Question for those of you with cars at WDW

[donaldsgal]

We're in Ohio, and we sometimes drive and sometimes fly. When we drive, we drive our car everywhere around the parks. We like not having to plan extra time into our mornings to get us to a bus stop in time to get to the park, and we like having our own seat when we get back into the car. Yes, it can be hot in the car, but we roll down the windows and blast the A/C until it's cool. But honestly, I think the biggest reason I enjoy driving our own car is that I love driving on property. Maybe that's weird... to me, it just adds to the experience. When I'm on the bus, I'm not focused on the roads, the exits, seeing the signs/billboards, but when I'm/we're driving, I do! It's so fun for me! We play Disney music in our car, and we usually get to any park or hotel in 15 minutes or less. We do a lot of table service meals, so it's nice to be able to get easily to the place we're having dinner. When we fly, I miss having our own car. The transportation is great, but I just personally find that I am more engaged in the experience of Disney when I drive (plus, as I said, I love not having to get to the bus stop an hour before you want to get to the MK - though we need to plan for any delays on the monorail).

 

[SelfEmployedDebtFree]

we always drive to wdw and stay at pop century, and we always drive our car. by the time a bus gets to pop, there are SO many people waiting, that unless you're one of the first 20 or so, you're not going to get on the bus,

4815-4885 - NovaBUS LFS low-floor buses. Leased new in 2000-2002. Buses are 40' in length, and 102" wide. They feature a full low floor all the way to the back of the bus. They have perimeter seating on the lower deck, and standard seating on the rear deck. Seating capacity is 35, full capacity is 80.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are 100 people on a single bus at times. The only time you'll see 20 people on a Disney bus is the buses that go from AK to say Epcot during mid day.

Another person said there are no pros to riding buses. I can think of quite a few!

Bus pros:

• No worries of pushy drivers or people who aren't paying attention, or make stupid last second decisions
• Meeting new people (sometimes even people who live in your home town)
• some of the drivers are fun to talk to. they have great tips too. alerts of parks closing at certain times, upcoming events, etc
• hearing other people's stories and plans, and learning from others
• NO GAS MONEY!!! ITS FREE!!!!
• No finding your car
• despite popular assumption, you CAN stay in the parks as long as you like after park closes. They WILL get you back. We've stayed 3 hours after park closing with no problems many times. (I'm not fighting that cattle horde stampeding out of the parks!!!) There have been plenty of times we waited for the last person to leave Epcot, and THEN we went shopping (they have closed the glass doors on us a couple times) and we got a half empty bus back to the resort.

I also can understand the reasons for driving, and there have been some times I had wished I had, but for us, driving to and from Disney is part of the vacation that we do not enjoy. Driving AT Disney isn't part of our vacation.

 

[TLinden16]

I'm going to move this to our transportation board in case the folks over there have any additional input.

 

[laceemouse]

I'm going against the flow. I never EVER EVER drive at Disney. To me half the fun of being at Disney is NOT driving. I like that I can park my van on Sunday, and not touch it again till Sunday of the following week.
I have a slightly different view about the buses. I've been almost 20 times, and I have never stayed anywhere other than Disney value resorts. I have ridden the buses of many other resorts for visiting friends, ressies, and other reasons that i wont admit to, and I can say with a clear conscience that value resort buses are the PITS. HOWEVER, I like the whole (how do I out this into words...) spirit of the people on the buses. It can be 90 degrees, then while everyone is waiting, it can pour down raining, everyone on the bus may be covered in a thin layer of sweat and sticky park stuff that no one can identify. We are all exhausted, worn out, we all have a headache, the rain ruined the last hour of our day, and despite it all, we have a ball on the bus!!!
I'm a talkative person, and I love to listen to people talk about life in "their world" on the other side of the country or other side of the world.

I love the cheering crowd when a bus appears after 20 minutes of not seeing one. You learn to enjoy the little things when you ride the buses. They are an experience.
I once asked a CM driver what he thought of his job hauling pissed off sweaty tired tourists back in a sardine packed bus, and he surprised me by saying "I love it!" He said yeah, you occasionally get a hot one, but most people have enough sense to just accept the transportation system for what it is. He said the good experiences far out weight the bad ones.
Besides, I have roadrage. Theres no way on God's green Earth i'm driving around in those parking lots where people fight you inches from your bumper to push you out of the way. I cringe just watching the whole scenario from the safety of the bus!!!!!

I couldn't agree more. Riding the Disney transportation is part of the Disney experience for us. We got home last weekend after a week at SSR. We only had one incident, ONE, during the entire week where we had to wait a long time (like 20 minutes) for a bus. Every other bus came twice before the one we needed. It was a fluke though, every other time we hardly waited at all. We also did the boats and monorail a couple of times. All of that is part of the fun for us!

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

We always rent a car and drive everywhere that a bus would take us except, in rare instances, to the MK. We will take a bus to the MK if we're not going early enough to get great parking and are planning to come back to our resort at the end of the day (instead of heading off to another resort or DTD for dinner). Obviously, we walk to Epcot's IG from the BWV, or take the monorail to MK from the monorail resorts, but anyplace a bus or boat would be the alternate mode of transit, you will find my family in our rental car.

I enjoy driving and cannot stand mass transit at home, so having to rely on a bus would make it less of a vacation for me. That doesn't take away from the benefits that others see, it just means that we see a greater advantage to driving.

Another advantage to driving include the ability to run to the grocery store for more diapers, sunscreen, fruit, etc. Sometimes I need to get away to the real world for a few minutes to make sure that it is still functioning.

I will say that on one of our MK-BWV bus rides on our last trip, the bus driver made a special announcement that a regal princess was on the bus (our daughter, dressed in her Cinderella dress) and she just glowed for the entire ride. That is a bit of pixie dust we don't get in our own car, but I'm just too Type A to enjoy the buses.