Should I rent a car?

[kaytina91]

Info:

• We are doing two nights on-site at Universal and 6 nights on-site at Disney World.
• We plan to do one day at Busch Gardens. There is a free shuttle from Universal, but it cuts into the time we get at Busch. (We also have free parking for BG).
• We would really like the option of driving out of the touristy area for meals, but will eliminate it if it's simply not worth it.
• Our flight home is at 7 a.m., so we assume (but may be wrong) it would be easier to drive ourselves than to rely on Disney resort transportation.

What do you guys think? In your experience, is a car worth it if you're staying on-site?

 

[nacho113]

You will get lots of yeahs and neighs on this board about this.

Personally we started renting vehicles when visiting Disney several years ago and have never gone back to relying on Disney Transportation so I guess that makes us one of the yeahs.
A rental car gives you tons of flexibility for onsite ADRs, park hopping, grocery stops, offsite attractions or maybe even just a day at the beach.

If you're flying into MCO, you should be able to find a good rate on a rental car (check the thread that has your month in it's title to find some good codes and great rates). MCO has some of the best rental car rates in the whole country (mostly because of the huge volume of rentals and rental companies)

The Busch Gardens shuttle is a great deal, the only downside that I see is that you have to work your day around the shuttles schedule, but the price is right.

The drive to BG is pretty straight forward, can probably drive it with my eyes closed by now.
Take I-4 west from WDW. You'll start seeing the signs for Busch Gardens as you approach Tampa. If you follow the signs it will point you North on I-75, then west on Fowler (I think its highway 582), just keep following the signs. Turn south on McKinley (hwy 585?), your almost there now follow the signs to parking just off Busch Blvd. Total mileage is just over 70 miles and just over an hour (depending on traffic)

You mention about driving out of the touristy area for some meals, I'm assuming you just mean driving off WDW property.
Much of Orlando is very touristy but you can find just about any kind of food taste or style to satisfy any pallet and budget.

 

[rwdavis2]

I would rent a car. We always do. One thing, Universal has a hefty charge to park. Given that I would still rent a car. You can make stops at a grocery store for snacks/drinks and come and go to the parks when you want. Of all the trips to WDW I've ridden 1 bus.

 

[nacho113]

I would rent a car. We always do. One thing, Universal has a hefty charge to park. Given that I would still rent a car. You can make stops at a grocery store for snacks/drinks and come and go to the parks when you want. Of all the trips to WDW I've ridden 1 bus.

OP noted that they wanted to stay onsite at Universal.
All Universal resorts are really close to the parks and have free buses and/or boats running about every 15 minutes (the buses only take 2-3 minutes to get to the park entrance).
They are actually so close to the park that you can walk it 2-10 minutes depending on which resort you are staying at.
It's actually a shorter walk from Hard Rock Cafe Resort to the Park entrance, than the walk from the Theme Park Parking Garages
Just leave the car at the resort.

 

[cluvsdisney]

I would rent a car. It's so much nicer being in control of your transportation especially since you are going to a couple of different places.

Follow the car rental discount thread for the month you are travelling for contract and coupon codes and keep checking the rates. It's been my experience that they start crazy high, slowly go down for a while then sometimes jump back up. The good thing is that you don't have to use a credit card to hold the reservation so you can keep cancelling and rebooking as you get better rates.