Definetly a car?

[ArieBella]

After reading several threads, am I right to conclude that, for the most part, my car is my best option to get to each park?

As a Florida resident, my car will be there anyway. My husband, DD4 and I will be staying at AofA. We'll be hitting up MK on two different days, with 1 day at Epcot and another at HS without Park Hoppers. Plus there will be some time at DTD. So is it the general consensus that I should drive everywhere except MK?

 

[pepe of ohio]

I'm or we're not car users at WDW....but the places if I did have a car to avoid would be the MK and DTD.... We've seen the parking lots at DTD, huge and full... Still gets the people trying to beat the parking price for the parks.... Just too easy to use your resort bus....

 

[shell8558]

We drive to disney every year and we always take our car to the parks . We just prefer to take the car instead of the resort bus.

 

[DSLRuser]

you will get all kinds of answers. Even if we have a car there, about 50% of the time. We use disney transportation for EVERYTHING. Getting to a park 15min sooner in a car versus bus means nothing to us. We dont live by that kind of a time table.

Part of "vacation" is not having to drive. For the most part, the car stays parked all week.

 

[Hopefully]

you will get all kinds of answers. Even if we have a car there, about 50% of the time. We use disney transportation for EVERYTHING. Getting to a park 15min sooner in a car versus bus means nothing to us. We dont live by that kind of a time table.

Part of "vacation" is not having to drive. For the most part, the car stays parked all week.

We don't rent a car anymore. This was exactly us. The rental stayed parked all week. For us, part of the vacation is not having to drive.

 

[pepe of ohio]

you will get all kinds of answers. Even if we have a car there, about 50% of the time. We use disney transportation for EVERYTHING. Getting to a park 15min sooner in a car versus bus means nothing to us. We dont live by that kind of a time table.

Part of "vacation" is not having to drive. For the most part, the car stays parked all week.

My feelings exactly.... It's just an added expense for saving, what, 15 minutes.....

We've never rented or used a car when we drove in 47 trips to WDW and have no issues with the transportation system!!

 

[sam_gordon]

After reading several threads, am I right to conclude that, for the most part, my car is my best option to get to each park?

As a Florida resident, my car will be there anyway. My husband, DD4 and I will be staying at AofA. We'll be hitting up MK on two different days, with 1 day at Epcot and another at HS without Park Hoppers. Plus there will be some time at DTD. So is it the general consensus that I should drive everywhere except MK?

How do you qualify "best"? Fastest? Probably. Cheapest? No. "Immersive"? No. "Easiest"? Depends.

I agree with PP. I'd rather not drive on vacation. Others would rather have more "control". It's really a personal decision. Both sides have pros and cons.

 

[Donna M]

Try a day with the car and one without. See which way you like better. I think it can make a difference if people have children and their ages. You might want to ask what the bus wait lines are like for AofA returning from DTD in the evening. A car might be nice then to avoid the wait. Just plan on parking at the Cirque end of the parking lot.

 

[loganjared]

We love driving. I had a friend beg me to just try it one day and we've done it that way since then. It saves a lot of time and is less tiring. My husband didn't think he would like stoning on vacation but after trying and we left the park at night walking past the long lines for the buses he said it was so nice to just get in the car and go. From POFQ the longest it took us to get to any park was 15 min. EP only took us 5!
The trams are always right at the end if your row and take off as soon as you get in to drop you off at the front. Except for MK you park at TTC

 

[sam_gordon]

We love driving. I had a friend beg me to just try it one day and we've done it that way since then. It saves a lot of time and is less tiring. My husband didn't think he would like stoning on vacation but after trying and we left the park at night walking past the long lines for the buses he said it was so nice to just get in the car and go. From POFQ the longest it took us to get to any park was 15 min. EP only took us 5!
The trams are always right at the end if your row and take off as soon as you get in to drop you off at the front. Except for MK you park at TTC

 

[grimley1968]

So is it the general consensus that I should drive everywhere except MK?

That's the way I feel. The TTC is kind of a hassle for drivers, but only the MK has that. With other parks, it's much faster to drive, and I think it's nice to be able to get into a nice quiet car at the end of the day than have to wait, and then crowd onto a bus full of tired and often cranky fellow guests.

 

[OKW Lover]

We prefer to drive to the parks with the exception of the MK. At the MK you would need to park in the main lot and take the tram to the monorail/ferry over to the MK whereas the bus drops you right at the MK.

 

[ArieBella]

Thanks everyone! Just one of the many things about WDW that is debatable and depends on a person's personality more than anything else.

I think I could just as easily skip having the car at all since waiting doesn't bother me, the 4 yr old possibly having a meltdown is another thing I have to think about though. Then again, the chances that she will be the only exhausted preschooler at MK are slim to none so its not like I won't have company lol.

This is going to be a decision for DH, he hates waiting too long, and he'll be afraid by not making good time we're not getting our money's worth. On the same token, he'll be of the same mind as many of you in that he'd rather not drive on vacation. He would obviously like the best of both worlds... What board do I post a thread about renting a teleporter?

 

[nacho113]

Tried both, prefer driving at the end of a long day at the park. The kids would just crash in the back seat before we were even out of the parking lot (on the bus they were cranky all the way back to the room). It is so nice to just get into your nice quiet car at the end of a day in the crowds. Sometimes we just sit and enjoy the quiet for a few minutes before we drive back to the resort

 

[Pooh2]

We had our car on our last trip, thinking that we would use it daily. We ended up only using it once on our 10 day trip to go to church and breakfast in Celebration with a stop to DTD on the way back to SOG (parking was miserable early in the day in DTD, would not even considering driving over there at night).
For the most part, the buses were convenient and already had the air conditioning nice and cold.

 

[a742246]

It depends on what resort you are staying at???? For example Treehouses of SSR you may want to drive to all the parks. Epcot resorts you may want todrive to Animal Kingdom and DTD.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Drive your car is the best bet.

We did an experiement one trip. DH drove the car from Epcot to SSR while I took the bus. Needless to say he wait 30 minutes for me to arrive.

Then we did it at AK and he waited 45 minutes for me. right there was over an hour of vacation time wasted on taking the bus.

Multiply that by 7 days and round trips on a bus and you could wasted 8-9 hours of your vacation time on transportation.
And if you go to more than one park in a day you will waste even more vacation time.

 

[sam_gordon]

Drive your car is the best bet.

Maybe for you and others, but not everyone... as evidenced in this thread.

We did an experiement one trip. DH drove the car from Epcot to SSR while I took the bus. Needless to say he wait 30 minutes for me to arrive.

Then we did it at AK and he waited 45 minutes for me. right there was over an hour of vacation time wasted on taking the bus.

Multiply that by 7 days and round trips on a bus and you could wasted 8-9 hours of your vacation time on transportation.
And if you go to more than one park in a day you will waste even more vacation time.

I don't think anyone has denied that driving is quicker (except maybe to MK). However, to some of us, that's not the only consideration.