cheapest & most time efficient way to travel from WDW to US/IOA

[WendyLovesPeter]

not sure how we are going to do this yet....

we will prob stay at the contemporary or CSR - considering day trip to US for part of our group - what is the easiest/quickest/cheapest way to go? I don't even know how far a ride it is between the 2 areas.....

 

[WendyLovesPeter]

any experiences you would share?

 

[Darcy03231]

I would rent a car for the day. Depending on traffic its about half an hour to 45 minutes away.

Your other options would be a taxi or Mears shuttle which, I believe from reading other posts, run about $30 each way.

There's also the Lynx bus system which is really inexpensive, but very time consuming. Someone once posted about doing it and it took them about an hour and half to get there and back.

 

[TheWog]

I don't think cheapest and time efficient can be combined in getting to US/IOA. You can go with the
Lynx bus system as the cheapest - a few dollars RT - and spend most of your time getting to pick up points, making stops for other riders, etc.

The easiest and quickest way is by having nonstop door to door service such as a cab or car service, but that is going to be more expensive.

You can get in between by renting a car, but that also involves picking up the rental, paying for parking, navigating, and returning the rental, etc., so there goes any time savings you may have had. Unfortunately there is no easy solution for your scenario and question.

 

[WendyLovesPeter]

time efficient is most important!!

what about the town car/van scenario - would there be a 3 legged option - 1st from airport to WDW, 2nd from WDW to US/IOA, 3rd from US/IOA to airport?

we used a town car 3 legged option for a cruise & WDW a few years ago - it was actually cheaper than mears and much more time efficient

 

[Lewisc]

You didn't say how many people are in your party. For 3-4 passengers a rental car or taxi makes the most sense. You can try a car service but you'll lose the ability to schedule your departure time "on the fly". I guess a car service will work if you know you want to stay for park closing and can book a pickup 30-60 minutes after park closing. A car service driver may have an airport run scheduled. You really can't ask them to delay your pickup by an hour or two if you want to stay longer then you anticipated.

I'd probably go with a rental car. Check National/Alamo at the CCC and Hertz at SoG. It gives you the opportunity to go to the outlet shops and do other shopping. It might not be the cheapest, you'll have to pay to park at Universal but it gives you the most flexibility.

For one or two passengers the Mears shuttle may work the best. I don't think Lynx even has a stop near Universal.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Lewisc is correct - the closest Lynx stop is about a twenty minute walk from Universal's Hub.

 

[DonnaL]

If you do choose to rent a car and drive to Universal yourself......we find the best way to get there from the Downtown Disney area is take Hotel Blvd to Apopka Vineland (Route 535) left on Apopka Vineland, follow to W Sand Lake Road (maybe 10/15 minutes) turn right onto W Sand Lake to Turkey Lake Road, turn left on Turkey Lake, follow a short distance and Universal Studios will be on your right......you'll enter past the Universal hotels.......we find there is not nearly the amount of traffic using this route rather than I-4......also there is not as much traffic entering Universal this way either because you're actually entering from the rear of the park. We try to avoid I-4 if at all possible.....especially the sections around Orlando........just seems to be way too many very fast, careless drivers all the time..... DH never used to think so until a few years ago and we saw a few accidents and also witnessed several close calls .....all caused by careless drivers......in one trip!! Now, he agrees with me and happily avoids I-4 if we can........

 

[DonnaL]

If you do choose to rent a car and drive to Universal yourself......we find the best way to get there from the Downtown Disney area is take Hotel Blvd to Apopka Vineland (Route 535) left on Apopka Vineland, follow to W Sand Lake Road (maybe 10/15 minutes) turn right onto W Sand Lake to Turkey Lake Road, turn left on Turkey Lake, follow a short distance and Universal Studios will be on your right......you'll enter past the Universal hotels.......we find there is not nearly the amount of traffic using this route rather than I-4......also there is not as much traffic entering Universal this way either because you're actually entering from the rear of the park. We try to avoid I-4 if at all possible.....especially the sections around Orlando........just seems to be way too many very fast, careless drivers all the time..... DH never used to think so until a few years ago and we saw a few accidents and also witnessed several close calls .....all caused by careless drivers......in one trip!! Now, he agrees with me and happily avoids I-4 if we can........

 

[WendyLovesPeter]

rental car sounds least appealing to me because we will be so short on time - we are only going to be in orlando a week. I think we would waste a lot of time getting a car and dropping off a car etc.

We would not be doing any extra driving once we arrive at US/IOA - we are there only to do those parks and only for 2 and half days. so.... I really don't want to rent a car for 3 days just to have it sit in the lots - the only time we would use it would be for transfer from WDW to Universal and from Universal to airport (thats it)

a car service makes better sense because I just want these 3 transfers... I just don't know if they would do a transfer from WDW to Universal resort

1. late morning transfer from airport to WDW resort - actually I could even use ME one way then use the car service for the other 2 transfers
2. morning transfer from WDW resort to Universal resort
3. midday transfer from Universal resort to airport

 

[WendyLovesPeter]

oh I see why this is not making sense to me now.... I didn't exactly say this is no longer a day trip as it was when I started this thread. We are actually relocating to a US resort - staying there overnight

 

[kaytieeldr]

1: Yes, use Magical Express
2 and 3: Either taxi or town car. Advantage to taxi: not necessary to schedule in advance in any way. Advantage to town car: fixed price.