Disney’s Magical Express is being discontinued on January 1st, 2022.
Disney’s Magical Express
The free airport transportation service will be no longer, but don’t worry! There’s still a similar way to get from Orlando International Airport to Disney World. Mears, the company that runs Magical Express, will still be offering a transportation service. But, it won’t be free.
Mears Connect is the new service that will begin, conveniently, on January 1st, 2022! You can book reservations for transportation right now. And pricing has also been released.
Mears bus
Mears will have two different levels of transportation you can book. The first is Standard, which is shared, uses large vehicles (buses), and has monitored wait times. The second is Premium, which has a limited wait time and direct service.
UPDATE: Premium is now being referred to as “Express” service.
©Mears Connect
Here’s a look at introductory prices for the standard service…
©Mears Connect
…and the Express service.
©Mears Connect
After selecting which service you want, you move on to enter your resort and flight information. With standard service, you can choose between a round trip, a trip from the airport, or a trip to the airport. With premium (now “express”) service, only round trips are available.
©Mears Transportation
We found a flight on January 1st, 2022 to show you as a standard service round trip example and picked Disney’s Riviera Resort as our drop-off and pick-up location.
©Mears Transportation
As you can see, right now with the introductory pricing, the whole trip would cost $32 for one adult. It’s another $32 for each additional adult or $27 for a child (ages 3-9). A one way standard service trip right now is $16 for one adult, $13.50 for one child.
©Mears Transportation
So, let’s say you have a family of 4 — 2 adults and 2 kids. A round trip using Mears Connect standard service would cost you $118, while a one way standard service trip would cost you $59.
A premium service round trip is $200 for up to 4 people. Each additional person is another $55. Remember, one way trips are not being offered with premium service at this time.
UPDATE: The price for Express Service (previously called premium service) has now increased from $200 to $250 for up to 4 people. Each additional person is still $55.
Mears Connect Bus
Now, remember that these are introductory rates, which Mears is advertising as being a way to save money if you book now, so these probably won’t stay the same price moving forward. We’ll keep an eye out for more info, so stay tuned to DFB for updates!
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I haven’t seen or heard about baggage claim – that was the luxury with magical express IMO…. They took care of the bags and delivered to your room – will this be an option? Or will we be required to get our own bags and load them into the mears vehicle?
Disney taking away more free perks, i guess Bob Iger sleeps well at night, 36 million annually salary and Bob Chapek a little less, greed has taken control
Even the introductory prices are too high, cheaper to just take a Lyft/Uber/Taxi at that point.
Tracy, at this point we haven’t heard anything official from Mears on this topic, but we’ll update if they do.
Any specifics about what you get for premium service other than limited waits & direct service? Trying to determine if premium is worth the extra money or if it could mean by not having premium service you sit at the airport for 2 hours waiting for a bus to show up.
Thanks for sharing this information. I just booked my premium service for May! Would rather spend a little more money to not deal with Uber, etc. later. One thing to note from their FAQs. Standard pick up for return flights is up to 3 hours early for domestic/4 hours for international (which I believe is similar to Magic Express). Premium said pick up is 2 hours prior.
Shame on Disney! I simply cannot say that enough. I am so disappointed in them for taking advantage of a pandemic to get more money out of their loyal fans. I thought Mears was going to provide the SAME SERVICE which would include baggage retrieval and delivery to your room. If that’s included, then the price is “somewhat” reasonable, if not, then this is highway robbery!
I have 2 concerns…with Magic Espress you were able to get boarding passes and check your bags. You were now free to spend the day in the parks until your pick up time via Magic Express. Upon arriving at the airport you ONLY had to contend with the security line.
NOW you need to get in a line to check your bags…AND then get in the security line….BOTH can be quite time consuming.
Will our Mears pick up time factor in the need for us to wait for our bags to be removed from the bus so that we can now carry them up to the check in counter???? And then get into the security line…there were times that Magic Express was cutting it close….
This new arrangement also has me rethinking my return flight time. If I have no way to precheck my bags I really can’t assume the hotel will hold it all day so that I can do 1 last day in the park….would have been sooo much easier to have just paid a premium price for the existing Magic Express service that we are all knowledgeable of and comfortable with….
Pris, Mears hasn’t released more info than what we shared in this post, but we’ll keep digging into it.
I’d love to know what an Uber cost would be. just to compare. Before magical express was a thing we all had to somehow get there and we did have to pay. honestly we used to rent a car and go shopping for groceries and then turn the car in at the transportation center or the dolphin I think. we have 6 adults going in February. I wonder what that will cost outside of Mears
I have been visiting Disney since before Magical express started and that price was indirectly built in.
Mears was my airport service in the late 1980’s about 8-10$ one way.
$ regular new rate is a bargain, because rental car prices have increased.
Last time I was there it was $35 on average from Epcot resort area to MCO via Uber standard.
Another reminder of benefits being lost to the greed of the Disney elite.
More money, less service. At the very least humor me and slap a Mickey on the side of the bus.
Concur with everyone’s comments, Magical Express was a significant loss in terms of the true family vacations… starts when you check your bags with the yellow tags. Annual pass and DVC memberships have very few benefits as I have seen significant decline over the past 18 months. The benefits are what I consider as “so-what” or “ho-hum” that they all seem to be major cost cutting efforts by Disney. Our next trip… UBER or LYFT for us for the direct service to our Disney resort.
Don’t get me going on the Genie+ to pay for rides… I sincerely sympathize for families who save so much for a Disney trip and now have to add more $$$.
Any update on when the website will be live to change your reservation. My flight time changed and when i made my Mearsconnect reservation in August, the confirmation email said “COMING SOON, you will be able to log in at any time to edit your reservation. We will send you a note when we are live for edits.”
Thanks – Mike
Michael, we haven’t heard any updates from Mears on that. You may want to give them a call to see what they say (and I’ve gotten a speedy response via email as well).
It is clear that the Magic is fading quickly at Disney. As guests, we have only one course of action. Stop going to Disney and keep the foreign country visitors out of our country. It sounds harsh, but we are at war with the high prices and foreign visitors only serve to eat up capacity and force prices up. The only means that Disney has to control the attendance is to raise prices so high, the average American will not be able to afford a visit. It is very sad… they built a better mouse trap and now most Americans can’t afford to go.
I will be making reservations with a private car service. I have found round trip tip included for $300 for a family of 8, 4 adults and 4 kids. Does DFB have any recommendations for private car services? So nice to go MCO TO SOG no other stops.
Sheila, DFB doesn’t partner with any particular car service.
Management does Not understand that the way of High prices was NOT what WALT wanted at all. It was meant to have quality time for the family. Not a financial windfall for the CEO’s and the other leadership.
Kurt Lohmann:
Its hard to know what Walt wanted but I could concur that I dont believe his vision was to Price people out of being able to enjoy the amazing Parks he envisioned.
Sarah, the Pixie Dust is Gone. I forgot about the. pain of losing the MAGICAL EXPRESS until reading the latest post. The joy of getting the luggage tags (GONE). The convenience of dropping off our luggage and not seeing it again until we return to our hotel room (GONE). The ride on the Magical Express directly to our hotel (GONE) and we have to PAY FOR IT. Sarah PLEASE tell me HOW WILL OUR LUGGAGE GET FROM THE AIRPORT WHEN WE ARRIVE TO OUR HOTEL AND BACK TO THE AIRPORT WHEN WE LEAVE OUR HOTEL. Please, what do you know about this? THANKS
I will not pay for this service again. They are fitting more resorts onto each bus than Magic Express. We were the only 3 going to Caribbean beach, while everyone else went to pop or animation. It took 1 extra hour when you put waiting for a bus. Better to get a Lyft for less (usually $35 for a car from mco to WDW) and have it take you right to our room. The cost per person is not worth the time wasted and those cheap sunglasses they give out.