Do you drive or take buses?

[Nickimouse]

We just purchased a travel trailer and are hoping to camp at FW in June. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on,but am a little confused about the buses. I have seen one suggestion to use your car to get to the parks. How do others feel? Are the buses more convienent than they seem?
Thanks so much for any information!

 

[Rhonda]

We park our car and don't move it until the last day! We love the Disney transportation system - it's part of the fun of Disney!

 

[PenskeSth1]

We drive to D.T.D. and MGM, and Animal Kingdom.. We use the Boat to go to MK, and we ride the monorail to go Epcot.
We use the bus to go to some of the resorts sight seeing. We walk or use the golf cart at FW.

 

[Disney Campers]

we also use disney transport as much as possible, we do on occasion drive to downtown disney.

 

[girlsma]

When we have gone we have driven everywhere... I don't have a great reason other than not wanting to wait for buses.. Plus if you stay on site parking is free - so why not..

I think it is personal prefernce. Try the buses and if you like them great.. If not then drive..

NOTE: I just thought about why we did not take the boat to MK.. Because we were quite a ways away from the boat dock and did not feel safe riding our bikes (with daughter in bike trailer) back to our RV in the dark. We did not rent a golf cart - cause we would rather spend the money on a sweatshirt or something. But I was jeleous about everyone who had one.. I would have loved to drive around checking everything out..

good luck and have fun!

 

[Nickimouse]

Thanks!

 

[rapriebe]

We just got back today and my opinion on the buses has not changed since our last trip in May. I am not a very patient person and I get very fustrated waiting for the buses. You can wait for upto 1/2 hour for just one bus and if you have to make a connection to another bus there goes another 1/2 hour. And then you reverse the process to get home and you have lost upto 2 hours waiting for transportation. Now I realize that is the extreme case but it has happened to us on more than one occasion so we don't use them. I know they say the buses run every 15-20 minutes but . . . .

We're like PenskeSth1, and follow the exact same philosophy. I'd rather spend my time in the parks then waiting for buses.

 

[MrKTI]

Bus to Mk ...

Drive to everything else.

Just met a nice young couple at Trails End. Wasted 1.5 hours getting to AK by bus.

The trams at MGM, AK and Epcot are pretty good in my opinion.

John

 

[lindsey]

We have always parked the car and used the bus transportation. There are a few times we have had to wait about 20-30 minutes, but it has not happened very often. There are other times that we got to the place to catch the bus, and it was there waiting on us.

 

[bianca]

For us ...... Boat to MK and our truck to every other park. We always go to parks late and stay late and hate the over-filled buses at the end of the day. Perhaps if our touring strategy was different, buses would work better for us. All I know is that at the end of the day, it is really difficult to keep a family of 6 (some little people) together when all of you are standing/swaying in the bus!

 

[MrKTI]

Originally posted by MrKTI
Bus to Mk ...

Drive to everything else.

Just met a nice young couple at Trails End. Wasted 1.5 hours getting to AK by bus.

The trams at MGM, AK and Epcot are pretty good in my opinion.

John

Ooops ... meant boat to MK ...

Forgot where I was ... too much bread pudding ....

John

 

[pammypooh]

We always use the disney transportation system. Agree with Rhonda - its part of the fun. We have had great conversations with bus drivers and other guests. We do rent a golf cart for the week. Love driving it around camp. Again, part of the fun.

Pam

 

[TmnsnMD]

We were there in Aug this year during hurricane Charley. The only really long wait we had was when we were at POFQ - but that was to be expected.

We feel like "we are on vacation, we don't have to hurry anywhere". So we always take the WDW trans (boat or bus). We do rent a golf cart so that helps with the walks from bus stops/boat dock. DH loves parking the truck after 18 hours of driving and letting someone else worry about the traffic. We don't mind the waits - it gives you a time to relax and talk to the kids about what was the "best" part of that day, what rides would they like to do again. This helped us so on our last day we did a mini-sweep of the must do again rides. We did the early visit to parks, home for lunch/dinner, back to parks until closing. This worked really great for us, we would let everyone "RUSH" out of the parks to stand in line for a bus, we would just do a slow walk to where we were going, get an ice cream or soda, have a look at things without so many people around and then head to the bus. When we got there it would not be as crowded, we would not be frustrated, and most times we almost fell asleep on the way "home".

I guess it is all in what you like - either way just have fun and relax, remember your on vacation!

Have a GREAT time,
TmnsnMD

 

[Tromba]

Check out the chart in The Unofficial Guide. They give travel times to and from every resort in WDW. You'll find that in every case except going to the MK, it is faster driving your own car. The boat to the MK is faster than driving. This is the advice we have always followed, and it has worked well for us.

 

[Nickimouse]

Thanks again! All of this information has been helpful!

 

[my3princes]

We always use the disney transportation system. I have personally never experienced more than a 5 to 10 minute wait. It seems like such a hassle for us to load up the car, drive, park etc. The transportation system drops us off close to the gate at all of the parks. We even use our own double stroller and have never had difficulty carrying on the disney transportation.

 

[clkelley]

I leave the car parked or if I'm flying, get a towncar or Mears, or only get rental cars on my first and last day and let Disney do the driving!

At Ft. Wilderness, I do NOT use the internal buses. I have a personal ECV (hubby requires it for his WDW trips, but doesn't go camping with me) that I use like a golf cart and either drive to the boat dock golf cart parking or to the Outpost golf cart parking and take transportation from there.

If you stay in one of the more centralized loops (1300 - 1600), it is a reasonable walk to the boat dock or the Outpost.

From either end of the resort, transportation is the same or better than many of the other Disney resorts, it just gets bad when you also have to rely on the internal loops.

So, either walk, ride bikes, rent a golf cart, or some other type of electric cart, etc., to the main transportation stops and Ft. Wilderness is great!!

Carol

 

[windsong]

For me part of the Disney magic is the transportation they provide. I'm never in a hurry to get anywhere when I'm at Disney, but have never waited more than 20 min for a bus. I find this time to be easy and comfortable. Sharing and talking with others. Just slowing down.

The only time I drive is if I'm going to a resort that I cannot get to by boat or monorail.

I have never felt any fear walking to my campsite at night or any other time for that matter.

I have had some of my most "magical" experiences on Disney buses.

 

[Memph1s]

We are locals who know our way around the property and go often on shorter trips so we have a different mindset than people on a once or twice a year vacation. For the most part we dive everywhere except MK. We have used the transportation at WDW with great success but there are many advantages to driving yourself.
In most cases it is faster and easier.
We tend to park and resort hop and feel we have more freedom to go wherever whenever we want including offsite.
I like to keep a cooler in the car with drinks, snacks and even sandwiches.
We can bring change of clothes, swimsuits, and other supplies to have just in case which lets us bring less into the parks to carry around.
Most of the time there is much less walking unless you get unlucky in the park parking lots.
Using WDW transportation at peak times like opening and closing can be very frustrating and not kid or large group friendly.

However, WDW transportation is great to have as a backup in case part of the group wants or needs to go back to camp or to another location. I also thinks it is great for responsible teens to be able to have the freedom to strike out on the own or with friends a little.