Buses vs. parking in the off season?

[mommak1]

We'll be at WDW at the end of January-early February. We are driving, so we'll have our own car there, and staying at POR. I had initially assumed that we would use the bus system and not worry with driving around, but now I'm wondering if that is really what we want to do. Will we spend a lot of time waiting around for buses? Do they typically come around less frequently when it it isn't busy?

If we choose to drive to the parks, what is parking like? Will we spend so much time getting to and from the parking lot that we might as well have waited for the bus?

 

[sara mom]

We'll be at WDW at the end of January-early February. We are driving, so we'll have our own car there, and staying at POR. I had initially assumed that we would use the bus system and not worry with driving around, but now I'm wondering if that is really what we want to do. Will we spend a lot of time waiting around for buses? Do they typically come around less frequently when it it isn't busy?

If we choose to drive to the parks, what is parking like? Will we spend so much time getting to and from the parking lot that we might as well have waited for the bus?

I would take the bus to MK. If you decide to park there, you still have to take the monorail from the TCC to the front gates ( the parking lot there is not actually in front of the park).

 

[grimley1968]

I would take the bus to MK. If you decide to park there, you still have to take the monorail from the TCC to the front gates ( the parking lot there is not actually in front of the park).

Agreed. However, driving to the other parks is definitely faster than waiting on buses. There is no TTC to serve as a bottleneck at other parks. Just park in the lot, catch a tram if necessary to the front gate (or walk) and go in.

As for MK, sometimes it can be quicker to ride the ferry, if it's there waiting, from the TTC to MK rather than the monorail. But the buses take you to the front of the park at MK, bypassing the TTC.

 

[wdwrich]

We've stayed at POR twice during slower times of the year, and both times we had a rental car. Our experience was that it was faster to drive to EPCOT, AK and DHS. For MK, it took about the same amount of time to drive and take the ferry or monorail as it did by taking the bus, unless you arrive at the POR bus stop just when the MK bus is arriving (i.e. no waiting).