Bus or Car......getting nervous

[plymouthmom]

Okay so there has been a lot of discussion on this board and others of late on the bus system within WDW. I am heading down in 2 months and was not planning on renting a car, now I am thinking i would be making a mistake if I didn't. Last trip, Oct of 2007, we rented a car which we paid WAY to much for and felt like we could have made it on the buses. We were not DVC members at the time. We stayed at All Star Music and only took the bus a couple of times and had no problems with waits at all.

There are six of us and our youngest is 5. I really cannot imagine waiting for a bus more than 10 or 15 minutes.

Would love advice from wise ones on this.

 

[Lynn5700]

I had no problems with the buses at SSR and AKV....where are you staying?

 

[castleri]

Even when we rent a car we don't use it for doing any of the Disney things except the water parks and going to another resort like CSR for a meal. Last trip we did not get a car at all and never had an overly long wait for a bus at either SSR or AKV. That was in Sept.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Even when we rent a car we don't use it for doing any of the Disney things except the water parks and going to another resort like CSR for a meal. Last trip we did not get a car at all and never had an overly long wait for a bus at either SSR or AKV. That was in Sept.

Pretty much the same for us. We bring our car, but once parked we rarely use it except for groceries, etc. However, if I found myself having to wait for buses I wouldn't hesitate to put the car into service.

 

[plymouthmom]

We are staying at SSR. Have our dining ressies in the parks or DTD. Doing a couple of golf days and water parks, weather permitting.

I just get nervous as I am a lets do this now kinda gal!

 

[Lynne M]

Same here. I only rent a car because I have friends who live in the area. I only use it to go offsite, and use Disney transportation otherwise. Before I'd met these friends, I used DME and was perfectly happy with it.

Here's the deal with Disney transportation. By and large, it works very well. As with any large transportation system, there are glitches. Bus drivers call out sick, buses have mechanical problems, bigger-than-expected groups of passengers show up at unexpected times or locations. So there are occasional delays.

Everyone's impatient to get where they're going. It's vacation, there are exciting theme parks to see, and people want to get there NOW. But in the great majority of cases, you'll wait no more than 15 minutes for a bus, and you'll get to your destination within a half-hour.

No resort has perfect transportation, and no resort has consistently bad transportation. If you read these boards long enough, you'll see reports of transportation issues at every resort. They're not the norm, but of course people want to post to tell about their horrible 45-minute wait for a bus. Nobody posts to say that 'the buses were fine and nothing unexpected happened'.

As for driving....in most cases, it doesn't save you any time. What it does is give you a sense of control.

 

[NJ Goofy]

I do agree with Lynne M about the transportation system. But with that said, I Like the control and usually I get a car for most if not all of my stay at SSR or AK.

If we stay at BW, YC, or WL we usually just use the Disney system. But if you have impatient kids (and impatient Dad) a car can be a stress relief.
It may not be faster but your always moving and not waiting.

Also, Disney's system is not really made to go from resort to resort. You may want to use ME and just rent a car for two or three days instead of the whole trip.

 

[edith76]

plymouthmom - i just spent 2 months at disney (half at SSR) and did have a car but didn't use it. The buses were great. Overalll wait times were very short. We visit Disney alot and have always used their bus system without problems. Occassionally something does happen which is just awful/annoying esp. if you are in a hurry to get somewhere but it is not the norm. SSR is esp. convenient if you want to go to another resort (did O'hana and Boma) as you can simply walk over to DTD to get a resort bus.

The resort usually will provide transportation for my husband when he golfs too....And on this trip I tried out the Public Lynx bus. It stops at the TTC and Downtown Disney and can get you to many places outside Disney if you feel the need. (their site is golynx - and has a feature that will plan your trip . But for 6 people a taxi is probably better). From SSR my husband has also walked to Crossroads when he needed something he couldn't get at Disney. We've also gotten a rental car through member services for a few days of our trip. There rates were great, alamo picks you up and drops you off, and if there is a problem with the car (got one with a dead battery once) you don't have to go far to exchange it.

 

[Lynn5700]

Ok the buses were fine at SSR...but if you will feel better renting the car then just do that.

 

[knocker]

We were at AKV from 10/24-10/29 and never had any travel with the bus system.

 

[Starr W.]

Ok the buses were fine at SSR...but if you will feel better renting the car then just do that.

I'll be at SSR Friday, for our annual Turkey trip. It's part of the fun waiting for the bus, guessing if the next bus will be yet another one for Epcot!

DH wanted to try bus roulette, just get on the first one that showed up, but DS12 said we would be going to Epcot everyday.

We thought about renting a car, but it would probably just sit for the week in the parking lot. I even had a Costco Alamo rate, but it just seemed like a waste of money to me. If I want to go to another resort and don't want to wait, I'll just get a cab.

 

[browniemtb]

We've rented cars in the past and found that we rarely used them once we got to WDW. So just going through the expense and hassle of the airport pick up and return we opted for a limo/transportation service. When we did go to Universal we used the same service for $60 round trip. So the last 3 trips plus a couple of business trips I've used this type of service. It worked fantastic.......the driver is right there at baggage waiting for you and once you get your bags off you go. Last weeks trip we had 2 booster seats and a car seat ready to go that the service provided and round trip is $125. Far less money then a rental car.......advantage over ME is you get your luggage right away, don't stop at other resorts, don't wait at the airport, and you can stop at a grocery store on the way to the resort. Advantages over rental car price and hassle of the airport pick up and return. Of course that only my 2 cents......

 

[Brian Noble]

I prefer having a car, and usually drive it to any park other than MK (or perhaps EP if I plan on having a margarita that evening ). Until very recently, I would not have considered not having one.

However, my most recent trip was a budget-buster: an "extra" trip, frequent flyer miles to get there, a bonus II week for a 1BR at OKW, etc. We decided to skip the rental car---we weren't bringing the kids, and looked at it as a Grand Experiment.

I expected to hate it, but much to my surprise, it wasn't so bad. About the only thing I'd do differently is get a towncar on the trip back to the airport. We were in Building 27, so getting back and forth to the "main drag" was pretty easy. I'd be willing to do it again, even farther out, and am thinking about going without a rental for my upcoming trip---depends on how many resort-to-resort trips I expect to make.

 

[CraftyMouse]

We always have our car with us, as we drive to WDW, but it stays happily parked in the resort parking lot. The only time we use it is when we go off-property for groceries our outlet shopping. Otherwise we take buses everywhere and have never had an issue.

 

[mickeymorse]

I'll be at SSR Friday, for our annual Turkey trip. It's part of the fun waiting for the bus, guessing if the next bus will be yet another one for Epcot! So true

DH wanted to try bus roulette, just get on the first one that showed up, but DS12 said we would be going to Epcot everyday.

A new game to try out!

Seriously though, I have never rented a car (except when we stayed off-site of course) and always enjoy the fact that someone else is doing the driving for once. Never had a longer wait than 15 minutes for a bus to anywhere, from anywhere.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We usually have a car at WDW, but we RARELY take it to get to the parks. The only time we do that is if we have a specific need, like taking someone to the airport midday or if we are leaving directly from the park for another destination outside of Disney.

We think Disney transportation is great, and extrememly efficient. That is especially true from OKW and AKV!!! We have had some issues at SSR when it was new, but not lately. There is no way you can get to the MK faster driving than by taking a bus. The only park that might be faster to drive is AK, since that parking lot is almost as close as the bus stops! We have had guests drive while we took the bus, and in every case, the bus people have arrived far ahead of the car people EXCEPT at AK.

 

[plymouthmom]

Thanks everybody! I feel much better now. Think the car service with the grocery stop might be a good option.

 

[Coach81]

We always allow for at least 30 mins of "bus time" when we plan on going to a park or different resort. This has worked out well for us.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We almost always rent a car. We have used the busses a few times, but like the freedom of having our own transportation. We do go from resort to resort often (daily sometimes). DH is disabled and the car without a doubt saves us much time. For the time it takes to load him on a bus, I could have him in our own vehicle and been halfway to where I needed to go. It also helps that we are able to utilize handicapped parking and with the exception of MK, we are always very close to the parks. DH's issues aside, I still think the car saves us much time. I've traveled there with just the kids and we cannot imagine standing around waiting for a bus when we can hop in the car and be anywhere on property within 10 minutes or less.