Car or No Car?

[KLK622]

Hi! We are getting ready for our first trip to the Fort with our 3 and 6 year old boys. We are flying in and have rented a travel trailer from Meacham's and it comes with a free golf cart. Our flight to Orlando lands around 6:00 pm Saturday and we had planned to take ME to the Campground and then use our golf cart/Disney transit during the week and then Uber back to the airport the following Saturday as our flight leaves at 7:00 am. However I am getting concerned about the logistics of getting to an Uber with our luggage at 4:30 in the morning the day we leave and think it might be easiest if we just rent a car.

A few questions...can we fit a 37' travel trailer, golf cart and rental car on a Premium Camp Site? When going to AK, HS and Epcot is taking a rental car easier than taking Disney transit (we will have our golf cart so we can skip the internal buses)? If we do decide to Uber to the airport where is Uber allowed to pick us up at the Fort?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Teamubr]

You will be fine on most Premium sites. Plus, you are allowed to park the cart off the pavement. I just got back a few weeks ago. I had a 42 ft camper, 22 ft long bed crew cab dually and a golf cart on my Premium site.

For that early of a flight, I'd probably take DME to the airport. Uber may be iffy. If you want to save an hour sleep. Renting a car may be the best option.

j

 

[North of Mouse]

As Teamuber said, you will have plenty room on the premium sites. As for needing a car, we never tow our vehicle there and always use Disney transportation as we enjoy it. We have had very few issues over many years, but to rent a car is always your call - many feel the need for one. We never go offsite.

 

[sippican]

If it helps at all, when we stayed in the cabins (many moons ago) we used to rent a car for one day upon arrival from the airport, get to the Fort, pick up groceries and anything else we needed and return the car at the Disney rental office. Then we would repeat the process at the end of the trip - rent at WDW, return it at the airport.
IMHO, there is absolutely no advantage whatsoever to having a car during your actual stay.

 

[Jimsig]

What @sippican said.

Why pay for a car rental for the whole time if you don't have to? Unless of course it's cheaper to rent for the whole time than doing a one way from the Car Care Canter (CCC) to MCO. If you go this route call the CCC a day or two before you will pick it up to arrange for a pick up.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/car-rental-services/

As for Uber they will pick you up at the Outpost.

 

[Cosmic]

If you're okay with DME from the airport, I would just take DME on the way out, too. Of course, that would mean leaving the resort at like 4 AM, but each option has its own drawbacks.

There are probably change fees involved now (unless you're flying Southwest), and it's possible I'm preaching to the choir on this, but I would seriously look at changing that outgoing flight. Even under a very optimistic timeline with any transportation, you're probably leaving the resort no later than 5, which I would guess means you're up no later than 4, which probably means you're not really talking full advantage of the night before. Really, you'd probably be getting up at 2 or 3something.

 

[KLK622]

Thank you so much for the replies! I had no clue a one day rental was an option...it appears we could rent at the CCC Friday and drop it off at the airport on Saturday for around $60 with a car seat for my youngest. I think this would be so nice, as we could have the car packed up and ready to go rather than dealing with getting our luggage to an UBER or the DME at 4 am.

I don't think moving the flight to a later time is an option without significant change fees and we saved over $800 flying out at 7 am vs later in the day.

 

[team bradfield]

I'd try to book a later flight, but like KLK said, might be too much $$

 

[mickeyfan0805]

As others have said - many options for getting back that would be less expensive than renting for the whole trip. In your shoes, we'd probably just deal with DME, but that's your call.

As to the car for the trip as a whole, that's entirely up to you and how you want to travel. Some see no need for it, others always have. We've only done a few trips where we did not rent a car. With younger kids, the lack of reliability in timing for Disney buses (and the crowdedness that can emerge at peak times) just wasn't worth it to us. Now that the kids are a bit older, that may change some. We always have a car at the Fort (as we have a tt), but for resort/DVC stays in future years, I could see us foregoing the rental in some cases. When it is just dw and me, we have been much more likely to use Disney transport.

 

[KLK622]

One follow up question, does the internal bus system at the Fort run all night? I am trying to figure out if we take DME how we will get from our camp site to the DME pickup site at 4 am with our luggage...

I *may* try for a flight change w/in a 24 hour window for a lower change fee but all of UA flights that day are looking pretty full and with the ages of our kids we need two seats together so I am pretty sure we will taking our 7:05 am flight. We really don't mind early flights...our kids travel often and where we live generally requires us to have very early mornings when traveling, but I just need to figure out the logistics of this in my head!

 

[mickeyfan0805]

One follow up question, does the internal bus system at the Fort run all night? I am trying to figure out if we take DME how we will get from our camp site to the DME pickup site at 4 am with our luggage...

I *may* try for a flight change w/in a 24 hour window for a lower change fee but all of UA flights that day are looking pretty full and with the ages of our kids we need two seats together so I am pretty sure we will taking our 7:05 am flight. We really don't mind early flights...our kids travel often and where we live generally requires us to have very early mornings when traveling, but I just need to figure out the logistics of this in my head!

Others may know exactly, but I think they run from before the earliest park buses (around 6:30?) until an hour or so after the last bus (usually from Disney Springs). So, in short, I don't believe they would be running at that time of day.

 

[Jimsig]

One follow up question, does the internal bus system at the Fort run all night? I am trying to figure out if we take DME how we will get from our camp site to the DME pickup site at 4 am with our luggage...

We have stayed in the cabin's but we have always called/gone to the Outpost the day before and arranged for Bell Services to pick us up w our luggage to bring us to the Outpost for the DME bus. We also have not needed to be up that early but I am pretty sure they can get you then.

 

[KLK622]

Thanks! If they will pick us up right at our site that would work great. I will ask early on in our trip so I still have time to do the one day car rental if needed.

 

[morrik5]

We only rented a car for one day on our 7 night trip in April and that was just so our adult kids could go to Seaworld or Universal while we went to the Disney Outlet Store and Camping World in our own vehicle we towed down and didn't use otherwise. Internal transportation was our preference around Disney properties and our daughter and her family did fly in and used DME from and back to the airport.

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

If you do decide to rent a car, go to Mousesavers.com you can find all kinds of codes.