Rent a car or not

[lubob]

We only rent if we plan to go off disney property like to city walk etc. We do not mind the busses at all. It's a relief when we get there we Park the car in the lot and don't worry about it, till our trip is over. Like others have said the bus to mk drops you off right at the gate, no hassle at all . We use disney transportation everywhere even to disney springs.

 

[HopperFan]

I thing it's a personal choice more than a bus issue. Some folks just don't like buses.

I drive to Disney so I always have a car but I have stayed a week on property and never saw my car.

If you plan to go offsite, to other parks, shopping etc - yes a car is necessary.

If you plan to dine at lots of resorts, a car can be helpful depending on where you are going to save time.

We have had a few moments of bus failure but that has mostly been at park closings or lack of planning for the BTG's that take several buses.

Last January family was at DHS and DS heard some DuckTales maybe character was at POR. He headed out to bus depot, caught a bus, went to POR, got his picture taken with the character, went back and caught a bus back to DHS. He was gone a total of 1 hour.

I have zero issues with buses and unless leaving property I'd rather spend money on something else.

 

[powellrj]

We always rent a car.

 

[Mrspeaks]

We decided to rent a car this trip. We have young kids and I liked having the car last time to be able to leave right as we wanted in the mornings. One morning we picked up a PPO beeakfast at crystal palace and I don't think we could have made it if we had a long wait or multiple bus stops. It is a pain to park at magic Kindgdom and finding your car at the end of the day. In those situations, hoping on a bus is easier. This teip we are doing Mickeys backyard bbq and chef mickeys and I didn't want to have to deal with the buses getting there. It wasn't too expensive to rent. I think we will also go buy groceries and use the car for that. All those things could be done by taxi or uber, but we need car seats.

 

[jtopp]

Car rental- Pros and cons-
Pros- freedom of movement when you want it. Being able to go off site. Not have to stand on a crowded bus with a hundred tired, sweating, rude people.
Cons- Waiting for a tram to and from the parking lot. A hot vehicle. Additional cost.

For what its worth, when we fly, we generally use DME. Obviously, when we drive we have our own vehicle, but it usually sits in the resort parking lot. If we are tired, tipsy (or a combination of both) we like the idea of a safe ride home. Of course, this is all just personal preference.

 

[2binak]

When we had DD, we started renting a car and driving ourselves everywhere, except MK. Traveling to/from the parks on our own schedule and settling into our own quiet, comfy car at the end of a long day is so much nicer than waiting for & riding the bus. We also like being able to go offsite for groceries or a meal.

 

[Koz]

Renting a car this year for the first time. Using MDE to go back and forth, having them worry about the bags, but using Alamo @ The Disney Car Care Center to pick up on the day of arrival and drop off the day of departure. Rates just dropped to $220 for the week for a full size. Don't need anything bigger because luggage isn't a concern. Will most likely use valet @ Contemporary on the 2 days we head to MK.

 

[Megara5115]

We rent a car because my husband "refuses" to go without one. I think it makes it a lot easier and I like having one too. We only used busses for MK and they were all fine from AKL, POFQ and SSR. I agree it's more of a personal preference than a bus issue (in my experience). I liked having more freedom around the property and getting to ADRs at resorts was a breeze.

The other side of the coin is my father who says he goes on vacation to not worry about driving himself around and my sister in law who loves Magic Express as her welcome to Disney. I have to say that if my husband didn't happily do all the driving I would probably just bus it.

 

[GillianP1301]

To rent a car or not is a very personal decision. For me, here are the main pros/cons to each. Figure out which aspect is of the highest importance to you and that will help with your decision.

Pros to renting a car:

• you will save time, sometimes a significant amount of time in getting from Point A to Point. This is even more of an advantage if you plan to do resort dining.
• you never have to wait, your car is there and ready to go when you are
• you will always have a seat, no worries about standing room only crowded buses.

Cons to renting a car:

• Adding costs to your budget, although not a large amount of $, there is still some cost associated with it
• not being able to sit back and relax and let somebody else do the driving
• depending on when you arrive and where you are parked, you may end up wanting/needing to take the parking lot tram to front gate

Pros to Disney transportation:

• No worries, somebody else will get you where you want to go
• Free, if you are staying on property

Cons to Disney transportation:

• In almost every case, it will take you longer, sometimes double or more the time to wait and then get to your destination.
• You could end up in a long line waiting on multiple buses before you get on and you may have to stand

Personally, we always rent a car because to me saving time & being in control of driving myself are my highest priorities and I know myself and I know that waiting on buses drives me bonkers, so I avoid it.

 

[kaybird]

We never rent a car when we fly, and rarely use the car when we drive. Love the convenience of WDW transportation, and would rather spend the rental money on something else.

 

[3boys4me]

We drive so we always have a car. If my husband comes with us we drive to all of the parks except for MK. We rarely leave property even with our car. Last year I went with the kids and we parked at the resort when we got there and didn't get back into the car until the day we left. No help, but either way works for us.

 

[Klayfish]

Interesting that most people say they avoid the car with MK. Sure, it adds a few extra minutes to the commute time, but we love bringing the car to MK. The ferry and monorail are fun, and as I said before, for us, it's part of the journey. Seeing the Castle as we approach is really neat.

 

[rg35]

Always car. Fastest way to get around. A must with kids for easy mid day breaks.
Even if a bus drops you off at the MK, over multiple trips the time spent waiting for a bus vs. going to TTC and having to take monorail or ferry to MK gate will even out.

 

[StacyElyse]

We drove down from PA for the first time in several years so we had the rental car. We used it to drive to all parks except MK where it just makes more sense to hope on a bus that drops off at the front of the park. We preferred driving to the other parks instead of dealing with the buses. It's definitely personal preference but I think now going forward we will have a car on property.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

The first time I went in my adult life (I define that as having a family to take care of there) we drove down and I parked and the truck never moved one time from the time of check in until the time of departure. The next couple of times were the same way. Then my family had another family join us and the other father and I went out to Wal-Mart to save some $ on dining since we had a 2br at OKW. That freedom totally changed my view on having versus not having a vehicle. Now when we go there is always at least one grocery trip, one liquor store trip, one trip to the Ale House for lunch or dinner and other off property trips. In addition, we always drive to DHS and AK. If we are going to EC and plan to hop to MK we will drive to the TTC and monorail to EC then monorail back to the TTC to the MK. I can't imagine going without a car now.

 

[NavyDad]

It really, really depends on your personal preference. We have done both and both ways have advantages.

First, we have three kids and have gone to Disney pretty much every year or two since they were about the same age as your kids (last 7 years). We go back to our resort every day for about 3 hours or so in the heat of the day for naps and/or pool time. We budget in 1.5 hours on each side of that to get back and forth to account for any potential issues or last minute stops. Basically we leave the park every day at 1 PM, head back to our resort and we are back at either that park or another park around 7 each evening. We follow this same routine whether we are driving our using Disney Transportation.

For my impression of the bus issue I would say almost the exact opposite of what you are seeing. From our first family trip in 2009 to our most recent trip this summer we have actually seen bus transportation become quicker and more reliable ...... with a few very notable exceptions.

IMO the speed of WDW transportation can depend on luck of the draw as well as location. Our first trip in 2009 we stayed at Pop Century. The busses ran great and on time but there were just SO MANY PEOPLE that we sometimes had to wait for the 2nd or 3rd bus. During a later stay at Art of Animation we noticed the transportation managers were a lot better and sending a 2nd and 3rd bus very quickly when they noticed a backup either at the resort or at a park waiting to go back to a resort. We later stayed Beach Club and were very worried about the bus transportation after reading a bunch of complaints on these boards and then found that the busses at Beach Club were great during our stay. Maybe by luck of the draw (or maybe WDW management was responding to complaints) we actually had a bus waiting for us each time we tried to go somewhere or one showed up within 5 minutes. Our last two trips to WDW we stayed at Fort Wilderness and expected a nightmare transportation situation based on what we read. Well, it was VERY nice having our vehicle parked 10 feet from our front door and we did take advantage of driving probably about 60% of the time but we found the bus and boat transportation at Fort Wilderness to be fast, efficient and overall A+

Driving gives you ultimate flexibility of when you want to come and go but then you also have to worry about driving around (not that hard) and parking and all that. The bus transportation gives you the freedom to kind of relax and let someone else do the work. Keep in mind with WDW transportation to give yourself a little more time to get where you want to go. Have patience and manage your expectations and you will have no issues.

 

[msmama]

I personally would rather wait for a bus (FWIW I've never waited what I would consider "too long" for a bus in trips well into the double digits) and have more money for Disney.

On the few times I've had a car with me, it's been parked and I take busses.

Renting a car when at Disney seems like a complete waist of money to me (obviously others disagree). Free transportation is provided so, heck yeah, I'm going to take advantage of it. Does it require me being more flexible in plans? Maybe, but I'm on vacation so I don't worry about it, because...vacation.

I would think too, your kids are old enough to deal with the busses - not like you have toddlers who would throw tantrums or kick people on the bus or anything. They can walk on the bus and...kind of being self sufficient while on there.

 

[maltdizzy]

Tough choice.

We drive, so we already have a car there. More than once, we have been stuck waiting over an hour for buses at closing times before. We now say, "never again." It's one reason we stay at Deluxe Resorts (which usually offer non-bus travel to two parks depending on location) and we drive to the others. Traveling in the "off season" we usually get to park pretty close to the entrance. The difference between having the option of the car and not are night and day in travel time and freedom. It even gives us the option to run to a water park for our afternoon break.

At the same time, if we didn't already have a car available, I would have a hard time justifying the cost of a rental just to drive around property.

 

[Accident]

I like not driving and just relaxing and letting disney deal with it. I find the buses much more reliable versus the past and disney has really stepped up their ability to deal with hiccups in a timely manor.

Where I hate taking hte buses is if I'm at a resort with a lot of bus stops. you easily double the time to get to/from anywhere with how long it takes to get around the resort. It's also not uncommon to ahve to wait as full buses pass you by if your near one of the last stops in your resort.

This is going to be a personal choice and what else your doing that week (maybe early breakfast adrs, or getting from resort to resort) a car is much better than taking several buses and anxiety if a bus is going to make it in time or not.

 

[hiwaygal]

I think it really depends on where you are staying. Until we moved down here, we used the Disney systems and never had a complaint. Now that we are driving regularly, I miss the convenience of the buses - especially at MK!