Car quicker than bus?

[sethschroeder]

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!

I would go with a GPS car finding app. You can mark off where your car is and pull up the gps when done for the day and it will show you on the map where it is.

 

[leebee]

Can't find your car in the parking lot? Solutions:

>On a little slip of paper, write down the section and row of where you are parked and put it in your wallet. Easiest, and if your phone battery dies during the day, you can still find the car.

>Take a picture of the lot character and row number where you are parked. Hopefully your cell phone won't die while in the park (from checking ADR times, FP+ times, wait times, etc.).

>Put something distinctive in the rear windshield of the car so it's easy to pick out your white midsize rental from among a sea of white midsize rentals.

>IF you have an antenna on the car, put a Mickey Antenna Topper on it. We have a princess one we always take. Makes it easy to see from the head of the row (IF there's an antenna…)

>Make a game of remembering where the car is. Works well if you have older elementary-middle school aged kids. Person who remembers best or finds the car first gets a mickey ice cream bar!

>>If all else fails, go up to where the parking lot tram runs and look for the white minivan marked Disney Security, or something like that. They patrol the lots for security, and especially to help those who cannot find their vehicle. Don't feel foolish, they do it repeatedly, daily; You are not the only one!

PS- We ALWAYS have a car at Disney. Three trips without a vehicle, missed ADRs (even allowing 2 hours transportation time), waiting in bus lines for over an hour at park closing, getting to be sardined into a bus where the occupants have been in a theme park in August all day (tip of the hat to the PP who mentioned BO)… no, thank you. Time is money at Disney, and it's ridiculous to spend 2 hours to travel to a restaurant that's a 7 minute drive away!

 

[bumbershoot]

To answer the OP's questions, is driving quicker? Most definitely.

I'm in the "get a car" camp and I can't say what you said. Some people have amazing luck with buses. Those people, if we left our side by side rooms at the same time, might very well get to a location before we can drive there. We are not lucky with buses; we would leave at the same time (in this hypothetical situation) then someone would forget the sunscreen or decide to look at a lizard or want to take a picture or something, and we would miss the bus out lucky companions got on, and would then wait 50 minutes for the next bus, while watching bus after bus going to different destinations go by.

It's why speed isn't my only factor. I think it's faster but I can't prove it.

 

[vinotinto]

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.

*THIS*

We always have a car, as we drive down from GA. We have opted to take the bus on some occasions (planning to imbibe later in the day) and some cases we have driven. You will definitely get there quicker if you drive. Period. However, there are many reasons why you may opt not to drive. Speed of getting there is not one of them.

 

[Sparkly]

We found that a car was quicker for all parks except MK. For MK we took the bus because of skipping the TTC. Plus I love the announcement complete with the Mickey Mouse March as you pull into the bus station!

 

[Nennie]

We did the buses for 9 years, and thought it was fine. Then my DH had a conference off-site, so we had to rent a car. I fell in love with having a car, and we've been renting a car ever since!!!

It's also a huge money saver, as we eat off-site!

The only park where having a car isn't an advantage is MK, b/c you have to park at TTC and then take the boat or monorail to MK. So in that instance, a bus might be faster, but since we are lugging a double stoller around, we still choose to drive to MK, as I hate trying to get the stroller on the bus!

 

[shyjade]

I have always been a huge fan of using Disney transportation and not having to deal with directions or traffic from the moment we park our car at the airport in Milwaukee.

However, I'm seriously considering renting a car this time since we want to spend a day at the Dark side and a taxi would cost almost 2/3 of the cost of renting a small car for the week.

I have to say, this thread is confusing me even more! I'm sort of thinking about renting one for just a few days mid-trip and still using ME to and from MCO. The cost would be the same (or less) than R/T taxi to Universal, and would give us a chance to "try it out" for future trips to see if we like driving better.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Definitely a car is faster to all parks except MK.

I used to take Disney transportation everywhere but on my last solo trip, I rented a car since I needed to go offsite for a few days and kept it during the disney portion of the trip.

Wow, what a difference. I now have decided that I must have a car even if it means having to drive the 8 hours to disney from my house. (Not long really but I hate to drive that far nowadays)