When you plan a Disney vacation, trying to decide whether you will stay “on property” vs. an off-site hotel is one of the biggest decisions to make…and it affects many of the the choices you make thereafter. Disney knows this and has been doing their best to lure vacationers to come and stay and play (and pay!) on Disney property for the whole of their vacation. Well, I was hooked and we were lured right in and I didn’t mind a bit. In fact, the more perks they can pack into a package, the happier I’m gonna be.
One of the nice package perks of staying on property was the “Magical Express” – which is free transportation from Orlando airport to your hotel and back again. That in itself is great, but it also includes worry-free transportation of all checked baggage. When your trip info comes in the mail, luggage tags will be included – these tags make it possible for your luggage to get from the airport into your Disney hotel room without you doing anything more than putting the tag on (of course, you’ll need to bring the luggage with you to the airport and check it – but after that, it’s taken care of!) We had zero problems with this service – everything worked exactly as it was supposed to, and it really made our arrival easier.
The Magical Express service itself was wonderful, simply because I didn’t have to try and arrange for some sort of transportation to the hotel – and it was so easy to just follow the gigantic signs (and herds of other families clearly on a Disney vacation) to the pick-up spot for the buses that would take us to the hotel. It made me think of when the husband and I arrived for our honeymoon in England, and a hired car the travel agent had arranged for us swept us out of Heathrow and to our hotel – for someone like me who doesn’t travel often, it just felt luxurious and, well, fun. Compare that to the nerve-shearing nightmare we had at the Dublin airport, where we had to get ourselves a rental car, and drive said rental car from the airport to our hotel in Dublin…being mapless, clueless, and on the wrong side of the road in a teeny tiny car going HOLYSHIT fast. Oh, and when we – mercy of mercies – find our hotel, we realize we can’t park the car anywhere but in a parking garage…and then realize we don’t have any native currency yet. I still, 8 years later, am in awed gratitude of the awesome dude in that parking garage who, without being asked, just fronted the quid so we could park our car. Thank you again, sir.
But I digress – the point is the Magical Express takes all that stress out of the equation. You get on board the big air conditioned bus with cushy seats and cool foot rests, sit back and look at the palm trees fly by. Yes, there is a silly infomercial that plays…but so what? You’re on vacation and you’re going to DISNEYWORLD!
Miss A loved the Magical Express ride, she thought it was just so cool. It was a great sign that if she was enjoying just the Disney bus ride this much, then this vacation was going to be worth every penny.
And it was.
Melonie Johnson 