Transportation Options from Disney to Universal/IOA

[macraven]

last year it was $16 for kids.
don't know if there has been any increase now.
if it has, wouldn't be more than $1.

yes the shuttles from your motherland hotel can make stops at other disney resorts.
but, there are times that won't happen.

depends on the number of guests that chose the pick up time as you.

taxis do not take anyone but the ones that booked the ride.
they go straight to UO.

 

[ThisIsTheYear]

Now that you've decided to check out Universal Studios/IOA, how do you get there if you are staying on-site at Disney? Don't worry, you have a few options:


1. Rent a car
If you are staying at a Disney resort, the easiest option is to rent a car from the Walt Disney World Car Care Center, which is operated by Alamo and National. The Car Care Center offers a shuttle that will pick you up from any Disney hotel and take you to the Center to pick up your car. The shuttle will also drop you off at your Disney hotel after you return your car. If you wish, call the Car Care Center up to 24 hours in advance and arrange for them to send a shuttle for you. Alternatively, go to the front desk of your Disney resort about 30 minutes before your pickup time and ask them to call the Car Care Center shuttle. The phone number of the Car Care Center is (407) 824-3470.

Does anyone know the approximate cost of a rental from one of these places, for the day? Thx!

 

[sockmonkey10]

Question about tickets from dreams unlimited travel - if we get US IOA tickets with transportation included from mears it only offers electronic pickup of tickets at US. How do we get the mears portion to get there the first day. The website doesn't have info on this part and I really don't want to charge non refundable amount with out knowing how it works. Thanks for any help, we have never been to US, this is first trip where we are going to visit while staying at wdw.

 

[Metro West]

Does anyone know the approximate cost of a rental from one of these places, for the day? Thx!

Your best bet would be to check with the individual websites and see what the rate would be based on your dates. Rental rates vary from date to date.

Question about tickets from dreams unlimited travel - if we get US IOA tickets with transportation included from mears it only offers electronic pickup of tickets at US. How do we get the mears portion to get there the first day. The website doesn't have info on this part and I really don't want to charge non refundable amount with out knowing how it works. Thanks for any help, we have never been to US, this is first trip where we are going to visit while staying at wdw.

I would assume you'd get some sort of voucher for the Mears portion. Try calling or emailing them and see what they say.

 

[sharonW]

Has anyone used Mears transportation from
universal to the MK, disney. What is the cost?
Sure I can get a taxi but trying to keep within
the budget...any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[macraven]

Mears shuttle is $19 per adult rt, $16 children.


there is another transportation thread that is current that has more info in it.

they talk about alternative ways to travel from the motherland to the darkside.

 

[sharonW]

Mears shuttle is $19 per adult rt, $16 children.


there is another transportation thread that is current that has more info in it.

they talk about alternative ways to travel from the motherland to the darkside.

Is that one way?? thanks!

 

[Brian152]

Has anyone used Mears transportation from
universal to the MK, disney. What is the cost?
Sure I can get a taxi but trying to keep within
the budget...any suggestions would be appreciated!

I rented a car for 2 days in oct 2011 and it cost me about $110. Felt it to be the best option (without your own car, which I drive every time now). You do have to pay parking at universal but you are on your own schedule. Car rental place right in Disney.

 

[macraven]

if you only have 2 in your group, that would be a cheap way to go to the darkside for the day. $36.


Dreams Unlimited also has a service.
buy your UO ticket from them and use their transportation shuttle.
i don't know the current cost they have now.
i read a thread on the motherland side and a poster said DU had an increase.

 

[sharonW]

if you only have 2 in your group, that would be a cheap way to go to the darkside for the day. $36.


Dreams Unlimited also has a service.
buy your UO ticket from them and use their transportation shuttle.
i don't know the current cost they have now.
i read a thread on the motherland side and a poster said DU had an increase.

I guess I would have to set up the mears shuttle through the front desk?? I would like to get over to MK early and stay late, guess I'll have to call Mears maybe. would like to have it figured out before my april trip! thanks!

 

[macraven]

I guess I would have to set up the mears shuttle through the front desk?? I would like to get over to MK early and stay late, guess I'll have to call Mears maybe. would like to have it figured out before my april trip! thanks!

you're very welcome!

go to the concierge desk in the lobby of your motherland resort.
you need to sign up at least the night before you want to schedule your seats on the shuttle.

request the earliest time they have if you want to be at the darkside before opening.

sometimes the shuttle does stop at other disney hotels, sometimes it doesn't.
i guess it depends on how many guests are requesting that service for when you are. you can ask the concierge CM more about that when you sign up.

i do believe you have to pay for the ride when you sign up for it.

you can schedule your return pick up time or call 3 hours prior, something like that. it might have changed since last october when i was there.



WAIT........i must have misread your original question!
i thought you were staying at disney and wanting to go to universal.

the darkside hotels do not arrange the mears shuttle as that is a disney thing.

call Mears and talk with them on how you can pay and use their shuttle between the two parks.
or contact Dreams Unlimited and inquire about using their shuttle system.

sorry about the confusion. when i read you wanted to go to MK i realized it wasn't a typo after i reread your original post.

if those options don't work out, taxi or car rental would be the next step for obtaining transportation between the two parks.

 

[cc-atl]

hi.

We will be staying at a Disney Resort but making a few trips to Universal. We will have our car. I am wondering about the best route to take. We plan on travelling to Universal on at these times:

Saturday 2/9 at around 3pm
Sunday 2/10 for the 9am opening
Monday 2/11 for the 9am opening

I am particularly worried about traffic on Saturday 2/9 because there is a concert that evening at US and on Monday 2/11 with am rush hour traffic.

If you experts/locals were travelling from Disney to Orlando on those days which routes would you take?

Thanks

 

[aimsicle]

We are planning a trip WAY ahead (for October 2014), and at that time there will be 8 of us:
me, dh and 6 kids (ages 17, 16, 16, 14, 11, and 4) at the time of the trip

We need some time to save $$$

I have been to WDW with two of the kids, but the rest of them have never been, and given that some are HP fans and they are older, I thought a combo trip may be most appropriate. It is going to be the big family trip before many of them go to college.

I was thinking that it may be best to start at WDW for 5 days and end at Universal for two days (staying onsite because I bet a couple of the teens will want to do the Halloween Nights thing). And then was thinking that getting a rental van for the last few days for Universal may be the cheapest route to go in terms of transportation. Could I rent one at WDW and drop off at the airport?

Are there any other ways we could do this? I know it is already going to be $$$, but I do want to cut corners when it is reasonable.

Most likely we will be there from a Friday night to a Sunday morning.

 

[Cathmark]

We have used "Tiffany Towncar Service" for many years and have always been very pleased with their service.. In October 2012 we used them to transfer both from MCO to WDW and then back to MCO. There were 4 of us and they provided a SUV for transfer. They also have vans to provide transportation if needed. They have a web site to check rates and make a reservation. We will be using them again in October 2013.

 

[catpowers]

Hi. We're flying in from BOS to MCO in August. We booked our trip through Disney but are going to US first so when we did our US reservations we did the roundtrip airport pickup option ($30 pp) and the transportation company will bring us to the Poly at Disney instead of MCO when we leave US. Then when we leave Disney the following week we'll use Disney's transportation to get back to the airport. All in all, perhaps not the most cost effective solution, but since we had to get from MCO to US anyway and could only book it as a round-trip, ehh, it worked for us and only took a phone call to setup the transpo to Poly!

 

[chinhk]

We are searching for transportion options from WDW (Grand Floridian Resort) to Universal in Sept. Thanks to the info from this thread, I have gathered that my party of 4 adults would probably be best to just take a taxi from the WDW to Universal in the morning and then a taxi back to the resort. However, we still have a few questions and hope some of the experts here have the answers to them....

1. If the park opens at 9am (the parks' opening hours for Sept is still not released online yet), what time do you think we should leave the resort? Would 8.30am be okay or should we aim for an earlier time? I would like to be there just before opening.

2. Although it may be more cost effective to travel in a taxi for the four of us, I'm wondering how easy it would be for us to get a taxi back to WDW resort from Universal at the end of the day? We have considered to used a chattered service ie Tiffany towncar service etc (at least we know for sure that the return journey is booked at a certain time and we don't have to worry about waiting for or finding a taxi back to WDW but of course that is also less flexible compared to the taxi option).

 

[macraven]

We are searching for transportion options from WDW (Grand Floridian Resort) to Universal in Sept. Thanks to the info from this thread, I have gathered that my party of 4 adults would probably be best to just take a taxi from the WDW to Universal in the morning and then a taxi back to the resort. However, we still have a few questions and hope some of the experts here have the answers to them....

1. If the park opens at 9am (the parks' opening hours for Sept is still not released online yet), what time do you think we should leave the resort? Would 8.30am be okay or should we aim for an earlier time? I would like to be there just before opening.

2. Although it may be more cost effective to travel in a taxi for the four of us, I'm wondering how easy it would be for us to get a taxi back to WDW resort from Universal at the end of the day? We have considered to used a chattered service ie Tiffany towncar service etc (at least we know for sure that the return journey is booked at a certain time and we don't have to worry about waiting for or finding a taxi back to WDW but of course that is also less flexible compared to the taxi option).

you can assume that the park hours for September will be 9:00 am.


if the taxi drives I4 to the darkside, 30 minutes won't be enough time for you to get there at opening time.


you never know what type of traffic you will hit by leaving the motherland at 8:30.


buy your tickets in advance so you won't have that wait time to buy them when once in the park.


taxis are easy to find.
the TM's will help you get one when you leave the park.

 

[Sheila E.]

We purchased a Universal park to park deal thru DreamsUnlimited that also included shuttle service from your Disney resort, it worked great for us.

 

[TangerineZoe]

Hi, we're staying at the Royal Pacific next week and 3 of us just decided to split a cab to the resort from MCO, and then again from Universal to WDW because according to online fare calculators, that just seemed the least expensive/most efficient. Our flight gets in around 5pm on Wed and we're planning to leave Universal on Fri around 6pm. What's the traffic like in Orlando?

 

[Metro West]

Hi, we're staying at the Royal Pacific next week and 3 of us just decided to split a cab to the resort from MCO, and then again from Universal to WDW because according to online fare calculators, that just seemed the least expensive/most efficient. Our flight gets in around 5pm on Wed and we're planning to leave Universal on Fri around 6pm. What's the traffic like in Orlando?

You will be leaving during rush hour so the traffic is going to be bad. I-4 is like a parking lot most afternoons from 4-7:30PM and if there's an accident or broken down car, look out! If you take a cab, make sure the driver doesn't go on I-4 if at all possible...they should know the back roads to get you from Universal to WDW as quickly as possible. Still...you will run into delays around The Crossroads area...just a fact of life.

I'm going to merge this thread with the transportation sticky.