Do I need a car?

[hmurray]

We are staying at the Holiday Inn Lake Buenavista (Hotel Plaza Blvd). We are questioning the need for a car as the hotel charges $10 per day parking and the hire of 2 seats for my 3 and 6 year old is an additional $14 per day. Add this to the cost of parking at the parks and you are looking at a total hire of around £500 for 2 weeks.

We are apparently within walking distance of Downtown Disney and are only around 6-8 miles from most of the parks. The hotel does provide a shuttle bus, but not sure of the frequencey. We are debating as to whether we need a car (perhaps to pick up some water/juice supplies and to get us to and fro the parks) or whether we should just use the bus and taxi's. Anyone stayed in this area got some advice for our first visit as a family.

Thanks.

 

[Elise79]

Firstly if you do hire a car - take seats from home. Most airline carry them free.

Secondly with children of your ages I would say you don't need a car but your trip will be a lot more pleasant with one!

We like the freedom the car gives us and be able to come and go as we please and with a little one if they have had enough it is so much easier to pop them in the car and be back at the hotel in 10 mins rather than waiting for a bus.

 

[Goofyish]

Simple answer is no, but it really depends how many trips you want to take outside of WDW - i.e. to Universal/IOA, Seaworld, Shopping Malls, Restaurants etc. and how flexible you want to be getting to the Disney parks. The shuttle bus runs every 30 minutes to Disney parks from your hotel.

You can book a Towncar transfer to and from the airport.

You can walk to Downtown Disney, but can't get bus transport direct to the parks from there, only to Disney Resorts. So you could get a bus to the MK resorts and then take the monorail to MK or Epcot. Quite time consuming, especially with young ones - probably allow an hour at least to get to your chosen park!

 

[wayneg]

Welcome to DISboards.

Firstly I would not even goto Florida without a car, a car is part of the holiday for us, next month going to Clearwater, Port Canveral, At Augustine, Busch Gardens, Sea world, Airboat ride, friends house at Hunters creek, meals all over the place and about 30 caches(geocaching.com) to find hidden all over the area.
Try doing that without a car

On the other hand if you want a Disney holiday with the odd escape offsite then you can manage quite well without one, many do.
To start with you have picked a poor hotel to have a car(I know, I am staying there 3 nights in August but got it free so won't mind the parking fee) many hotels in the area offer free parking or the Disney hotels free parking + free parking at the parks. Free parking and free dining are 2 main reasons we are staying onsite again in August.
It is within walking distance of DTD but after a day at the park its not a walk I would enjoy, I will still jump in the car.
Is there any channce you could change the hotel? $10x14 days is a lot of you could change.

Bottom line you can manage without but many of us prefer to have one.