What do you do when resort transport stops on a departure morning?
You stop waiting and you call someone with a vehicle. The Skyliner is genuinely good when it runs, and it does stop, usually for weather and occasionally for longer than anyone would like. This family were caught by exactly that, and then caught again when the rideshare they booked as a backup never turned up. At that point they were at a neighbouring resort, not their own, with a flight to catch and the clock doing what clocks do. Our chauffeur went and got them. Not from the address on the booking, from wherever they actually were. The guest wrote afterwards that he was the reason they did not miss their flight, which is a heavy thing to read and the reason we keep some slack in the departure schedule rather than running chauffeurs back to back. Getting to Orlando International Airport on time is the one thing on a trip that cannot be rescheduled.
Call us. If something has gone wrong and you are not where your booking says you are, telling us early gives the chauffeur time to reroute rather than arriving at an empty resort entrance.
Why do rideshare no shows happen more on Disney property?
Because the pickup points are awkward and the fares are short. Resort geography is not built for a driver who has never been there. The pickup spot is often round the back past a bus loop, the roads loop rather than connect, and a driver who accepts a job and then cannot find the ramp will frequently just cancel and take the next one. Early morning makes it worse because the pool of drivers is thin and the airport run pays less than they hoped. None of that is a moral failing on the driver's part, it is just how the incentives work. A booked private transfer works differently because the chauffeur is scheduled for you specifically, knows the resort layout, and is not comparing your trip against a better one. That difference only shows up on the morning it matters. It is why so many guests move to private Disney World transportation after one bad experience.
Peak times make it worse. Rope drop and park close are exactly when every family in the resort wants the same thing at the same moment, and that is when a scheduled vehicle stops being a luxury.
How much buffer should you leave for a flight out of MCO?
More than the drive time, and more than you would in most cities. MCO is one of the busiest airports in the country and the airside gates are reached by train, which adds a leg most travellers forget to count. The drive itself from the Disney area is short, usually 25 to 40 minutes. The airport is the variable. We build departure pickups backwards from the flight with room for a security line that is worse than expected, and we would rather a family sat at the gate with time in hand than ran. Days like this one are exactly why. When a resort's own transport fails at 6am, the family with a buffer makes their flight and the family running to schedule does not. Our Orlando drive times guide sets out the timing rules, and The Genie Transportation Services schedules every departure against them.
Weather is the other variable. A summer afternoon storm can close the Skyliner and slow every road on property at once, which is precisely why the buffer exists rather than being a way of billing for waiting time.
What Our Guests Say
"Our driver was amazing!!! He rescued us from a neighboring resort when the skyliner went down and our Lyft driver never showed up! He is the reason we did not miss our flight. He was friendly and helpful! We will always be using genie from now on!!"