Do you have a car while at WDW?

[KathyK]

Before children, my DH and I would never take a car. We would fly and get a towncar to the resort. Now that we have a baby, it is a different story. There is so much stuff that she needs (baby food, diapers, strollers). Plus, my DH is now 10x as afraid to fly as he was on our previous trips. So, now we drive down from NJ.

 

[mistermouse]

We always have a car now (preferably a convertible!) - we find it much more relaxing to come and go as we please and not have to rely on transporation schedules - waaaaay too rigid for a vacation. Years ago we relied on buses during our first trip when the budget was tighter. It is certainly understandable to forego a rental car if it means cutting back on other plans.

 

[KNWVIKING]

Re-read my first post on this thread, the comments between the quotes are Rich's statement,(I don't know how to display quotes the proper way on the board). I have never been insulted by any comments on this board. Rich read a post I made on Pam's " Famous Survey" thread and took it as an insult, that's what started this thread. No harm,no foul,no hurt feelings intended.

 

[dianeschlicht]

AHA! I thought perhaps there was a deleted post that had me in the dark!

 

[Peter Johnson]

Originally posted by Tigger1
When I do take the bus, I sometimes choose which park to go to by which bus comes first.

That's our favorite way of deciding what park to go to next

We rent a car every time, partly to do groceries and non-WDW things, and also because we fly into Sanford.

 

[Richyams]

None at all, I have seen some people claiming that OKW people are too cheap to want a slide, I seriously misinterpurted a post of his on another thread as making that claim again and wanted to see if the vast majority of people have a car to prove my(un-needed) point.

But at least it looks like what I suspected is true, over 70% of visitors have a car while at WDW.

Somewhat of a hollow victory since the original purpose was a mistake.

I still think its interesting to know just how many people have a car and don't rely soley on WDW transportation.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I certainly would have no problem relying on WDW transportation, but that resort to resort thing gets old in a hurry. I would NEVER take a car to the parks since you have to park so far away.

 

[Richyams]

We use our car for the parks all the time. We will drive to Epcot and get on the monorail to MK, spend the day there, or part of it, get the monorail back to Epcot and stay there since it is open later when we go. We will stop at a monorail hotel on the way in or the way out for a good meal and some resort exploring.

We will drive to MGM, the walk isn't bad from that parking lot, then drive to Epcot later, usually you can get a good parking spot at Epcot late in the day. Or we will park at BWV, have a meal somewhere on the BW, go into Epcot and then leave easily and in the opposite direction from most people.

You can get real creative combing a car and the monorail.

 

[KNWVIKING]

We like driving over to Epcot in the early evening-usually for a dinner PS. That late in the day WDW isn't directing parking. We drive right up to the rows behind handicapped and usually find a great spot. The only bus we'll take is to MK so we can avoid the TTC, but we'll also take the Monorail in from Epcot.

 

[dianeschlicht]

My biggest problem is remembering what the rental car looks like!!!

 

[DisneyMeMa]

Oh, dianeschlicht, me too. Thank goodness my DDIL bought me a Minnie Mouse antennae ornament. It really does help! Once in HI, I remembered my row, but not what the car looked like - and we know they all really do look alike. I tried using the remote. It lighted & opened 2 cars side-by-side. Then I had to resort to checking license plates, LOL. The MM ball is a lot more fun, and I have used it on multiple trips to WDW...it gets packed along with the salt & pepper shakers, coasters, skillet. . . As for WDW transportation, we really like it. It gives everyone pleanty of flexibility. We rent a car (sometimes our group rents several), but we still use the buses, boats and monorails. However, when we have strollers and sometimes a wheelchair, the cars do seem to be easier.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Since my wife is affraid to fly, she MAKES us drive down.
We always have a car...and use it (exept for those Pleasure Island nights).

 

[RumpleMom]

We only have a car if we have taken the auto train and will be driving home, but we don't use the car for the entire week. DH considers not driving a vacation perk.

 

[natcam1996]

We've been at WDW every year since 1999 with no car. We fly in, take a shuttle to the resort and back. We even use a limo service at home to get to and from the airport. We have always used the WDW transportation system with little or no problem. All those times we stayed at one of the All Star resorts. I guess it has become a sort of tradition that makes us feel more a part of things. It certainly does dictate the rhythm of the day to some extent. I frankly don't like to drive as much as I used to so it seems nice to not use a car. I also grew up in a big city where a transportation system was avaialble so it seems more natural to me. Our daughter seems to like riding the buses for now. On the other hand, we have done primarily park hopping rather than resort hopping, which I think some folks have indicated is more of a probelm. When we do that we may want to rent a car. We also haven't really started exploring much outside of Disney property yet.

 

[RLevy29]

dianeschlicht and DisneyMeMa,
We lost our car one year at the MK. That year I think the car of choice was a silver Corolla. We drove to the MK at opening. There was a tram at the end of the row (which we usually never take) but we decided to run for it and neither one of us remembered to look at the row we were parked in.We decided to leave at lunch time and walked out to the parking lot. It started pouring rain! We both realized that we didn't know where the car was parked. (I think it was Goofy, no, no, it was Pluto) Finally, after walking aroud and trying to match license plate numbers of hundreds of silver Corollas from the key, we saw a CM an asked him what they could do if someone could not find their car. He asked us what time we came in and was able to tell us the exact row that we were parked in. We really felt stupid but now we always make a note of where we are parked along with making sure that one of us has the car keys in our possesion. (but that's another story!
A little off topic but I thought a little humor would help!

 

[nezy]

Wow! Disney even has parking down to a science!!

We always drive, stay at OKW and drive to BWV. From there we take the bus to MK, early evening monorail to Epcot and EXIt from the side gate at Canada an then stroll the Boardwalk. This keeps the magic going just a little bit longer.

We also drive to WL or to the Campground and take the boat to MK, and back at night for either the hoopty do revue or the campfire.

I guess I take advantage of having a car and DTT.

 

[prplcrzy]

We always have a car, it is so much more convenient that waiting for a bus. You have to wait for most everything else, why wait for a bus?

 

[Kick it up a notch!]

We always rent a car too!!!

 

[Regina]

When we were at the Polynesian in '91, we drove down. We never used the car and, at the end of the trip, DH forgot where he parked it. A helpful CM drove him around in a golf cart to find it. (I can see losing a rental car, but our own )

That happened to be the same trip that we joined DVC. Since then, we usually fly and get a towncar to bring us to WDW.

I have to say, I'm really surprised at how many of you routinely use a car. We never miss having one. It's also a perfect excuse not to make the drive to visit the in-laws.

 

[Wes]

bump