I've found a great deal for a nice premium rental car for our trip in July for 2 adults and 2 children. Besides the cost of the rental, how much more should I expect to spend on the cost of driving. We'll be picking up from Sixt at MCO with an all in cost of £429.
We're staying on I-drive not too far from pointe orlando and will be visiting all the parks at least once and all water parks in the 3 weeks we are there. We'll also take a visit to the outlet malls and mall at millenia (for cheesecake factory!). We may take a drive to a beach, or woodland if we fancy it.
I'm thinking about costs of fuel, parking, tolls ???? Any advice would be lovely.
Also do you think it is worth it compared to buses and taxi's.
We stay in a similar location. For us (adults in our 20s, active and healthy, like to have a few drinks whilst on holiday), a car doesn't work in terms of practicality (mainly that we like to chill out and have a few cocktails, not rush, not worry about traffic, finding our way etc.) and cost.
A 7-day unlimited bus pass, including transport to and from the airport costs £10, posted for free to the UK with no card fees. Parking alone at the theme parks is nearing £10/day. Alternatively, you can pay $2 per person in each direction, or buy a daily pass on the bus for $4.50. (If I recall correctly, children under 6 are free). Potentially, then, your entire transport costs would be £120 by using the bus, plus £310 spare for cabs, on just the hire car cost alone (and potentially significantly more, a modest 15 trips to the parks could result in a parking bill of a further £150 in itself).
Whilst we don't use public transport often in the UK, the Orlando system is superb and I would recommend it to anyone. If you're near Pointe Orlando, you will have no problem using it. The bus from the airport will take you direct to your door and back again. The theme parks are all easy to get to, as are the outlet malls (direct bus) and Mall at Milennia. The buses are regular (never waited more than 10 mins, even without planning) and timetables are available both online, printable and you can pick them up on the buses too. Unlike our experience of UK public transport, these timetables are actually adhered to. We have never had to stand on the bus; they are air conditioned and we have never experienced any problems whatsoever. We occasionally use cabs late at night etc. and find that we still make significant savings over the cost of the car.
It's up to you, of course, but I would highly recommend using the bus system. We have done both - driving and buses - and we choose the buses. It works for us, and the savings mean we can enjoy our holiday more without worrying about costs (and we can go back more often!). We have noticed over the last couple of trips that the buses are becoming increasingly popular - they are raved about on a number of sites, including TripAdvisor.
In terms of hassle - well, I suppose we do have to walk around 10m further than the parking lot of the hotel to the bus stop. I suppose we may have to wait a maximum of 15 minutes for our bus (but since they come at the same time ever hour, it's not hard to get into a routine with that - and since almost all the bus stops have benches in the shade, I suppose it could be considered hassle to sit somewhere quietly resting for a few minutes a couple of times each day). I guess occasionally we have to walk a few more metres than from the parking lot to get to our destination, but often you actually arrive closer than the parking lot. Oh and we have to buy our bus tickets before we go, but then that saves the hassle of buying them on the bus (which we can still do) or buying a pass there (from the Visitor's Centre near Pointe Orlando at no extra cost). So yeah, it's "hassle", but by no means makes any difference to the enjoyment of our holiday. I guess it's negated by not needing to pay parking tolls, find our way to a destination, get trams from the parking lot, fill up with gas, book and collect the hire car, drop the car off at the airport or pay road tolls, for us...
Oh and most I Drive hotels do offer theme park shuttles at no cost, so you can always combine these with the public buses to make the most of your stay. There are so many things to do on I Drive that you can walk to restaurants, bars, mini golf, etc. in the evenings anyway.
