10 days@WLV car/no car??

[Jamie]

We have always rented cars on our vacations but have never gone for this long before (10 days). We really are trying to decide between using Yourride or just renting. Not planning on doing too much outside WDW except maybe dinners if we have a car. What has your experience been for this length of time? Also, if you rented where did you find the best rate (full size in July). If you use the buses how much extra time do you allow vs. driving?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Pa@okw95]

The WLV hae an excellent boat ride to MK. This boat ride is just a big plus to those staying at WLV. The rest of the parks would require a bus ride to get to unless you wanted to first go to MK and take the monorail to EPCOT. I would except that it is going to take you longer to get to the parks from WLV then from other resorts. Unless you know all the ins and outs of driving around WDW and parking your car I really would suggest you use the buses. This statement is coming from someone that rarely rides the buses at WDW, I drive all the time everywhere, with maybe the exception being MK. I do not recommend it to anyone however.

 

[shelly3girls]

We stayed 8 nights at WL last year. We did not feel the need for a car, but we did not mind eating in WDW for all of our meals. We were happy with the transportation. The only time we would have used the car was to get to the luau, but we just took a taxi which was relatively cheap. We have never rented a car though so I would love to hear other opinions.

 

[drusba]

You can survive without a car. However, having a car is much faster from WL to Downtown Disney, waterparks, and going to another resort, all of which you may do if you are there 10 days (difference in travel time between car and bus can often be 30 minutes or more). It is also somewhat faster but not much to theme parks other than MK (for which a car takes longer). Also, with that amount of time a car gives you the ability to easily go off-site, like to Universal, if you get the urge. For rates, check the car rental company sites themselves (Dollar is often less than some others) but also check mousesavers.com for any discount codes for car rentals that you might be able to use at that time.

 

[jel0511]

We always rent a car, but only use it for the dinners at different resorts/offiste, DTD, and getting to the grocery store. It really feels like we're saving time, especially if we want to go to the Poly!! It's two minutes down the road, whereas if you use Disney transport, it could be an hour!!! If you don't plan on going to many different resorts, or don't mind taking a lot of time to get there, then get the towncar. We always take the busses/boat to the parks, since we drove once to MGM, and the walk to the car was horrible!!!!

 

[PalVal]

We are staying at WLV for 10 days in March, using Tiffany Car service with a stop at the grocery store on the way from the airport. That's all we need. We don't care if it takes longer to get places, we don't have to worry about driving or walking to/from parks or hotels. We can always take the boat to MK or the Contemporary and catch the monorail to the Poly, GF or Epcot for dinner. It makes for a stress free vacation. With a 10 day stay, you're never in a hurry to go anywhere!

 

[crisi]

Keep in mind you can also grab a taxi - especially useful for dining at a cross world hotel.

 

[anniet]

Just returned from a 10 day vacation at VWL. We rented a car and I was glad we did. We went over to Boardwalk a couple of nights and driving there was much easier.

I found the roads were very well marked and only once coming back froma late dinner at AKL did I take a wrong turn and end up on I-4. It was my fault though, I knew I should have turned, but went straight, but I was tired and wasn't paying any attention.

I can't speak for the rates the time of year you are going, but we rented an intermediate car from Dollar and not only got what I considered a great rate of $396 including tax for TWO weeks, but when we got there they upgraded us to a minivan. (Apparently they ran out of intermediates and luxury cars)

If you want to stay around the Lodge or the Magic Kingdom resorts for all ten days and only venture out occasionally you will probably be fine without a car. We found we would have been much to tired to hassle with Disney transportation once we returned to our room in the evening. But if you want to go when you want to go (like me ) I would just keep searching the internet sites for a good rate.

Good luck!

 

[patsal]

We stayed 14 days last year in July (over the July 4th holiday). Although we had a car we rarely used it. If going again for that length of time I would save the money unless I could find a great rate on the car. WL has great boat transportation to the MK, the bus service is a little lacking and it shares busses with the Campground. We found it easy to grab the boat to MK which stops at the CR. We could take the monorail to the TTC and transfer to an Epcot monorail, use the monorail to get to other deluxes on the monorail system, etc.

 

[GCM13]

We stayed at VWL last year for 10 days and rented a car. This was the first and only time we have rented one. We figured since we would be there that long, we should have a car. Getting groceries kind of turned out to be small disaster. I took my son with me to Winn Dixie and got quite a bit of groceries. When arriving back at VWL, I thought we should just park the car instead of using valet parking not realizing how far and how large the parking lot was. Decided to valet park, but it was so busy that I sat there for over 5 min. without any help and frozen items in the trunk. Ended up finding a parking spot which felt like a mile away and had to make several trips to the room to get everything in. I would not do that again. If we stayed at OKW, it would have been fine. We mostly used the car to drive to DD and we ate offsite a couple times. For us, it wasn't worth the extra cost to have the car. Disney transportation was fine.