Driving to parks vs. resort bus

[Boog's Mommy]

We took buses 2 yrs before we had our son. Then we've driven our car the next 10 yrs. I will never take a bus again. It's so convenient getting in car and not having to wait. And dealing with stroller on tram is a piece of cake. I hold my son's hand and get him on tram, while my husband folds up stroller. It folds with a slight twist of the handle and you can do it with one hand. Sometimes at end of night buses are so full that you may have to wait for a second bus. I would hate to be in that situation with 2 tired young kids

 

[lovemy3girls]

Since we take 2 strollers those parking trams are a huge pain for us! We prefer busses. Seriously, trying to get on a tram at the end of a long day with 5 kids (one being a 4 month old baby), 2 strollers, bags, and only 2 grownups, we had people push past us (because we were a little bit slower with the kids and supplies) and get on a tram that we had been waiting for longer than anyone. This happened twice and we finally got in the 3rd tram. It was so annoying! Busses are still a pain but nothing is as horrible as those trams!

 

[tiggerunner]

Traveling to the MK, the bus takes you right to the entrance. This is far superior than driving to the TTC and taking the monorail or boat to the MK. For all other parks, your car will take you pretty close to where the bus would drop you off, unless you are late in arriving. For all parks except the MK, I greatly preferred to drive when my DD was young. We could pack more without hogging bus space, and could leave when we wanted. The car could also serve as a locker for "stuff". As far as timing goes, if a bus is pulling up at the very moment that you are leaving your resort, the bus will be as fast, or faster than your car. But if you have to wait for a bus, then taking your car is almost always faster. Look at it this way. Say you have to wait 7 minutes for a bus. Those 7 minutes in your car will get you well on your way to whatever park you are going to. This assumes, of course, that you care about 7 extra minutes!

I'm sorry, but where do buses drop you off at the MK gate? I have always used the TTC whether I used a car or bus. Just wondering?
Thanks

 

[labattblue]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but one of the worst parts of taking the bus(especially on the trip from the parks to the hotels) is being jammed on to the bus after a long day at the parks.

 

[dvc one day]

When we stayed at POP, the bus system was torture. (The week after Thanksgiving; lower crowds.) After the first two days, we decided to start taking the car. We waited way longer for the buses both leaving the resort and the parks at night, than other resorts.

We have stayed at Pop in the middle of May and Thanksgiving week. We only waited for a bus for any length of time twice. Once after Wishes (which is always crazy) and one other long story with a few abnormal variables.

Having read a few threads on here about the buses, it seems to be a lot of random luck. Or people have different experiences for some other reason I am not thinking of.

 

[smitch425]

I'm sorry, but where do buses drop you off at the MK gate? I have always used the TTC whether I used a car or bus. Just wondering?
Thanks

If you get on a Disney bus that says "Magic Kingdom" it will take you right to the bus stops near the gate. No need to go to the TTC.

 

[Jestocost]

If you haven't done both, how can you fairly compare? Is your mind's eye really all that clairvoyant. I think that mrjef presents a pretty compelling argument gleaned from real world experience.

Most of the major fights in my married life have come while driving. I can safely say that NOT driving is the right choice for our family. No clairvoyance required. YMMV.

 

[JohnnyB2]

Another vote for the Bus. I know it can get quite crowed at times but, we try to avoid the times we think might be those most crowded times. I know that always doesn't work

 

[KristiKat]

Another vote for the bus. I love going a week without arguing with my DH about which way to go or why I didn't tell him to turn back there even if I had no clue.

 

[Bullseye]

Thanks for all of the information!

There are a few topics regarding Disney touring that most people agree on. I guess this isn't one of them, lol. I think we will give the car a shot as long we are going for RD. It sounds like if you miss RD, and have to park in the back of the parking lot, you will have to lug the stroller and the kiddies onto a bus/tram anyways! The kiddies are 12mo and 3yo (or remember my 36mo thread awhile back?)

Magic Kingdom excluded (I think we will take the bus there to avoid the TTC), what time should we head to each park for 9:00am RD? Leave POP by about 8:00 to be safe?

I bet you'll be happy you did and like many of us who have done both, you may never go back to buses once you see how convenient having your own ride is. Even if you don't make rope drops, it's no big deal getting your stroller(s) into the tram. The rows on trams will hold five adults. You can come and go as you please, plus you can hit a regular grocery store for room supplies at everyday prices. Have fun!

 

[tanyaandallie]

OP didn't say when they were travelling and the info I gave about the parks opening earlier than posted IS correct. I also said to leave at that time if they wanted to be near the front of the park BEFORE the park gates open. That is great that you could still get great parking so late, but as I said before it is all dependent on crowds for the day. Since we do not know what "day" OP is talking about, neither my info or your info could be considered "good" or "bad". It is just considered "info".

ETA: OP, we could give you some better info if we knew the "when" and "where" details of your stay.

Agreed. If you want to arrive at the parks after rope drop you don't have to worry about leaving super early. If you want to hit DHS (non) rope drop, you have to leave early. Turnstiles opened 15 minutes early when we were there a few weeks ago. We arrived probably 8:30 and were in one of the first rows of parking but were pretty far back in line. It was fine since once they started letting people in they opened the additional turnstiles and we moved up. Epcot was the same, opened early so best to arrive early!!!

Drive time, depending on where you are coming from, is really not long. It did not take us more than 10ish minutes (or it seemed that way) to drive to the parks.

 

[Mickey Gator]

Why would anybody ride a bus if they have the option to drive? When you want to leave you simply make your way to your car and leave. If you depend on a bus, you will have to wait 10-20 minutes for a bus to arrive then you might or might not get on the bus. And if you make it on the bus you might have to stand and listen to kids whine and cry. Just drive an enjoy life.

 

[hakepb]

Why would anybody ride a bus if they have the option to drive? When you want to leave you simply make your way to your car and leave. If you depend on a bus, you will have to wait 10-20 minutes for a bus to arrive then you might or might not get on the bus. And if you make it on the bus you might have to stand and listen to kids whine and cry. Just drive an enjoy life.

I still feel the bus experience is overall less stress to me. And while I suppose Disney traffic is not that bad (I learned to drive near Chicago) it I more than I am used to in my easy rural commute, now.
I can certainly see how someone from a major metro area would enjoy Disney driving but it's not something I like.

 

[smidgy]

Most of the major fights in my married life have come while driving. I can safely say that NOT driving is the right choice for our family. No clairvoyance required. YMMV.

Another vote for the bus. I love going a week without arguing with my DH about which way to go or why I didn't tell him to turn back there even if I had no clue.

one wrong turn and "uh-oh! "

even though we are now familiar with the "lay of the land", and have driven to the water parks, AK and DHS in the morning, and downtown disney, we prefer the bus.. even when we have our own car.

esp. when (and this point hasn't been mentioned) we may be having more than one cocktail. we are on vacation. let someone else do the driving!

 

[Planogirl]

We once again tried to do it with buses only and it just doesn't work for us. We like having the freedom to come and go as we please and being able to drive offsite just for a fountain drink that isn't a Coke product is priceless. Plus sometimes the wait we had for the buses was the pits.

I even prefer to drive to MK because I enjoy the ferry ride.

 

[maxiesmom]

Why would anybody ride a bus if they have the option to drive? When you want to leave you simply make your way to your car and leave. If you depend on a bus, you will have to wait 10-20 minutes for a bus to arrive then you might or might not get on the bus. And if you make it on the bus you might have to stand and listen to kids whine and cry. Just drive an enjoy life.

For one thing, I don't like driving in strange cities if I don't have to.
Secondly, I would much rather get into a nice cool bus than into a hot car.
Third, if you are at the parks at open or until close the traffic snarls can be horrible. Probably because of all those people who don't know exactly where they are going!
Fourth, I can have an adult beverage and not have to worry about driving.

For me the question is Why would anyone drive when they can sit back, relax, and let someone else do the driving?

 

[Nomad70]

We are the family who parks the car and doesn't get back into it until we go home! Driving to the parks to us seems MUCH more of a hassle, even when we did use a stroller. It wasn't that big of a deal. With that said, I hope more people start driving themselves so the buses aren't as crowded at times.

Maxiesmom, you said it perfectly!

 

[labdogs42]

We always liked having a car to drive to the parks when DS used a stroller. We don't mind walking, so we'd usually just load up the stroller at the car, walk to the park entrance (or one of use would walk and one take the tram, but usually we both walked for the exercise), and never have to fold the stroller down again until we got back to our car. Unloading a stroller and folding up the stroller to get on a bus just stressed us out. We tried it a couple of times, but it wasn't for us. Now that we do't use a stroller, the Disney buses are easier to manage, but we still like to have a car as an option.

And, keep in mind that sometimes you have to wait 15 minutes for the bus to arrive. You could have easily walked to your car and been halfway to where you wanted to go by then! I drive, even to MK. I like parking there because then if I want to park hop, it doesn't matter if I end my day in MK or Epcot, I can still get back to my car easily!

 

[Kay1]

My husband likes to drive so we drive when he's with us. My son and I usually take the buses just because I hate to drive, period.

Have a great trip.

 

[FaerieFire]

I gave up on the buses after our arrival night on our last trip. It took 90 minutes to get from MK to DTD, and we were almost late for La Nouba because of that. Then, we went to get the bus to our ADR more than an hour later at Cape May, only to wait more than 30 minutes for the resort bus to arrive, then get stuck in a traffic jam for 20 minutes, not even getting a block out of the parking lot. We gave up, got off the bus right there and ate CS dinner at our resort, an hour later, which was when we got back. From that point on, we drove our car everywhere, and I'm not sure I'd ever take another bus... I know I wouldn't trust the bus for an ADR or any other time-sensitive event or schedule.

°o° Lace — Planning our second WDW adventure, 11/1-12 AoA-LM (Sent from my iPad using DISBoards)