Rent a car or not?

[debaone]

I would say don't rent a car. If you really need to be somewhere on a schedule, call a taxi.

 

[GrumpyRocks]

We've done both. To me it depends on the age of your kids, when our youngest was a toddler we did the buses and I would do it differently if I were to do it all over again. Our last trip down to Disney we had a car and it was heaven leaving the parks at night and bypassing the long lines that waiting for the bus.

In two weeks we're going down and are not getting a car but our kids are a little older now so we're hoping it will go a little smoother.

 

[SarahKate]

Last year we didn't rent, this year we did. We will never go w/o renting a car, it is so worth the money. We got a really great deal on a minivan...for the week it was just a few hundred bucks.

We loved being in total control of when we wanted to come and go. We have AAA so we were able to utilize the diamond parking spots.

AND....I injured myself at one of the parks and it was so helpful having the van so DH could take me to the hospital! (Yeah, I know Disney would have taken care of us - but at the time I was really minimizing what happened!).

We took GPS with us and it came in handy on days when we wanted to go exploring.

We had a lot more dinners at different resorts - something we wouldn't have done as much of if we would have relied on buses.

With that being said, the bus system is GREAT. We had very good experiences last year.....but we will always rent a vehicle when we go.