Never again without a car

[2009CAN]

Totally agree. We are a family of 5 that flies in and we ALWAYS rent a car. I don't think $400-$500 for my sanity is too large a price to pay!

 

[Bork]

We will be their without a car in a few weeks but only because we are staying at the Polynesian (only going to MK and Epcot). Hope the monorail doesn't let me down!!

I love the monorail and the Polynesian. Your situation is the one time I would go without a car. The monorail gets you right up to both park entrances.

 

[Huff]

We rented a car once. Never again. We're park hoppers. Walking to the car, driving to another park, shuttle to the entrance etc. is very time consuming. We've not had too many bad bus experiences. Park close at MK can be bad for POP but manageable. I just found that driving, parking lot shuttles etc. took just as much time or more than buses, boats and monorails.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Where as my family really dislikes having to navigate to the parks and then walk from the parking lot and back.

I have found that POP has pretty much the most efficient bus service of any resort.
The walk to the bus stop when going back to the resort can be a bit long but there's always a bus there and another one right behind it so everyone gets on.
And from HS and Epcot its a very short ride.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

The values get the farthest walks to park bus stops. The Pop walk at MK is murder. Morning buses can be hit or miss. But a 20-minute wait is the standard all day long, not out of the ordinary. The real question in the morning is if you missed a rope drop or an ADR because of the buses. If you didn't, there's no reason to complain. You could just as easily have been caught in traffic or a slow toll gate queue at MK. I've had 40-minute morning waits that didn't affect my plans at all. Personally, I'd rather sit at the bus stop then stand in line at a turnstile, all things being equal.

 

[hsmamato2]

IMHO when we've stayed at value resorts, I dislike the buses overall,I don't like those crowded stops. When we've stayed POFQ and up in category, I prefer onsite transport. It's more relaxing overall for us to go at a slower pace,including waiting,etc. Driving is too much effort when I'm on vacation! My DH feels the opposite, but oh well....

 

[Minnesota!]

We love the transportation at WDW - it's the biggest reason we keep going back. Vacation without having to drive? I have said it a million times on here - we don't mind waiting. We are people watchers, and having been there 25+ times, there is no rush to get to or do anything. We are just content to BE there. So, we are the opposite...find no need for a car...

 

[lennyd]

I always rent a car , I got tired of getting a stroller in my ear

 

[kaytieeldr]

But a 20-minute wait is the standard all day long, not out of the ordinary.

Buses run at about a 20 minute interval most of the day. Guests who are consistently/always experiencing 20 minute waits just usually have bad bus timing.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

We drive, every time.

We park the car. And it doesn't move until we leave on our last day.

This trip we have a split stay. Not looking forward to moving. But we will move the car on that day to our second resort. Then it will sit until we leave.

I've only waited as long as 20 minutes for a bus, once. Yes, they are crowded. Yes, sometimes the person next to you smells. But they drop us right at the door to the resort. Or close enough. And they take us right to the park. We use them every day, for our entire trip.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I used Disney Transportation only for years and a few years ago started renting a car. I love it. My quick July weekend trip was the first one without a car in years and I did ok since it was a short trip.

I was going to rent a car on my next trip that's rapidly coming up (yay!) and realized that it would most likely be unnecessary since I'm staying at the Beach Club (walk to 2 parks, always take the bus to MK) so I'm going to use Disney Transportation again. I figure that I could always grab a cab for Animal Kingdom if I don't want to take the bus to and from. I may try uber again too but I had awful luck last time I tried them so I don't know if I want to deal with it again.

 

[dburg30]

Just my .02, I dont want to drive at WDW.. Never have, hopefully never will. I have stayed at POP, AKL (our DVC) and CSR. Never did I feel it was an unacceptable wait. At park close? Maybe, but honestly anymore we either just chill for a bit and people watch, or just suck it up and get in the line. Again, it just never seems bad enough that I want to deal with driving and learning the roads around WDW. We've taken cabs for ADR's at resorts, and once we took a cab to Hard Rock for a concert. I have 3 parts to my vacation.. 1 is getting airport, 2 is getting thru security, 3 is getting on the DME.. That is when my vacation REALLY starts. Oh yea, DME has ALWAYS been magical for me. Never waited more than 10 minutes to board a bus at MCO, our bags always magically show up. Not sure how many trips since 2007, but a good number.

 

[tinkerbella16]

We also don't want to drive in WDW. We've had some good and not so good experiences with the buses, but the good outweighs the bad. They can be a hit or miss. We just got back a week ago, stayed at BC and it was the best bus service we've ever experienced in all of our trips to disney. The buses were either there, pulling up or there in minutes of us getting to the stop at the resort and the parks. Having 2 of the parks where we didn't need to worry about buses was a plus - walk to Epcot and boat to DHS were wonderful. Even the transportation to/from Disney Springs was surprisingly good. I know we went during a low crowd time, so the buses were never packed and we never had to stand, even sharing with YC and being picked up last. I'm so used to staying at POR, where the bus stops are packed and I have to stand most of the time and they pack us in like sardines.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Just my .02, I dont want to drive at WDW.. Never have, hopefully never will. I have stayed at POP, AKL (our DVC) and CSR. Never did I feel it was an unacceptable wait. At park close? Maybe, but honestly anymore we either just chill for a bit and people watch, or just suck it up and get in the line. Again, it just never seems bad enough that I want to deal with driving and learning the roads around WDW. We've taken cabs for ADR's at resorts, and once we took a cab to Hard Rock for a concert. I have 3 parts to my vacation.. 1 is getting airport, 2 is getting thru security, 3 is getting on the DME.. That is when my vacation REALLY starts. Oh yea, DME has ALWAYS been magical for me. Never waited more than 10 minutes to board a bus at MCO, our bags always magically show up. Not sure how many trips since 2007, but a good number.

You don't really have to "learn the roads." You can just plug the address into GPS or Google Maps and off you go. The directional signage is very good as well. Getting around Disney property is quite easy.

 

[Disneylover99]

We just drove for the first time last month. We always fly and never rent a car.

We loved having our car to drive to resorts and check them out and drive to DS. The Lime garage parking is awesome!

But we found it easier and quicker to take the bus to the parks. So for us, a car is definitely not a necessity.

 

[dburg30]

You don't really have to "learn the roads." You can just plug the address into GPS or Google Maps and off you go. The directional signage is very good as well. Getting around Disney property is quite easy.

That sounds way too much like work.. I'm on vacation, I'll let someone else navigate the traffic and roads for me. Seriously. We do not want to deal with a car. If for some reason WDW buses repeatedly let us down, that would be one thing. If I really dont want to wait on a bus for some special reason, I walk outside, they yell at a cab, and off we go..

 

[richmo]

I agree with OP. I will almost always rent a car at WDW...and with a trip as long as OP's at 2 weeks, I definitely would. There are times when we'd bus it...MK being the prime example, but I find it much easier to have a car and have the option of how I'd like to get where. While the car is an additional expense, I've found that we make up a lot or all of that cost by having some meals "outside the bubble". There's a lot of fun restaurants just outside Disney that can be a lot less expensive.

 

[KrazeeK120]

That sounds way too much like work.. I'm on vacation, I'll let someone else navigate the traffic and roads for me. Seriously. We do not want to deal with a car. If for some reason WDW buses repeatedly let us down, that would be one thing. If I really dont want to wait on a bus for some special reason, I walk outside, they yell at a cab, and off we go..

It's just difference of opinion. I don't find taking one minute to put the address in Google maps to be too much work. I hate standing on a bus (with smelly people and crying kids) like a sardine at the end of the day when I'm tired.

Sometimes we drive to Disney. It's 16 hours. Driving the few minutes around property really doesn't feel like a big deal after that!

I stayed at CBR last year when the 24 hour event was going on. The bus never came to get people for RD (we were running late and got to the bus stop at 5:40 AM to find a huge crowd, many of whom had been there since 5 AM). I had considered using the bus that morning because it's "so much faster" than driving to MK. Maybe it's faster...if the bus shows up. I'm pretty sure I beat everyone at that bus stop to MK that morning in my rental. That event alone is enough to make me question using the Disney buses. Like, you have a special event going on, but somehow don't send buses to get people for it? I feel bad for those people who missed the special rope drop (I did catch the tail end of it). When we were driving out, we saw a huge crowd at another one of the stops, so it wasn't just our stop that had been missed.

 

[richmo]

It's just difference of opinion. I don't find taking one minute to put the address in Google maps to be too much work. I hate standing on a bus (with smelly people and crying kids) like a sardine at the end of the day when I'm tired....

Yeah, I learned my lesson a couple years ago when we left Wilderness Lodge 1.5 hours early for an ADR at Boma and wound up getting there 20 minutes late. Kind of my fault: my instinct was to take a bus from WL to AK, then get another bus from there to AKL. Probably a logical move, but after a bit of a wait for an AK bus to show up at WL, I failed to take into account that it was also getting close to closing time at Animal Kingdom, so people were pouring into the bus area. It was some time before an AKL bus came and there wasn't enough room on it, so we waited for the next one.

I know now the bus experts would tell me that I should have boarded the first bus to any park from WL (and probably any but AK, since it was closing), then get an AKL bus from there, but I didn't think that thru correctly.

But, I'd do even better not thinking by hopping in a car at WL and just driving the 15 minutes or so to AKL...

 

[KrazeeK120]

Yeah, I learned my lesson a couple years ago when we left Wilderness Lodge 1.5 hours early for an ADR at Boma and wound up getting there 20 minutes late. Kind of my fault: my instinct was to take a bus from WL to AK, then get another bus from there to AKL. Probably a logical move, but after a bit of a wait for an AK bus to show up at WL, I failed to take into account that it was also getting close to closing time at Animal Kingdom, so people were pouring into the bus area. It was some time before an AKL bus came and there wasn't enough room on it, so we waited for the next one.

I know now the bus experts would tell me that I should have boarded the first bus to any park from WL (and probably any but AK, since it was closing), then get an AKL bus from there, but I didn't think that thru correctly.

But, I'd do even better not thinking by hopping in a car at WL and just driving the 15 minutes or so to AKL...

I think you did what most people would have done. That's the problem with taking Disney transport from one resort to another. At best, it's horribly time consuming and at worst, it's very difficult. If you are going somewhere in the evening, you have to be familiar with park closing times in order to not run into a snag (as in your situation). To me, that kind of time wasting and analysis is way more of a headache than jumping in the car, plugging the address into the GPS, and following the great directional signage to your destination.

In a car, you can get from WL to AKL in 20 minutes. I feel like it would be twice that long, minimum, taking Disney transport. And it requires a transfer somewhere. That's not easier to me (nor is it time efficient, and that's not debatable).