Anyone swapped to a non-driving holiday??

[amystevekai&bump]

Hi - I am toying with the possibility of not hiring a car for the first time ever.

Because for the Disney portion of our trip we will be on-site, we are going to do a 7 night cruise and we will be on-site at Universal. With the exception of a meal out at the Outback Steakhouse and possibly TGI Fridays, and transfering between each place, i'm not sure we will use the car.

Plus we'd have to pay parking at Universal and possibly the port as well - so it all adds up.

BUT.... We've ALWAYS driven - and its nice to have it there if you do want to venture to the mall or out to dinner.

Has anyone else any experience of dropping the car after always having one - was it good or a bad decision??

thanks for any input!!:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

[fuse04]

We haven't gone from car to non car but happy to give a view of no car. We plan our itenery and decide if we need a car and to date we have not. This is because we stay on site at WDW/Universal and as next year is only our third trip we still spend most of the time on site or at parks.

We like the feeling of being part of Disney rather than just visiting for the day but others like to get away from it all after a day at the parks, which I fully understand.

I drive to France and Belgium so not adverse to driving abroad but it is really nice not having to think about parking, losing the car and then finding it, fuel, tolls, getting lost and fighting with the navigator :rolleyes1

Having said that I suspect that our next trip after 2009 (not sure when that will be) will be trying a villa and a car, seeing more of Florida..actually really looking forward to driving over there.

[DisneyJo]

We never have a car, in previous years we've just paid for a cab to take us to the Mall etc. We've always found the WDW buses to be pretty good and also use the free Magical Express!

This year though we're going to hire a car for just 1 day to go shopping, it's costing us about £30 which includes a tank of petrol, so cheaper than a taxi :thumbsup2

[amberandolly]

We had 6 trips without a car until this year - we had one and now I wouldn't do it any other way, it's great just to be able to pop out to walmart etc.
Even on site I would use a car instead of disney buses.

[tink,too]

We've never hired a car either. If we want to go somewhere that we can't go by bus, we just take a cab. :goodvibes

With your itinerary a car certainly isn't necessary - but will you miss having one at your disposal? ;)

[Hilary]

We had a car for our first trip and that's what persuaded us to go car-less the next time (or two or three times). We stayed onsite and used the Disney transport, and the car sat in the resort parking lot for most of the trip. Our first few trips were spent mainly in the Disney parks, and I would happily go without a car now if we planned something similar.

Now, however, our Florida trips are not always based in Orlando and we spend little or no time in the parks - for these trips we always have a car and couldn't manage without one.

[RobinHood's merrymen]

Another non USA driver here! When staying on resort we don't see the point of paying for a car. For the odd night out off resort we just pay for a cab. Yes you are restricted to on-site restaurants but lets face it there are so many different themes you never feel you are eating in the same place twice and as for the cost........ we're on holiday!!!

[paulh]

have had a car and havent had a car, plus had a car part of holiday
have enjoied all evertime
As were seasoned travelers we tend to go for part car,if a 2 week say we gat car for 1 week in middle,3 weeks its 2 weeks in middle
But if we dont have a car and want to go someplace,be it quick or outher than disney we get a taxi,which arnt dear at all
As your going at Xmas trafic is usaly bad around parks and universal
But for your cruise trip yes there would be a carparking levey so would get a towncar return
Paulh

[stba2006]

We are not taking a car this year and i'm a little worried as we are on the disney resort for 2 weeks and want to/see other things. How easy is it to rent a car whilst you are out there and any-one know best place to get a car from (just in case) ?

[T16GEM]

Hi Amy
The only reason that I would have a car at the moment is because of the kids, I know that the bus sevices are great but even just getting the buggies x2 and all the bags of stuff that we needed for them onto the tram from the car park was a nightmare! I would have been stressed getting it all on the bus twice a day! JMO though!
Gems

[amystevekai&bump]

Thanks every one for their advice:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 - I must admit paying for a car to sit mainly in a car park (especially a car park I have to also pay for at Port Canaveral and Universal!!!:lmao: ) is what is mainly putting me off hiring one - but like a few people have said - its nice to know
you've got it if you want it - so perhaps the idea of part car/part not is a good one for us!!:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

Hi Amy
The only reason that I would have a car at the moment is because of the kids, I know that the bus sevices are great but even just getting the buggies x2 and all the bags of stuff that we needed for them onto the tram from the car park was a nightmare! I would have been stressed getting it all on the bus twice a day! JMO though!
Gems

I must admit Gems I don't relish using the buses with a stroller :scared1: - so perhaps I'll keep the car at disney (FREE PARKING - Yeah!!!;) (I sound really tight don't I!!!:rotfl2: ) and then return it for the cruise and universal - afterall I expect we will eat at City Walk for the whole time there anyway!!:rolleyes:

Thanks to everyone - I think you've made up my mind for me!!:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

[irongirlof12]

on our last trip we only hired a car for our 2nd week and it worked really well. for the 1st week we used the disney transport.Got us everywhere we wanted to go!

In the 2nd week we visited the malls etc which are a lot easier to do under your own steam, and I love scrapbooking so I was able to visit all of the shops I wanted, which would have been impossible/inpractical without a car.

You just need to plan your shopping trips for your 1st week and your'll be fine, and don't worry about the stroller, the bus drivers give you plenty of time to load on your gang!

[wideeyes]

I don't drive so we rely on disney transport which is fine however would be nice to have a car as it would be easier to go shopping and to other theme parks. We will be using Mears to get to the other theme parks in september though, I think it costs $16 return which is good. We get taxis to the Mall, $35 to Mall @ Millenia each way, so we usually only do one shopping trip. It will be nice to go as we please though for just a couple of hours in the eveing instead of making a day of it.