Rental car worth it when staying on site?

[SandyinMonterey]

I vote for rental car. We ALWAYS have a rental car when visiting WDW. After a long day at the park, the last thing I want to do is stand in one of those long lines for long periods of times. We find having a rental car is extremely helpful when getting to your ADR's. Parking has never been a hassle, except downtown Disney (under construction). I've done the stroller thing with the bus and the car and it's much easier with the car.

 

[Monykalyn]

see... I prefer no car.... my DH loves the car,and wants to drive like maniac all over the place if we have a rental. I don't. I don't want to drive around the city,looking for a good deal on tube socks, I can do that at home.... I want to get on a bus, that takes me where I want to go,with no fuss. For me, that's Disney transportation all the way. The cost and hassle (and worry)over renting and being responsible for the car vs. just getting on the bus is not worth it to me. My DH is strange though,and his idea of fun is seeing how much Disney is asking for one bottle of budweiser,then spending the day shopping at area stores to see how cheap he can buy it..... I have always preferred no car,even when the kids were babies.

Oh my goodness this cracked me up!! Have you ever listened to Jeanne Robertson (humorist)?

We have always stayed offsite so always a car...and even with an onsite stay planned we will still have a car. I expect we will utilize Disney transportation if we want (or group wants to split up) but my DH wants that option

 

[crisi]

We seldom have a car. When we have a car, it usually is parked.

We DO take cabs - there are a few times every trip were a cab works much better than the bus, and we will use it. A cab ride tends to be about $20 with tip, a car rental after all the fees is seldom under $200, so 10 cab rides per trip and we are financially still good....and are up on convenience.

A car is almost needed if you go off property. Its nice if you visit waterparks. Its nice if you do hotel dining not in your own hotel (staying at the Boardwalk, we might go to Jiko, thats a cab there and back). We've liked it for DTD trips. We SELDOM use it for parks - from where we stay, Epcot and DS are a walk, and the rest we just plan plenty of time for buses and face the reality that we may stand on the bus ride. For the MK a car is as much of a hassle as a bus (staying in a MK resort or taking a cab in are about the only hassle free ways to get to the MK).

 

[North of Mouse]

We're flying into either Tampa or Orlando to visit family for the first few days of our vacation (they live in between), and will be renting a car. Our son will be 2 1/2 when we visit. I thought to save money, we should drop the car off at MCO on our arrival day at Disney and take Magical Express to the resort. We'd stay at the resort and then take ME back to the airport on our departure day. We'll be staying at Wilderness Lodge, and are planning on visiting MK, EP, and AK.

Am I just being cheap? Should we just keep the rental for the 5 days we will be on site?

Entirely depends on 'who' you ask!! For us, no way! We always use Disney transportation and love it - just part of the experience for us.

We're going down this week end for two weeks in our MH and it's the only place we visit and don't need a tow vehicle. We wouldn't use one if we had it.