International Drive to Disney World

[yangbumm]

Does anybody know the best way to get from a hotel on International to Disney World, not driving when on holiday so wondering what's the best way to get to Disney. Thanks.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Probably a cab

 

[NotUrsula]

Hands down, the BEST way is driving a rental car, but if you don't want to drive, taxicab.

Do note that the round-trip cost of a taxicab from the north end of I-Drive to a Disney park will be quite expensive: doing it twice would probably add up to more than the cost of hiring a car for a week or more.

If you need to do it cheaply, you could take the I-Drive trolley service down as far as the stop outside Sea World (corner of Sea Harbor Drive and Central Florida Parkway) and then walk over to the public bus stop and take the #50 Lynx bus to the Disney Transportation and Ticket Center. That will take awhile, however, and the trolley is likely to be crazy crowded in the morning.

 

[DOOM1001]

I believe one of the buses from the Sea World area also stop by Downtown Disney,from DTD you can grab a bus to a Disney resort.If you're planning to do this with luggage you pretty much should call a cab.

 

[Alesia]

I believe one of the buses from the Sea World area also stop by Downtown Disney,from DTD you can grab a bus to a Disney resort.If you're planning to do this with luggage you pretty much should call a cab.

^But you can't get a bus from DTD to a resort before about 10:00 am.



The best way is going to be a cab. I'm not sure exactly where you're staying, but plan on it costing about $50 each way.

It would probably be much cheaper to either rent a car or stay onsite.

 

[Texasmomof3]

There is a city bus that runs from the airport to Florida mall to international blvd the stop is down past the convention center then it stops at downtown disney then on to ticketing and transportation center sorry I can't remember the bus number but the hotel should be able to give you the schedule or it should be on line. It really is pretty easy

 

[NotUrsula]

There is a city bus that runs from the airport to Florida mall to international blvd the stop is down past the convention center then it stops at downtown disney then on to ticketing and transportation center sorry I can't remember the bus number but the hotel should be able to give you the schedule or it should be on line. It really is pretty easy

Actually, that route (#111) has been shortened as of this year, it terminates at Sea World now. Disney used to subsidize the route, but with the success of Magical Express they no longer felt it was a good investment, so they stopped when the contract expired. Due to federal transit funding shortages, Lynx needed to put their money elsewhere.

 

[Lewisc]

Lynx #50 goes from the downtown bus terminal to the TTC with stops at SW and DTD. The bus won't work for most hotels on I Drive. The bus is on I4 exiting on 528, E on 528, S on I Drive (short distance) W on Central Florida Pkwy then S on Palm Pkwy. It works if your hotel is within walking distance of a stop.

 

[NotUrsula]

There is a stop for Lynx #50 headed to the TTC that is across the street and west about 50 yards from one of the Sea World stops on the I-Ride Trolley Green Line, near the intersection of Central Fl. Parkway and Sea Harbor Dr. It's Trolley stop #G14, according to the route map, at the entrance to the Hilton Grand Vacations resort at Sea World.

So, it's possible to use the Trolley Lines to get from most northern I-Drive hotels to the #50 Lynx stop this way, but like I said, it's a time-consuming process, and the Trolleys headed for Seaworld in the morning are invariably packed.

 

[kneemeister]

I have used the #50 to go to Seaworld a few times. it works but the schedule is not that frequent so if you just miss a bus, its going to be a long wait.

One time we used the #50 to Sea World, then the I-ride to Wet-n-Wild, then walked to USF/IOA from there! I would not do that again. Especially the return trip as we almost missed the last bus back to the TTC!

 

[Lewisc]

I have used the #50 to go to Seaworld a few times. it works but the schedule is not that frequent so if you just miss a bus, its going to be a long wait.

One time we used the #50 to World, then the I-ride to Wet-n:

The buses run every 30 minutes. I agree connecting with the trolley is time consuming. Lynx should work if your hotel is walking distance of #50 stop.

edited to add. Non-peak Disney buses only run every 20-30 minutes. At least with Lynx you know the scheduled time of the next bus. The problem is if you have to wait 20 minutes for the trolly, just miss the Lynx bus and have to wait 20 minutes then wait 15 minutes at TTC for a bus to AK.

I still think offsite guests are better served with a car. I think guests on a resort near a #50 stop might have OK luck. Unfortunately this won't work for the OP and adding an I Trolly ride is going to make an almost acceptable ride much worse.

 

[NotUrsula]

Oh, I absolutely agree that a rental is the best option -- I personally would NEVER do an offsite hotel without one, and actually, we always use one onsite as well -- it's just nice to be able to go wherever we want whenever we want without wasting time. (I think the WDW buses are great for getting to the parks, but no so great for getting anywhere else in a timely manner.)

In the OP's situation, presuming that this is not a situation where getting a car is simply not possible for whatever reason, the best bet costwise is probably adding car hire to the existing holiday package. For UK renters, those rates are almost always the best available, as they include full insurance cover. It could always be added for a period less than the full trip, but honestly, if the rate is good from Sanford, it probably would make sense to just keep it the entire time and cancel the airport transfers.

Also, for a UK visitor, 10 days is a rather brief trip -- I personally wouldn't want to spend a huge piece of it standing around waiting for bus transfers in Florida heat.

 

[yangbumm]

None of us drive so that's the reason why I was looking for the best options because hiring a car isn't possible. After having contacted the hotel, it looks like they run a shuttle to Disney world everyday for $17 round trip per person which reading from the comments appear to be a cheaper than a cab.

 

[kneemeister]

The few times I have stayed onsite without a car I felt trapped. It was a major ordeal just to get to Hess to buy a 12 pack of coke, at a reasonable price; let alone going to Sea World or USF/IOA. Besides I enjoy taking a couple hours and driving around as a park break. I would never consider staying off site without a car, The area, as is most of America is to car centric for it to work very well.

 

[NotUrsula]

None of us drive so that's the reason why I was looking for the best options because hiring a car isn't possible. After having contacted the hotel, it looks like they run a shuttle to Disney world everyday for $17 round trip per person which reading from the comments appear to be a cheaper than a cab.

The trick with the hotel shuttles is that normally the hours that they run are quite limited, and very often the last one back to the hotel will be rather early in the evening, sometimes as early as 8 pm. Also, very often the first one in the morning will not be until at least 8 am, which can be problematic if you want to get to a breakfast reservation or a park opening, as these shuttles all take you to the TTC, and from there you need to transfer via bus if you are not headed to MK or one of the monorail resorts. You can end up wasting money buying tickets for them and not getting value out of them if the schedule does not match your plans.

I would advise writing to your hotel and getting ALL of the details about the shuttle service: when is the first run in the morning, when is the final run in the evening, how many seats does it have, is it possible to buy one-way tickets only, and most importantly: is it shared with any other hotels, and if so, which ones? When planning, you should probably allow at least 90 minutes from the time you will catch the shuttle until the time you need to be at your park destination, and more if the shuttle is shared between hotels; sometimes up to an hour more.

Mears Taxi is the largest and most reliable cab service in Orlando. You can go online to their site and estimate fares between addresses, which may be helpful for you in guesstimating your costs for those times when the shuttle won't do: http://www.mearstransportation.com/taxi-services/taxi-fare-estimator/ (Note that the fare given does not include a gratuity.)