If you have your car, should you use bus or drive?

[medman1025]

Hi there - going to WDW December 9-19, and will have our own car there, and staying onsite the whole time. To get to the theme parks, hotels, downtown disney, etc., should we just drive everywhere we want to go, or rely on the buses? I've read many websites that suggest just driving, but wanted "real people's" opinions. Thank you very much!

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

We have four kids, and until this year, we've had to juggle double strollers for our trips. We found it much easier to take our own van, rather than squish in the Disney vans. We often take the bus in the morning, but love having our own transportation home in the evening, during that post-firework rush!

The only exception to this is for MK. We hate the whole mess with TTC, so we always take the bus to MK.

 

[Reddog1134]

I always drive everywhere. I've heard too many horror stories about late buses, crowded buses, etc.

However, some people that like to drive will tell you to take Disney transportation to MK.

 

[jdb in AZ]

We've done both, and both have their advantages and drawbacks. I would try the buses first but if they get too crowded or the wait is too long, or if you're in a hurry to catch your dinner reservation, switch to your car.

 

[Karpkg]

Whether we're onsite or off, we always use our own vehicle. It's a sigh of relief when you can enter your own car and drive directly to where you're going.

On a bus going back at night it's hard watching full buses pass one by, and if you manage to get into one, if the kids are tired, to have them asleep on your lap if you're lucky to find a seat. I've had standing room only a few times.

Highly suggest the GPS though if you're offsite. Those roads can really turn one around.

 

[BlovesC]

Since we drive to the parks constantly, when we're actually on vacation and staying at a Disney resort we LOVE using Disney transportation. There are horror stories posted daily but thankfully we've somehow remained unscathed. Monorail, boat, bus, however our chosen resort can get us to the parks, we'll take it.

 

[tndisneyfan]

I used to be a devoted bus fan, but now we drive everywhere. We had been driving to MK but after our last trip I have been thinking about taking the bus. We've had a lot of monorail issues getting to MK from TTC, so we've been considering taking the bus more.

The pros:
1) No waiting when you are ready to leave the park (the only time I've waited more than 3 or so minutes for a tram was at MK at closing)
2)You always have a seat
3) I feel more "in control" about my arrival time if I'm trying to be at park at a certain time. We've almost been late for ADRs because we just missed the bus and it took 30+ minutes for another to come
4) It's usually less of a walk to the tram and your vehicle than walking to the bus stop. At the moderate resorts we usually are able to park close to our room. At CSR our truck was parked almost right outside our door.

The cons:
1) Monorail issues at MK. It seems like the last few trips we've had a time with the monorail to/from TTC. We had an early ADR one morning and ended up running behind because we had to wait 20+ minutes for a monorail at the TTC (the ferry doesn't start running until 8:30). Other times there's been issues with the express monorail when we were leaving. Took forever to get back to the truck
2) getting into a hot car in the Florida heat
3) Occasionally you get stuck at the end of row and it's a long walk to/from tram. But not much worse than a bus stop.
4) At the deluxes we've stayed at, parking lot was a long way from the front of the hotel and it can be hard to find a parking spot.
5) I think it can be a hassle at park closing, especially at MK. Maybe not so much at other parks.

I have more cons than pros but I still prefer to drive over the bus, except for possibly MK.

 

[WicketsMom]

We've done both, but prefer to drive. The exception would be if I were staying in a monorail resort, then I would use Disney transportation.

 

[andyman8]

I personally like the Disney Busses. They are clean and comfortable. We are FL Residents and, obviously, bring our car. However, we tend to use the busses simply because we have found (with past experiences) that taking busses seems to better despite all those 'horror stories.' Remember you still have to use a Disney tram to get to the park, and the buses take you right to the gate. Busses are particularly good for MK for when you park you have to get on a tram and then take a monorail or ferryboat just to get to the park.

 

[medman1025]

Thanks for the info...we are staying at CSR, and will probably drive except to the MK. We will be at all parks from open to close - no kids, 2 adults. Thanks again.

 

[KimK2006]

We usually drive to all except MK and DTD.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

We are here now and there is NO WAY I would stand at a bus stop for 20 minutes waiting to take a bus that is still going to take me 20 more minutes to get where I am going. We have driven ourselves every where, even to the Magic Kingdom.

Buy yourself a AAA Diamond parking pass off Ebay for $10 and get yourself up close parking in all 4 parks.

 

[MomtoGKC]

If we're not at a monorail resort we drive everywhere. Sometimes we do the bus to MK, depends on how long we're staying, what our plans are for the day, etc. DH hates the bus so I'll do whatever I have to to get him to keep going to WDW with us!

 

[OKW Lover]

I'm a real person and when I have a choice I drive - with the exception of going to the MK. As some others have noted, if you are headed to the MK you have to park in the main parking lot and then take a tram to the TTC where you can then take either the monorail or boat to the MK. If you take your resort bus you'll get dropped off on the other side of Seven Seas Lagoon and can dispense with all that extra.

 

[peachiepie]

We're planning on doing a mix of both...bus to MK and as we're staying at POR the boat to DTD, but we'll be renting a car for part of our stay so plan to use that for trips to AK.

 

[asta]

This shouldn't be a consideration for the time of year that you are going but it is worth noting that at extremely crowded times as WDW reaches capacity they will close the parking lots before shutting down bus service to the parks. We encountered this a few years ago when trying to visit the Water Parks during the summer. While we were turned away from both parks in our car, bus after bus passed us to unload their passengers. We complained and were told to take the bus next time.

 

[Mckymousefn]

We always have our car and it is sooooo much easier to just drive it to all the parks!

 

[MrRomance]

Hi there - going to WDW December 9-19, and will have our own car there, and staying onsite the whole time. To get to the theme parks, hotels, downtown disney, etc., should we just drive everywhere we want to go, or rely on the buses? I've read many websites that suggest just driving, but wanted "real people's" opinions. Thank you very much!

We always drive. The parking at the parks is free, it saves a lot of waiting around and occasionally a fist fight to get on a bus at the end of the day but most importantly for us, it means we can leave when we want to leave if one of our DD's needs to get out of the parks.

If you have the car, might as well use it! May cost you $20 in gas but the amount of time and hassle it saves is well worth it!

 

[bigbabyblues]

We prefer to use Disney transportation unless we're going to Downtown Disney. We've always had slow bus service from DTD, so we drive our van there.

 

[dmccarty]

We have had our car/truck for every trip but one. We take the buses except to go to ADRs at other resorts.

The only long wait we have had was at MK closing, ironically when we took the buses up to CR for and ADR at CG. There was a road closure that isolated AKV and caused a much longer trip by bus or car. While we had to wait, driving in that mess late at night would not have been fun either. We were pretty much danged if we do and danged if we don't on that one.

We seldom wait more then 10-15 minutes for a bus. This does depend on the resort you are staying, when you travel to/from the parks, and the time of year. Though even at Spring Break time we have not had problems.

Later,
Dan