UPDATE: Mears Transportation has issued a statement on the suspension of Disney’s Magical Express, confirming that the company will continue providing their own transportation options to the theme parks and resorts. For more information, click here.
Disney’s Magical Express service, which provides guests with transportation between Orlando International Airport and the Walt Disney World, will be ending in 2022.
The service is set to end on January 1, 2022. While Disney’s Magical Express service is still available for stays through that date, DME is no longer providing luggage delivery for those arriving to and departing from Orlando International Airport. Resort airline check-in service is also no longer available.
Below is the official statement from Walt Disney World regarding the cancellation of this service:
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. In light of this shift, when Disney Resort hotel bookings open for stays in 2022, we will no longer offer Disney’s Magical Express service for airport transportation, starting with arrivals Jan. 1, 2022. We will continue to operate the service for new and existing reservations made at Disney Resort hotels for arrivals throughout 2021. Additionally, complimentary transportation options – such as buses, monorails and Disney Skyliner – will continue to be available within Walt Disney World Resort for Disney Resort hotel guests, including to and from all four theme parks.
Disney’s Magical Express service was launched back in 2005, offering guests complimentary motorcoach transportation between MCO and Walt Disney World Resort hotels as a benefit of staying on-property. The service was operated by Mears Transportation, which has seen a number of layoffs due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other popular benefits for Disney Resort hotel guests have also been modified or suspended:
- Complimentary MagicBands are no longer offered for resort stays
- Souvenir luggage tags and Magical Extras booklets are now only available by request at resort front desks
- Extra Magic Hours will be replaced with “Early Theme Park Entry”, providing just 30 minutes of early access to parks—however, guests now have the option to choose which park
In recent months, Disney and Brightline have reached extensive agreements on the development of future train terminals at MCO and Disney Springs, with expected completion dates of 2022 and 2023, respectively. This new Brightline expansion would link Central and South Florida by way of a 3.5 hour high-speed train ride between Miami and Orlando, and once completed, it may well become the new way Disney opts to shuttle in its guests from the airport… especially if the ever-contentious Minnie Vans fail to return.
They really need to do a better job at anticipating the response from these kinds of announcements so people don’t feel so abandoned. Put out a comprehensive press release, guide, Q&A, etc. so people who relied on this know what they’re supposed to do in the future. Will the train be open? Am I supposed to take a taxi/Uber/Lyft? What if I have a group of 30?
Instead, implication from Disney is, “don’t know, don’t care.”
What the heck? Are people not utilizing the service?? Any time we flew, we used the magical express. And it was always magical. Even when our bags came super late! This is disappointing.
Man, Disney just keeps handing me more reasons not to spend my money there.
Because money …… Now most people need to rent a car – thus pay $25 per night for parking at the resorts
So as resort, ticket and food prices continue to skyrocket, less and less is being offered in value. We’re losing complimentary magic bands, Magical Express busing, luggage transfer, daily mousekeeping, etc. Am I missing anything else they have ended?
They really don’t want people to come do they….
Saving for a trip in 2022… It’s the small things that make a trip special. Shame to see this go. Would have loved to keep that magic and go into the Disney Bubble from the start.
Damn that sucks, coming all the way from the west coast and doing that long flight it’s a tiring day. There was nothing was more magical than getting out on the magical Express bus and going to Disney World. It made it feel like the magic had already begun as soon as you landed at the airport especially after a long day of travel
Does this mean disney will lower prices since i will be paying for a ride to and from the resort. Also does this mean the train will be done in time for 2022 to replace this service?
This is a huge mistake and part of the magic of the Disney vacation!
Wow, this is HUGE. Shame on Disney. Magical Express what a pretty significant benefit for staying onsite. This, coupled with the new “Early Theme Park Entry,” is there any real benefit to staying onsite anymore? Again, this is the “new” Disney, folks…to take away the magic. What fools.
I’m so glad I was able to take my kids to WDW in 2019, it really feels like we caught Disney at the height of its glory. I guess they expect the MCO train to WDW to be up and running for 2022. Even most hotels out have a free shuttle to/from the airports. I’m looking forward to Tom’s (justified) rant on this on the YT channel.
nooooo, such a bad news!! Suddenly I wonder, what is the beneffit of staying in a disney hotel? It gets more expensive everytime. :(
HUGE MISTAKE! IT’S WHY WE ALWAYS CHOSE DISNEY RESORTS ONCE THEY STARTED TO OFFER TNHE SERVICE! SO WHAT’S THE DRAW AND APPEAL? WILL THEY SOON CHARGE TO RIDE ON THEIR BUSSES TO THE PARKS? How about you cut some of the bloat of exec bonuses, and think about the rest of us? smh
And will that also put an end to their luggage service?
The luggage transfer service has already been discontinued.
My initial comment should be re-moved.
I felt this move was coming for a while now or it was going to be turned into a pay ride.
No free Magic bands, no free bus or even a lousy luggage tag. While all this was never “free” it added to the magic of traveling to WDW. It will all be gone, very sad thing.
I was traveling to WDW twice a year, did not go in 2020 and saved a ton of money.
Where is it stated that luggage delivery and resort check in are no longer available? I don’t see this noted on any other site that’s breaking the story
They haven’t been since last year, this is a thing that already happened.
Thanks, Tom. My last visit was in 2017. Sorry for not keeping up with the details!
Does this mean Richard Branson’s Virgin Trains will have a WDW stop?
Brightline and Virgin Train are the same thing. They decided to use Brightline instead of Virgin: https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/2020/08/10/brightline-ends-relationship-with-virgin-trains/
There’s already one planned, possibly at Disney Springs, which makes sense, since all the buses go there from the resorts.
But according to a press release that I saw at Brightline’s site the line from MCO to WDW isn’t supposed to open until “late 2022.” Which means that people staying on site will need to find another way to get to the World for quite a while until the trains start rolling.
Sad day when Disney continues its policy of offering fewer and fewer services and perks to its guests. Does anyone think price increases will slow down?
Watching Disney executives continue to descend Disney into “just another theme park destination”. All the things that make Disney special, unique and a good value for the extra price you pay is going away but by bit.
No current plans to return to Walt Disney World or even Disneyland.
So they are taking away one of the best perks they have, and forcing guests to incur their ludicrous parking fees. Wow.
Disney may as well announce they are cancelling magic at this point. This is not how you win guests back.
Magical Express was great. Its a shame they are cancelling the service. There may be other options available, but they all cost extra. Magical Express was free, ( included in the cost of the stay, but at least it seemed ” free”). Of all the things to get rid of, a free and convenient service does not seem like such a great visitor friendly move.
Great…This will add to the cost and complexity of going to WDW. The ‘extras’ are part of what makes WDW an amazing place.
Have to wonder if this will return after COVID travel and profits return to normal.
Disney is far to accustomed to people throwing money at them no matter what they do. They have had an abusive relationship with their best customers for years and now it is only becoming more obvious.
I’m sure that resort stay prices will go down accordingly because of the $ Disney will save getting rid of Magical Express, right? Right?
Don’t count on it. The Disney company obviously want to cancel Magical Express so that they can charge guests for parking. I dont know if I’ll ever come back.
So remind me what the perks were to staying on site? Magic bands, EMH, free parking, ME, dining plan…. Now those are gone out going, what’s left? It certainly isn’t the “magic”.
So everyone will have to pay to drag their luggage on a train to Disney Springs, then drag their luggage to a bus to get to their resort, or figure out and pay for a rideshare that’ll undoubtedly be costly for larger families.
Every change they announce makes me less and less inclined to ever visit again. Don’t even get me started on other changes in the parks.
Thanks for nothing, Disney. Anyone who says there’s still magic is a schmuck who bought Disney stock.
Uber from MCO is $35. Hardly a dream killer.
No more magic bands, no more Sorcerers of The Magic Kingdom cards, no more Magical Express, and the prices aren’t going down. There is no value left.
I recall the first time I went on vacation on my own. One of the things that really attracted me to WDW was not needing to pay through the nose for ground transportation once I arrived to Orlando. The amazing time I had kept me coming back.
This reeks of barefaced cost-cutting. In fact, I’m having flashbacks to the original Jurassic Park film: “This park was not meant to cater only to the super-rich.” It seems that Disney is moving further from that premise every day.
I’m not really sure how else you can explain getting rid of an insanely popular convenience to countless guests, and something that really became part of the visiting experience over the last 15 years. The released statement basically reaffirms this: “Why do you even need DME? Ever hear of an Uber?!”
I mean this sincerely: RIP to a well-executed, easy-to-use guest service that was a GREAT example of that extra touch of Disney magic. Hope it was worth it on the bottom line!
More penny pinching by Disney and yet they can throw money at needless rethemes. What’s next?
I’ve already Emailed wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com, and will do my best to do so every day until someone at Disney comes up with something better than a not yet finished train to Disney Springs or Uber. I don’t want either and I certainly don’t want rent a car and pay for parking the entire time!! It’s like WDW is in vacation sales prevention! And I’m not blaming the pandemic either, they had started making poor decisions before it began.
Disney will now be requiring the shirt off your back before checking in at one of their resorts.
This….is a huge blow to the magical experience of Disney. This service was the prime example of Disney succeeding over Universal as far as experience. Wow.
Disney is ruining the Disney experience. And resort and park fees will only increase. Sad.
We should remember the year 2020 as the year the magic of Disney died.
I just realized something…how the hell are you supposed to get your ticket for the return trip now? Will the hotel still print it out? I certainly don’t have a computer in my luggage, and if my phone just happens to die, well, guess I’m not flying home anytime soon. Not like it matters, there’s more magic to be found in my old home movies recorded from my trips in the 90s than anything Chapek can pull out of his butt.
You can tell Chapek was just itching for ANY excuse to implement his mind-numbing, fascist policies to make money only for himself and nobody else, and he’s using the tragedy of COVID as an excuse. He’s literally profiteering off a disease that’s killed hundreds of millions. That is just cause to put him in jail for a LONG time, or at least immediately remove him from his position of power and anyone else who assisted him.
Is Disney just going to become Six Flags? Removing all of the roving entertainment and now the worry free transportation! Just going to be a HIGH DOLLAR run of the mill theme park!
If the train will be ready in 2023, why is the DME shot in 2022??? Shouldn’t it happen after the train is ready, at least?
What’s the next step? Is Disney going to eliminate the hotel buses, Monorail, boats, Skyliner? Cause you know that all that cost a lot of money that Disney could be packing their pockets with.
When people asked me why spend the money to stay in a DW resort, my first response was always, well you get free transportation and extra magic hours. So….yeah. Not really a lot of reasons to stay on site now.
How many years until Chapek decides to institute a bus and monorail pass for getting around to the parks during your stay?
“Bundle it with your room and save $5 per night!”
Very disappointing. Magical Express is such a value to costumers. Now we have to pay for a rental car and parking at the resort or ride share. This is the first time I have questioned my loyalty to Disney and might be the straw that makes me not renew my annual pass.
I have been thinking about this for a few days…I am curious to see how much of a cost savings this will be for Disney.
i am also curious what Disney internally prices the per person per leg cost of each DME trip.
It’s okay, at least we still have Minnie Vans…
…oh
I will miss this service. But at least I’m not a Vacation Club Member. Looks to me that Disney is “sticking it to” all you Vacation Club Members. You get to think about this every month you write that check. Now the only thing magical at Disney is how they make your money disappear along with transportation, shows, food, magic bands, etc.
Walt Disney is not Magical any more. Glad we found out before the whole family booked in 2022. Will find someplace else to spend money?