Parents of kids with ASD - bus or rent a car?

[Gaia]

We have 2 kids with PDD-NOS, ages 3 and 6. I was planning on renting a car, as I don't think that they will be able to wait in a line for a bus for very long. What has your experience been?

Thanks!

 

[bookwormde]

It is a great skill to work on at WDW but “having to do it” all the time I would think initially could create undue stress on the family. For the $100 or so to get a small car for a week (if you shop aggressively) I would think it would be good “insurance”

bookwormde

 

[Minniemama350]

My 12 year old DS is ASD and my 9yr old is pdd nos (really closer to a sensory disorder though IMHO). We have been to Disney many times and stayed on property and rode the bus. However, things to consider:1) Which hotel? The value hotel lines are crowded, as are the buses. Whereas, Port Orleans has limited waiting and not as crowded of a bus, usually. We were also lucky when they were younger that people would give them a seat because they were little, but you can't count on it! 2)Do your kids stim? Mine has a bus stim. ANYwhere we are at Disney and for the 1st few weeks after, he is making bus noises(and he is 12). Makes me a little loopy at times, but it could be much worse!

Having said that... the car is always safe! You know your kids. I would just go with what you think will happen. You could always try the other way on another trip!

 

[KirstenB]

We would never go to WDW without a car. Sometimes meltdowns seem to go from 0-60 in about 1.8 seconds!!! The last thing I want to do is drag them out of the park, and then get in another LINE for a bus, and feel guilty because I'm subjecting 50 other people to dd's tantrum, with no escape.

 

[Gaia]

We would never go to WDW without a car. Sometimes meltdowns seem to go from 0-60 in about 1.8 seconds!!! The last thing I want to do is drag them out of the park, and then get in another LINE for a bus, and feel guilty because I'm subjecting 50 other people to dd's tantrum, with no escape.

This is exactly what I was thinking. I need an escape route - even if we are parked in BFE!

 

[ireland_nicole]

we always, always use our car; we have had a couple of memorable meltdowns while trying to stand up on the crowded bus; never, ever again. And much easier to make a quick getaway.

FWIW, there are a lot less meltdowns nowadays, but DD does a lot better when the schedule is strictly followed. Thanks to TGM, it's pretty easy to keep to it in the parks, but the wait time for the busses is really tricky. As we park the car, DD times how long it takes to get into the park. She can then factor the same time into her calculations for when we leave. It seems to really help keep her calmer.

 

[lucigo]

Mine loves riding the bus. We always bring his little matchbox-type Disney busses that we paid and arm and a leg for and he plays (stims?) with them on the bus. We do have an aresenol of "waiting" toys in the backpack for him, disney cars, figurines, magnadoodle, light sticks, rubiks cube (Pop), and yes even gameboy.

We do drive to Disney but have always just parked the car and left it. If you go in the winter your wait won't be quite so bad, but I do agree with the previous poster that the values are longer lines in direct sunlight, where I especially remember Port Orleans having a bus stop way out in the back where we always sat and waited with no problem. The down side of that was we were SO far from the food court we never used it.

 

[toodycat]

We usually stayed on the monorail when my son was younger and more prone to problems. This makes any emergency getaway faster. When we stayed at the Coronado and the AKL, we had a rental car and I don't think we would have been comfortable without it. If nothing else, it is at your disposal and air conditioned.

 

[Dis1978]

No debate got to be a car.

Your kids might love the buses but is always best to have a car.

 

[sharadoc]

We always use our car, too. Our son doesn't like long lines and too many people, so we want to all be as comfortable and stress-free as possible.

We're driving and not flying down for that reason too. We don't know how he'll act on a plane and a major meltdown and panic attacks at 30,000 feet would not be pretty!

 

[Disneylvr]

In our case, we always rent a car. Madelyn would probably love the bus, she adores the monorail. The problem is that she cannot keep her hands to herself and will often inappropriately touch people which is an almost certainty on the crowded buses. On the monorail (and trams) it is easier to keep her from touching others and we also have the option of keeping her in the special needs stroller on the monorail. On the buses, you are just sitting too close to each other and I would have to physically restrain her which would cause a tantrum etc.... So that is why we rent a car. Now the newer buses with the more open standing areas might be okay during the less crowded times of day.

 

[LuvMy3Monkeys]

My opinion is probably opposite most here. I'm in favor of the bus. My daughter did amazingly well with the bus, probably because she despises her carseat and the feeling of being confined. She loved that she could find her own seat in the back of the bus, right up against a window and didnt give a hoot about what was going on with the rest of the people on the bus.

We also made sure we kept her in the stroller right up until we walked on the bus. We waited until we were literally stepping onto it before we closed it up. That way she had her own personal space without others in line being too close to her and causing her to melt down and we knew she was safe and wouldnt try running out in front of a bus.

The bus worked wonderfully for us, now waiting in line without the stroller at the rides was a whole different story

 

[williamson_ja]

My ds also did really well with the bus. He loved getting to pick his own seat and see where he was going better. My ds talks to himself a lot and can get wierd looks, but on a crowded bus, no one seemed to notice. I would have liked the option of a car when he was younger though (he's 12 now). He ran away frequently and a crowded bus would be just the thing for him to slip away from us and get off at the wrong bus stop or something scary. It works for us NOW to do the busses, but had we gone when he was younger, I would have picked the car- and rode the bus occasionally just for him to experience it.

 

[clanmcculloch]

We've always used the bus. When my Aspie is melting down, she likes the ability to sit or stand a bit separate from the rest of the family (always in sight obviously). She'd never ever touch a stranger (it would just be wrong to her obsessive compulsive mind; she'd never violate something she knows to be wrong) but if we're next to her she's been known to dig her nails into our arms or growl at us. She'll stand or sit on her own on the bus and kind of zone out in her own little world and by the time we get back to the hotel she's generally calmed down. Of course it helps that she knows that we'll likely be swimming if she's calmed down and simming pools are one of the most soothing things for her. She's no fool. LOL

 

[Bugsmom73]

We have done buses with our little guy who has autism and it has been no problem.

 

[RACHELSMOM1]

Mine loves riding the bus. We always bring his little matchbox-type Disney busses that we paid and arm and a leg for and he plays (stims?) with them on the bus. We do have an aresenol of "waiting" toys in the backpack for him, disney cars, figurines, magnadoodle, light sticks, rubiks cube (Pop), and yes even gameboy.

We do drive to Disney but have always just parked the car and left it. If you go in the winter your wait won't be quite so bad, but I do agree with the previous poster that the values are longer lines in direct sunlight, where I especially remember Port Orleans having a bus stop way out in the back where we always sat and waited with no problem. The down side of that was we were SO far from the food court we never used it.

We always ask for building 12 or 14, stating we need it because of the disability, so we use the bus stop that is covered and out of the sun. You can also tell the driver you have disability and need to board first, they will even tie down the stroller if you tell them it is used as a wheelchair. You don't have to fold it that way. It helps if you have the red tape on it from the park when you get the GAC and tell the CM you need to use the stroller as a wheelchair. Yes it is just for the parks, but the bus driver doesn't question you if you have those things.

 

[mamacate]

We did cars our first three trips, and now we do buses. This is why it works for our family: your mileage may vary.

We find the trip to get to the car to be more stressful and more exhausting than the trip to the buses. We find the buses to be a little easier and more accessible (why on earth do they make you walk the long way around those barriers at MK!?!). The trip to the car at MK is way too long and has too many transitions, and that is our favorite park. We stayed at WL once, and enjoyed the boat option. When we used the buses, we found that our son had the same tantrums he did when we left to go to the car, but they'd be over before we got to the car in most places.

We stayed at POR, and didn't find ourselves having to wait very often, though it did happen. We also had some pretty nice social interactions on the bus. My son even shared his toys with kids from another family, and then had a little girl accidentally break his brand new monorail toy on the bus one day. I had visions of the bus being stopped, police cars, etc (my son can put on an impressive meltdown), but some sort of Disney magic intervened and he handled it beautifully and was actually able to hear me when I told him we'd replace it. (Her dad started shoving money in my pocket and I kept trying to give it back to him because it was about twice what the toy had cost and I told him I wasn't going to make money on this!!!)

The thing we liked the most about the buses is that it gave us some freedom to split up as a family. My AS son has a NT twin sister, and we were doing a lot of balancing people's conflicting needs when we stayed offsite with a car. Last time we stayed onsite, and we were able to leave when he wanted to leave, and his sister could stay later (this presents issues when you don't plan for an afternoon without the GAC, but we've corrected for that after a few days of doing it wrong!). I suppose if you were onsite and had a car, you'd be okay to do that too. We also gave ourselves permission to spend up to $150-200 for taxi rides, and didn't come near that, though we did use a taxi after IllumiNations.

The other thing for us is the car rental process. The plane ride takes a lot out of our family, and we've found the rental car process frustrating. We have paid a premium to rent in-airport; other times we've taken shuttles off airport, and both involve a huge amount of waiting and hassle and running around with all our bags and kids in tow. Sometimes you hit a great sale and then find out that everyone else on the east coast has done the same thing and you wait an hour just to get your keys (true story).

Then, on the trips where we did split stays, we found ourselves leaving the car in the parking lot for days at a time (and at WL, the parking was not at all convenient). The combo of ME+buses+taxis seemed cheaper and less of a hassle. And our experience with ME was pretty positive. I know others have not always had that experience, and we've only used it once.

Of course, staying at the Contemporary is the ideal solution. Except, as I tell my kids, I'm just a thousandaire, not a millionaire.

Hope this helps!

Cate