Transportation is a BIG piece of any Disney World trip, and sometimes that includes getting to and from the airport.
©Brightline
Disney has announced that the Magical Express airport shuttle will be discontinued in 2022 as we get ready for the debut of the train between the airport and Disney Springs in the future. Now, we’re taking a look at just what it might cost to be a passenger on this train and what that means for your vacation!
What is the train to Disney World?
Brightline, a railway company, is actively constructing a new high speed rail line to bring passengers from the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach stops that already exist on its Florida line to Orlando. And this will include a stop in Disney Springs.
Disney Springs
According to announcements thus far from Disney and Brightline, the connection from West Palm Beach to Orlando’s airport is expected to begin passenger service in 2023 (previously it was set for a 2022 opening).
The expansion from Orlando International Airport to Disney was previously targeting a 2023 opening. But according to The Orlando Sentinel, passenger service from the airport to the Disney Springs station is now slated to start in 5 years. That means guests may not be able to ride on those trains until 2026.
©Brightline
Of course, all of these dates are subject to change. Over the past few months, we’ve gotten a number of updates about the status of this train route. We’ve seen some reports indicating that construction of the train segment from the airport to Disney Springs could begin by the first quarter of 2024 (still lining up with that potential 2026 opening). At one point in 2021, decisions regarding its train route were delayed indefinitely. There’s been quite a bit of discussion about what route the train will take from the airport to Disney World, including one that would go along State Road 528 to International Drive.
Potential Routes ©Brightline | Obtained via the Orlando Sentinel
We’ve seen since updates regarding the placement of certain train tracks at the Airport and details about just how many stations the line might have once completed. We’ve also seen some plans indicating a potential spot where the station may be placed in Disney Springs.
Map Overlaid ©Brightline| Orlando Business Journal | Map4News
For Disney visitors, the construction of the Brightline train will eventually mean a rail connection to many South Florida cities and the Orlando International Airport (MCO) — a valuable travel tool with the discontinuation of the Magical Express. But it’s something guests will have to wait a number of years to experience, so it’s important to arrange for alternative transportation from the airport to Disney World in the meantime.
Want to learn more about the Brightline Train? Click here!
How much do current and proposed Brightline train tickets cost?
To figure out how much the MCO to Disney Springs route could cost passengers, we’re going to take a look at some of the Brightline ticket prices for existing rail lines and how that translates to the shorter trip.
©Virgin Trains
For the one-hour and 12-minute train ride between Miami and West Palm Beach with a stop at Fort Lauderdale around the 30-minute mark, a Brightline ticket will cost you between $22 and $37 depending on a variety of factors, including what service you choose. That’s just for a one way trip.
©Brightline
The round trip cost is about $44 for the “smart” choice, and $74 for “premium.” This is based on the dates we looked, so keep in mind that these prices are subject to change.
©Brightline
In terms of just a 1-way trip though, it’s between $22 and $37 for the approximately 75-mile trip. If we average those out, it’s about $29.5.
©Brightline
The trip from Miami to Orlando Airport will take around 3 hours and is set to cost around $100 per ticket. The price does seem to scale appropriately based on mileage considering Miami to MCO is about three times the mileage of Miami to West Palm Beach and will cost approximately three times as much.
See what the construction on the airport train to Disney World looks like.
So, how much will the train between Disney World and the airport cost?
Based on that math, we can come up with some idea of how much a base price for the train might be. It is about 18 miles from MCO to Disney Springs. So, if we scale that based on the $29.5 average per 75 miles price, we’re looking at just over $7 per ticket. For reference, a rideshare at time of writing costs approximately $30 to $60 or more from MCO to Disney Springs.
©Brightline
On top of that, it is possible that Disney and Brightline will strike a deal. The Magical Express was a free perk for guests staying at Walt Disney World resort hotels. That was a huge deal for many guests, especially those with families of all ages not looking to deal with the hassles of renting a car.
Disney hasn’t said anything concerning if they could strike a deal with Brightline to transport guests to and from Walt Disney World, but it’s certainly possible. If Disney were to negotiate a deal, Brightline service could be free for those with a confirmed reservation as an added resort perk, or they could offer a reduced price for Disney World hotel guests.
©Brightline
There is also a chance that this line will be in high demand, so it may go the other way and come at a premium. This will be difficult to discern until the line is complete and we know how many trips Brightline is running each day.
©Brightline
We’ll be sure to keep a close eye on news from Brightline and from Disney about this project. It certainly would be a GREAT perk to have a quick and (possibly) FREE train ride from the airport to Disney Springs.
But then how do I get to my hotel with my luggage?
The next question that a lot of our readers are asking is this: How do I get from Disney Springs to my hotel with all of my luggage? Your first thought might be to take a bus to your Disney World Resort hotel from Disney Springs after disembarking from the Brightline train. But Disney’s policies note that “No luggage or alcohol of any type is permitted on Walt Disney World Resort buses.” Disney would likely have to change their rules to make this possible.
Even so, Disney buses are not equipped to carry lots of luggage…they’re made to handle lots of people, but not a bunch of suitcases.
Disney Springs
This question also hasn’t been answered by Disney, so here are some potential outcomes. One option is to create a Magical Express-type bus coach service from Disney Springs to individual Disney World hotels. This could be a paid service, or could replace Magical Express as a free service (which would cost Disney less than the original Magical Express service most likely, since the distances covered would be much shorter than they were with Magical Express from the airport).
Disney could also reinstate Minnie Vans, their branded rideshare service, with a dedicated fleet to take train passengers to hotels.
Finally, Disney could do nothing — assuming guests will take rideshare services or just lug their suitcases onto the already crowded Disney transport (assuming Disney ultimately allows the luggage on their buses). Regardless, this is going to be a problem, and Disney will have to figure out how to respond.
Click here to see more of our thoughts on how Disney World might get guests to their hotels from the new airport train.
Stay tuned to DFB to make sure that you’re up to date on all the latest news with this project. We’ll be sure to update you as we hear more about the opening time, the price, and the length of the train trip, and how you’re supposed to get to your hotel afterward!
How will the new high speed train change Disney World? See our thoughts here.
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I am more interested in how they’ll handle all of the luggage. A family of four with a couple of suitcases each along with carry-on for a week or two at Disney is going to take up a lot of space for the short trip to Disney Springs. The magical express always handled that effortlessly, not so clear how a train will deal.
Something else to consider would be how much the trip from Miami to Disney Springs (and vice-versa) would be for those who who might get better deal flying into there, but also for the “land and sea” folks doing a Disney cruise before or after their park visit.
Guests will have to haul their own luggage onto the train and then haul it to the Disney bus or boat to their resort. Considering how packed the busses were pre covid to/from Disney Springs, using the train is going to be a real pain for most families. Not to mention the amount of people with luggage during parts of the day. It will take nearly as long to get to one’s resort as it already does with Magical Express but you have to manage and haul all your luggage to get there. I think most people would be better off just getting the Uber or paid shuttle for less hassle.
Taking the train to Disney Springs and them a bus to your resort could take up to 5 hours. Returning to the airport could take 6 or 7 hours depending on the connections and related travel delays. Travelers may want to consider adding extra days to their Disney World vacation just for the delays.
Will the train stop near Disney Vero resort?
It would be nice if Disney struck a deal to have it’s own cars separate for Disney World Resort visitors. Maybe with a magic band scan to get on or something.
Disney should put a car rental facility at the springs station!
The whole thing is disappointing. Disney is taking the magic out of things. Makes me far less likely to visit.
Easy transportation has always been a huge selling point for our family. Managing all of the luggage could be a huge nightmare! And the additional time needed to wait for busses and make luggage transfers could make it very difficult for families. We fly overnight and arrive at MCO at 4:30 am will this new system be there waiting for us?
I realize not everyone can afford this, but, we paid the extra $100 for the limo service from the airport to our resort and it was money well spent- plus the kids loved it. Totally relaxing ride from MCO to the Wilderness Lodge
I really hope the Minnie Vans come back. Hauling luggage off a train to a bus is not the sort of vacation I’m looking for. For what we pay to stay on property I expect whatever form of transportation that’s offered to take me to my hotel. Not to a shopping center nowhere near my resort.
We have rented a car after arriving at MCO, we have hired a driver (pre Uber and Lyft era), and/or taken the Magical Express over the course of our dozen plus trips to WDW. No question: Magic Express was our favorite mode of transport to the Dinsey Bubble because of the luggage transport/delivery perk and cost. Yes, when we travel elsewhere we do manage our own luggage. (In fact, we have less luggage when traveling to WDW as we always do laundry on site.) But we love to walk straight through the airport, get the bus, head to the hotel, check laptops and carry-on, head to the parks and find our luagge in our rooms at the end of the day. We do not get a full day use of our ticket but we are in the parks by 3:00. With getting other transportation, luggage etc. we will not have reason to buy a park pass for day one. I guess we can look at it as if day one passes will offset transportation costs. Not our first choice BUT out of our control.
I would think the best luggage option would be for Disney to contract for luggage pickup at the airport as they do now with Magical Express. Same for going home. It would make a huge difference if you can check in and drop off luggage at resorts.
I would think the best luggage option would be for Disney to contract for luggage pickup at the airport as they do now with Magical Express. Same for going home. It would make a huge difference if you can check in and drop off luggage at resorts. I would not be averse to some nominal fee for this service though free is always better.
I’m not concerned about getting to Disney Springs on the train. That sounds nice and I can carry my own luggage. You do it whenever you fly anywhere else so you can do it here too. My main concern is getting from Disney Springs to the resort. I do hope they have some kind of specific transportation for that because having people with all their luggage (me included) on a regular Disney bus ain’t gonna cut it. That’s way too crowded (pre-covid) and very inconvenient for all. I really hope Disney is thinking about this one and coming up with a solution before the train starts dropping people off. 🙂
I first began using Disney’s Magical Express because I was a single mom who needed a way for my family to enjoy a safe Disney World vacation. I have a real fear of driving on the interstate and in unfamiliar cities, so the Magical Express made it easy for me and my child to get to our WDW resort hotel without the worry and extra expense of renting a car or taking a ride share. I had come to depend on the Magical Express. I don’t know of any other vacation destination that offers that type of perk for its guests. I sometimes visit Disney World twice in one year because it is a safe vacation spot for single-parent families and because I could count on being able to use the Magical Express. If the train ride will be as safe and convenient then I am all for it. However, the thought of us having to handle our own luggage throughout the trip is daunting. We never stay for fewer than 8 nights and have several pieces of luggage.
Perhaps Disney will handle only
the luggage from the airport to the resorts as they did with magical express.
A trip to Disney used to be a little like a vacation at Sandals or Beaches – everything done for you. Now there’s no more dining plan, fewer restaurants to eat at, no FastPasses, way fewer live entertainment experiences, and now the added hassle of taking a train to Disney Springs then a ride share to the resort, then doing the same in reverse when it’s time to go home.
Disney’s offering less & less to its guests while charging more. We used to go to Disney every year. We won’t anymore. Getting rid of the Magical Express was the final straw for us. We’ll just rent a car, stay at a non-Disney resort, and visit SeaWorld Orlando and/or Universal next year.
Their greed is going to be their undoing
Uber and Lyft will get more business!
I could see them offering the luggage delivery service as a perk for onsite guests either directly from the airport for checked baggage like before or a drop off at Disney Springs. For anyone traveling alone it would not be as big of an issue with the train, bus and luggage.
According to “map”,the train runs express from Orlando to west palm beach.Are there plans for the Vero beach resort?
I once moved from Port Orleans Riverside to All Star Music during one of my solo trips, and used the Disney busses (I could have paid for a quicker alternative, but I had plenty of time and was happy to save a few pennies!). I took a bus to Disney Springs, then another to the All Star Resort, and it worked reasonably well. This was in the middle of the day, however and there was plenty of room, on both busses, for me and my luggage. I can’t imagine how this would work if it was busy or there were other large families also attempting this!!
Besides all of the previous concerns noted, no report has surfaced as to where the train station would be located at Disney Springs. There does not seem to be a logical location with easy access to the current bus service location for guest to easily move from the train to a resort bus. Bringing in a train spur to Disney Springs will not fit in its present layout, and that may mean either a total rethinking of the roadways and guest access points. Where is the proposed map of what goes where and why?
I would have thought that Disney would want to control the experience as quickly as possible with like what they did with Magical Express. With The Magical Express, because they took care of transportation and luggage handling, you felt like you were at Disney before you even got to Disney. I loved taking the bus ride to the Disney resort that I was staying at even if you had to stop at a resort or two before you got dropped off at your hotel. It was very relaxing and it got me immediately in the Disney mood and vacation mindset. This train isn’t going to do that at all. Unless they change things, it looks like you’ll have to now do all of this which was completely handled before and, as a result, will take some magic out of the experience. As it stands, based on what I’m reading, I’d rather get an Uber than take that train.
How about using DFB to crowd source request to Disney to preserve the Magical Express service. They could charge for the service outright; they could hide the cost in increased room rates; or, least likely, they could continue the service as before, losing the revenue that they had gained by stopping the Magical Express as planned. In any event, Disney is selling the “Magic”, part of which was suspension of reality during a Disney vacation. Part of that Magic was the easy transition from the “real world” to vacation almost as soon as you boarded your inbound flight. PLEASE reconsider this unfortunate degradation of the “Magic.” (50 year regular attendee.)
From everything I’ve read, Mears will be offering a version of transportation from the airport to the Orlando Theme parks. You will need to pay for this but for those with wheelchairs and lots of luggage, this may be a good option. I suggest they call it the Disney penny pinching Un-Magical express.
The folks commenting on luggage on the trains being a problem have nailed it. There rarely is much or any space on trains for anything larger than a small carryon… and not many of those for a family. The way the Japanese solved this problem is separate luggage delivery services. From almost any hotel, bus station, airport, or train station you can have your bags delivered to any other place, hotel to hotel even. Convenient and surprisingly affordable. But without such a service? Forget about it.
Another option for Disney would be to have a drop off for the luggage at Disney Springs or the airport (better) and it “magically” appears in your resort room. Guest then take the train and then Disney Springs bus to their resort.
If the deal was that I must take the train from the airport to Disney Springs, and ultimately to my resort, BUT MY LUGGAGE WAS HANDLED BY DISNEY, (like it used to be on the Magic Express) I would be happy with that option.
Not an ideal way to travel… Rental car ,Uber ect will be my choice.
I’m generally optimistic, but this is a next-level bad idea for all the reasons you’ve mentioned here. If I ever get back to WDW (still waiting for my paid-in-full AP refund from last year) we’ll modify our usual transportation plan: Meers to Universal hotel, Uber to Disney hotel, and now Uber to airport. This is keep-guests-away-by-a-thousand-cuts management.
I guess with social distancing and limited ridership per DS bus that might make for more room for luggage vs passenger.
Perhaps the luggage transfer service will return (AFAIK the company providing that service went out of business with covid closures).
It all seems like a great idea. Like many people I know who travel with large parties are asking, How do they move all of their luggage from all locations. Seems more like a lot of work and an inconvenience. To me it seems like Brightline and Disney already had plans to have families pay and Disney will get a kickback from Brightline. Anything to deflect the cost for Disney onto those visiting. Hope I’m wrong. Just think, then you havevto do this when you leave. You’ll probably have to,start leaving 4 hrs before your flight time with all the extra moving of luggage.
The real question should be, how frequent will the train run?
I hope they consider to expand with skyline or monorail… imagine: transportation from each hotel to springs and one or two parks..maybe in a circelmonorail!? Wouldnt that be fantastic for environment also?
With all the perks gone from staying on site at Disney we’ll be staying at universal, only $39 round trip for dedicated big shuttle service by universal to/from MCO airport, free front of line passes for EVERY day of stay and way cheaper rates. If we go to a Disney park Uber is only $14 for up to a party of 4 each way from the universal hotels
For those flying into MCO, The Magical Express was a not much thought off piece of Disney Magic ! Now we are going to have to buy tickets, load/unload our luggage from the baggage pickup in the Airport to the Springs, and again to the Resort ????? This is Downright UNACCEPTABLE for Disney to burden there guests and provide NO Cost Reduction. Disney is becoming more and more Less Magical.
I am really upset by the Magical Express being shut down! It was so easy and convenient! I think will be so hard lugging your luggage!
Disney is no longer thinking of their guests. All they are thinking about is building new timeshare resorts and raising prices. I think it’s time people find other vacation spots. Maybe Disney will wake up and start accommodating the customer like they use too. Resort/park tickets have more than doubled over the past few years and they continue to raise their prices, and are now taking away the Magic Express, stroller rental delivery to the resort, etc., etc…giving the customer less and less. Go figure! Maybe it will take Disney to go bankrupt before they open their eyes. Our families are definitely not going back!
Maybe they’ll repurpose the Magical express busses for on site transpirtation to ferry Airport passengers from Disney Springs to their resorts and back.
What about people with disabilities such as wheelchair guests? We bought our DVC membership based on the fact that it’s such an accessible vacation for us! Looks like we may be selling our membership!!
This is going to be a fiasco. Disney always ruins a good thing ! Just leave the Magical Express in operation. It works ! Crazy !
I would be quite prepared to pay a small fee to have Disney pick up my bags at MCO and deliver them to my resort, so basically Magical Express for bags, not people. Disney would still be saving on part of the ME cost, and people can manage on the train and buses if they don’t have their luggage. Remember, it is to Disney’s advantage to have you NOT rent a car, which would lead you to eating off site.
The possible pricing between MCO and Disney Springs is attractive. As to the luggage… it is common in many nations to have train services between their airport and the major city (Or to the suburban train network in the case of Sydney Australia). In fact, the trains to and from Sydney Airport are also regular commuter trains, so they can get very packed during peak hours. So that is no big issue for me. I’m used to it. But I would like more information on how to get from Disney Springs to my hotel (and back at the end of the trip).
For many yrs now we employ a Town Car service. The rates are not as expensive as one might think and they take the hassle out of handling your luggage and deliver your party at your chosen WDW Resort. Usually based on 1 to 4 passengers with one way or round trip service available. I believe our last trip the round trip cost was approximately $120.00. Far cheaper than a rental,less hassle.
I personally think they should forget the train and the expense of building it and continue with the Magic express which will probably cost a lot less. Plus it’s much more convenient. Fly in to MCO, Luggage gets taken from the airport to hotel and you just get on the bus. Even if they charge a nominal fee its much better
I am guessing that the cost of a Disney resort stay will come down about 2-5% to pass on the off set savings Disney will make on the removal of the Disney Express free ride option? No? Really… B resort or Holiday Inn Disney Springs is looking good! Taxi!
While your article address a potential baggage problem from Disney Springs to the hotels it makes no mention of the bigger problem. This problem is the volume of passengers carried by the Magical Express and the frequency of service. Before the pandemic the magical express dispatched a full 48-passenger bus about every three minutes. That is over nine hundred people an hour at peak times. If one assumes that peak time lasts five hours the train, that is already carrying passengers from Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, will have capacity for over 5,000 additional passengers. The wait for a Magical Express bus to the hotel was between 20 and 30 minutes. Will the Brightline run a mostly empty train every twenty minutes just to handle the MCO to Disney travelers?
Ugh! Losing the Magical Express is not so magical. It takes some of the fun and ease out of a Disney vacation. Granted the bus was usually full to capacity but it was just so easy, especially with Disney picking up your luggage and delivering it to your room. I’m really sad about this change, more so than any other.
How much is Meers going to charge for their continued service from the airport to Disney hotels? I have heard that it will continue without a contract with Disney as a pay service.