Staying offsite and Disney transportation.

[singjenn]

I'm hoping to take a trip to Disney towards the end of July. I know you aren't supposed to use Disney transportation unless you are a guest at one of the Disney resorts. Am I correct?

If this is true, how do they know who is staying on or off-site?

If you are staying at one of the hotels in Downtown Disney, can you walk across the street and board a Disney bus? And at the end of the day just take a bus back to Downtown Disney and then cross the street to our hotel?

How much does it cost to drive and park your car at a Park? Do you still save enough money staying off-site, or is it wasted by parking?

Since my husband and I stayed on-site during our honeymoon this is all foreign to me.
Any info is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Remember The Magic]

all guests can use disney transportation, don't worry about it.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

How much does it cost to drive and park your car at a Park? Do you still save enough money staying off-site, or is it wasted by parking?

On our October trip last year we decided to conduct a little experiment by spending one week at our usual offsite hotel (Comfort Suites Maingate East) and one week at a Disney moderate resort (Coronado Springs) to see which offered a better experience for us.

To answer your question of transportation cost alone, our rental car was $150 for the week (full size car from Alamo) and parking at the parks was $10/day. The difference in the price of the room was a little more than $60/night so the money we saved by staying offsite more than made up for the added expense of the rental car and parking fees.

We also found the convenience of the rental car was well worth the added expense. After experimenting with Disney transportation, we learned that by driving we were back in our room sipping a cold drink when the other people who left the parks at the same time we did would still be waiting on the hot tarmac for their overcrowded bus.

As for the hotels themselves, despite being almost half the price the offsite room was cleaner and much larger and also had a fridge and microwave. The offsite hotel also had a free breakfast buffet which saved us a few more dollars each day. Granted the offsite hotel didn't have Mickey Mouse on the soap wrappers.

 

[jessiangel]

We don't usually stay on-site. It just gets too expensive. We stay offsite at a condo and buy alot of our food and cook/barbecue. Saves a ton. As for taking transportation, I believe any guest who has a park ticket is entitled to use Disney transportation. Maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong. I think parking is around $10/day at the parks? I know the price for parking has gone up since our last visit (2004), so maybe I am wrong.

 

[jeanie]

Hi,

I had asked a question on the boards awhile ago about how to get from DTD to MK and although I was staying onsite, I did not mention this in the post. One of the responses mentioned that the reason the busses do not go directly from DTD to a park or from park to park is because people would park at DTD and use the Disney transportation to the get to the parks...
I took the response to mean that the bus transportation is for on site guests only..

But I have also never seen a bus driver ask for your KTTW card to board a bus so I am not sure how they know....

 

[maxiesmom]

Hi,

I had asked a question on the boards awhile ago about how to get from DTD to MK and although I was staying onsite, I did not mention this in the post. One of the responses mentioned that the reason the busses do not go directly from DTD to a park or from park to park is because people would park at DTD and use the Disney transportation to the get to the parks...
I took the response to mean that the bus transportation is for on site guests only..

But I have also never seen a bus driver ask for your KTTW card to board a bus so I am not sure how they know....

No, they do not ask for ID before you get on the bus. But now they have made it a bigger hassle to get from DTD to a theme park. You have to go to a resort first, then wait for another bus/boat/monorail, and then go to your park of choice. And the busses from DTD are anything but efficient. I may be wrong, but I think there is now also a time limit on how long you can park at DTD. Which would make sense as you don't want everyone parking at DTD for the whole day and going to the theme parks. It makes it rough on the people who actually want to shop at DTD.

 

[5mins2disney]

Well if you're staying onsite....there's no reason to park at DTD and take a bus to the parks.

Actually, if you're staying offsite, and you're trying to be so cheap that you're going to park at DTD and bus it to the theme parks to avoid the $10 in parking fees at the parks? Hey..good for you..go for it! You'll spend AT LEAST an extra hour..hour and a half riding around on Disney buses just to get to the parks...LOL...oh...and I don't believe the buses run to/from DTD early in the AM anyhow...as it's not open yet! LOL

I'm not a huge fan of the WDW busses anyhow, you spend anywhere from 10-30 minutes just waiting for busses to arrive whereever you are...then they're slow busses...that stop at extra places along the way. You can drive places a LOT quicker...for me..it's worth every penny of the $10 to save all that time and have the freedom and flexibility to come and go as we please!

Plus...the parking is good at all of the Disney parking lots for that entire day...so if we want to go home and come back..you don't have to re-pay it. Living in a major city (Chicago) where we get hammered on parking fees if you go down to the city (like $24 for 2 hours!!)...$10 for unlimited parking for a whole day just doesn't seem that bad to us!

Busses on the other hand...no thanks...don't take them here...why on earth would I want to take them when I'm on vacation!? LOL (Unless there's drinking involved, but that's different, and quite rare when we're there with our kids!)

 

[Brian Noble]

Unless there's drinking involved, but that's different, and quite rare when we're there with our kids!

No no, that's not what busses are for. That's what *cabs* are for. Door-to-door service, no waiting.

 

[MiaSRN62]

5mins2disney : Actually, if you're staying offsite, and you're trying to be so cheap that you're going to park at DTD and bus it to the theme parks to avoid the $10 in parking fees at the parks? Hey..good for you..go for it! You'll spend AT LEAST an extra hour..hour and a half riding around on Disney buses just to get to the parks...LOL...oh...and I don't believe the buses run to/from DTD early in the AM anyhow...as it's not open yet! LOL

I actually thought the DTD busses only went to the disney resort hotels ? I thought they stopped the practice of going to the parks because people were trying to avoid paying the $10 parking fee. I heard that the DTD parking lots were becoming so overcrowded with people attempting to do this and this is why they stopped it ? Maybe I'm wrong ?

Cdn Friends of Pooh : Granted the offsite hotel didn't have Mickey Mouse on the soap wrappers.

True....staying offsite is usually cheaper, BUT...to be fair, it's more than just Mickey soaps.
If you're going to mention cheaper rooms, free breakfast buffet (at certain hotels !)and a microwave, then it's only fair to list the reasons people stay onsite :
1) Extra Magic Hour (nice perk to enter the parks an hour early and stay up to 3 hours after park closes to other guests.) This is really helpful during the busy times of the year.

2) Package/souvenier delivery to your hotel. It's nice not having to carry multiple bags around the parks.

3) disney transportation. Not everyone wants to rent a car and drive themselves on vacation. It's also nice to be able to use disney busses/monorail/boat to go back to your room. This makes it particularily convenient when traveling with various family members who may want to do their own thing. My 16 yo dd loved being able to come and go to the parks as she pleased with her friend from home. Years ago when we traveled with my mil, she used to only be able to last a few hours and then needed to go back and rest. It was nice to not have to pack the entire family into the rental van and all go back to the hotel. She could hop on a bus and go back for a nap while we all stayed in the parks. The busses are really only crowded first thing in the morning and at parks' closing times. During the middle of the day, there are usually plenty of seats. I've ridden back to the hotel where there were only half a dozen people on the bus in the middle of the day. You can save lots of money by using disney busses and staying at a value or a mod for a discounted price. We're Annual Passholders and have gotten the mods for around $110-120/night. We are a family of 5, so renting a car for a week can easily cost alot of $. As an example. A full size car for July 28-Aug 4 (using a Mousesaver code) is $331. Even when my son doesn't come with us, we prefer an intermediate or full size car. A minivan (which would be best for our family of 5) is $463 for the week. So....using Magical Express (free) to get from the airport and then staying onsite using disney busses is pretty cost effective for us. It affords a savings and convenience for those that want it.

4) also, all disney hotels do have a small frig in the room now except for the values. So if you stayed in Coronado Springs, there should have been a frig in that room. Just no microwave. I stayed in another moderate resort the first week of Dec (CBR) and we had a frig.

To the OP. YES....feel free to use the disney transportation. Noone will question you. It's to disney's advantage to have you be able to get around conveniently and even hop over to other onsite resorts for meals or shopping too. Have a great trip !

 

[spiceycat]

Hi,

I had asked a question on the boards awhile ago about how to get from DTD to MK and although I was staying onsite, I did not mention this in the post. One of the responses mentioned that the reason the busses do not go directly from DTD to a park or from park to park is because people would park at DTD and use the Disney transportation to the get to the parks...
I took the response to mean that the bus transportation is for on site guests only..

sorry I should have explained further.

some of the offsite buses coming from offsite hotels - were dropping everyone off at DD and telling them to just take the DD bus to their theme park.

this involved several hundred people each and every day - if not thousands.

the DD buses were to put it slightly overhelmed...

this was what the bus driver told me when I asked.

the only choice Disney had was to only change the DD buses to go back and forth to ONLY their resorts (but they also go to tL).

Disney can and does charge outsite buses for using their parking - this was a way for the offsite not to pay.....