how to get to universal without a car.

[Andrew*A]

Does any have any suggestions as to how to get to universal studios without a car?
My parents will be staying at the Pop resort and have decided against a car.
Has anyone used the Lynx Bus service? This picks up at DTD but takes 90 mins to get to the park.
My parents have pre bought their universal tickets, so are there any coach trips that go from the hotels that just provide transport?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[wayneg]

Can't help with other forms of transport as we only ever have a car, wouldn't know where to start with buses/taxis.
Just wanted to say one option would be a car for the day if they can drive, USrentacar allows one day rental from Disney's car care centre. 1 days rental would only cost £26 and include about £20 of gas. Would also cost $12 parking at Universal.
They would just have to decide the date before travel and book in advance.
Even onsite we have car, hate Disney/public transport.

 

[scottish mum]

We've taken a taxi once from all star movies to universal. can't remember how much it was but i know it wasn't too dear. I think Mears do bus trips to universal but don't know if you also need to buy tickets through them to qualify for the bus.

 

[UKDEB]

To use Lynx, you'd first have to get a bus from Pop to DTD, so you'd be looking at around 4 hours of travelling for a day at Universal. Yikes! My suggestion would be to get a taxi. It'll cost around $32 each way pre-tip. For that you literally get a door-to-door service - you'll be picked up right outside your hotel (ask valet to call one for you) and be dropped off at the entrance to CityWalk. Even with a hefty tip, that's less than hiring a car for the day, and less hassle, to boot. For a start, you'd have to get to the Car Care Center and then you'd have to pay for the privilege of parking half a mile away from CityWalk.

 

[madmumof2]

I was wondering this too. A taxi sounds the best deal!

Although, if they want to go back again for dinner, like I do, (even though I had planned them of different days), it might be better to hire a car.

Do you pay for parking for the day (so can come back without paying again) or every time you park?

 

[disneyholic family]

Does any have any suggestions as to how to get to universal studios without a car?
My parents will be staying at the Pop resort and have decided against a car.
Has anyone used the Lynx Bus service? This picks up at DTD but takes 90 mins to get to the park.
My parents have pre bought their universal tickets, so are there any coach trips that go from the hotels that just provide transport?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

you can use the Mears attraction shuttle service to get from any disney resort to universal.
the round trip cost is $16/person.

you call mears to make a reservation - they pick you up from your resort - then they stop at other resorts to pick up other guests before heading to universal..

 

[paulh]

you can use the Mears attraction shuttle service to get from any disney resort to universal.
the round trip cost is $16/person.

you call mears to make a reservation - they pick you up from your resort - then they stop at other resorts to pick up other guests before heading to universal..

agree do the mears pick up,cheaper and easer to do,mears run the taxis in disney as well
Paulh

 

[Vana]

agree do the mears pick up,cheaper and easer to do,mears run the taxis in disney as well
Paulh

Can you tell me more about Mears please as we are not hiring a car we were told the trolly bus on international drive was best to get to most parks.

 

[disneyholic family]

Can you tell me more about Mears please as we are not hiring a car we were told the trolly bus on international drive was best to get to most parks.

here is their website:

http://www.mearstransportation.com/

they have shuttle transportation and taxis..

but i don't know how they work in terms of international drive..

 

[gismo1554]

The shuttle on Idrive is good only to get between Seaworld & Universal. You still need to get to Seaworld on the Lynx bus. Costs to get the Lynx are only $1.50 so yes its the cheapest option

Depending on the number of you bus can also be the cheapest option but if more than 2 of you get a cab!

 

[Vana]

thank you for the link

Is the Lynx bus the normal bus service?

We are looking at ways to get from Internation drive to Kennedy too

 

[wayneg]

Do you pay for parking for the day (so can come back without paying again) or every time you park?

You pay for parking once per day come and go as much as you want. Same at Disney, you can goto all 4 parks in one day if you wanted for one parking fee.

 

[paulh]

You pay for parking once per day come and go as much as you want. Same at Disney, you can goto all 4 parks in one day if you wanted for one parking fee.

if you have a flex ticket,once you have paid for parking its valid all day at each park
parking rates:-
universal/IOA $12
seaworld/aquatica/bush gardens $10
Wet n wild $9

so you could go to wet n wild on way to universal pay for parking,then just turn round out of carpark.head over to universal saving $3
No we havent done that, but done aquatica mornning then universal in evening
Paulh

 

[tim allen]

mears is the most awfull company to use they often drop and pick up at multiple stops making your 10 min trip into over an hour pay for a taxi and arive and leave at your own time always plenty of taxies waiting never use mears

 

[gismo1554]

thank you for the link

Is the Lynx bus the normal bus service?

We are looking at ways to get from Internation drive to Kennedy too

Yes its the normal bus service that workers use to get to Disney too. The Iride trolley on Idrive is more a tourist route but both are good and definately reliable. Iride is a lot more frequent than the Lynx but Lynx is the only one that goes to Disney. Lynx is once an hour I think Iride is every 10 minutes or so. Iride goes from the Premium Outlet Malls (about 10 mins drive from Downtown Disney) to the Prime (previously Beltz) factory outlets. I believe you get off for Universal on Universal Blvd and then have to walk a little way.

A cheaper option would be to get a cab to the Premium outlets and then the bus up from there but this does eat into the time.

On the mears website you can get fare quotes for different journeys in cabs. I've been trying forever to get it to work for Pop Century to Hard Rock Hotel and it never works but from Magic Kingdom to Universal its quoting $42 and I'm budgeting for less than this as MK is the furthest point away.

A Shuttle is quoting $98 round trip on 1 day for a car for 2 between Pop Century and Hard Rock Hotel so is cheaper to use cab just.

Cab from Magic Kingdom to Seaworld is $32.45 each way. Premium Outlets are before this but cant get the search to work on site to find out price but surprisingly the Chruch next door to the Outlet is on there and each way to there is $25.85. Then you're looking at $1.50 each to get down to Universal.

Here's the Iride website

http://www.iridetrolley.com/

Edited - I was lying its $1 each way and children under 12 are free with a purchasing adult so even cheaper.

 

[UKDEB]

I was wondering this too. A taxi sounds the best deal!

Although, if they want to go back again for dinner, like I do, (even though I had planned them of different days), it might be better to hire a car.

Do you pay for parking for the day (so can come back without paying again) or every time you park?

If you wanted to go for dinner on a different day, there's no charge to park after 6pm.

 

[Hilary]

mears is the most awfull company to use they often drop and pick up at multiple stops making your 10 min trip into over an hour pay for a taxi and arive and leave at your own time always plenty of taxies waiting never use mears

I have to disagree - we used Mears a couple of times when there were only two of us travelling and were very pleased (for more than two passengers I'd opt for a taxi). Based on our past experience, I'd use them again .

 

[paulh]

mears is the most awfull company to use they often drop and pick up at multiple stops making your 10 min trip into over an hour pay for a taxi and arive and leave at your own time always plenty of taxies waiting never use mears

if you have used a taxi or ME you have used mears as they have the monopoly on them in orlando,
Paulh

 

[Kath2003]

This is fine during the day but it's a NIGHTMARE at night. The iRide trolley stops at 10pm and the Lynx buses run every hour, IF they're on time. We gave up after our bus was 35 minutes late during a tropical storm (we had been waiting 50 minutes by this point!) and got a cab to near Sea World, it cost $20.

 

[Sundariel]

My boyfriend and I have just been and we stayed in All Star Music.

We went to the Conciege desk about a day before we wanted to go and asked them. They took down all the information (what time we want picking up in the morning from the hotel, if we know what time we want picking up from Universal) Then they rang Mears for us and booked it.

It cost £16 each (£32 for both of us). You pay the coach driver on the day. He gives you a little blue ticket which is your return ticket to prove you've paid for a return trip. If you have a booked time to return then just turn back up where the driver dropped you off at the time. If you don't sort out a time, then there is a number on the back of the little blue ticket which you ring two hours before you want to go home and then you're booked.

We mainly got picked from our hotel about 8am/9am. A Mears coach pulls up in front of the hotel and it's normally a coach which takes you to Seaworld, Discovery Cove, Aquatica (New Seaworld Water Park), Universal.

There is also a bus which they run which goes to Kennedy Space Center. I guess you do the same as you do with the Universal coach. (We didn't go to Kennedy)

The coach we got on stopped at a few hotels including all the All Star resorts, Coronado Springs and Pop Century.

After Pop Century, then the coach would head off to the parks and it would take about 10/15 mins to get to Seaworld, another 10 mins to get to Universal.

The coach drivers were also amazingly friendly, especially a guy called Amar. He made our bus journeys go by so fast that we didn't even notice. He likes to be a kind of tour guide. He would give us little snippets of trivia about the surrounding hotels in Walt Disney World resort and outside the world. He also made jokes and kept us entertained. If you get this guy, tip him, we did!

Mears were excellent and their service was brilliant. Definitely worth the £16 each.