Quickest Transportation for Park Hopping

[Bradster1067]

Hi! So, we're going to be park hopping on our next trip, and I was wondering from everyones experience, which form of transportation would be the quickest to get around? Would it be worth it to use Uber/Lyft/Minnie Vans over park transport to save time? And if we were hopping for EPCOT to Magic Kingdom or vice versa, would the monorail be quicker than anything else? Thank you!

 

[siren0119]

Uber/Lyft will generally be faster, just because you can request your ride before you actually arrive at the pickup point and time things out so that you are getting into your vehicle pretty close to actually exiting the parks. With the internal transportation you will be waiting for the bus/monorail for some period of time (could be 2 minutes could be 20) before it arrives. That said, the difference has never been so great for us that we would pay the extra for Uber/Lyft between parks, unless we had a reservation and were cutting it close to get there on time.

 

[sharonabe]

Hi! So, we're going to be park hopping on our next trip, and I was wondering from everyones experience, which form of transportation would be the quickest to get around? Would it be worth it to use Uber/Lyft/Minnie Vans over park transport to save time? And if we were hopping for EPCOT to Magic Kingdom or vice versa, would the monorail be quicker than anything else? Thank you!

Uber/Lyft will be the quickest.

Anytime you're going to/from MK, you'll want to go to the Contemporary to grab your paid transportation. This will still be quicker than the monorail.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Hi @Bradster1067 - FYI, I have moved your thread to the Transportation board.

And to the DIS!

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

Welcome!!

I can't tell you if it's worth it or not (it's your budget) but you could price out these rides and decide how much it will cost overall. Keep in mind that Uber/ Lyft are generally cheaper than Minnie Van and that if you need a car seat it's included with Minnie Van but an additional cost for Uber. Also of note, Minnie Van is the only service that can drop off directly at MK (others drop off at the TTC and you'd take the monorail or ferry to MK UNLESS you walk to/ from the Contemporary and get picked up/ dropped off there).

Rideshare IS generally faster, unless you have to wait a while for one to show up (it can be as much as 20 minutes and to limit that I suggest requesting it a little ahead of when you'll arrive at the pickup point). It can save time going from park to park, but for us it's just not worth it unless we have a specific reason (like an ADR or we're meeting someone) that requires us getting there faster than the free transportation.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Keep in mind that Uber/ Lyft are generally cheaper than Minnie Van and that if you need a car seat it's included with Minnie Van

I'm going to amend this to "Keep in mind that Uber/ Lyft are virtually always cheaper than Minnie Van and that if you need a car seat it's included with Minnie Van."

The above responses suggestordering the rideshare before you are at the pickup location. The rideshare drivers on the "Everthing you wanted to know about..." thread all say to wait until you are actually ready to be picked up.

 

[siren0119]

The above responses suggestordering the rideshare before you are at the pickup location. The rideshare drivers on the "Everthing you wanted to know about..." thread all say to wait until you are actually ready to be picked up.

I can clarify. If you know you are going to be leaving the park, you can check arrival time on the Uber/Lyft app, and make sure you are leaving the park/arriving at the pickup location a few minutes before the rideshare driver is due to arrive. Since you can track their progress on the app that's pretty easy to do. If the rideshares are all a few minutes away, you're better off ordering the ride when you get to the pickup location. if it's going to be 15 minutes or so, you can pretty safely order it when you are headed out of the parks so that you are at the pickup location around the time they would be arriving. Either way, doing so is faster than taking Disney transportation since you aren't spending time waiting in line for the next bus to arrive.

I would NOT advise ordering a rideshare and then ignoring/not paying attention to the estimated arrival time. That's an easy way to get your ride cancelled and be flagged as a poor rideshare user.

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

I'm going to amend this to "Keep in mind that Uber/ Lyft are virtually always cheaper than Minnie Van and that if you need a car seat it's included with Minnie Van."

The above responses suggestordering the rideshare before you are at the pickup location. The rideshare drivers on the "Everthing you wanted to know about..." thread all say to wait until you are actually ready to be picked up.

I'm not saying to order it when you're leaving BOG and then saunter out of the park. I'm saying once you're at the tapstiles, go ahead and fire up the app, check the arrival times, and request accordingly. I have waited 20 minutes for rideshare especially at park close (not necessarily the norm but I'm not willing to mislead anyone and say it doesn't happen, and in that case I'd have done just as well to get on the resort bus that pulled in at the same time).

 

[Bradster1067]

Thanks for the replies! I don't think I would use uber/lyft for going from our resort to the first park of the day, but unless I'm mistaken, it would be worth it to going from the first park to the second park because otherwise, you'd have to take the bus back to your resort then jump on the bus to the next park.

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

Thanks for the replies! I don't think I would use uber/lyft for going from our resort to the first park of the day, but unless I'm mistaken, it would be worth it to going from the first park to the second park because otherwise, you'd have to take the bus back to your resort then jump on the bus to the next park.

There's no need to go from park to resort to park using Disney transportation. There is transportation from every park to another park. Between MK and Epcot there's the monorail, between HS and Epcot there's a boat (or you could walk). From AK to/ from other parks there is a bus from one park to another. It can be quicker to use rideshare, but I just wanted to clarify that you would not need to stop at your (or any) resort in between parks.

 

[kaytieeldr]

There's also a bus from front entrance to front entrance.

between HS and Epcot there's a boat (or you could walk).

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

There's also a bus from front entrance to front entrance.

Somehow, I always manage to forget that bus (and it would have come in handy to remember this on the very few times we hopped and didn't feel like trudging through the World Showcase).