Car quicker than bus?

[FutureDis]

If you look in the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World book (by Bob Sehlinger?), it has a breakout of bus vs car from all resorts to the parks, with min and max times for each. See if your library has a copy you can look at, or get a coffee at Barnes & Noble and check it out!

 

[bjs1228]

We are staying at the CR for the first time this summer and will be driving our on car to AK & DHS. I guess we will even drive to our early ADR at Epcot since the monorail won't be running. We did the bus thing one time and didn't enjoy it. At our last two stays at the Poly, we drove our car to the parks and it was so much better. This is even after the 15 hr drive to get there! I like being in control of when we get there and leave to the best of my ability.

 

[bumbershoot]

Just pay attention to where you park. Because losing your car in a theme park parking lot is not fun. True story.

So true. And while I'm sure that you and your family did just fine, without turning on each other viciously, I've seen other families behave not-so-gracefully about those "where is the car" moments! Not a fun way to end a park day.


Take a picture of where you parked, or write it down....

 

[edk35]

We love having our van with us. We take buses to MK or the resort monorail if we stay at SOG or a monorail resort. We pretty much take our van to the other parks. We find it is always quicker than the buses.

 

[DisneyLvr55]

So true. And while I'm sure that you and your family did just fine, without turning on each other viciously, I've seen other families behave not-so-gracefully about those "where is the car" moments! Not a fun way to end a park day.


Take a picture of where you parked, or write it down....

We had grandparents with us on the last trip, so we told them to go take the kids to a bench or somewhere in the shade, and we would walk around the lot, find the car, and then find them. One of the times it took us over an hour to find the damn thing!!!

This time I plan on driving to the parks again, but I'm taking my kids alone... No other adults to help out ... .... I will be using my camera phone FOR SURE!!

 

[lovesdumbo]

If staying at CR I would drive to Epcot too. Going to Epcot isn't so bad but the monorail back is a long trip with the change at TTC then you have to stop at Poly, GF, & MK before CR. It seems to take forever when you're tired!

 

[dobtia]

We did our 9th trip this past June. The first 8 were off-site so of course we drove, this last trip was 1st on-site at POP.

My first thought is pretty simple. Driving around Disney is easy. The signs are great and if you miss a turn it is not that hard to get back on track.

Second thought is entering and leaving the parks. Never really much of an issue. Sure if you rush to car right after a night ending show it will be crazy, but I have seen the bus lines and they are packed at that time too. Now we never rushed for the door. We took our time leaving and never had to worry. If you are a rope drop family getting there is not so bad. Plenty of gates open and up front parking.

Now as to this last trip we drive to DHS, AK, and rope drop at EPCOT. I would say do that for sure. We stayed up front so when we left for park I would drive by bus stop and pick out someone in line that stood out. We beat the buses every time.

Now going to MK and DTD it was bus all the way and a joy. I would also say if you are not hitting rope drop you might have to factor in the parking farther back in the lot and having to wait for tram. Bus might be better there.

 

[GillianP1301]

To answer the OP's questions, is driving quicker? Most definitely. That's not to say that there may not be other aspects of taking Disney transportation that may outweigh speed to some people, but if the only decision point is being fast, then car is the way to go.

I'm personally in the drive camp. In most cases, I can be to where I was driving while someone else from my same resort is still waiting on a bus. I like driving in general, so it doesn't cause me any stress and it's really easy to get around WDW property, it's very well signed.

 

[ZehnJahren]

Just pay attention to where you park. Because losing your car in a theme park parking lot is not fun. True story.


Twice....

I ended up sobbing in the middle of Epcot's parking lot one day on one of my solo trips, trying to find my car. People I assumed were with Disney picked me up and drove me around until we found my rental car (I had given up and was just sitting at the end of a row under the monorail, crying - not my finest hour). I was so hysterically tired that I don't know who these people were, just that I rode around row by row with them until the car appeared.

Now I take pictures of the row at the beginning of every day after parking the car! Take my advice; do the same!

 

[chrissyc72]

If you rent a car & are a resort guest is parking in the parks free?

 

[mesaboy2]

If you rent a car & are a resort guest is parking in the parks free?

Yes.

 

[wendybeth75]

We rented a car on our last long trip because we thought we would want to go to the outlet mall. It was a waste for us to have the car because we never ended up using it. I think if you have one already and you would have to make multiple transfers it could be handy, but we won't rent one when flying into MCO anymore.

 

[si-am]

We always drive to WDW, and so we have a car if we want it, but really part of the magic of Disney for me is that we can park it at the resort and don't have to look at it again til time to leave. I drive enough at home, I don't need to do it on vacation! Plus... My husband and I can both have drinks at Epcot without having to worry about a designated driver.

We've never really had a bad experience with the buses.

 

[skent10]

Bus people can't be convinced that a car is better and car people stay away from the buses. They're just different breeds.

What happens when they're married to each other?!

Husband loves the Disney transportation. His thinking is that it's free, so why not take advantage of it? He conveniently forgets the time he had to pay for a taxi from WL to Epcot because the bus was taking so long and he was about to miss his SCUBA diving adventure.

Next Saturday, we'll have to get from the GF to HS in time for rope drop, then run to AK for a tour that starts @11:45am, then eventually get back to HS for a dinner ADR and Fantasmic before heading back to the GF. I'm putting my foot down and using the car despite his protests, since our plans are so time sensitive that day. I'm hoping it'll convince him to switch sides ...

 

[jecon]

If you look in the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World book (by Bob Sehlinger?), it has a breakout of bus vs car from all resorts to the parks, with min and max times for each. See if your library has a copy you can look at, or get a coffee at Barnes & Noble and check it out!

I will check that out. I think I downloaded the ebook from 2012. Thanks!

 

[holden]

If you do rent a car (as we sometimes do), put something unique in the windows (front & back) to distinguish it from th thousands of other identical rental cars. A bright neon shirt, a stuffed animal, etc. Also, take a pic of where your car is. These tips have helped us tremendously!

 

[North of Mouse]

We will have a car this trip and was thinking about taking it to HS and AK vs the bus at the contemporary. Just confirming - the car is quicker door to door? Thanks!

Not all the time - factoring in traffic and walking and it varies. Too much trouble to drive for us.

I can see if you have several kiddos and huge stroller though - would be a pain on the bus.

 

[skywaywaver]

We are probably going to use a combination of both. Last big trip, we actually took a taxi back to OKW from Epcot - DH had had it with waiting in that line. The $15 or however much it was worth it to him. Hey, it's his vacation too and he makes the money!

Now with another LO on board and being that we are probably going to be split up here and there, we're thinking about taking the car in the morning to any park except for MK, leaving it there during the mid-day break, and then taking it back in the evening.

Since we drive down, this is an option. If we didn't have a car, I think he would want to rent taxis in the evenings if leaving at the same time of the rest of the park. Once again, he feels that the taxi fare is worth every single penny, esp. when you have a ginormous double stroller (not this time) - you'll still get a seat and won't have to worry about your stroller being in the way!

Somebody mentioned something about being in motion. I feel the same way. I hate waiting (I know, ha ha ha, right, esp. at Disney!) but taking the car seems to cut down on that WHEN is the bus going to get here? Why are there 25 AllStar buses to my one OKW bus? I paid so much more!!!

 

[EPCOTatNight]

We will have a car this trip and was thinking about taking it to HS and AK vs the bus at the contemporary. Just confirming - the car is quicker door to door? Thanks!

Yes, driving is almost always quicker. Magic Kingdom is the exception. I would also catch a bus to Downtown Disney because of the parking situation.

 

[sethschroeder]

Stayed onsite without a car once and the above experience was the rule more than it was the exception. I wouldn't go to WDW without a car, I would actually stay home first. That's how pro-car/anti-bus I am.

This, however is an unending debate. Pro-bus people tend to use the same arguments:

They never wait more than 2 minutes for a bus (I don't buy it)
We waited sometimes 30 mins for busses
Buses are so much more relaxing (crammed in like sardines with the smell of BO wafting through the air)
No BO I ever smelled must be a Boardwalk thing? Also only 2 times in a 8 day trip were we packed in, DTD and lightning forced a bus from HWS to the boardwalk so there was a buildup of people by the time a bus came.
I don't have to worry about getting lost (there are more direction signs at WDW than just about any place I've ever been)
Sorry but even with 1,000,000 signs there is a chance of being in the wrong lane, taking a wrong turn, or generally having some moron driver not let you into the lane your supposed to be in....
I don't want to have to curb my drinking (I'll give them this one but it's nothing that would affect me)
Thats fine if it doesn't affect you but its nice to not have to think about it at all, especially when you do 1 table service meal every evening
Disney transportation is free (I can't argue with this one but you get what you pay for)
Its free and a great service from my point of view during our last trip based on staying at the BoardWalk only issue is Swan+Dolphin gets to ride the same busses

Bus people can't be convinced that a car is better and car people stay away from the buses. They're just different breeds.

I feel in the end it comes down to what someone else said earlier in this thread about what is faster?
-Is the bus pulling up as you walk to the bus stop?
-Is there extra traffic you have to deal with?
-How far away do you have to park from where you are going? (MK has some far out parking areas from what I saw)
-Is the bus stop so full that it will take 2 trips for you to get on the bus?
-Does the car get a flat tire or do you get in an accident?

I can see why people would want cars and I can see why people want to ride the bus.

For us it comes down to:
Cost (20+ a day, $30 if we pick it up at the airport which is the biggest benefit for us) vs value
Time (sometimes the bus is likely faster sometimes the other ways its not like your always saving time)
Location (we stay at the boardwalk so 2 of the 4 parks we walk/boat to and MK we will walk through Epcot sometimes to catch the monorail while picking up a snack/lunch in epcot)
Busses were above average last summer, we waited less than 5 mins a lot and over 20 mins only 1-3 times, we also were not really "packed" in except for those couple times we had long waits

Note - This was on our trip last July 7-15 during resort levels 7-9