Walt Disney World's Magical Express

I decided to document our experience using Disney's Magical Express in June of 2021. Eventhough Disney is unfortunately doing away with this service starting in 2022, I thought this post would be good for any last minute 2021 travelers looking for more information on how the service works and also serve as a nice nostalgic write-up after the Magical Express is gone.

The Magical Express Bus service a complementary service offered by Disney to guests staying at a Disney World Resort Hotel. It is really a win-win situation for both Disney and their Guests. First, it's a win for Disney because it assusres that guests will be more or less "stuck" on their property, forcing them to eat meals and purchase more merchandise there. It's a win for guests because if you don't need to go anywhere off property, you are provided with free, convenient transportation to and from Orlando International Airport to the Walt Disney World Resort. So why are they doing away with the service? I'll discuss that at the end of this post. But first, here is a pictoral look at our experience with the Magical Express:

The Orlando International Airport has 3 levels. We arrived on the "B" side (there are two identical sides - A and B) and took the tram to the large open food court area that separates the two sides. The Baggage Claim is located on the second floor, so we took the escalator down. 

Once we got our bags, we headed down to the lowest level to find Ground Transportation, where the Magical Express is located. It is important to note here that the Magical Express is only found on the "B" side of the airport. So, for instance, if you arrived on the "A" side, you would need to go down the escalator on the "A" side to the baggage claim and then return up to the main level where you would then do down to ground transportation on the "B" side.

Once on the Ground Transportaion (3rd) level, we followed the signs to Disney's Magical Express.

Signs were easy to follow. It was a relatively long walk down a mostly empty hallway.

Almost there...

A Disney Cast Member was waiting to check our itenerary. Disney mailed us a Magical Express Confirmation letter prior to us leaving on vacation.

There are different lanes for each bus, depending on what Disney Resort you are going to.

We were directed to lane 7 because that was the bus number for the All-Star Movies Resort (our final destiantion).

We stopped here and waited about 5 minutes for a Cast Member to direct us to our bus.

There were quite a fleet of buses for both the Magical Express and the Disney CruiseLine.

We were given assigned seats. We had rows 8, 10, 12 and 14 which were on the right side of the bus.

We were required to wear masks on the bus because of Disney's Covid precautions. The back of the bus was full...

...but the front of the bus was empty. We waited on the bus for about 10 minutes before we left.

I absolutely loved the bus ride. It was about 30 minutes long and was especially exciting when we got to the Resort and saw all the signs.

We were brought right to the main entrance of our resort where our luggage was off loaded. Once we found all of our luggage, we went to the lobby to check in. 

On the day we left, because we had an afternoon flight, after checking out of our room we left our bags with the bell services so we could go to Disney Springs for a couple of hours. We came back about 30 minutes before our bus was scheduled to leave for the airport (we received a notice on our door the day before we left with the time our bus left) and the staff brought our bags back. 

I really love the Magical Express service and I have to wonder why Disney would get rid of such a popular program. Surely they have to realize that by taking this service away, guests will now have an option to eat, sleep, and travel elsewhere. I imagine they are banking on another company - Mears possibly - picking up where Magical Express left off. Of course, Mears will have to charge for the service if they do take over the service. So Disney will save a ton of money by not offering this service and hope that they won't lose too much because of a new service being offered. From Fastpass to Magical Express, Disney seems to be eliminating value-added services to their guests and, in the case of Fastpass, replacing them with pay-for-play program. I hope they will get back to their roots by creating a more magical experience fot their guests rather than primarily worrying about cost saving measures.