Difficulty of finding POR, and driving around WDW?

[twinspluscade]

For the first time, we are driving to WDW, and will have a vehicle down there at our disposal.. We used ME and the busses our other two trips, so have no experience driving around WDW ourselves. I have a few questions:

1) Is it hard to find POR? We'll be staying there. We do have a GPS, but I've read a few trip reports where people's GPS doesn't work the best in WDW.

2) What is the traffic like driving to the theme parks? We are from a small, small town (only 1200 people), so busy city traffic is something we're not used to, and DH absolutely hates driving in it. He is actually very reluctant to drive around WDW at all, and would prefer to take the busses....I hate waiting around for the busses though so I think driving would be the way to go.

3) I read in my (old--from 2006) copy of the Unoffical Guide that leaving Epcot after Illuminations is a total nightmare if you drive yourself. They made it sound as if it would be quicker to ride the bus in that situation. True? I would think the bus lines would be so long it would be much faster to drive.

4) I know parking is free at the parks since we're staying on-site. Do you just show your KTTW cards at the parking lots? Or do you get something to hang/stick on your windshield/rear-view mirror? If so, is that something we need to ask for at the resort when we arrive?

Thanks!

 

[Tara]

For the first time, we are driving to WDW, and will have a vehicle down there at our disposal.. We used ME and the busses our other two trips, so have no experience driving around WDW ourselves. I have a few questions:

1) Is it hard to find POR? We'll be staying there. We do have a GPS, but I've read a few trip reports where people's GPS doesn't work the best in WDW.

I've never used GPS at WDW so I can't speak to that. But I've always found everything easy to get to. How you'll get there depends on which road you use to reach Disney, but POR is a Downtown Disney area resort. It's located on the northern end of Bonnet Creek Parkway just off of Vista Blvd. I have it marked on my google map here:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...88059,-81.532373&spn=0.00874,0.01929&t=h&z=16

2) What is the traffic like driving to the theme parks? We are from a small, small town (only 1200 people), so busy city traffic is something we're not used to, and DH absolutely hates driving in it. He is actually very reluctant to drive around WDW at all, and would prefer to take the busses....I hate waiting around for the busses though so I think driving would be the way to go.

I guess it depends on when you go, but I have never once felt like there was a lot of traffic to contend with *except* for the area right around Downtown Disney, and by that I mean the 3 intersections or so where you can turn in to the parking areas for DTD.

3) I read in my (old--from 2006) copy of the Unoffical Guide that leaving Epcot after Illuminations is a total nightmare if you drive yourself. They made it sound as if it would be quicker to ride the bus in that situation. True? I would think the bus lines would be so long it would be much faster to drive.

I think you are right in assuming that it all evens out. At closing we tend to take our time and not rush out anyway, and I don't ever remember feeling like there was parking lot gridlock.

4) I know parking is free at the parks since we're staying on-site. Do you just show your KTTW cards at the parking lots? Or do you get something to hang/stick on your windshield/rear-view mirror? If so, is that something we need to ask for at the resort when we arrive?

You'll be given a paper parking permit to display on your dashboard. At check-in, they usually ask if you have a car and usually have a pass already printed for you.

Have a great trip!