Morning Traffic

[ah edwards]

Looking at booking a "pre-Disney" night at an off property hotel the night we drive down. We are considering the Springhill Suites at Flamingo Crossing or one of the hotels in the Marriott Village near the Vineland Outlets. We will be driving to the Boardwalk Inn around 7 am. Will one hotel be better than the other as far as traffic goes?

 

[bearzabout]

I try to avoid I-4 whenever possible. If you stay near Vineland, take 535 to Hotel Plaza drive and enter Disney property by Disney Springs. I think there will be more lights at the village near Vineland Outlets, but both should be easy drives in the early morning. There is a Publix near the outlets. Did you want to go grocery shopping before heading to Disney property? This may be more important than drive time.

 

[writerguyfl]

Bing Maps (and Google Maps, too) lets you enter a "Leave At/Arrive By" time. Picking 7am on a random Thursday, Bing shows the options are basically identical. They both give a travel time of "12 minutes (9 minutes without traffic)" and an estimation of "Moderate traffic".

Marriott Village to Disney's Boardwalk Resort:

Link to map: https://binged.it/2fYVcrD

Flamingo Crossing to Disney's Boardwalk Resort:

Link to map: https://binged.it/2fYZlfd

As bearzabout notes, there is not much out by the Flamingo Crossings area right now. You'd have to travel further to get to groceries or restaurants.

Also, the main access road to Flamingo Crossings is a toll road. (That north/south road to the right of the hotel on the second map is a toll road.) Some folks wouldn't care; but I despise tolls road and will almost always take a longer route to avoid them.

 

[BigredNole]

The earlier you leave the less traffic you face. It is not bad at that time so you should be fine with either.

 

[GreatLakes]

The estimated travel time for a 7:00am weekday arrival at Disney's Boardwalk would be 9 to 14 minutes from Springhill and 8 to 14 minutes from Marriott Village so the actual travel time is pretty equal. That of course could change drastically near a holiday or on a weekend.

I would personally rather drive west to east so I'd choose Springhill but that is up to you.

 

[Klayfish]

If you're going to be on the road at 7am, it won't matter where you stay. There's no real traffic at that point. In my opinion, the only times traffic gets a bit hairy is later in the afternoon and early evening. Otherwise, it's not horrible at any time. But I guess it's also perspective. I'm used to dealing with major city rush hour traffic, so anything around WDW is really no big deal. If you're not used to traffic, it will stink.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Here in Orlando now - I would much rather be out at Flamingo Crossing off the toll than traveling down I - 4. It is a somewhat relaxed out in the country kind of feel and I like that - if you don't mind paying tolls it is super easy to get here and there for whatever you might need. Just the other day I took the 429 toll up to the turnpike and back down to get to my hotel off I-4 - I thought to myself that I would do that any day rather than the I -4 especially when on holiday. There are a couple of Publix grocery stores in the neighborhoods off the 429 toll in Winter Garden - plus a Walmart and box stores also off the toll in Winter Garden. Just have to go north a bit.

 

[chiamarie]

As someone who frequently drives that stretch of I-4 to get to and from work; generally, at 7am you should be pretty clear of most traffic. The traffic in that area is all tourist; and not really locals, so the "rush hour" usually doesn't start til 10am when everyone starts heading out to the parks. Barring any big accident or anything; you really shouldn't have to worry about traffic that time of day in that area. Now, if you were looking at staying somewhere in like, Altamonte Springs, that'd be a different story.

 

[DOOM1001]

Here in Orlando now - I would much rather be out at Flamingo Crossing off the toll than traveling down I - 4. It is a somewhat relaxed out in the country kind of feel and I like that - if you don't mind paying tolls it is super easy to get here and there for whatever you might need. Just the other day I took the 429 toll up to the turnpike and back down to get to my hotel off I-4 - I thought to myself that I would do that any day rather than the I -4 especially when on holiday. There are a couple of Publix grocery stores in the neighborhoods off the 429 toll in Winter Garden - plus a Walmart and box stores also off the toll in Winter Garden. Just have to go north a bit.

I agree with this,the actual question of which hotel area will have worse traffic won't matter as there won't be much traffic at 7am.If the question is what area is better and has easier traffic to get around in then you can have an argument of pros and cons.The Marriott village Lake Buena Vista area has tons of options in the area with pretty bad traffic and if you have to deal with I-4 to get there then that's a big negative as I-4 is the one road to avoid if you can and I know as I live here.Flamingo Crossings doesn't have anything in the immediate area,its just tucked back there behind Coronado Springs and gets you really easily into Disney property.The 429 expressway is the complete opposite of I-4,just a calmer less stressful driving experience,but there are tolls.Along the 429 expressway you do have several options of places to shop and eat.At New Independence Pkwy there's a brand new Walmart,I don't even think its been opened a month now and its going to give you the nicest Walmart shopping experience in the area.A little north Winter Garden village has a Super Target and dozens and dozens of restaurant and store options.