Please help with transportation planning que's!

[Nick6300]

It's been several yrs. since staying at an All Star resort (2007?). We've mostly stayed at Pop or Cabins from 2007-2014. On a budget and recently booked All Star Sports (20% off room only discount deal) 8/24-8/31 (7 nights), thinking of doing a cheap off site for 8/31-9/1 for 2 relaxing water park only days 9/1 and 9/2 because we had an unused 8 day PH plus ticket from few yrs ago and bought a matching one from Park Savers. Was able to get room fully paid ($690) for via $575 Barclay Arrival Plus miles redemption and $200 new Wells Fargo card bonus. We'd have to drive 3.5hrs ea. way, book a 1 night hotel, and pay for long term parking to fly direct to MCO to take advantage of magical express (about $550) or fly from our little town for about $900 to Sanford (nothing to MCO) plus Uber ($70 round trip) to All Star Sports or rent a car. So we're now leaning towards the long drive from central IL (I think about 17 hrs w/out stops and 1300 miles ea. way= $165 in gas for the Honda Civic). We're just 2 adults, made the drive moving from Tampa last yr. Can also grocery shop a bit for snacks, take as much luggage you want. We'd take turns driving mostly straight there to save time, naps as needed at rest areas. We'd hit Labor Day on drive back (Sat night 9/2) and likely get a motel in Tenn. half way or stay with Uncle in Nashville.

During our stay, it's mostly all 8am EMH (reg. park hours beg. 9am, water parks 10am). We normally prefer to do water park 1st then a park to reduce time waiting on buses (vs. going to water park in middle of 2 parks). But the 2 hrs between EMH and 10am water park opening sort of makes us think to go to water park mid-day. From what I recall on buses from Sports you have to wait from hotel to get to water park and even longer to get back (once waited an hr). Then you'll be tempted to take a shower/nap/change to go back to parks. We chose to stay on property so we wouldn't have to drive to parks (and save daily $20 parking cost). But wife thinks we may want to take bus to EMH, then drive to water park and back, take bus from hotel to 2nd park at night. Driving to water park allows you to save waiting for bus ea. way. You could rinse off at water park, change in locker room, then your wallet, phone, back pack w/ rain gear, sun block is ready to go in the car to take onto bus from hotel. What do you guys think, especially on the driving to and from water parks in the middle of ea day? I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought an 8 day PH with Fun (too many fun visits that you feel like you're wasting!).

 

[sharonabe]

If you do water parks during your on-site stay, you can park for free at the regular parks. You could then do the water parks in the middle of the day and drive the whole day instead of waiting on the buses. The only time this might not make sense is if you're going to MK along with a water park because you then have to take ferry or monorail to get to your car, but even that might still be better than taking bus to/from resort to get your car.

 

[Nick6300]

If you do water parks during your on-site stay, you can park for free at the regular parks. You could then do the water parks in the middle of the day and drive the whole day instead of waiting on the buses. The only time this might not make sense is if you're going to MK along with a water park because you then have to take ferry or monorail to get to your car, but even that might still be better than taking bus to/from resort to get your car.

Thanks Sharon,
If driving to FL, sounds like you'd choose to drive everywhere ea. day. Except maybe a day where we go to MK then EP with no water park in between... because you have to walk from parking lot, then wait for ferry or monorail to MK and it may be quicker to just take an early bus.

But a day where 1) HS, 2) Blizzard Beach, 3) MK, you'd drive even between BB and MK.

Are there still buses between ea. of the parks? I can't remember on the days where you go to MK then EP whether it's better to park in MK or better to park at the 2nd park (EP) so you can just leave at night instead of taking monorail to TTE.

 

[mesaboy2]

Thanks Sharon,
If driving to FL, sounds like you'd choose to drive everywhere ea. day. Except maybe a day where we go to MK then EP with no water park in between... because you have to walk from parking lot, then wait for ferry or monorail to MK and it may be quicker to just take an early bus.

But a day where 1) HS, 2) Blizzard Beach, 3) MK, you'd drive even between BB and MK.

Are there still buses between ea. of the parks? I can't remember on the days where you go to MK then EP whether it's better to park in MK or better to park at the 2nd park (EP) so you can just leave at night instead of taking monorail to TTE.

Yes except between MK and Epcot, which the monorails serve.

 

[KrazeeK120]

It's been several yrs. since staying at an All Star resort (2007?). We've mostly stayed at Pop or Cabins from 2007-2014. On a budget and recently booked All Star Sports (20% off room only discount deal) 8/24-8/31 (7 nights), thinking of doing a cheap off site for 8/31-9/1 for 2 relaxing water park only days 9/1 and 9/2 because we had an unused 8 day PH plus ticket from few yrs ago and bought a matching one from Park Savers. Was able to get room fully paid ($690) for via $575 Barclay Arrival Plus miles redemption and $200 new Wells Fargo card bonus. We'd have to drive 3.5hrs ea. way, book a 1 night hotel, and pay for long term parking to fly direct to MCO to take advantage of magical express (about $550) or fly from our little town for about $900 to Sanford (nothing to MCO) plus Uber ($70 round trip) to All Star Sports or rent a car. So we're now leaning towards the long drive from central IL (I think about 17 hrs w/out stops and 1300 miles ea. way= $165 in gas for the Honda Civic). We're just 2 adults, made the drive moving from Tampa last yr. Can also grocery shop a bit for snacks, take as much luggage you want. We'd take turns driving mostly straight there to save time, naps as needed at rest areas. We'd hit Labor Day on drive back (Sat night 9/2) and likely get a motel in Tenn. half way or stay with Uncle in Nashville.

During our stay, it's mostly all 8am EMH (reg. park hours beg. 9am, water parks 10am). We normally prefer to do water park 1st then a park to reduce time waiting on buses (vs. going to water park in middle of 2 parks). But the 2 hrs between EMH and 10am water park opening sort of makes us think to go to water park mid-day. From what I recall on buses from Sports you have to wait from hotel to get to water park and even longer to get back (once waited an hr). Then you'll be tempted to take a shower/nap/change to go back to parks. We chose to stay on property so we wouldn't have to drive to parks (and save daily $20 parking cost). But wife thinks we may want to take bus to EMH, then drive to water park and back, take bus from hotel to 2nd park at night. Driving to water park allows you to save waiting for bus ea. way. You could rinse off at water park, change in locker room, then your wallet, phone, back pack w/ rain gear, sun block is ready to go in the car to take onto bus from hotel. What do you guys think, especially on the driving to and from water parks in the middle of ea day? I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought an 8 day PH with Fun (too many fun visits that you feel like you're wasting!).

I live in Central IL and have done the drive multiple times. From my house, it's almost exactly 16 hours (but definitely could be 17, depending on where in Central IL you are.

 

[sharonabe]

But a day where 1) HS, 2) Blizzard Beach, 3) MK, you'd drive even between BB and MK.

I would probably play it by ear. The way the buses get you to/from the water parks, I'd definitely be driving there. Just thought if you're going to shower and change at the water park anyway, you'll save time driving on to the parks from there instead of driving back to the resort and then waiting on the bus. And if you're driving to a park toward the evening, there should be some closer parking spaces from people who have already left the parks.

 

[Nick6300]

I live in Central IL and have done the drive multiple times. From my house, it's almost exactly 16 hours (but definitely could be 17, depending on where in Central IL you are.

Do you drive straight through without stopping for naps? Do you recall how many times you hit tolls in FL, if worth it to pre pay for FL sunpass at the welcome center. We have limited time off, and thinking we're leaving around 4-5pm from central IL (Peoria) and hoping to make it late am to Dis. Hoping for maybe a short nap only at a rest stop, a lot of caffeine. Thinking either water park (lazy river, lounge chairs) as 1st park or DHS (Frozen sing a long, Little Mermaid) for short nap. Could be bit unrealistic.

 

[Nick6300]

Yes except between MK and Epcot, which the monorails serve.

Thank you. I'm not sure why when I asked CM few weeks ago she had said except for the MK/EP monorail/ferry, the buses only go back to resorts and then you have to take a bus to a different park. But I remember the boat/bus between EP/DHS.

 

[Nick6300]

Can anyone confirm buses from both Blizzard Beach to AK and from AK to BB? Think maybe the only bus transportation from a water park to park but I want to make sure it runs both ways (don't know why not if there really is a bus for that route). Think leaning a bit towards driving to parks to save time but not sure. Think I'll be able to definitely find a parking spot (far away) at All Star, late at night, after park fireworks.

 

[KittyKitty]

Last thing I read was there are no direct buses to water parks from the resorts. You take a bus to Disney Springs, and then change bus to the water park. And vice versa.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Do you drive straight through without stopping for naps? Do you recall how many times you hit tolls in FL, if worth it to pre pay for FL sunpass at the welcome center. We have limited time off, and thinking we're leaving around 4-5pm from central IL (Peoria) and hoping to make it late am to Dis. Hoping for maybe a short nap only at a rest stop, a lot of caffeine. Thinking either water park (lazy river, lounge chairs) as 1st park or DHS (Frozen sing a long, Little Mermaid) for short nap. Could be bit unrealistic.

We stop overnight when we go. I have to have some sleep in a real bed or I'm no good. Also, I don't want to arrive at my destination exhausted. We leave early in the morning, like 5 AM. We have a toddler and this works well for him too. I'm in Bloomington, so you'll have 40ish more minutes drive than us.

Last trip, we stopped in Chattanooga on the way down and in McDonough, GA on the way back (visited Epcot for half day on our last day, so we didn't go as far the first day of our trip back).

There were 2 tolls in FL. We got the sunpass mini before we left. It was less than $10 in tolls total for the way down and the way back. I did like having the sunpass.

 

[Nick6300]

We stop overnight when we go. I have to have some sleep in a real bed or I'm no good. Also, I don't want to arrive at my destination exhausted. We leave early in the morning, like 5 AM. We have a toddler and this works well for him too. I'm in Bloomington, so you'll have 40ish more minutes drive than us.

Last trip, we stopped in Chattanooga on the way down and in McDonough, GA on the way back (visited Epcot for half day on our last day, so we didn't go as far the first day of our trip back).

There were 2 tolls in FL. We got the sunpass mini before we left. It was less than $10 in tolls total for the way down and the way back. I did like having the sunpass.

Wish we had better flight such as SW airlines in Peoria or at least direct flights to MCO instead of allegiant to Sanford. Seemed extreme, but good to know someone else actually makes that drive from here. At least we've made this drive recently and sort of know what we're getting into. Just need to nail down the park to park driving or bus strategy.

 

[Nick6300]

Last thing I read was there are no direct buses to water parks from the resorts. You take a bus to Disney Springs, and then change bus to the water park. And vice versa.

I've heard that from a CM too, but I don't know if that's just certain resorts because I've experienced at All Stars/Pop buses direct to TL/DS and BB or BB/AK. But again, that was few yrs ago since we were residents and drove all the time in 2015-2016. If those buses to water parks are indeed gone at All Star Sports, then we're definitely driving for the to and from water park portion... if not driving for all of it to avoid the bus trip to resort just to get to the car to go to water park. It's ironic we chose to stay at All Star Sports on this budget trip instead of off site for the convenience of buses and thinking about not taking them. Seems sort of greedy to try to zap every minute of this trip, but it's sadly our last trip for several years.

 

[joelkfla]

Unless things have changed in the past couple of months:

• All Guests to/from TL change at DS
• All Guests to/from BB change at AK
  • Exception: there is still a direct bus between BB & CSR, and continuing on to Epcot
  • There might still be a bus running between BB & the All-Stars; I haven't verified it

Do not rely on transportation info received from call center cm's, or resort cm's.

 

[Nick6300]

Unless things have changed in the past couple of months:

• All Guests to/from TL change at DS
• All Guests to/from BB change at AK
  • Exception: there is still a direct bus between BB & CSR, and continuing on to Epcot
  • There might still be a bus running between BB & the All-Stars; I haven't verified it

Do not rely on transportation info received from call center cm's, or resort cm's.

Darn it! they must have recently changed the bus routes to eliminate the direct to water parks. Imagining a sample day where I wait for a bus from resort to MK, bus from MK to resort, bus from resort to DS, bus from DS to Typhoon, bus from Typhoon to DS, bus from DS to resort, bus from resort to DHS, bus from DHS to resort. That's 8 bus trips and like 3 hrs of transportation! Starting to regret adding plus option a bit.

If that express transportation can be added for $24-29 for each of us (we've linked an older 8 day PH+ ticket and matching one bought from Park Savers). Idk that you for sure can because they may want to re-up the price for the older ticket to upgrade. If we can do the upgrade (only at Guest Relations vs. resort since ticket not from Dis recently), maybe we only go to water parks the 1st day (because getting in later than 10am opening time anyhow) and the last 2 days offsite as full water park days and try out the express.

 

[sam_gordon]

With an 8 day PH, why try to do 3 parks in one day? Too much time lost in transportation IMO. If it was something I wanted to do and I had a car, I would drive to a park, tour, drive to water park, tour, change at water park, then drive to another park. Otherwise you're going to lose up to four hours of a day on the bus (bus from resort to park, park back to resort, resort to water park, water park to resort, resort to park). That's just not efficient IMO.

 

[joelkfla]

Darn it! they must have recently changed the bus routes to eliminate the direct to water parks. Imagining a sample day where I wait for a bus from resort to MK, bus from MK to resort, bus from resort to DS, bus from DS to Typhoon, bus from Typhoon to DS, bus from DS to resort, bus from resort to DHS, bus from DHS to resort. That's 8 bus trips and like 3 hrs of transportation! Starting to regret adding plus option a bit.

If that express transportation can be added for $24-29 for each of us (we've linked an older 8 day PH+ ticket and matching one bought from Park Savers). Idk that you for sure can because they may want to re-up the price for the older ticket to upgrade. If we can do the upgrade (only at Guest Relations vs. resort since ticket not from Dis recently), maybe we only go to water parks the 1st day (because getting in later than 10am opening time anyhow) and the last 2 days offsite as full water park days and try out the express.

The water park route change happened last year.

Getting from a theme park to TL is definitely not worth the effort using Disney Transport, because you can't get to DS to pick up the TL bus without another bus transfer. I would use Uber or Lyft; it's worth the extra $10.

Getting to BB from a theme park isn't as bad, because you can get a bus directly to AK for the transfer, or take the direct (but long route) bus if you're at Epcot. It could happen in 30 minutes if you're lucky, but it also could take over an hour.

 

[Nick6300]

With an 8 day PH, why try to do 3 parks in one day? Too much time lost in transportation IMO. If it was something I wanted to do and I had a car, I would drive to a park, tour, drive to water park, tour, change at water park, then drive to another park. Otherwise you're going to lose up to four hours of a day on the bus (bus from resort to park, park back to resort, resort to water park, water park to resort, resort to park). That's just not efficient IMO.

Thanks Sam - 3 a day does seem like a bad idea for a longer stay, I def. agree. We were thinking about it only because of the water park add on option, and because we saw water parks were only 10am-5 or 6pm (vs. 8am EMH every day for the reg. parks). And if you're coming back from a water park late afternoon- you might as well go to another park. Sort of now thinking about either sticking with the mid-day water parks and driving everywhere or going with that new Express Transportation and only doing the water park 1st thing when we arrive later that first day and the 2 offsite water park only days (and wasting 5 fun visits).

 

[Nick6300]

With an 8 day PH, why try to do 3 parks in one day? Too much time lost in transportation IMO. If it was something I wanted to do and I had a car, I would drive to a park, tour, drive to water park, tour, change at water park, then drive to another park. Otherwise you're going to lose up to four hours of a day on the bus (bus from resort to park, park back to resort, resort to water park, water park to resort, resort to park). That's just not efficient IMO.

I guess you're right that most people would probably just spend entire days with occasional park hopping for late EMH (only 2 during our stay) and then on a few days go to water park 1st (not worry about losing the few hrs). I'm starting to wonder why we got park hopper or the plus options at all. And also succeeding at making my head hurt.

 

[sam_gordon]

We don't do the park hoppers (I don't like losing the time in transportation, whether busses or driving). However, I can see how someone would want to go to a water park then another park for the evening. Personally, I wouldn't target rope drop for EVERY day. Take a day to sleep in and go to a water park that day (and then a park afterward for dinner/fireworks). Just a suggestion.