Rent a car?

[Disneyworld2122]

ive decided to stay on-site, still wondering which hotel(AKL,Contemporary, or Polynesian)?

i was wondering about whether i should rent a car or are there other ways i can get to universal-that doesnt cost to much.
ive decided to rent a car for 6 days of the trip for the 2 at universal 2 at DTD and the last 2 days to do whatever. thanks for the help guys.

 

[eliza61]

We don't go without a car. Let me say, I'm probably the worst culprit in my family. I have the patience of a knat. I hate buses in real life.

1) We stayed at AKL and it took us 45 mins to get every where outside of Ak. drove me crazy.

2) we prefer resort restaurants or dtd restaurants over park hotels. getting from resort to resort is time consuming. let's not even talk about going from resort to DTD. ugh!!!

3) when we first started renting a car, we had 2 kids in strollers. sorry I know people here are nice but we found in the hot weather people at disney can get really nasty, when you took to long to fold down the stroller. Yes, maybe I should have had my kid out of the stroller and ready to jump on the bus the second it arrived but I didn't. I've heard many a nasty comment.

4) end of night mad dash. been there done that...

like i said, we no longer go if we don't have our own transportation. I find it extremely easy to drive in disney, it's one big circle. never ever got lost and if I missed a turnoff it was a no brainer getting back on track.

The monorail resorts I may be able to deal without a car (I still would not like it) because that would get me two out of the 4 parks, anywhere else I need a car.

 

[CaptMarge]

We also rent a car, that said, there are many car services you can call and have them pick you up at your hotel and drive you to Universal then do the reverse at the end of the day. It's actually nice to have door to door transportation on a hot day. Good luck, have a wonderful trip!

 

[GillianP1301]

We're renting a car for our on-site stay at the end of August. I debated whether or not to just use the Disney transportation, but I really hate waiting for busses and my DH is even worse than me. I'm also not so keen on taking 45 minutes to get somewhere, when I can drive it in about 10, just too much wasted time. We are also going to be offsite for 2 days to Universal Studios and some other touristy stuff and when I started pricing a car for just those 2 days vs. the full stay, there really wasn't that much of a difference. For 9 days, I'm only paying $168. Well worth it to me for the convenience.

 

[rwdavis2]

We always rent a car. IMHO, it's much quicker traveling between destinations.

 

[lisasuebj]

I prefer not to mess with car rental. It can take a "little" longer to get around with Disney transporation but not enough to go through the hassle and cost of renting a car. I would choose Disney transporation anytime.

 

[kaligal]

I drive.

Renting a car is quicker, easier and more "all my way" than public transportation, but it costs more.

Pick your poison.

However, if you are staying at Uni, you truly don't need a car. You won't use it. Their transportation is quicker and easier than driving.

 

[mikerobrewer]

If you are going from resort to park and back then the Disney transportation is fine. If you will be doing a lot of park hopping and resort-to-resort then I suggest getting a car.

The wife and I are going with her sister, husband and 10 year old son in September and are staying in a SSR Treehouse, which is a bit remote. The cost to rent a car for a week is about $100, $50 split between us, which is well worth it for us.

 

[heidijanesmith]

We don't like to drive at WDW, I actually find it very relaxing to let WDW handle all the transportation for our trip. I know that driving your self is quicker, but I am prepared for the WDW transportation times so it does not bother me.

We wanted to go to US as well, so we planned it after our WDW stay. We rented a car (through National) at CCC and then dropped it off at MCO after our US stay. This worked well for us, as we did not want a car for our entire stay.

The National staff at CCC were super friendly and took less than 5min to get our car and drive out of the parking lot. We stayed at the Poly, a National rep came to get us (We used the free Emerald Esle link from mousesavers to make our reservation) and we were at the CCC in two minutes.

 

[DizneyNutz]

We are another family that doesn't go without a vehicle at our disposal. We love the freedom it provides us and we are DVC members so we also shop for grocery items to have in our kitchen / fridge. We also like eating at some places offsite like Olive Garden or picking up a bucket of chicken at KFC. I found an awesome map of the entire Disney property several years back and it shows where everything is located on property. I used that for a couple of years to learn my way around now it is like any vacation home you visit every year. I know my way around without a map. PM us if you would like a copy of the map and I will e-mail it. It is a PDF file. Good luck with your decision.

 

[kerplop]

We're renting a car. We like being able to run to the store if we need to and not being at Disney's mercy. We also have a lot of dining reservations at other resorts, so we want to be able to just drive over there.

 

[goofyintoronto]

ive decided to stay on-site, still wondering which hotel(AKL,Contemporary, or Polynesian)?

i was wondering about whether i should rent a car or are there other ways i can get to universal-that doesnt cost to much.

We never rent a car. We like using disney buses. To get to universal we use MEARS transportation. Its about $18 pp roundtrip. you book from your resort the night before, they pick you up and take you to the park. When your ready to return, they only require about 1-2 hours notice. You simply call them up, they tell you where to wait. So easy!!!

 

[jwcollin]

We have always rented a car! We love the freedom of being able to go for a drive, go outlet mall shopping, doing a grocery store run, etc. We will be there for 17 days this august - 7 days at Universal and 10 at Disney. We are planning on visiting Kennedy Space centre and Daytona Beach this time, so having a car at our disposal is fantastic.

 

[Disneyworld2122]

We never rent a car. We like using disney buses. To get to universal we use MEARS transportation. Its about $18 pp roundtrip. you book from your resort the night before, they pick you up and take you to the park. When your ready to return, they only require about 1-2 hours notice. You simply call them up, they tell you where to wait. So easy!!!

i think ill check this out thanks.

 

[IMKdisney]

We always rent a car. We have tried to go without a car rental and chicken out at the last minute. Mousesavers has some really good car rental deals. We like to visit resorts, play miniature golf, go for ice cream, and buy water and wine at the grocery store.

 

[bkmom]

I feel like I'm in the minority here! One of the best parts of our vacation is not having to drive at all! DH is a maniac behind the wheel and gets easily frustrated when everybody does not drive as "awesome" as him. So not having a car is super relaxin for us. We just do Disney and have never gone any place else! When we stayed at Shades of Green, we were close enough to drive so we had our own car. The only time we used it was when we went to DTD. And yes leaving DTD on the buses is sometimes a huge hassel. Totally worth it!

 

[DznyCrzy11]

I feel like I'm in the minority here! One of the best parts of our vacation is not having to drive at all! DH is a maniac behind the wheel and gets easily frustrated when everybody does not drive as "awesome" as him. So not having a car is super relaxin for us. We just do Disney and have never gone any place else! When we stayed at Shades of Green, we were close enough to drive so we had our own car. The only time we used it was when we went to DTD. And yes leaving DTD on the buses is sometimes a huge hassel. Totally worth it!

Yep, my husband is the same way!

 

[DznyCrzy11]

We have done it both ways and here is our experience. Keep in mind we do not have kids and we only visit WDW.
We rented a car twice. Both times the line just to get the car was atleast a 30 minute wait. It was always a hassle finding your way from the airport to WDW, this was before GPS was popular, oh, and don't forget to pay the toll! I have heard they now include all FL tolls in the car rental fee, like having an EZ Pass so to speak. Parking is a hassle and battling traffic is even worse.
When we use ME all we had to do was wait for the bus, which luckily has never been more than 20 minutes, and then we get to continue relaxing until we arrive at the resort. Might I add there is also no need to wait for your luggage, that is all taken care of! We have never had a problem with transportation at WDW, not even when we have ADR's, you learn to manage and plan your time around that. Each person has their own idea of a relaxing vacation but a huge plus for us is being able to park our car at the airport and not drive or battle traffic for 8 days.

 

[reelmom]

If you end up renting a car, be sure to take pictures of every scratch, ding, and dent. The last one we rented, we rented in one city and returned in another. We went over the car with rental clerk. She clearly marked the dents and scratches on the rental agreement. I took pictures much to everybody's amusement. So glad I did. We dropped the car off and a week later, got a a letter in the mail wanting to charge us for a dent in the back bumper. Apparently, the rental car place does not put that information in the computer. I sent in the pictures and it was eventually determined that it was already there. It worked out but it was a hassle. I was listening to the Clark Howard radio show yesterday and he said this is becoming the norm. He said something along the line that rental car companies are making about as much money for repairs as from the rentals.

 

[tarasdad]

I have used Disney transportation, rented a car and used a car service. My preference now is the town car. Driver is waiting at the bottom of the escalator in the airport holding up a sign with my name, helps with my bags, no waiting for other people or a line at the car rental. He stops at a grocery store so we can get "supplies" and then directly to the resort. Shows up 2 hours before out flight out, straight back to the airport. All this for about 150.00 round trip including tip. While we are at Disney, I don't mind a little wait for Disney busses. I'm a senior now so I am not in such a big rush as I used to be. I like to stop and smell the roses more now!!

Bill