Park and Use Bus from All Stars or Drive Yourself?

[sam_gordon]

Driving your own vehicle around does have some advantages...
* Generally quicker
* Not as crowded

But, while I don't mind driving, and am comfortable on Disney roads (their signs are great and with everyone carrying a GPS in their pocket... ). BUT, I'd rather take Disney Transportation. Someone else gets to "worry" about how to get somewhere and all the crazies on the road. I can just sit (or stand) and zone out, chat, or whatever.

And, although the benefit is momentary, let's not forget when you get on a bus, the AC is already on and (presumably) working. You get in your car after it's been sitting in the sun all day... not so much.

 

[elvispursley]

Would prefer to have a car and drive ourselves (except to MK, then bus). But starting to have to use a scoot and and makes driving next to impossible. We love to park hop and it made it a ton easier when we were ready to hop.

 

[babyruth]

Those of you driving to parks…not much of a wait in line at the parking lot booths? I have memories of waiting in those lines in the car as a child that still deter me!

 

[EACarlson]

Those of you driving to parks…not much of a wait in line at the parking lot booths? I have memories of waiting in those lines in the car as a child that still deter me!

When I drove to AK in October, there was no wait at all. Had to scan my MB to get access because it was before general park opening time, but no issues at all.

 

[Lewisc]

A former member of DIS split their group. Half bused to MK and half drove. Driving was faster. The short ferry ride was less then the wait for the bus plus the bus stop at another resort.

 

[pens4821]

We’ve always used the buses to get around. Only time we use our car is to go to DS. We’ve never had luck with buses going to/from there, and I the bus stop feels like a long walk.

We usually open one park, take a break, and close another. I’ve read about parking lots not being open early and having to wait to get in (or having to circle around). I’d rather just be able to walk right to the entrance without worrying about being too early for parking. Then when we leave the park we’ve closed down I’d much rather wait in line than drive and deal with all that traffic.

 

[tguz]

We never drive to the parks. We park our car when we get there and let Disney do the driving for the week.

 

[Disneylover99]

Those of you driving to parks…not much of a wait in line at the parking lot booths? I have memories of waiting in those lines in the car as a child that still deter me!

Omg. Yes! I remember those lines going to the MK back in the 70’s. They were no joke! Each car took so long to get through. It took time to pay, then they gave you a map, and directions, and you asked questions, etc….

Now of course it’s so fast and efficient.
The only time we avoid driving now is Christmas/New Years week.

 

[babyruth]

Omg. Yes! I remember those lines going to the MK back in the 70’s. They were no joke! Each car took so long to get through. It took time to pay, then they gave you a map, and directions, and you asked questions, etc….

Now of course it’s so fast and efficient.
The only time we avoid driving now is Christmas/New Years week.

yes it was crazy! I'm sure I remember it worse than it was also as a kid who couldn't wait to get into the park.

 

[Disneylover99]

yes it was crazy! I'm sure I remember it worse than it was also as a kid who couldn't wait to get into the park.

Oh no. It really was that bad! lol.
Although it didn’t help that my dad rolled in during peak times during the busiest time of year. Plus our car was packed full of people, windows rolled up, everyone smoked, country music blaring from the radio.

Different times for sure. Headache inducing times.
I need to take a couple of Tylenol just thinking about it.

 

[leebee]

I hate the buses so I drive everywhere except Disney Springs, as usually when we are going there it's for dinner and drinks/bar hopping. I love to drive and grew up in the Boston area, so I'm fine with the traffic, too. Unfortunately, since Covid car rental costs have been stupid, so for my past few trips I've chosen Mears bus and Disney transportation instead of paying for a rental car.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This puzzles me. I can't see why anybody would stay inside the bubble and not take advantage of the Disney transportation options...

Because it's faster. End of the night while making your way through the parking lot can be a pain it's also nice to have the car to yourself, be able to sit down and generally know that once you make it to your car it won't take too long to get out of the parking lot. You might have to wait for multiple buses both to get to the parks and to get back to the resort, stand and be around a lot of other cranky people done for the evening, peace can be quite valuable too

AK is obviously the main park closest to All-Stars but we were inside the parking lot in about 4-5 mins IIRC back in 2017 and not far back in the parking lot, much quicker than the bus ever would have been.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Contrary to a few others when we stayed at All-Star Sports we actually took our rental car to every park.

However, we also strategically did hopping as best as we could.

So for example we would go park at the TTC and park hop between MK and Epcot that day using the monorail between the two. If we did MK first ferry or monorail depending on which one was there first and seemingly had less people and then onto Epcot using the monorail. The skyliner wasn't there when we stayed last on site in 2017 but we'd park hop between Epcot and DHS and drive between the two (quite easily IIRC). AK was the outlier for park hopping but it was super close to All-Stars making it very easy to drive there.

Generally we like to be in control of our own time and thus where ever we vacation we get a rental car unless it doesn't make sense to do so (like NYC sort of situation). We however did not use our rental car when we stayed on site at Universal in 2022 but found Universal's buses to be very efficient (a common viewpoint excludes Epic) between Endless Summer Surfside and the two original parks especially since driving and using their buses both drop you off at CityWalk and then you have to go through security there. With our split stay with Royal Pacific we used the walking path to IOA.