Arriving 1 Night Earlier Need Hotel and Transportation

[KATYDID]

DS and I arriving MCO 10 pm day before our AKL stay in Dec. Will take uber/cab from MCO and then to AKL the next morning. We could stay at a value resort and have Disney move luggage , or stay near DS or offsite closer to AKL . Only need place to sleep for 1 night and transportation to AKL. What do you suggest?

 

[Macprincess]

Since your arriving so late in the evening have you considered staying at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport? You would need to gather your luggage at airport baggage claim and then check in your room. Then in the morning either take your luggage with you to the magical express bus or request assistance from bell services at the Hyatt to help you get your luggage to the magical express bus.

Another option, which is often less expensive, is to stay at a close offsite airport hotel that offers shuttle service to and from the airport. You would just take the airport shuttle back to the airport in the morning. Then board the magical Express to AKL. Our family stayed at the La Quinta airport hotel for about $75 last summer with an early flight out and took the airport shuttle over in the morning around 5:30am with no issues. Hotel was clean and well maintained. There shuttle runs from 5am to 11pm at night. If your flight runs late it would be a very quick cab ride here which wouldn't cost too much.

In order for either of these to work you will just need to change your incoming flight information with Disney to a flight that is arriving the morning you plan on using the Magical Express bus. Also, since you will need to collect your luggage at the airport you don't put the luggage tags Disney sends you on your luggage. When you arrive at the Magical Express bus in the morning they will put your bags in the hull carrier located at the bottom of the bus you are on. You will have to collect the luggage at AKL when you get off the bus but bell service will be available to assistance you and get you luggage to your room if available or store it until your room is available.

 

[GPC0321]

We're doing this in December as well, and have chosen the Hyatt Regency in MCO. It's a bit pricey, but worth it for us for the convenience (and I just signed up for the Chase Hyatt credit card, so the sign-up bonus will more than cover the cost of the room).

For the record, no matter which hotel you choose, I called Magical Express yesterday to explain that we'll be coming in the night before and to make sure we would be allowed to check-in and board DME early the next morning (instead of late afternoon when our original flight would have gotten us there). The CM on the phone basically said that was no problem, just bring our bags and have resort reservation info (or Magic Bands) ready for check-in, and the CMs would direct us to the bus that will get us to our resort. The fact that the arrival fight information they have for us says we're getting in at 3:30pm and we're planning to actually show up at DME about 7-8 hours earlier than that doesn't seem to be an issue. At least not to that CM it wasn't. I guess as long as you have confirmation of a DME reservation and a Disney Resort reservation, you're good to go. The flight information is just to give Disney an approximate idea of how many guests to expect throughout the day I'm sure.

We've never used DME before, and the reservation was made through my DVC owner, so I wasn't sure about it all, but the CM yesterday put my mind at ease.

 

[HBaney84]

My stepson and his girlfriendare arriving the night before. They are staying at the airport hotel and will meet up when we arrive. We are then all travelling magical express together.