Onsite/Offsite Car rental questions

[dahrjo]

We are still trying to decide between on or offsite for Feb. We have 5 going, so for Feb., it would be POR onsite. I can't get over feeling like we'd be "stuck" there without a rental car. What if we wanted to run up to a store or visit somewhere outside of Disney, such as Sea World, or even go to Busch Gardens for a day? We will be there 8 days.
It seems offsite- there is more freedom. But, onsite is so much more convenient.
Any suggestions?
Thank you !

 

[hniki234]

You could always rent a car while staying onsite. That way you have the convenience of staying onsite and the convenience of having a car to go elsewhere if you want! We never really venture off of Disney property, so staying onsite is great for us. If you didn't want to rent a car, you could always take a cab to wherever it is that you want to go, but I'm sure that would get expensive.

 

[thia327]

We've done both - It seemed like when we always rented the car we would rarely venture off property. We stopped renting for the entire trip - One day it was rainy and wanted to do some shopping. We called the National on property - They came and picked us up and we kept the car till we left (which was only one more day) and returned it to the airport. The daily rental was less than a taxi ride to the shopping center

 

[byoung]

We love staying onsite!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

On our last trip, we rented a car and were glad we did. We like the idea of being able to go wherever we want, whenever we want. We ventured offsite once to visit Kennedy Space Center. The rest of the time we drove to the parks and to Pleasure Island where we enjoyed hanging out in the evenings (just the two of us back then).

We are leaving next week and will be renting a car again. This time, we will be visiting a lot more resorts for dinner and to see the holiday displays. I wouldn't want to use the bus system for all of the different trips we plan to make over 10 days. We will also visit Kennedy again since this time we will have our boys with us and the oldest is a space nut.

Many people like using the buses, but we like having a car. It's just us!

 

[PKWallaby]

While Disney provides transportation to/from it's resorts and in/around the parks, I would still prefer to have the option of using a rental car.
We stayed on-site last March at the spur of the moment and I really missed not being able to shop off-site(I love to check out the deals at the Disney warehouse and other outlet shops). I agree with the previous post suggesting a "day rental" if you don't need it the entire time. That way you could still have the added benefit of Magical Express(I am not looking forward to hauling my own luggage next time) and still be able to get around if you wanted to.

PS Off topic: we also stayed at POR and LOVED it!! However, you may want to check out the other posts regarding the scheduled rehab of the POR food court to aid in your decision making.

Have fun!!