Mears Transportation Group, the passenger transportation leader in Central Florida, announced its commitment to continue offering transportation services to visitors between the airport, area theme parks and resorts starting January 2022. The new service – “Mears Connect” – is in response to overwhelming demand and inquiries by future guests to Orlando’s theme park and resort areas.
Earlier this year, in reaction to news reports of the upcoming termination of Disney’s Magical Express service between the Walt Disney World area and Orlando’s International Airport, Mears made clear their intention, “to continue offering transportation services between the airport and all area theme parks and hotels to meet the demand of our visitors now and in the future.”
“Mears Connect”, will offer the same safe and reliable service the company has provided millions of guests for decades. The Mears Connect service will initially operate between the Orlando International Airport and resorts in the Walt Disney World area. It will provide fast and convenient transportation service for visitors in high occupancy vehicles, thereby reducing traffic and lowering environmental impacts. Guests can expect scheduled service, luggage handling, convenient airport terminal staging, and return trips from resorts to the airport. In addition, Mears will offer enhancements to ensure greater convenience and vehicle options. Pricing for all services will be announced later this year, along with the launch of a custom reservation platform.
“We plan to offer the same level of experience, service, and convenience we’ve provided for the last 16 years, on behalf of our longtime partner, as returning guests and first-time visitors can expect nothing less,” said Roger Chapin, a Mears spokesman. “It is important for visitors to know they still have many of the same safe transportation options for their Orlando visit, all offered by the same company who has been providing seamless, economical, and hassle-free transportation for decades.”
Maybe Mears wants to hear more coin go jingle-lingle-ling in their pockets rather than the chump change Disney was offering them. Direct-to-consumer services/products are definitely the way to go; don’t bother with the middle-mouse any more!
I’m friends with some of the Mears managers… This is absolutely not something that Mears wanted to happen.
Are we taking bets on the cost? I’ll guess $25/person each way.
I think higher
put me down for $45-50 one way. the demand is there
No way am I paying $45 one way, that’s near $200 for a family. I can get a limo for that money.
Can you still? I don’t think you can.
Yes, a 1 way trip in a private car for $200 (+ tip) is still doable.
i think higher too. isnt the cruise one $40 a person?
BOO!! how much does an uber go for?
larger groups probably would end up spending more?
Even at $25/per person, that’s already double Uber cost being that uber is only $40 one way, maybe less.
There are a lot of people who are averse to ride share services as you never know what you are going to get quality wise. With kids, it’s probably easier to just load in a bus.
Considering you’ll go straight to your hotel, the trip is better with uber as well.
That said, Mears said they will be handling luggage (presumably meaning from baggage claim to your room still, which is a gigantic selling point), you’ll need to get an uber with car seats or bring your own if you have small children (as an aside, why are buses cool for no car seats….I digress), and you won’t get the sweet DVD trivia and welcome video that truly let you know you’ve arrived for vacation.
It’s currently a toss up, we’ll have to see what the final cost us to make a decision on value.
Might also depend what resort your going to. What services you are using. Baggage and stuff, They might do a la cart like flights?
I used to pay $27 per person Pre Magical Express and that was when they didn’t offer a website to book in advance. You lined up at their kiosk as you arrived at the airport. I eventually moved to using the limo shuttle services which provided much better dedicated service for my family at an equally competitive price. I know this is a little more difficult for large groups but I don’t think I will ever go back to mass transit services. My guess is this will be at least $35 – $40 per person (each way).
Agreed. Back then, it was cheaper for a family to take the taxi. So nowadays, uber will definitely beat it in price, and uber is dedicated and you don’t have to go to 5 other hotels and wait half an hour. But it really depends on how they run it. If they charge no more than uber and have dedicated service, then it will be worth it.
Is Disney thinking the rail system will handle alot of this when completed
I wonder what the cheapskate people would rather buy to get to their Disney resort from the Orlando airport? The new Mears service, take an Uber like a trash person, or rent a car.
So, to use Uber you are trash?
That is not fair to say, RJ. During our last trip, we flew down late the night before and stayed at a hotel near to the airport. The idea was to take the shuttle back and get on the DME (which we love[d] for many reasons), but found that we saved a whole lot of vacation time by taking an Uber for $45. It greatly enhanced our experience to be at the resort by 10 a.m., which would have likely been 11:30 a.m. if we followed the initial plan.
Still a loss for Guests. DME was complimentary. This new Mears service will no doubt be offered at an extra cost, and mostly likely at a premium.
Riding the DME was an amazing perk that started the magical trip of every visit to WDW. Our daughter was mad that we took an Uber from the airport hotel instead of riding the DME during our last trip. The ride back to the airport is always depressing for obvious reasons. She made us promise that the next trip, we would go to the resort via DME. She was angry and disappointed that she will never have the opportunity again.
It’s not going to work as well because it won’t be “free,” so not enough people will ride it to make it efficient. It will cost more than uber, probably $20 or $30 per person, so for a family of 4 it won’t be worth it. And it will cover many more hotels per trip, having much longer waits. Now, if they can keep the prices low, like $5 a person, so that it is cheaper than uber, then it might be able to make it. But I doubt that.
It’ll work fine at $20/head, way cheaper than renting a car.
It will likely work just as well since Mears has been running it the whole time anyway. And the demand is there but this will have greater flexibility since Mears can now also use their fleet of vans just like they did before DME.
While I’ve had good experiences in the past with this service. I’m worried what they’ll do to cut costs without Disney being an invested party. I could see being packed onto a bus and stopping at 10 resorts before you get to yours.
And it says “resort area”
So now it’ll go to non- Disney owned hotels so definitely more hotel stops than it was before.
Shame Disney not only lost it’s Corporate backbone recently, it developed a bad case of corporate greed along with a lack of respect for it’s customers.
remember when disney provided the magic? welcome to the new profit in place of magic disney regime. i wonder what disney will do when people realize profit comes first no matter how much they tout the most magical place on earth?
Stop trying to fool yourself because it makes you sound foolish.
Profit always came first, they wouldn’t have survived this long if that wasn’t the case.
Like Disney doesn’t make enough money! This tickets cost allot for a family of 5 per day. The least they can do is keep the free ride from the airport so you can pay an exorbitant fee to have the privilege of staying in the hotels! Greed is another name for America!
How is this ANY kind of equal replacement. Instead of a complimentary service because Disney cares, we’ll be charged yet anothet expense…for what is right now still a heavily truncated experience. Announce that the parks will be 100% back to normal by January and I may consider NOT using rideshare…if I ever give Chapek another penny, that is
I love that people really think the MagicExpress is/was complimentary. It may have been “free” to all guests but be assured that the operation prices were baked into your hotel pricing regardless of if you used it or not… and you know they arent going to remove that now and make the prices less now, because we are accustomed to the prices now.
The expense with the Mears operation is going to Mears and not Disney… I also would assume that the contract expired and Mears wanted more than what Disney was willing to pay so they went in for themselves.
Indeed. And remember that one of the key reasons Disney made Magical Express appear “free” is because they wanted guests to spend their entire trip at WDW. When guests rent a car, they may well spend some of their vacation days at Universal or other attractions. Or perhaps eat dinner outside WDW. By offering you a “free” ride directly to WDW and then directly back to the airport, Disney was hoping that many folks would be encouraged to spend their entire vacation (& their vacation money) on WDW property.
Nothing is ever “free” it was always built into the price of your resort stay, dynamics change, quite frankly I am surprised the DME lasted as long as it did. Disney partnerships don’t tend to last long, too little control, too little understanding that it may say Disney on the side of the bus but it isn’t run by Disney.
Mears was always going to step in, they already ran it anyway.
You could always get a Mears cab for $60 or so. Magical Express was free. Disney is doing nothing for you here.
Magical Express wasn’t free. Disney NEVER owned the transportation service.
Why are we complaining about a price point when it hasn’t even been announced?
What’s the odds on the price being $50 per person each way?
I’m thinking it’ll be 20 to $25 each way per person. But right now I hired a private car to pick us up at the airport and take us to a resort if it’s roughly the same price I’m just keeping my private car this way I don’t have to wait in a long line to get a bus and take 2 hours to get to my Resort
I need a bus that can accommodate my son’s wheelchair. Uber can’t, I’ll pay the price.