To Rent or Not to Rent.. A Car

[DisneyFan907]

I have been reading the Unofficial Guide, along with different websites, in preparation for our December WDW trip. I have read a few different view points on car rentals, but I would like personal stories of whether or not this is a good idea. We are planning on going to WDW for 4 days and possibly coming back for a 5th night for MVMCP, and we are spending 2.5-3 days at Universal. We are staying at Shades of Green, and there is a $5 per day parking fee, as well as a $14 parking fee at WDW (because SOG is not owned by WDW). Also there is a shuttle to US for $10 per person round trip ($20 each time we would go) or parking there is $15.. I did a rough estimate and it would be around $500 for a rental car with parking fees and such, but we would be gaining the freedom of eating outside WDW which would be nice. We have never been so we don't know if we will be wanting the freedom of hopping in the car, or if waiting for DTS is not going to be too much of a problem, and eating in the World will suffice.

My question is.. On previous trips did you wish you had rented a car, or were you glad you did? OR did you feel like DTS was sufficient and you wish you had saved the money?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Cyrano]

We have always rented a car, even when staying on-site.
Others are happy to use Disney transportation but we feel that impacts on our travelling time

 

[melifeld]

If we do not drive to WDW, we now rent a car. We tend to do ADRs at different resorts, and the travel time between resorts just eats into our vacation time too much. It once took us a VERY long time to get from dinner at WL back to our resort (POR). Luckily it was after the ADR and not before. Ever since then we prefer having a car at our disposal.

Of course, staying onsite we have not had to pay for parking. The cost of this may have swayed us. I just know that Disney transportation is awesome when you don't have to wait long, but when you do have to wait a long time it can get frustrating and people get cranky.

Whatever you decide, have a great trip.

 

[momtoaaliyah]

maybe im spoiled but I refuse (if I can help it) to take buses/public T when I am home and I definitely don't want to do it while I'm on vacation. I have no first hand experience with Disney transportation but in all reality the couple hundred it might run you for a car rental is worth not having to deal with buses, schedules, time restrictions ect. Being able to walk out of your hotel and get into a car and be on your way.

A car rental is definitely a must for me, with that said I have friends that have no problem taking public transportation to and from work ect ect and in that case they would be perfectly happy relying on Disney's transportation.

Do you need it if your staying on site? probably not. I think its just personal preference.

 

[fcole12369]

I live in Georgia so we always drive, but I have found the Disney bus system to be fine. I'm never in such a hurry that I can't wait 10-15 minutes.

 

[DisneyFan907]

Thanks everyone for the advice so far. When I was reading the Unofficial Guide, it said that the transportation times from SOG using DTS were almost twice as long as using a car pretty much going everywhere so that swayed me a bit. I don't mind riding the bus and I am not really an impatient person, but I sometimes gets overwhelmed in large crowds and I think knowing that I can go into my own car and not have to wait in big crowds for a bus would really improve my vacation. My DBF said it is up to me to decide, he hates planning things, so I wanted to get some first hand advice before deciding.

 

[Reddy]

we drive so we have a car there
but so far we have parked the car & it is has stayed in that spot our whole trip - we do quick service dinning so no resort to resort traveling except for a Chef Mickey Breakfast that was at 7 am & the bus took us right there instead of MK (everyone getting on the bus was going to Chef Mickey)

I would say go without but if you decide you need one a CM at the front desk can help you find a rental

 

[ttintagel]

One of the top three reasons I choose a WDW vacation in the first place is that you can get around without having to drive.

 

[alc571]

Rent the car. We tried the bus once on our last trip and it was awful. The ride to MK was great, but leaving after MNSSHP with a tired, cranky child was horrible. He just wanted to fall asleep, and we couldn't get a seat for him on the bus. If we had taken the car, he could have fallen asleep there. DH said never again would we ever take Disney busses!

 

[FtWildrns5]

Our upcomiong trip in June will be without a car. On our first trip we stayed at FW so we had our truck. I am looking forward to letting soemone else (either bus/monorail/boat) do the driving for me this time.

I would say start off without the rental. You should know after your first day if you will need it. If you do decide that you need get it then. That way if you decide that you don't need it you have saved the cost of the rental.

 

[KingofSwing3000]

My motto: if you had a car you would have been there already.

Using any other form of transportation (i.e. shuttle) will eat away at about 2hrs per day of your trip. Guaranteed. After just 5 days you've lost enough time (10hrs) to have been able to do at least 10 attractions -- that's a whole days worth missed.

 

[DisneyFan907]

we drive so we have a car there
but so far we have parked the car & it is has stayed in that spot our whole trip - we do quick service dinning so no resort to resort traveling except for a Chef Mickey Breakfast that was at 7 am & the bus took us right there instead of MK (everyone getting on the bus was going to Chef Mickey)

I would say go without but if you decide you need one a CM at the front desk can help you find a rental

Our upcomiong trip in June will be without a car. On our first trip we stayed at FW so we had our truck. I am looking forward to letting soemone else (either bus/monorail/boat) do the driving for me this time.

I would say start off without the rental. You should know after your first day if you will need it. If you do decide that you need get it then. That way if you decide that you don't need it you have saved the cost of the rental.

It is a lot cheaper to rent it along with the cost of the flight rather than separately when we are already there, because we considered just getting it for the time we will spend at US.

 

[ginnygi]

Thanks everyone for the advice so far. When I was reading the Unofficial Guide, it said that the transportation times from SOG using DTS were almost twice as long as using a car pretty much going everywhere so that swayed me a bit. I don't mind riding the bus and I am not really an impatient person, but I sometimes gets overwhelmed in large crowds and I think knowing that I can go into my own car and not have to wait in big crowds for a bus would really improve my vacation. My DBF said it is up to me to decide, he hates planning things, so I wanted to get some first hand advice before deciding.

It "may" reduce the travel time to the parks, other than MK (even the guides acknowledge the Disney transportation to MK is shorter than by car), BUT then you have the added time of driving around looking for a parking spot and then walking from the parking lots to the front gates, whereas the buses drop you off right in front of the gates. We used a cab when we wanted to go off property to eat or just wanted to shorten our transportation time for a meal reservation or something. Taking a cab 6-8 times was still WAY cheaper than renting a car for a week + parking fees, etc. My opinion: dont rent. Its a waste of money and a hassle.

 

[3girls4me05]

Well here is the things I figure...for the price of a car rental I can take a taxi many times over. Now we stayed at Boardwalk so we could walk to Epcot and take the boat or walk to HS. So that left MK and AK. We took the bus for these most of the time. But one morning we were rushing to get to our ADR at Crystal Palace and hopping in to a cab allowed us to continue to relax. He dropped us at the Contemporary parking lot and we strolled over to MK from there. Another time we were heading to Downtown Disney for BBB. We had just missed the bus so we took a taxi. Both fares were about $15 or so with tip.

 

[oneprincessjo]

Rent the car. We tried the bus once on our last trip and it was awful. The ride to MK was great, but leaving after MNSSHP with a tired, cranky child was horrible. He just wanted to fall asleep, and we couldn't get a seat for him on the bus. If we had taken the car, he could have fallen asleep there. DH said never again would we ever take Disney busses!

Agreed!!! We had the same problem coming back from DTD to BLT and no one could make room for me to sit down with my 15 month old, unbelievable. In fact I has people push me out of the way to get a seat. We drove from PA so we had our car, so unless we could take the monorail or walk from BLT to MK we drove everywhere, we couldn't believe it took us so many trips to realize how much better it was for us to drive, especially at the end of a very hot day. We hopped in our own car without being shoulder to shoulder with strangers and blasted the air conditioning and went on our way.

 

[Sphinx610]

Well here is the things I figure...for the price of a car rental I can take a taxi many times over.

Totally agree... Sometimes it's nice to do the taxi, like to get to ADRs at other hotels wo the stress of missing or whatever.

Now we stayed at Boardwalk so we could walk to Epcot and take the boat or walk to HS. So that left MK and AK.

Not exactly, you can take the monorail from Epcot to MK... You just need a bus to get to AK... Just sayin...

We took the bus for these most of the time

I've been to wdw 11 times and never had a car. (Wait not true, once when I was 4 we stayed offsite and needed a car obvi but never did that again) I have never had an overall problem with the wdw busses. Here and there over Thanksgiving I waited a while, but it was a super busy time of year. Other than that it really isn't that big a deal. I am used to public trans at home and prefer it. I absolutely hate driving, parking, blah blah... I'd much rather wa it for a bus for 15 mins than ride around finding parking, wait for a tram, walk from tram to gate, take tram back to car, then try to remember where I parked... Now that stresses ME out. lol Ugh I just hate it. Lol so it's really a personal decision. If you are not a patient person or are germophobic, hate public trans, dont deal well with crowds, etc then def rent a car. And if you are staying on property I believe the parking is free at the parks...

Good luck and have fun whatever your decision!

 

[powellrj]

We always rent a car, I hate having to depend on others to get around.

 

[DisneyFan907]

Well here is the things I figure...for the price of a car rental I can take a taxi many times over. Now we stayed at Boardwalk so we could walk to Epcot and take the boat or walk to HS. So that left MK and AK. We took the bus for these most of the time. But one morning we were rushing to get to our ADR at Crystal Palace and hopping in to a cab allowed us to continue to relax. He dropped us at the Contemporary parking lot and we strolled over to MK from there. Another time we were heading to Downtown Disney for BBB. We had just missed the bus so we took a taxi. Both fares were about $15 or so with tip.

We thought about the taxi, and this might sound silly, but we wanted to try to eat at a Five guys because we don't have one in Alaska and we love it.. And I thought asking a taxi to go through a drive through would be embarrassing haha. But $15 isn't bad at all for getting around Disney that's basically the price of parking.

 

[3girls4me05]

Totally agree... Sometimes it's nice to do the taxi, like to get to ADRs at other hotels wo the stress of missing or whatever.


Not exactly, you can take the monorail from Epcot to MK... You just need a bus to get to AK... Just sayin...



I've been to wdw 11 times and never had a car. (Wait not true, once when I was 4 we stayed offsite and needed a car obvi but never did that again) I have never had an overall problem with the wdw busses. Here and there over Thanksgiving I waited a while, but it was a super busy time of year. Other than that it really isn't that big a deal. I am used to public trans at home and prefer it. I absolutely hate driving, parking, blah blah... I'd much rather wa it for a bus for 15 mins than ride around finding parking, wait for a tram, walk from tram to gate, take tram back to car, then try to remember where I parked... Now that stresses ME out. lol Ugh I just hate it. Lol so it's really a personal decision. If you are not a patient person or are germophobic, hate public trans, dont deal well with crowds, etc then def rent a car. And if you are staying on property I believe the parking is free at the parks...

Good luck and have fun whatever your decision!

True but walking to Epcot then through the whole park to get to the front to the monorail seems like a lot of work. Way easier to hop on the bus at our resort. Now if we were at Epcot already then we hopped on the monorail to get to MK

 

[Magpie]

I don't know enough about the efficiency of the busses from Shades of Green to give an informed opinion, but I will say that we stay at Pop Century and we never rent a car.

My husband resisted using Disney busses for a long time ("I take a bus to work, I'm not going to take one on vacation!"), but once he got a taste of it, he was sold. For him, the busses are what make it a "real" vacation now. He says he loves getting picked up at the airport, being ferried to our resort, and taking the bus everywhere. He doesn't have to worry about parking or car rental or anything else. Someone else is responsible for doing all the driving and we save a LOT of money.

And we like the freedom of just hopping a monorail between Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, or walking or taking a boat over to Hollywood Studios, without having to go back to the parking lot to collect a car and drag it around with us. When we had a car, we never got park hoppers. Now that we have no car to worry about, we hop all over the place.

However, part of what makes all this work is that the busses from Pop Century are great. Never more than a fifteen minute wait, and the travel time is short, too. (Ten to twenty minutes, depending which park we're headed to.) Especially when we're going to the Magic Kingdom, I know the bus is faster than driving, since it takes us directly to the park, skipping the whole boat/monorail thing.

So, I don't know if renting a car would be better for you. But for us, we love the Disney busses!