For many years, Disney World Resort guests had the opportunity to use Disney World Magical Express to travel to and from the airport. But in 2021, after the 2020 closure and reopening, Disney announced that this opportunity would be coming to an end.

As of January 1, 2022, Disney World discontinued the Magical Express airport transportation service. Here is what we know.

The Magical Express was a shuttle service that provided transportation between Orlando International Airport and Disney World. Guests staying at a Walt Disney World resort were able to reserve seats on the free transportation to get them from the Orlando International Airport directly to their Disney World Resort. Guests were even provided with special luggage tags, which meant that they didn’t need to collect their luggage at the airport either; these tags enabled Disney to collect guests’ luggage and deliver it to their resort later in the day.

Due to the health crisis brought on by the Coronavirus, Disney World closed its operations from March 16, 2020, and began a phased reopening on July 11, 2020. During this phased reopening, Disney scaled back many services, experiences, and amenities for the health and safety of the guests and the Cast Members as well as in response to the limited functions imposed by labor shortage and supply chain interference.

When Disney began its phased reopening, including the Disney Resort hotels, those limitations followed.

Under typical operations, Disney’s Magical Express offered guests the ability to have their checked luggage delivered directly from the airport to their Resort hotel room. However, Disney suspended the luggage handling service when the resort re-opened on July 16, 2020.

 

As you can imagine, with Disney parks closed around the world as well as movie theatre closures, Disney’s revenue for 2020 and into 2021 took a dramatic hit. Disney had lost billions in revenue from the park closures during that time. But even with the parks and movie theatres reopening, some areas were impacted and changed forever. In fact, even now, almost three years after the phased reopening, there are still some experiences in Disney World that haven’t returned. 

On January 11, 2021, Disney Parks Blog officially announced the plans to discontinue the Magical Express airport transportation service.

“Vacationers have more options to choose from than ever for transportation, including ride-share services that save time and offer more flexibility to go where they want, when they want. In light of this shift, when Disney Resort hotel bookings open for stays in 2022, we will no longer offer Disney’s Magical Express service for airport transportation, starting with arrivals Jan. 1, 2022. We will continue to operate the service for new and existing reservations made at Disney Resort hotels for arrivals throughout 2021. Additionally, complimentary transportation options – such as buses, monorails and Disney Skyliner – will continue to be available within Walt Disney World Resort for Disney Resort hotel guests, including to and from all four theme parks.”

At the time, Disney was still involved in the development of the Brightline Train expansion. This had the promise of connecting the Disney World property to not just the MCO airport, but to other destinations around Florida. The initial plan was to provide this light-rail train service to Disney World during the second half of 2023.

Disney announced the possibility of a high-speed train route between the parks and the airport way back in 2019, and a deal was reached with Brightline in 2020. The original deal held that the route would be complete in 2022, but delays with construction and planning pushed that deadline back several times. Finally, in June 2022, Disney canceled their plans to work with Brightline.

A Disney spokesperson told the Orlando Business Journal that Disney was going to step away from the project because the updated plans for the train’s route did not actually include a stop on Disney property. “As many people who are involved in this project are aware, the new route configuration does not support a Disney Springs station and as a result, we don’t anticipate being part of this project,” said Avery Maehrer.

So, why did Disney discontinue the Magical Express?

Though only Disney can answer this question with certainty, we can look at several factors and possibilities that led to this outcome.

First, the revenue and labor situation that Disney faced immediately after the 2020 closures. When you think about it, a lot of people have to work very hard to make the Magical Express system work for Disney’s guests. Think about all of the drivers of those buses, all of the unseen employees in the bowels of the airport pulling, sorting, and loading luggage, all of the resort Cast Members who have to receive that luggage and deliver it to guests rooms, and all of the hours of work and coordination it takes with airport officials and airline personnel to navigate that luggage hand-off.

And of course, if anything goes wrong, like a piece of luggage delivered to the wrong resort, wrong room, or mishandled in the airport, there are a lot of layers that have to be investigated to find out where things went wrong. Even more staff required and labor hours needed to unravel luggage mysteries. As we saw with many other Disney World “perks” at this time that went from free to becoming a paid experience, like the transformation of FastPass to Genie+ and Disney Resort hotel parking fees, the dissolution of the Magical Express was another way for the Disney company to save some money and buffer its revenue losses.

Though the busses had fun Disney wraps on them, they were not exclusively owned by Disney, but a partnership between Disney and Mears. Mears is a transportation company with coach buses and taxis that enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the Orlando market for years…before Uber and Lyft debuted. In 2020, Mears furloughed 83% of its workforce and ended up permanently laying off nearly 200 workers. Even prior to that, the company had run into trouble – Mears has been extensively involved with ride-share lawsuits and other litigation over the past few years. When Disney began another transportation partnership with Lyft for the popular Minnie Vans, this likely complicated that Mears partnership.

Second, as we mentioned above, the Brightline Train was a very real option back in 2020 and 2021. However, the route details got much more complicated with residential areas and Univeral Orlando negotiations, and that ultimately led to the demise of the Disney World stop that was initially part of the plan. But when this initial cancelation was decided, the Disney World Brightline Train stop was still a very real prospect as an option for Orlando Airport travelers.

Finally, the third thought that we haven’t addressed yet, was the possibility that Disney may have had another transportation option in mind. We won’t know this for several years yet, if ever, but there’s always the possibility that Disney wanted more control over their transportation services and had outgrown the Mears partnership.

Replacement Services

But the end of Magical Express is not the end of airport transportation, of course. Mears Connect and Sunshine Flyer both emerged with paid services that provide a similar charter bus experience from the airport to your Disney resort — but now with the added benefit of not exclusively serving Disney World resorts. These shuttles can also provide service for other select hotel guests.

For a more expedited trip from the airport to your Disney World Resort hotel, guests can also consider a car service, a rideshare, or even taxi. These will provide more direct experiences without multiple stops along the route, but may be more expensive or even not an option if you’re traveling with small children who require car seats or large groups that exceed the passenger limit.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Get to Disney World From the Orlando Airport

Summary

Disney changed so much between 2020 and 2022, and we still feel the impact of those changes. Though the change of CEOs from Bob Chapek to Bob Iger has seen the reversal of some of these decisions, it’s hard to say if the Magical Express will ever return to serve Disney World from the Orlando Airport. But we do know enough to say, never say never!

Massive CHANGE From Disney CEO Bob Iger Seeks to Fix a Chapek “Mistake”

Have you ever ridden on Disney’s Magical Express? Let us know your favorite way to get from the airport to your Disney hotel in the comments below!