesn’t make sense. So most people won’t take it, so it won’t have enough business to have frequent buses, so it will have to wait for enough guests, so it will be longer wait and each trip will stop at more hotels. If Mears is smart, they would use smaller vans that holds 2 or 3 families, and charge like $10 per person so that the per family cost is no more than uber, so everybody will take it and they can run direct trips will little wait, and make their money by volume. They can still run the big buses during busy hours. But the trick is, they must be financially competitive against uber so that they keep the same customers as DME. They can even play Disney cartoons and WDW ads on the bus and charge Disney for it, Disney should have nothing against that. But I don’t think they are that smart. They will charge too much, lose business to uber. Me, I’m going to uber and stay out of the Disney bubble. First time ever.
“it would also be a way for Mears to poke Disney in the eye, so to speak.”
I like that statement!
We used Magical Express for years and were mostly happy with it. Then our TA gifted us with car service transfers a couple of years ago. Game changer!
As we were walking into the Yacht Club at about the time our ME bus would have (maybe) been leaving MCO, we all just grinned. We’d found our new transportation method! Now that we’d have to pay to get what ME gave us for “free”, it’s a no-brainer for our family. I love that we can schedule a grocery stop, as we recently bought into DVC and will almost exclusively be staying in a villa going forward.
Still, I appreciate that this type of service works for many, many families and situations and it’s fantastic that Mears will be offering it.
This definitely is great to hear! As a family with a little one, we love the magical express for the sheer fact it allows us to travel without a car seat. The fact something is coming back that will still allow us that option is a huge positive regardless of if we have to pay for it or not.