Do I need a car?

[la79al]

The choices of modes of transportation right now are flying or Amtrak. If I take Amtrak, would you recommend taking the Auto Train so we can have our car with us in FL? We are staying on property for our entire stay and we do not have any infants so I am not sure whether it would be worth the extra $200 to have our car.

 

[jme829]

It depends on if you want to travel off site a lot to visit other attractions and restaurants. If you are solely doing WDW you really don't need one but it can be very helpful (if you are staying at a WDW resort, you will get free parking). We stay offsite but we have stayed onsite 2 x's and the first time we used WDW trans. the other we rented and now we will always rent a car. Much more reliable (at least to us) to know that we have the car ready and available when we want it without having to wait for the disney trans to come and then have to stop at other resorts. Depending on where you stay and where you are going, it could easily be a good 1-1 1/2 hr trip J(but then again it could be quick, depends on the crowds too.) I personally would rather spend the $200 on a car to have all week to be available to us when we are ready to go, then to pay $100 for a taxi/shuttle to get to the resort, then have to rely on the WDW trans to get us anywhere else and be at the mercy of someone else's schedule.. But this is just me, others may gave you better suggestions.

 

[CleveRocks]

Much more reliable (at least to us) to know that we have the car ready and available when we want it without having to wait for the disney trans to come and then have to stop at other resorts. Depending on where you stay and where you are going, it could easily be a good 1-1 1/2 hr trip J(but then again it could be quick, depends on the crowds too.) I personally would rather spend the $200 on a car to have all week to be available to us when we are ready to go, then to pay $100 for a taxi/shuttle to get to the resort, then have to rely on the WDW trans to get us anywhere else and be at the mercy of someone else's schedule.. But this is just me, others may gave you better suggestions.

I'm not sure where you're getting your information.

First of all, many of the resorts have dedicated Disney Transport buses, meaning they don't share buses with other resorts.

I can't imagine it "easily" taking 1 or 1.5 hours to get from a resort to a theme park. If that's been you're experience, I guess I've been lucky all those times it usually took me between 5 (CBR to MGM) and 20 minutes.

If you're staying on property, you don't have to pay "$100 for a taxi/shuttle to get to the resort." There's a little thing called Disney's Magical Express (DME), it's FREE and convenient and even offers free luggage transfer so you don't even see your checked luggage after your home airport until it magically appears in your resort room.

Of course, to each's own in terms of what's best for each person, but let's at least have accurate information.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Since 1977, whether by car, plane or train, we use Amtrak exclusively now, we have never used our car, or rented one. Bus transportation on property has served us well these years, no complaints really. We take a cab from Kissimmee train station 38.00 fare and we walk to Goodings from DTD bus stop for our groceries, been doing this for years.

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

I've found that if I have a car I use it to resort-hop (especially for dining) but always use WDW transportation to the parks. When I don't have a car, I don't really miss it.

 

[n2mm]

This is a personal decision. US, we would never not have a rental car. We like driving to other resorts to eat and knowing it only takes less than 15 minutes to get back and fourth. We also visit the grocery store more than once for snacks. We also drive to the parks. Every now and then we use WDW transportation, but prefer our car. I'm sure the buses do just fine, but I would prefer to use the waiting time for buses elsewhere. During our last trip we were at Pop for 3 nights and used the bus just once to go to the studios. The service was fine--waited 20 minutes at pop for a bus and coming home, the first bus filled and we had to wait for the second bus, again only about 20 minutes. At WL, we used the bus to go to MK, because we find it faster than the boat. We did have a wait of about 20 minutes once, other than that it was usually less. We like to eat at Kona Cafe and find it very convenient to jump in the car and be there in 5 minutes from WL....not something you could do with the buses.

 

[jme829]

Actually that was my experience which is why we rent now..But thanks for pointing out the ME...THey didn't offer that the last time we stayed onsite and it was $100 for 3 people on the Mears..So excuse me for incorrect info...thats what everybody is out there for : to offer (like I said in my post) better suggestions.... BTW where we stay offsite takes 5-15 min to all the parks...


QUOTE=CleveRocks]I'm not sure where you're getting your information.

First of all, many of the resorts have dedicated Disney Transport buses, meaning they don't share buses with other resorts.

I can't imagine it "easily" taking 1 or 1.5 hours to get from a resort to a theme park. If that's been you're experience, I guess I've been lucky all those times it usually took me between 5 (CBR to MGM) and 20 minutes.

If you're staying on property, you don't have to pay "$100 for a taxi/shuttle to get to the resort." There's a little thing called Disney's Magical Express (DME), it's FREE and convenient and even offers free luggage transfer so you don't even see your checked luggage after your home airport until it magically appears in your resort room.

Of course, to each's own in terms of what's best for each person, but let's at least have accurate information. [/QUOTE]