If you have a car.....

[Alsobrook]

I think I must be taking for granted that we live close enough to drive to WDW.

If you have a car, then does it matter, really, how spread out the resorts are, etc? Is doing Disney easier, by and large, with a car?

We're staying at Coronado Springs, and we will have a car....I'm assuming we can get around the resort with the car, if need be...otherwise, we just walk, right?

 

[Herbie]

We have driven to disney, and we have flown to disney....after we get there, we never move the car again.
The Disney trans system is really the way to go.

we have stayed at CSR (loved it) and had no need to move the car. Yes, its a bit spread out, but the walk is enjoyable.

 

[Kim1964]

We always rent a car, so staying at spread out resorts doesn't faze us. When we stayed at CSR we would stop off at El Centro for snacks and drinks before driving out to our room in the Ranchos section. Of course, we also enjoy exploring the properties on foot, so we never base our resort choice on the size of the grounds.

I also think that "spread out" is very subjective. We've stayed at some of the larger resorts in non-preferred rooms and have never minded the walk to the food court (Nobody in our party has mobility issues. My answer might be different if anyone did.) The only time the size can be a drag is when you're trying to get your luggage to your room from the car...some of the parking lots feel pretty far away, but that's only a few minutes out of the trip and no big deal for us.

Some people prefer to take buses to the parks and choose not to have cars with them. The buses do drop you off closer (especially at MK), but I prefer to have control over our transportation.

 

[Alsobrook]

We have driven to disney, and we have flown to disney....after we get there, we never move the car again.
The Disney trans system is really the way to go.

we have stayed at CSR (loved it) and had no need to move the car. Yes, its a bit spread out, but the walk is enjoyable.

I've just never used their transportation, other than the monorail. We drove to each park each day, and that was that....

This time, we're there a week...and I expect to park hop....so maybe we'll use more of their transportation.

 

[disnut8]

My husband and I find Disney transportation to be an attraction in itself. We have been known to go for the bus to Magic Kingdom but see one for Epcot pull up first so we'll take that, then the monorail over to the TTC, then walk to the Polynesian and take their little boat over to the Magic Kingdom. Takes longer but it's not something you get to do all the time. Also like to park hop from Animal Kingdom to Epcot by taking the bus to the Epcot resorts and then entering the park from the International Gateway.

I'm with the PP - if we are at Disney World and staying on property, the car stays put unless we need an offsite run for more supplies. We drive enough during the week, I don't need the hassles while on vacation. In fact, we could have saved some $$$ for the Memorial Day weekend but my normally cheap husband said the difference between driving back and forth every day versus the money was enough for us to be back on site. Never expected that.

 

[SusieBea]

I think I must be taking for granted that we live close enough to drive to WDW.

If you have a car, then does it matter, really, how spread out the resorts are, etc? Is doing Disney easier, by and large, with a car?

We're staying at Coronado Springs, and we will have a car....I'm assuming we can get around the resort with the car, if need be...otherwise, we just walk, right?

We always have a car at Disney. We use it and we use WDW transportation. We never drive to the MK, but we usually drive to the other parks and DTD. Plus we always make a grocery run. If you have a car, no, it doesn't matter how spread out the resort is. But, usually the resort has internal transportation to take you from your building to the main area as well.

 

[vettegirl]

We have stayed at CSR with a car and it was nice to have for dinner reservations, going to the waterpark, and DT Disney.

 

[Karl66]

We stayed as CSR last year for six nights. I parked the car when we arrived on a Sunday and didn't move it again till we checked out. We used Disney transportation to get to the parks and walking around the resort wasn't bad. We did not have any dinner reservations to get to however.

 

[browneyedgrl4282]

Out of the last 7 trips we have done we had a car 3 times because we drove down from NJ! We only used our car if we needed to leave Disney for something. We had a car when we stayed at CBR, OKW, and POP.

 

[I Love Pluto]

We drive to WDW. We love having our car with us. We choose to drive & dine at other resorts just to see what they're like, we drive to all of the parks, we park at the TTC for MK, we can go off property to eat or shop if we wish, and we feel that we're more in charge of our own trip this way.

My daughter & I travel together from PA. We leave our husbands at home, and the time is ours. If we haven't gotten lost on Disney property, then the signs must be very well placed. Enjoy Disney with your auto!

 

[Tara]

I fly to Disney, but always rent a car. I stayed at CBR with my son in June 2010 and we used the car to get from our room to the resort center - very spread out. (We do enough walking in the heat in the parks...I don't feel the need to add to that.)

I also use the car to get pretty much everywhere. Rarely do I use WDW transportation unless it's the monorail from one of those resorts or a boat to MK or Studios. If at BLT, I walk to MK. If at YC/BC/BCV/BW I walk to Epcot and sometimes walk to Studios. I usually drive if we are at a non-MK area resort and going to MK, even though we have to park at TTC. A car is also invaluable if you do a lot of resort dining...or even just a little!

I find WDW extremely easy to navigate by car.

 

[KigerKat]

We also live close enough to drive, and we love having the freedom of our car. The way I see it, we wait enough for rides, shows, parades, and restaurants, so when I'm tired and just want to go to bed i can drive straight there with some water waiting for me in the backseat cooler. I can blow the air in my face if it's hot and push the seat back if DH is driving. We can listen to some nice music on the radio and not have to overhear a bunch of random conversations or listen to fussy children that have had a little too much fun and excitement that day.

However, I can totally understand why people like to just park their car and enjoy their trip. Different strokes for different folks!

 

[minnie mum]

Like some of the other posters, we drive to Disney and park the car for the next week. After driving a thousand miles just to get there, we don't want to do any more driving while we're there. We've stayed at resorts from one end of WDW to the other and never had a major problem with Disney transportation. Even when we have dinner reservations at the resorts we will take Disney transpo there and then take a taxi back to our resort. We wouldn't dream of driving to our dinners, since both of us will have at least one or 2 drinks during the evening.

The only time we've used the car while we're there has been if we have to go off property for some reason.

 

[Tara]

We also live close enough to drive, and we love having the freedom of our car. The way I see it, we wait enough for rides, shows, parades, and restaurants, so when I'm tired and just want to go to bed i can drive straight there with some water waiting for me in the backseat cooler. I can blow the air in my face if it's hot and push the seat back if DH is driving. We can listen to some nice music on the radio and not have to overhear a bunch of random conversations or listen to fussy children that have had a little too much fun and excitement that day.

However, I can totally understand why people like to just park their car and enjoy their trip. Different strokes for different folks!

You just gave a lot of the reasons I like to drive myself. Some people say they don't like to get in a hot car, but the alternative IMO is much worse. A/C on buses is usually frigid, which is nice for a minute, but after that I'm generally freezing.

I love having the privacy of our car - it's like our quiet space. I plug my iPhone in to the charger/FM transmitter for much-needed charge (in and out of ride buildings with bad signal drain the battery like crazy) and we crank up our Disney playlists. Plus if we want to make a pit stop at Chik-Fil-A (which I can't get at home), we can do that...or whatever we want to do, because we're in charge.

 

[Nickarooney]

Chik-Fil-A (which I can't get at home)

 

[Tara]

Sad, but true.