Bell Services at Walt Disney World Resorts

Have you ever arrived at your Disney resort and wished you could be magically transported to your resort room just like your luggage?  Well, Disney is great at granting wishes.  Voila!  Bell Services.

At Disney Resorts, guests can find Bell Services and Luggage Services.  While they may seem similar, each is poised to handle various tasks that guests may need.  Luggage services handles storing, airport check-in, and delivery of luggage to your resort room after it arrives from the airport via Magical Express.  Bell Services caters to you, the guest.

We have used Bell Services to come to our resort room on check-out days to retrieve us and our luggage prior to boarding Disney’s Magical Express back to the elevator.  Not having to navigate our luggage and ourselves across the resort, even though we have seen other guests do just that, is much appreciated.  The service is free though Bell Services does appreciate a tip of $1-2 per bag.

Engaging their services is easy.  Just call from your resort room phone the evening prior to your departure and arrange a time for pick-up, usually 15 to 30 minutes prior to your Disney’s Magical Express boarding time—click here to read more.  A capable Bell Services Cast Member will knock on your door with a large two wheel cart, load up your luggage, escort you to the waiting motorized cart (a golf cart built for 6 plus luggage), and load your luggage onto the cart.  Then you take a seat and enjoy the ride to the Magical Express pick-up location at your resort.  You can even arrange for Bell Services to come for you earlier than your Magical Express departure if you would then like luggage services to store your bags or use Resort Airline Check-in while you enjoy the parks or the resorts on your check-out day.

So, that is how to use Bell Services at the end of your vacation, but what about the beginning?  Some Disney Resorts are spread out and the maze of room numbers can be confusing.  Have you circled an entire resort building to find the exact location of your room even after consulting the resort map?  As I told the husband, this was my least favorite part of a Disney vacation.  Here we were either tired from travel or anxious to get the vacation started, still toting carry-on bags, and have to find our room, sometimes in the dark!  Well, no more!  Now, we retain the services of Bell Services upon our arrival at the resort.

After we check-in at our resort, have room number and Key to the World Cards ready, we find Bell Services and ask for assistance.  Sometimes the husband is sitting near their location with our bags just to make it easier while I head to Guest Registration and take care of check-in details—which go quickly as we have already checked in on-line prior to our stay.

The carry-on bags and possibly groceries, if we used GardenGrocer.com for a grocery delivery (click here to read more), are then placed in the cart, we tell the Bell Services are resort room number, take a seat, and off we go.  The tip is well worth this service to easily locate our resort room and be magically transported, just like our luggage!

On our last trip, after being safely delivered to our resort room via Bell Services, we walked back to the main building to enjoy lunch, explore the resort, refill our mugs, etc.  We came upon a couple, older in years, slowly traversing a bridge, commenting that they didn’t know how far it was to their room.  Though they were going the opposite direction, I stopped to ask if they needed assistance.  Our conversation ended with them following us back to the main building and eliciting the help of Bell Services to find their room.  Too bad the Cast Member at Guest Registration didn’t recognize that walking the distance to their resort room across the sprawling resort was going to be a hardship and suggest the use of Bell Services for these guests; possibly even calling for Bell Services’ assistance for the guests.

American Airlines Offers Baggage Delivery Service

American Airlines is now charging for what Disney’s Magical Express does for free!  Just yesterday, American Airlines began offering a baggage delivery service for customers who checked bags at some 200 airports.  For an additional fee, beyond the cost of checking luggage, American Airlines will transport your luggage to your destination beginning with $29.95 for one bag and an additional $10 per bag up to 3 bags.  The price was $49.95 to deliver 3-5 bags at a destination.

While American Airlines may be trying to set themselves apart from other airline carriers, keeping Enterprise delivery drivers busy is another incentive for the service.  So, is American Airlines in bed with Enterprise?  Car rental, delivery service, and now luggage deliver service!

Would you pay for this service?  Say you were flying to Pebble Beach and checked your golf clubs with a checked luggage fee of course.  And, you didn’t want the hassle of toting your golf clubs to your hotel or wherever you are staying while you are in town, so you pay to have the golf clubs delivered to your favorite golf course.  So, you get to bypass baggage claim, if all of your other belongings were packed in a carry-on bag, and your golf clubs would be waiting for you at your designated course.  Not bad.

I would also say the value gets better with more bags.  Let’s pretend you are a family of five headed to a ski resort.  You’ve been able to secure a transfer from the airport to your resort, but don’t want the hassle of making sure your bags get to your lovely ski lodge.  For a mere $49.95 all of your bags could be delivered directly to the resort.  That, I might take advantage of.

But alas, Disney’s Magical Express gives me the service and for FREE!  That’s right, free!  When I check my bags at the airport prior to a flight to Walt Disney World, I place on the luggage tags mailed to me and wave good-bye to my luggage as the next time I will see them is in my Walt Disney World Resort room.  People look at me with starry eyes when I tell them this service exists and is free.  I think they have visions of by passing luggage claim—so true.  The same is true for Disney Cruise Line if you are flying and sailing the same day.

Did I mention that Disney’s Magical Express not only transports your luggage, but transports you, too!  Not always at the same time, as your luggage may arrive at your resort after you, but for the same fee, which is zero, you and your traveling companions get whisked away to your favorite Disney Resort.  It’s not a bus or motor coach, it’s Disney’s Magical Express Service.  And, they do all of the same on your return trip from your resort to the airport.  Does American Airlines offer a service to pick-up your bags and take them to the airport?  Nope!

I have nothing against American Airlines.  We have flown with then a few times and the boy would say they are his favorite airline.  And, I applaud their ingenuity to think about services for customers that other airlines haven’t considered yet.  It is just that Disney has been offering a similar, yet better service for many years now.  Disney’s Magical Express’ availability is often overlooked as the wonder that it is by guests.

The next time I am on board Disney’s Magical Express motor coach to my resort, a bit of gratitude will wash over me as I recall American Airline’s fee for what I am taking advantage of for free!