Golf Cart Questions?

[vossjemi]

First, do you really need one? How long do the busses take? We plan to stay 7 days with 4 days in the parks. We plan to stay in a cabin, and on our off days swim, do pony rides, do the campfire/movie thing, Hoop De Doo, bbq, playground, etc....

Allears says the cost is $43/day, so it would be $301 for the week, which is pretty steep. If we got one, I'd think we'd only get it on our off days for toodling around FW.

Allears also mentions that you can reserve a year in advance. We hope to go end Oct/early Nov next year. Do we really need to reserve now? I hate to do that because that would make us decide which days are our off days now. Has anyone had any problems just going to the Bike Barn the day you want one and renting it?

 

[We4mickey]

Your chances are very slim on renting the day you need it. Especially if you are there during Halloween week or on a weekend.

 

[Nickimouse]

Do you really have to have one? No.
Are they a great convenience? Yes!
We camped, but took ours to the buses every morning. They have parking spaces for them and even have plugs to charge them at the parking area near the boat launch. At the end of a long day we really enjoyed zipping back to our site instead of getting on another bus or walking.
You can reserve one and cancel if you change your mind because you will not be charged until you pick it up.

Enjoy FW!

 

[mrsgus06]

You also get a discount if you rent by the week. We now take our own, but would rent one every time. My kids were young and waiting for another bus was my downfall with them. They wanted to get back to their camper without having to get off of one bus to wait for another. Plus, it is convenient to have them for "off" days to zip down to the beach, watch the parade and fireworks.

 

[WAHMto5]

I actually JUST got off the phone with reserving one. You want to make reservations for them asap if you are going at a busy time.
We just reserved ours for a 7 night stay and if you rent it by the week, they DO give you a 10% off discount. So the total for the 8 days was $295.22, not as bad as I thought it would be!
HTH

 

[vossjemi]

Ok, sounds like when we book the cabin, we should just go ahead and book the cart so we know we have it booked. WE can always change our minds later. Do you put any sort of deposit on the cart? And, is there a cancellation policy? i.e how much notice? And, how is it they charge? For each day or for each 24 hour period? In other words, if we rent sat-sat, will we be charged for 7 or 8 days? THanks for all the tips and answers guys!

 

[VLee]

We're staying at the cabins three nights before moving on to OKW and want to rent a cart. Are there any DVC discounts for renting carts? Thanks.

I remember we got a discount for bike rentals when at the Villas before....

 

[tim5055]

We're staying at the cabins three nights before moving on to OKW and want to rent a cart. Are there any DVC discounts for renting carts? Thanks.

I remember we got a discount for bike rentals when at the Villas before....

The only discount I am aware of is the one for renting for a week or more. You could call the Bike Barn and ask... 407-824-2742

 

[DURANFAN2]

The only discount I've ever heard about is the 10% if you rent a cart for a week. I'm a Florida Charter Annual Passholder and thats the discount we get.

They are REALLY worth it. I know they sound pricey but golf carts are expensive to buy. New ones cost on avg. $4000-5000. We go to disney so much we finally broke down and bought one and a trailor to carry it.

You really save alot of time waiting for buses when you have carts. I can't help but think that Disney buses maybe reduced to save gas especially during slow periods.

 

[cabowser]

Hi all,

we camped at FW in June and rented a cart. I had reserved in advance after agonizing over it for just months. It IS a lot of money, but I tell you it was worth it. We had much more mobility than if we didn't have one. I got tired that first day of spending time waiting at bus stops. I just loved it. I like driving anyway, but this thing was fun.

One of the things that I thought, even though this was our first overnight stay at WDW (we stayed a week) was that it made it so nice not to have to walk forever to get to our room, like we would have had to if we stayed at one of the big hotels. It was just door to door.

When we decided to definately get the cart it was late, 6 pm and the bike barn was closed, so we had to go thenext morning. Well I am an early morning person, so I was up bright and early and walked on down there. There were two people in front of me and before 10 minutes went by the line was LONG! The girl came to the window and said, we only have two carts left. Well, everyone after me left. I thought I was out of luck, but having made that reservation made all the difference.

I would do it again in a heartbeat. The photo is of me, taken by my hubby who was in the cabin, I was going for take out pizza at Trails End. yummy!

 

[TChris]

I think that since you have made the reservations for the golf cart, you will use it a lot. I know that we were very happy that we had one when we stayed a FW cabins back in July. Have a great trip, I wish that it was us going back.

 

[logella]

I guess I'll be the one naysayer on this topic. I've been a lurker here for years and have never registered, let alone posted, until now. We've been camping at FW for years and in fact just got back from a week long trip (left FW on Friday with Wilma bearing down on us). We've got three kids (10, 5 and 2) and have NEVER rented a cart and don't see a reason to do so. We usually stay in Loop 200 but this year it was down for refurbishment so we were in Loop 1400. It was at most a 5 to 10 minute walk for us to the boat docks. Why would we want to spend $300+ bucks to save that little of time. Talk about a complete waste. You're on vacation at Disney, Don't be in such a hurry.

 

[vossjemi]

LOL! Too funny. I'm still trying to decide here, but since we're not planning to go til next oct we've got some time. I don't mind walking a bit. We're avid walkers. However, when you're on vacation and time is limited, I hate to waste 15-20 minutes getting somewhere when it could be done in 2-5. We won't be camping, but in the cabins, and from the map, it looks like the trek it much longer. Am I right?

 

[cabowser]

We had a number of reasons for renting a golf cart:

1. I have plantar fascitis, which is a problem with my feet that makes it hard, but not impossible to walk;

2. The bugs were a killer and sitting at the bus stops was really uncomfortable;

3. It was a big time saver in getting to the parks early without having to fight the crowds;

4. It enabled me to carry groceries back from the store without having to take my husband with me, who was then able to watch all of the kids at the cabin; That means not dragging three kids grocery shopping!

5. We have a child with autism who had a hard time waiting at the bus stops. He would dart into the road. We found that he was really good in the cart. So that was a plus.

6. And we are both big fat hogs who hate exercise, LOL, but it did make our vacation a lot nicer.

I sold a bunch of stuff on ebay for the $300, so that was fine. I rationalized it like I rationalized renting the double stroller for the week at the parks. It made things more magical for us, so we did it.

Jan

 

[cabowser]

Oh one more thing, with the extra stroller for our baby, the diaper bag, the purse, all three kids plus the rain gear we needed some help carrying that stuff. There is a compartment in the golf cart that was WONDERFUL for all of that. I wish I had one here - I really do!

And it is a LOT further to the dock from the cabins than it is from loop 200 or even 1400! You might need to take several busses to get where you are going and that's not fun when you will be waiting up to 20 or 30 minutes for one, then maybe you need two and the boat ride takes about 20 or 30 minutes. If you are trying to beat the crowds then you have to get up all that much earlier --- forget it. My time is more valuable than that.

Shame that that post was deleted that I got in my email and I am sure some of you know what I mean. Sometimes a person has to tell it like it is.

Did the site delete it or did the writer?

 

[FWDisFan]

I have to throw in my 2 cents worth! We stayed in a cabin last December and one of the highlights for the kids was ABSOLUTELY the golf cart! We had fun just riding around and felt we had so much more flexibility. As we started discussing Disney 06 the kids IMMEDIATELY chimed in they wanted to stay in a cabin again (and of course get the golf cart!)
Walking is ok and we did it the first few days at the Campground. Unfortunately the bus system isn't exactly convenient and we found it better to have the cart.

We also had built in a day JUST to play at the Campgrounds (horse back rides, etc) and REALLY enjoyed the cart then. AND since we went in December we THOROUGHLY enjoyed driving around several nights and checking out everyone's beautifully (and some quite elaborately) decorated campgrounds/campers/tents, etc.

We must side with the golf cart FANS and despite the cost would definitely rent one for a few days atleast!

 

[Dirtslinger]

We went in July 05 and wish we would've rented one. We stayed in the 900 loop and could walk to the pool but wish we had a cart to go to the outpost or the settlement. We found ourselves driving our truck every time we went somewhere. If we had the cart it would make things easier to get around. Getting ready to plan Nov or Dec 06 at the Fort...

 

[DURANFAN2]

I agree with the last posts. Its really fun just to cart around the campgrounds. The campgrounds are HUGE. I'm big on exercise but theres plenty of time to walk when you're at disney. Unless you're in a few of the loops you have a MAJOR distance to walk.
If you're staying in the cabins OR say the 1600/1800 loops you are in for a VERY long walk. Especially if for people with leg/feet problems OR tired kids the golf carts are a great idea.

 

[blewits]

Okay, now I'm more confused than ever. After reading this, first I thought, nah, we won't rent a cart. But then I found out that bus travel to the parks involves 2 busses/2 bus stops. So, I decided to reserve one.

What I'm not clear on however is, can I drive my car from my cabin to the beach and the marina?

We will be driving down from Atlanta and I will have a car. If it weren't for my dad who is going with us, I would not rent the cart. My dad has gout and you never know when you might have an attack. If it flares up while we are down there (in 18 days! woo hoo!), it would be too painful for him to walk that much. I could just skip the cart and drive the car to the parks I guess, but I dont know if that is better than the alternatives.

The idea of a 30 minute trip to the parks does not appeal to me. We have stayed at OKW before and POR before and I didn't mind those travel times to and from the parks. I know people used to complain about the OKW busses, but we never had a problem. Was it taking me 30 mins. to get to the parks from OKW and I just didnt realize it?

UUUGGGHHH! What to do???? Please advise, oh you Disney guru's!

 

[FWDisFan]

blewits- I remember that feeling a year ago! I couldn't decide and couldn't decide. SO after we arrived I decided we needed one and called and luckily they still had one (it was an off time to visit). If your Dad has gout then I would reserve one and cancel it if you don't need it. I would strongly recommend trying it one day because it is a blast to tool around the campground in.

As I recall cars are not really allowed to travel around the campground except to enter and exit (you can of course park at your campsite/cabin) but you couldn't for example drive it up to the boat launch and hop on the boat to MK. (That may have changed but it was my understanding they try to minimize car traffic). We had a rental car also and of course used that to go to DTD, AK and MGM (we had read about horrendous parking situtations but we didn't encounter them). To MK and Epcot we took Disney transportation.

The bus system within the campground can get tiresome -- our kids got tired of the walk after having been in the parks all day.

HTH!