Another question.....transportation this time!!

[pooky_uk]

Hi all - me again with more questions!

We plan not to hire a car for the full trip.....but may do so on the odd day to hit the malls....unless you can catch a "bus" there?

We are staying at POFQ...

Questions:

1. I understand that DTD buses only go to the resort hotels and not the parks?...so we can get on the boat to DTD then hop on a bus to the contemporary for our dinner at Chef Mickeys?

2. Where does the mononrail serve? Just MK, GF, Poly & Contemporary??

3. Can you park jump directly...i.e. catch a bus from MK to Epcot? or do you have to go to a resort to pick up another bus to another park??

4. Can you get to any of the malls from disney property/parks?

5. Can you get to seaworld/discovery cove from disney property/parks?

6. What time to the buses usually start running??

7. One more, you can't bus directly from resort to resort can you??

You can tell I have never been before can't you!!!

 

[Hilary]

Okay, I'll have a go at some of these:

1. Yes, you could go on the boat via DTD, or you could get the POFQ bus to any of the parks (assuming you'll be travelling during park operating hours) and then transfer to a bus for the Contemporary.

2. There are two monorail routes. One links MK with the resorts you mention, the other links MK with Epcot.

3. You can get a bus directly from one park to another.

4. There are no Disney buses to any of the malls, but you would easily be able to get a taxi to anywhere off property from any of the resorts or parks.

5. Again, no Disney transport but there are taxis and shuttle buses which will pick you up from any Disney resort and take you to SeaWorld.

6. Disney transport starts running 1 -2 hours before the parks open.

7. No, unless you're on a route sharing the bus with another resort (e.g. POFQ and POR share, except at busy times).

 

[disneyeveryyear]

1. Depending on what time you are going to Chef Mickey's - it would be fastest to grab the Magic Kingdom bus at POFQ and then walk over to the Contemporary. It is a very short walk (less than 5 minutes). If MK is closed by the time you leave, you could grab monorail to Epcot and get a bus back from there.

 

[pigby]

Agree with all the answers - also you can (as we did) get a Lynx bus from the TTC (bus no 50, I think) and catch a bus to Seaworld for just over $1 per person one way. Quite a regular service - it used to be about every half hour - it's good if your're on a budget. www.golynx.com/

 

[AndRu]

Sorry to sound obtuse but I just can't understand people who don't hire a car for a Florida trip You have to consider that Disney alone (aledgedly) is the same size as Manchester. Travelling to the malls and shopping outlets is even further. Without wanting to knock either Manchester or Disney transport systems, would you really look forward to spending long periods of time on buses?

A friend that stayed on site last year only ventured outside of the Disney area once by taxi and according to him, they had to pay for the taxi to come on site to Disney and again to take them to International Drive. He (and I) also found that if you want to cross the road in America its far safer to do so in a car. Their 'crossings' are nothing like those we have in the UK as the roads are a) much wider and b) the time to cross is much shorter. As an analagy, its like trying to cross the equivalent of the M25 in 10 seconds flat.

Whilst you could visit Orlando without a car, you'll miss out on so much and make life more difficult that it need be.

 

[MsMoneyPenny]

Whilst you could visit Orlando without a car, you'll miss out on so much and make life more difficult that it need be.

We have had this comment made to us many times. We have been to Disney and Universal (stayed on site) many times and have never missed out on anything, nor has it proved difficult.

Our choice not to drive is based on the fact that we don't like driving abroad but mainly due to age/medical conditions we are heavily (and I mean astronomically) penalised for car insurance.

When staying onsite at Universal for a couple of days obviously we only hit the parks and eat at either our hotel or one of the other Universal hotels/Citywalk.

When we stay at Disney we rely on the Disney transportation to take us to/from the parks/DTD, plus of course the Disney transportation drops you off directly at the park entrance as opposed to, in the case of Magic Kingdom, parking then taking the monorail/boat to the entrance. When we venture off site (and we do regularly) we either get a cab from the hotel (there have always been cabs stationed at the Disney hotels we have stayed at). Another thing with the Disney buses is they often go routes that the general public in cars can't go. As an experiment the other year one of my friends was adament it would be quicker to drive herself, so we went on the bus to Epcot and she drove - 15 minutes after we arrived and were waiting at the entrance she arrived.

I have never heard that you have to pay for a cab to come on property, we let bell services just call us one over from the hotel parking lot - I'm wondering if your friend tried to call a cab himself?

If we want to knock a few dollars off the cost of a cab we will catch the Disney bus to DTD and grab a cab from the rank outside Marketplace to where we want to go.

We also go off site to eat at one of the many restaurants around IDrive by just either catching a cab at the hotel or from DTD - any restaurant we eat at will call us a cab back to our Disney hotel. We also go to all the malls again by cab, and as the malls have cab ranks outside it is no problem at all getting a cab back to Disney.

Not having a hire car has never stopped us from going anyway in Orlando, for us, due to the heavy penalities on the car insurance in our case, it works out more cost effective as opposed to having the hire car. Also, we really don't like driving abroad so for us it is the ideal solution.

 

[Hilary]

Sorry to sound obtuse but I just can't understand people who don't hire a car for a Florida trip

We've had several non-car WDW trips, and not missed a car at all. However they were mainly, if not exclusively, trips to WDW rather than wider Orlando/Florida, and we always stay onsite at either WDW or USF to do the theme parks. We've also taken several trips with a rental car when we've split our trip between Orlando and other parts of Florida. On some mainly theme-park trips, even planning a couple of trips off-site it has worked out cheaper for us to take a taxi than have the rental car sitting in the resort parking lot for most of the time.

Without wanting to knock either Manchester or Disney transport systems, would you really look forward to spending long periods of time on buses?

Yes, sad though it may sound, we actually enjoy letting the Disney bus do our driving for us! For us, it's more of a holiday without having to think about the car after a long, tiring day in the parks. We like leaving the parks at the end of the day and not have to battle it out in the long lines of cars leaving the parking lots (or the extra boat/monorail trip to get to the MK parking lot), or grappling with the maps to find our way around. DH can also enjoy a drink with our evening meal if he isn't driving. We have never had to wait more than about 20 minutes for a bus back to our resort, even at the busiest times - often it's more like 5 minutes.

Whilst you could visit Orlando without a car, you'll miss out on so much and make life more difficult that it need be.

IMHO it's all down to the type of holiday you want. If you want to spend the majority of your time in the theme parks then I would suggest you can manage very well without a car by staying on site (both WDW and USF). If you want to explore further afield or stay off-site then it may be easier to drive.

Horses for courses .

 

[AndRu]

Its all about choice I suppose and I would choose a car over the cost of cabs, buses and public transport everytime. It's also a freedom thing, you can't keep asking a cab or bus driver to stop so you can go and look at a shop that looks interesting.

I personally wouldn't want to spend my holiday time waiting for buses / cabs to get my family from A to B when a car is more applicable. As for going mall shopping by bus, I don't know how we'd do that. Last time we hit "Steve & Barry's" in Festival Bay we had 6 bags of clothes after 20 minutes shopping. It helped that everything (and I mean everything, coats, t shirts, jeans the lot) was $8 each. We had to load the car up and then go back for other stuff. If we'd have been on a bus / cab we would have been royally stuffed.

We could do a fortnightly food shop at Tesco's without a car but choose not to because it would be 2 bus journeys with about 12 bags of shopping.
We could use public transport to get all five of us to and from the airport but we choose not to as it would be two buses and a change on a train with lots of luggage.

As I said, you can do Orlando without a car but you are making life difficult for yourself. A car gives you the freedom, extra time and most importably, safety that public transport cannot compete with.

 

[Hilary]

As I said, you can do Orlando without a car but you are making life difficult for yourself. A car gives you the freedom, extra time and most importably, safety that public transport cannot compete with.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one!

I still maintain the theme park buses give us freedom to 'switch off' from the driving/navigating concentration. Anz has said their time-test put the bus ahead of the car in saving time getting to the theme parks. I have absolutely no statistics to back me up on this, but I would think the safety issue is very much weighted against UK drivers who have just stepped off a nine-hour flight and are trying to navigate their rental car along unfamiliar road systems.

But we still enjoy having our rental car when we're exploring Florida - I'm in the middle of trying to get a decent quote for hire on our next trip

BTW, in answer to the OP's question about getting to the shopping malls, Simon's Brit's Guide mentions that some of the larger malls arrange their own free transport from Orlando hotels.

 

[pooky_uk]

Thanks for the info....we do plan to use transportation but for I drive and Seaworld we may hire a car.....just see how it goes The main reason we did't hire a car in the first place is that we are doing (grammer!!) the cruise and have transportation with that.......

Hopefully it won't be too much extra to just hire a car off the cuff??

Thanks again

 

[Penny12]

Whoever had to pay for a taxi to come and pick them up <b>got ripped off</b> - there should be NO charge for that, just the same as here at home! There are more taxi's on WDW property than you can shake a stick at, so there is always one right around the corner or are even sitting there already waiting at the resorts and parks!

Always make sure you get a Yellow Cab - a simple call to reception of your resort to order one will make sure you have a 'real' taxi

I have had trips to WDW with and without a car. It's really not that bad. The Lynx bus that runs from the TTC to Seaworld has, 1 - I repeat 1 stop between the two locations. It takes about 20 minutes...just the same as a car

Getting to the Malls would be a bit of a nightmare by bus though. Nearest is the Premium Outlets - go to Downtown Disney and catch a taxi from there (taxi rank) - it's really not very far from there and so is pretty cheap. They have a taxi rank based there for your return too.

Not sure what all the comments are about re: safety though. I've always felt perfectly safe on any Disney bus, Lynx bus, and taxi I've been in. And I've travelled at all times of day or night too.

There are plus's for both scenario's...I know, I've done them both, I would never imply there's a right or wrong choice though. Horses for courses and all that