Rent a car for Resort hopping?

[Goofy DS]

We will be going to WDW for Christmas (12/21-12/26).
We will be satying at Movies, but would like to go around to some of the other resorts to look at the Holiday decorations.
We will be flying in and and using ME to get to our resort and we always use Disney buses while we are there.
My question is what are my options for getting to the other resorts?

Rent a car? I don't really want to rent one for the week and spend the $$$.
I'm not keen on driving to the parks, so I'd like to use Disney transportation for that, and I don't want to rent for the whole weekend just to get to and from the airport and see some of the other resorts.
Can you rent a car at Disney for a day?

Take cabs?

Go to the parks and leave the park by taking a bus to another resort. Then go back to the park or TTC and get on another bus back to Movies?

Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

[twinklebug]

I wouldn't rent a car if all you intend on doing with it is going on a resorting expedition. Half the fun of Disney is using their monorail and boat system. Grab a map and draw out a plan. The monorail hits CR, Poly, and GF. From CR I believe you can catch a boat over to WL and from there to FW (where they have a campfire, "hay"rides and a petting farm.

Several resorts are off on their own without boat or monorail access (AKL, POR & POFQ, Pop and several others) But BC, YC and BW are all within walking distance of each other around a small lake and you can get from there to MGM by boat.

Your parking pass is also good only for the resort you're staying at. I don't know how Disney handles visitation parking.

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

I also do not suggest you rent a car simply to visit other Disney resorts. What I always recommend is to plan the nearest theme park so you can get to the resort easily. For example, for the Poly, CR, FW, WL or GF plan on the Magic Kingdom for that day. For AKL plan on the Animal Kingdom. For any of the Epcot resorts (Boardwalk, Beach club, Yacht club, Swan/Dolphin) plan on either Epcot or the Studios. You can walk from either theme park or take the Friendship boats that run between these parks all day and stop at the Epcot resorts. The Friendship boats are located right outside the International Gateway of Epcot, close to the United Kingdom). If you are visiting a hotel very late then your best option is to take a taxi. They are available outside all WDW resorts and are fast and reasonable.

 

[LisaS]

I agree with the other posters that taking Disney transportation should work out fine for your resort tour. I've done a few resort tours and part of the fun is figuring out how to get there via the Disney transporation system.

But I did want to answer your question about whether you can rent a car for a day at Disney and the answer is yes. There are two places you can pick up a car on property: the Swan and Dolphin has Alamo and National cars available and the Car Care Center near the MK also has cars available, probably also Alamo and/or National but I'm not sure since I haven't dealt with that location. There is a free shuttle available to/from the Car Care Center but you have to make arrangements an hour (or more?) in advance. You can get to the Dolphin using Disney transportation.

Several people here on the transportation board are experts at booking rental cars at a discount so if you decide to do that, check out the threads on using rental car codes and coupons. Also check out mousesavers.com which has some good info on renting a car at WDW.