DTD, rental car, parking at parks

[AMaloy314]

I'm not sure exactly which board to post this on, but maybe you all can help me.

My situation: myself, DH, 4yr, & 3yr. Staying 6 nights at the Double Tree Guest Suites (DTD). Sept 2004. 5 days in park. Will eat breakfast in the hotel, but planning other meals at park or nearby. Will need to do grocery stop to pick up food and other necessities. Naps/downtime in afternoon a MUST for DSs...and Mom's sanity. Will have double stroller at parks, but not umbrella type.

I'm considering renting a car for our trip. It is still pretty far away to be able to count on code yet, but I'm hoping for $150 for rental plus gas.

To rent a limo would cost $100, including tips.
Someone mentioned to me that they thought staying at any DTD hotel also included free parking at the parks. If that is the case, that saves $35 that will otherwise have to be budgeted. Factoring in stroller hassle on the bus, transfer times from DTD to parks, and walking back and forth from the hotel to bus pick-up, makes a rental look pretty good. BTW, does anyone know how far of a walk it is?

The negatives that I have heard are, of course, traffic. Then, there would be the parking charge, if that applies. There is also the walk to the car in the parking lot, which I'm sure can be quite a hike.

Any thoughts or opinions would be helpful.

Thanks!

 

[curlyq]

We stayed at one of the DTD hotels and were told it does not include free parking at the parks. Free parking is only if you stay at a "Disney" hotel. We had rented a car and would do it again in a minute. It gives you so much more versatility than the buses. After taking the DTD hotel transportation the first day, we decided to drive our own car and pay the parking. It was just easier for us to plan our days and not have to worry about waiting for the buses. The DTD hotel transportation is not as frequent as regular Disney hotel buses. That being said, even staying on sight at a regular Disney hotel, I would still rent a car. For just a little bit more than limo service or transfers from a hotel, you have a car for the whole week. Makes running to the store for that special something you forgot to pack a lot easier.

 

[Mic]

While staying at the Wyndham 2 years ago, we used the DTD hotel transportation without any problem. My only complaint was that the DTD hotel bus lets you off at the Ticket and Transportation Center as opposed to the front gates of MK, like the "regular" Disney buses do. At MGM, the DTD bus was parked fairly close to the main entrance. I'm not sure about the bus location at Epcot and AK, but Epcot would be easy to get to from the TTC. We had our van a week ago at Hotel Royal Plaza, so we did not use the DTD bus, but there were plenty of people who did. I think you would be fine using DTD transportation. I rarely need to rent a car, so I do not know very much about rates, but my DH and I once did one-way rentals from Orlando airport to Cape Canaveral, so we did not have to pay for parking at the port. Each one-way rental was less than $50, so we arrived on a Sat. in Orlando, and spent the day at WDW, then drove to Cape Canaveral to return the car and board the Wonder on Sunday. You could check into doing something like this, and just return the car at one of the DTD hotels(I think several have rental car counters). That would allow you to make your grocery stop(and take longer than 30 minutes if you need to). Then do the same thing in reverse on check-out day. I would not pay $7 a day to park at WDW when the DTD hotel bus runs more frequently than all other off-site transportation.