Is there special parking for on-site guests at the parks

[SooziQ123]

Our original plan is to get from airport to hotel using TTC & depend on Disney transportation for the week. I am beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be worth renting a car & driving to the parks ourselves. Is there special parking for on-site guests or do we park possibly farrrrrr away. I don't want to be waiting for an hour to get to a park via bus.....I would much rather hop into our car & be there in 10 minutes.....could someone explain this to me?

 

[pbhunt]

If you're driving a rental car, there is no special parking for resort guests at the theme parks. Your rental car will look just like all the other rental cars. You can park at the parks for free. There is an AAA parking area, which may be a bit closer, but you will have to rely on further info from here, on the boards, or work with your AAA office on availability.

 

[valeriekc]

Thereis no special parking area for guests staying on Disney property.
Dpending upon which park you are going to and where you are staying could affect your strategy.
Tell me which parks you plan to go to the most and where you are staying??

 

[drusba]

I am assuming you are staying on site. Thus in choosing as to whether to have a rental car consider the following:

1. All Disney resorts, other than Fort Wilderness have direct (single bus, boat or monorail) to each of the four theme parks; Fort Wilderness has internal bus system that takes you to other busses or a boat to MK. All trips from the resorts to MK are direct to the MK front gate, not the TTC. If you drive to MK you must park at TTC lot and still take monorail or boat to MK. As a result, using Disney transport to MK is very often faster than driving. To the other theme parks, the parking lot is right outside the gate and you park and take a short tram ride to the gate. Driving can often be 10 to 20 minutes faster than taking a bus.

2. Most resorts have busses that go to waterparks or Downtown Disney (after 4 for some)--these often have several stops and driving to those destinationscan be anywhere from 15 minutes to 40 minutes faster than the bus.

3. From resort to resort, there are only some direct trips by Disney transport. For GF, Poly and Cont, you just hop on a monorail to go from one to the other. A boat runs between Cont, WL, and FW. At the Epcot resorts, BW, YC/BC, and Swan/Dolphin, you can easily walk from one to the other (or take a boat). All other trips between resorts require switching busses at a hub area (like DD or one of the theme parks) and sometimes require taking three busses (like to FW from many resorts). Those trips that require switching busses can often take well over an hour and sometimes over 1 1/2. You can drive from any resort in WDW to another in 15 minutes or less.

As a result of the above, we generally follow a rule that we drive everywhere other than theme parks and sometimes we will even drive to one of those.

 

[SooziQ123]

Thanks for the great info....we will be staying at ASMu...we also have the issue of our stroller, which we love, but hope it isn't too bulky for disney transportation....I just know our family, & when we want to go, we want to go, you know what I mean? I can picture us standing at the bus stop for 1/2 hour thinking we could have been there by now. We will be going to all 4 parks, including 1 water park. Disney Quest will be another place DH & DS will be going to. MK will be the only park we will be going to twice. Any other opinions would be welcomed. Thanks!!

 

[Riverview]

We stayed at ASMu for a week last August and the busses to the parks were ok. But if you want to resort hop you will spend a lot of time waiting for busses. Also there are LONG LINES if you stay until closing but that is to be expected. I hope this helps.
Riverview

 

[Gillian]

This is totally off topic, but the family board has lots of stroller discussions. YOu may want to consider getting an inexpensive umbrella stroller for you trip.

 

[valeriekc]

I have never stayed at All Stars resort so I can only give you an opinion based on what I have read about it.
Most of the posts I have read about AS resort and busing have been pretty positive.
That resort has a lot of rooms for a lot of people and I think that works in your favor.
I might think that your biggest challenge would be getting to and from water parks, animal kingdom & downtown disney.
Those areas seem to have the bigggest waits to, and definately FROM all the resorts!!
If I am sensing in you what I seem to feel is that when you are on time at a bus stop and the wait goes past the 20 minute window, you get cranky!!
I certainly do, we are spending too much money to have our precious vacation time stolen away from us!!
That is the only thing in WDW that MONEY CAN'T BUY, IS TIME!!
In that regard I would want a car for those places alone.
Now if you consider a potential for a problem to Magic Kingdom, Epcot or MGM on either the "to"or "return" trip a car seems a little more justifiable.
I'm not saying that you will have busing problems from AS resort but the potential is everywhere at all the resorts & parks. If you take the money for TTC and use it on a rental car and avoid just an hour a day of wait time on buses would it be something to consider?
Read these boards and get a feel for yourself about busing, if you already haven't.
Good Luck!!

p. s. If you don't get a car don't worry about your stroller, just fold it up and get on the bus, everyone does!

 

[SooziQ123]

Valeriekc, thank you....are you a psychic or something....we are cranky waiters.....that is one of the reasons we are going at a "slower" time of the year, end of August....we are getting closer to a decision of renting a car.....saving 1 hour a day in wait time is worth the price of a rental.....thanks again!

 

[valeriekc]

I hope I haven't soured you on the buses altogether, we have always used them but we have always had a car and on our last trip in early May we found ourselves using it a lot more than some of our last trips.The buses might really work problem free for you. I really hope they fix the problems because it is still the fastest way to MK (when you don't have to wait).

When are you going to WDW?? How long are you staying?? Will you miss Doug Flutie come football season??
Oh well I better clam up, just being too nosey.

 

[daddysmouse]

SooziQ123, Just got back today . Was there with my DH, and 2 DDs. On 5/24/01 we took Tiffany from the Airport (Daniel from Brazil is the best driver - tell him you heard it here if anyone gets him) to ASM and relied on the buses all week. Only after big evening shows did we have to wait more than 15 minutes for a bus. And then it was no more than 20 - 25 minutes. We did not have a stroller (although my DDs would have LOVED one - 5yrs. & 9yrs.) but lots of people did. They take the little one out, fold up the stroller, and come on board. However, if there are a lot of people in line you may end up having to stand on the bus. I did see a lot of people giving their seats to women or men holding babies who got stuck standing (I gave mine to the little kids who looked like they were going to fall asleep on their feet). If we had a car, we would have had to battle the traffic ourselves. For us, the time spent standing in line gave us a few minutes to catch our breath, talk about how much fun we had, and discuss what was next on the agenda - the hardest part was the 90+degree heat with humidity, not the wait. Have fun!!!!!!!!!

 

[SooziQ123]

Valerie, you have not soured us on bus transportation....in fact, we have decided to ditch the rental car idea & try our luck with the buses. I have faith in Disney & the fact that they are going to get all the glitches out of the system....we are going August 26-30 & staying at ASMu.....& no, we are not going to miss Doug Flutie....he started to be a trouble maker with some of his comments & divided the team....anyway, thanks for everyones input.....

 

[valeriekc]

Well good luck!, I'm glad i haven't screwed you up too much
I'm sure you will have a fabulous trip!!
I would imagine you are busy securing all your Priority Seatings, if you already haven't.
I might seee you over on the Rest. boards or maybe over on the Trip planning boards.
Have fun!!!