This may sound off topic but from reading this thread, it sounds like when you get to MCO after 10, you're on your own with your luggage. You have to collect it and take it to the bus with you. Last May, my two young adults got to MCO after 11. They rode DME. I never asked if they picked up their checked luggage but I remember it being delivered to our GV at OKW the next day. Was that an exception to the rule?
This is how DME works if you arrive at MCO after 10pm, with checked bags that have been tagged with your yellow DME tags..
You arrive and go to DME, are directed to your resort bus and off you go.
Your bags, on the other hand, go directly to baggage claim. The DME workers stop working at 10:00, so there is no one there to pull those tagged bags out and put them aside for DME collection and delivery to the resorts. These after 10pm tagged bags will now be put with all the other checked bags, and out to the public baggage claim carousel, where they will go 'round and 'round, for all to see (and hopefully they won't be stolen). After quite awhile, an airport worker will go to baggage claim and get all the unclaimed bags, and then take them to the unclaimed bags area. The next morning, some time after 5am, a DME worker will go to the unclaimed bag areas, for each airline, and get any DME tagged bags, and take them to the DME baggage area, for resort delivery.
So, as you can see....sure your bags will 'probably' get to you the next day, but it's nothing I would do!! Too many things could go wrong.
So, long story short? Your young adults didn't experience an 'exception to the rule'. DME and subsequent luggage delivery worked just the way we would expect if arriving after 10pm!