Help

[Merilyn]

I decided yesterday to fly into MCO instead of driving. I got Northwest Miles and Cash. My problem is that I have many dining reservations at multiple locations. What is my best bet for getting around. We will need room for 6 if we rent a car, one being an infant. All the minivans I have found are very high and I don't think any other car will hold all 6 of us. I have heard getting around the resorts is difficult if you don't have a car. Any suggestions? Are cab so high that that wouldn't make sense. I would hate to have to rent a van at 450 dollars but I can't see paying cab fare both ways almost every night. HELP! I thought this would be a better plan with gas so high but now I don't know. Thanks in advance for your help!
Merilyn

 

[goofy4tink]

I would try to leave sufficient time to get from point A to point B. You can get buses to the resorts pretty quickly from the parks. Then, you can take a bus back to a park that is still open that night, back to your resort after eating.
If you give us some examples of where you need to get to and from where, we can give you more concrete info.

 

[Merilyn]

We are staying at OKW. We have reservations at Whispering Canyon, Concource Steak and Hoop-De-Do Review. I may have spelled that wrong. The others so far are in the parks and I know how to get to them without any trouble. I have heard it is very difficult to get to HDD Review without a car. How long should we plan to get us to any of these places? Thanks for the help. We have never stayed at WDW without a car so this is going to be our first try at it. We decided since we are using the dining plan that we didn't need to go off the property. Hope this works for us!
Merilyn

 

[goofy4tink]

We are staying at OKW. We have reservations at Whispering Canyon, Concource Steak and Hoop-De-Do Review. I may have spelled that wrong. The others so far are in the parks and I know how to get to them without any trouble. I have heard it is very difficult to get to HDD Review without a car. How long should we plan to get us to any of these places? Thanks for the help.
Merilyn

Not a problem at all. To get to HDDR, just take a boat from MK to Ft. Wilderness. It will drop you right down the path from HDDR. If you are going to the late show, their will be buses to take you to the different resorts. If you'll be at one of the earlier shows, just take the boat back to MK. Grab a bus from there back to your resort.
For Whispering Canyon Cafe, take the boat, again, to Wilderness Lodge from MK. Then, boat back to MK if the park is still open. If it isn't, take a bus to a park that is open (from WL) and then transfer to your resort bus at that park.
For Concourse Steak House, go to MK and walk over to the Contemporary Resort. Eat and then return to MK for the bus back to your resort.
If you use the different parks as transportation 'hubs' you'll do just fine. The other thing you can do is to take a bus back to DTD, and then the boat to OKW. Or the bus if the boat isn't running. The buses run from DTD to the resorts well into the wee hours of the night/morning!!!
As for how much time to leave, I always leave about an hour all in all. I like to take my time...if I get there early, then terrific. Much better than worrying about missing my ADR.

 

[CleveRocks]

Just seconding Diane's advice that Hoop Dee Doo Revue is actually pretty easy to get to, mostly, I guess, due to its proximity to MK. My kids really enjoyed the short boat ride from MK, plus we got to see a little bit of WL on the way, also.

And as Diane said, the boat dock at FW is just down the path from Pioneer Hall, the site of Hoop.

Here's a neat thing about the boat ride. Outside MK, the boat starts in the Seven Seas lagoon. It travels to another body of water, the name of which escapes me right now. Anyway, it gets from one lake to the next via a bridge, and this bridge, which is filled with water, actually goes OVER the road. That's right, you will sail (motor) on the water while going over a bridge that crosses a roadway.

If you've ever taken a Disney Transport bus to MK, at one point the road dips down a little and you go under an overpass. That overpass is a waterway. I'm sorry I'm not describing this very well, but it's really a cool thing, especially for kids.