DME Departure Time

[tjkraz]

How does the departure time work for DME? If we have a flight that leaves MCO around 6pm, what time would we have to be ready for pick-up? Do they only run the DME busses from the resorts, or can you catch one at a theme park?

TIA

[Leftcoaster]

They generally schedule you to be picked up around 3 hours before your flight. Give or take a few minutes. They will also suggest that you check in for DME about 15 minutes before the bus is scheduled to pick you up.
I've used DME two times already and it's worked very efficiently for me both times.

[Simba's Mom]

For some people, that's the biggest disadvantage of DME-that 3 hour ahead pick up time. Most of the time, my flight home is around 6:00, and DME has always picked me up around 3:00. On one trip, once I got to the airport, they hadn't even posted my gate yet because I got there so early!

[Pumpkinboy]

3 Hours is the standard, give or take 5 mins. We have used DME for three round trips so far (all in a one-week span, but that's another story) and it worked great each time. Each time the return pickup was just about three hours from flight time.

They do pad the times somewhat tho, since on one of our voyages we had to wait for the third bus to have one with a properly functioning wheelchair lift. Of course, we still made it in time for our flight schedule (well, we were able to use the wheelchair line too, and that shaved off a bunch of time).

I was very pleased with the service on DME and have it planned already for our February trip (the WDW leg of it) and will almost certainly use it this Thxgiving.