Staying a week w/o car

[Taratink]

We always rent a car. My husband cannot stand anyone driving him around. Even though we always get lost when he drives. We are staying at the WL so we will take all the water launches. We will test out some of the disney transportation this time. If I was not traveling with my husband I would not rent a car. I hate driving.
Tara

 

[WillCAD]

For 15 years I had a commute of up to an hour each way to work. But I have never felt the need to escape driving while on vacation. To me, driving is like breathing; if I can't do it I turn blue and pass out.

In 14 trips I have only had no car of my own (either from driving down or renting) on two trips. Although I found the Disney bus system to be adequate, I hated having no car both times. Getting between resorts is a long, drawn out affair by bus; busses usually run on time but are often so full you can't breathe; and once in a while they DON'T run on time and leave you standing at a bus stop for an hour.

You won't have trouble getting anywhere without a car; the Disney busses go everywhere. But they don't go TO everywhere FROM everywhere, and they don't always go at exactly the time you want. You will have to plan things out a little ahead of time and know the limitations of the system to avoid the potential pitfalls.

But rest assured, it's certainly possible to do a week at WDW without a car.

 

[BadgerBruce]

We've stayed on property 15x in the last 10 years without a car. I'm one who never likes to even ride in a car without being the driver at home, but find it is more relaxing to let Disney do the driving on vacation. It is just myself & DW, so that makes it easier than it might be with children along. As long as you are patient & allow plenty of time to get to your destination you should have few problems. We did go to Sea World one time using Mears & it went very smoothly. Have a great trip!

 

[Trixiezzz]

3 weeks ago we drove our minivan the 700 miles to WDW because we wanted to have the convenience of grocery shopping or just being free to go where we pleased.

It stayed parked at our Disney resort the whole week!

I couldn't believe it! With the buses so handy we just never used it. We always ended up getting some milk and juice from the food court and stocking our room fridge that way. It was so convenient we didn't want to hassle with navigating through Orlando.

I mean, we planned on leaving Disney to "drive around" a little, and just never could see a point to it.

So you should be fine.

 

[sherry8253]

We always have a car. Like others, we enjoy eating at the various resorts & it is too much of a hassle to get from our hotel to another hotel for dinner and back to our hotel. After walking around the parks all day, the last thing that I want to do is take a bus someplace and switch to another bus or the monorail from there and then do it all over again to get back to our hotel. Plus, we always take our laundry off site to a wash & fold laundry & drycleaner (I refuse to do laundry on vaction & I don't want to face a ton of dirty clothes when we get home). So, I would be very stressed if we didn't have a car. But if you have no plans to go off property & you plan on dining mostly in the parks or your own resort, you will be fine without a car. Since we have our car with us, we usually drive to the parks too.

 

[cyndibelle]

if your planning to visit elsewhere besides the big cheese himself...i would get a car...our towncar trip just to and from the airport alone was 90 bucks and then with tip...so i would say yea get a car if your venturing over to the dark side....ha ha ha ...

 

[FamilyGuy]

I found that the round trip cost of Mears was almost $100 for our family of five, and I booked an SUV for 9 days all taxes inclusive for $194, I thought it just made sense. We used our rental just about everyday we were there. With our portable navigation device I brought from home it was a breeze finding a destination and travelling to various places. And even though we stayed at the CR, I took the car to the parks sometimes (AK & MGM).

That said I certainly do not think that a car is needed, it seems that most do without it. Onsite tranportation is very safe and even fun for many. Many travelers even said that they had a vehicle with them and never used it.

Something to keep in mind is that if you decide mid trip you would like a car for a day or two, you can get Resort and/or Disney transportation to the CCC (car care center), and rent a car there for one or two days. You could even book this advance for pickup (or dropoff) at the CCC if you wanted to plan it that way. Another idea would be to book ahead and pickup at the airport for a couple or three days and return at the CCC. Or the opposite, pickup 2 or three days before departure at the CCC and return to MCO.

As far as getting to Universal, if it hasn't already been mentioned, you can take a taxi just about anywhere you need to go (this could add up to be more than the rental though).

Good luck with what ever you decide, I'm sure wou'll be fine with a car or without.

 

[disneefamily]

Disnee Dad Says............................................ We've done it all ways, and maybe a two day rental will work best for you. Have a nice meal off site, stock up on some groceries, and spend your day with the enemy!!!

Get it the evening before the enemy trip and return it the day after.

 

[pampam]

We never rent a car. I just don't want the stress of driving when I'm on vacation. We do, however, leave Disney, by using the Lynx public transit busses. We get our groceries, or spend a day shopping, whatever. We've never missed not having the car. The only time Disney transportation is a problem is going from resort to resort, but that is easily solved by going to a park or DTD and transfering.