renting a car for Disney World?

[ckwong]

My family is planning to visit Disney World for our first time for 1 week. Staying at Bay Lake Towers. Would you recommend renting a car or not? We don't plan to go anywhere else other than staying within the Disney resorts...

 

[drusba]

A car is not a necessity. You won't really need it to go to parks, or Magic Kingdom related resorts (Grand Floridian, Poly, Wilderness Lodge, Fort Wilderness) since you can take monorail or boat (you can of course easily walk to the Contemporary). Where the issue of possibly having a car arises is if you want to go to Downtown Disney (buses go there but because of multiple stops, trip there and back can be very long), or go to a resort other than the ones mentioned above although you could still walk to MK and catch a bus to any other resort. If you want to do anything off-cite, go to a grocery store, off-site restaurant, Universal Studios, then having a car is a good idea.

My guess is that if this is your first trip it is going to be very park heavy and most everything else light, for which you won't need a car.

 

[DoryDorito]

Depends on how you want to travel. We've never rented a car because we don't venture off of disney property. Some people prefer the bus system, some prefer the freedom of time a car allows.

 

[sjc011]

My husband and I took a car for a couple reasons...

1) we already had one because we were camping at the fort
2) we had park-hoppers, so our time was maximized because we weren't waiting for the buses.

One evening, we took the bus from our camping loop to the main bus drop off to get on another bus to EPCOT. It wasn't too crowded in the evening, but I would imagine it would be PACKED in the morning and at night. After riding Soarin', while everyone else was watching Illuminations, we booked it to our bus's station at EPCOT. Honestly, not worth the standing around and trying to beat the crowds.

Some people think parking is a miserable chore, but we saved hours and money from not buying headache medicine by driving from park to park to hotel. It was on our own time. And we were able to leave our sweatshirts in the car on one hot day then grab them later, so I guess I liked having the car as my own personal locker!

(Note: We took the ferry and the monorail when we went to the MK. No car.)

 

[ruzer28]

This is a frequently debated topic on this board. We always rent a car, and find that it's much more convenient and relaxing than taking Disney transportation. But you can certainly get everywhere without it, it's not an absolute necessity.

 

[ckwong]

Are there long waits in between each bus or do they run pretty frequently? Are the buses crowded?

 

[ckwong]

This is a frequently debated topic on this board. We always rent a car, and find that it's much more convenient and relaxing than taking Disney transportation. But you can certainly get everywhere without it, it's not an absolute necessity.

I'm a DVC member. So would parking be free if I rented a car and parked at each resort, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, or Downtown Disney?

 

[Cinderpamela]

Yes, parking is free for DVC members... its a nice perk! We rented a car and like PP's we found that we loved all the extra time it afforded us because we were not having to spend time waiting for buses. Some folks love the buses, but we loved our rental car and the freedom it gave us!

 

[drusba]

I'm a DVC member. So would parking be free if I rented a car and parked at each resort, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, or Downtown Disney?

Actually, parking is not a DVC perk. Parking anywhere on site is free to anyone staying on site. But unless a DVC member is staying on site, the member would have to pay for parking at the parks. Downtown Disney is open to the general public and no one pays to park there.

As to your bus question: buses between resorts and parks generally run every 20 minutes. Sometimes there can be delays and some times, like during early morning rush times to the parks, they can actually come quicker. If you leave a park right after fireworks or other park day ending event, you can often have long lines for buses and thus may not get the first one that comes for your resort. At BLT, you will use the monorail or walk to MK, the monorail to Epcot, monorail to Poly or Grand Floridian, and boat to Wilderness Lodge or Fort Wilderness. Buses elsewhere.

Also, you mention parking at other resorts at which you are not staying. The issue there becomes whether you can get in through the security gate and if not staying at a resort you will need a valid reason for entry such as a restaurant reservation particularly at near park resorts since they want to prevent people from just parking at the resort to go to a park.

 

[CarolMN]

Moved from DVC Boards

 

[mdsd8700]

This is a frequently debated topic on this board. We always rent a car, and find that it's much more convenient and relaxing than taking Disney transportation. But you can certainly get everywhere without it, it's not an absolute necessity.

Agree with this. There are as many people who enjoy renting a car as those that prefer Disney transportation. It really depends on each family and what their wants/needs are for the trip.

We always rent a car. We travel a lot to other resorts to visit and eat so we enjoy how quickly we can get to these locations with a car. We never leave the property and have food delivered to our room, so for us a car simply is for ease of getting places within the resort.

We are rope drop people and drive to the parks and are always among the first in the parking lots. At BLT you can walk to MK which is wonderful!

It really depends on what works best for your family. Have a great trip!

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

We find that by renting a car, we can save between one to two hours per day versus waiting for Disney Transportation. Over the course of a week, that essentially means we are getting an extra day of vacation, so we think it's a financially sound decision.

We stay at BLT regularly and the only time we don't use our rental is when we are going to MK.

 

[Donna M]

Many good points have been mentioned already, I'd like to add the consideration of cost. All your transportation to WDW and around WDW would be free, rentals can be expensive. Also, since this is your first trip, it could be nice not having to worry about directions.

We have done both. Now that we're older and very familiar with the area, we prefer the rental for the freedom it provides.

 

[DebbieB]

I stayed at BLT last month and at the last minute decided to rent a car so that I would be free to go offsite if I wanted since the weather was predicted to be cold. I picked up groceries at Super Walmart before I arrived at the hotel (late afternoon so I knew the room would be ready). I used it to drive to AK and then straight to Epcot from there one day. Plus I used it to go to Premium Outlets then Downtown Disney one evening. I took the monorail to Epcot the other times. I did take the bus to DHS one morning, waited over 25 min. Walked to MK most of the time. I sometimes took the monorail back if I planned to grab something to eat at Contempo Cafe to take back to the room. This was my first stay at BLT and enjoyed it.