Staying on property with a car...

[DisneyLvr55]

If you stay on property, and have a car, do you generally drive to MK, or just take the bus? If you drive, you end up having to take a monorail, or tram or something anyway, right?

 

[lemondog]

We drive so we always have our car. We stay at the Poly so we take the monorail to the MK and Epcot. We drive to DHS and AK. Much quicker that way. If you drive from another area to MK I think you do have to park at the TTC and then take the monorail in, but not sure on that. You can park and walk into all the other parks.

 

[Hopefully]

If you stay on property, and have a car, do you generally drive to MK, or just take the bus? If you drive, you end up having to take a monorail, or tram or something anyway, right?

The MK is the one park you should always use Disney transportation to. Otherwise you will park in the TTC just like the day guests. Then, depending on your spot in the lot, you have to take a tram to get to either the Monorail or the Ferry to the MK itself.
The Disney buses drop off directly at the MK main gates

 

[wdwrich]

We always rent a car for our trips now and drive to all the parks with the occasional exception of MK. To MK, we sometimes use Disney transportation and sometimes we drive. We actually timed both modes a few years ago and they came out to be very close. The time spent waiting for a bus can eliminate the advantage of being dropped by the bus near the MK entrance. Of course, when we're staying at the Poly or CR, we don't drive to MK.

 

[POB14]

We always have a car.

We would never, ever drive to the MK, for reasons given earlier.

Sometimes we drive to a park, but generally that's on our get-out-of-town day, when we'd have to go back and get the car anyway. I don't like to drive in the first place, and if I don't have to do it on vacation, I won't.

 

[Kristian]

We always rent a car for our trips now and drive to all the parks with the occasional exception of MK. To MK, we sometimes use Disney transportation and sometimes we drive. We actually timed both modes a few years ago and they came out to be very close. The time spent waiting for a bus can eliminate the advantage of being dropped by the bus near the MK entrance. Of course, when we're staying at the Poly or CR, we don't drive to MK.

We drive to Disney and we utilize both our car and then Disney transportation as well. Last September we stayed at POP and we found that taking the bus to HS was just as fast as taking our own car. We drove to the MK one day and then used the bus another day and we found that the transportation time really wasn't much shorter/longer when you have to wait for a bus at the hotel. We used our car to go to DTD and then also to get to other resorts for ADR's, which I find is so much faster than taking a bus to a park and then getting on a bus there to get you to whatever resort you are heading to. The night of MNSSHP was a terrible night to be on a Disney bus for us. We waited at least 25 minutes for a bus and then ended up having to stand up once we were on it. Even though you do have to take a tram from the TTC and then the monorail or ferry to the MK, it would have been much faster than taking the bus the night of the party, so we are avoiding the bus this September when we hit MNSSHP.

 

[I Love Pluto]

MK - take the bus. It is soooo much easier.

I have an ECV, and the hill to go up to the monorail is very long & very steep! Why go through all of this? The resort bus drops us off at the front gate. You can't get much closer than that!

 

[karenklo]

While we may have a car with us, we are happy to turn the driving over to Disney! My husband loves being able to park the car and not have to worry about driving. Even if we did drive, the MK is just easier to get to with monorail or buses.

 

[wdwrich]

Kristian points out another big advantage to having a car- ADRs at resorts in the evenings. Unless you're traveling between two monorail resorts, travel for late dinner ADRs is a royal pain on Disney transportation. If parks are closed, you have to make a bus transfer at DTD. That can make the whole one-way trip take as much as 90 minutes. So much easier to drive your car!

 

[gilsan]

We usually drive to MK vs busses.

Often we have an early ADR (8:00am), taking the car is fater and you don't have the stress of waiting for the bus and hoping it will get you there in time. Usually we can park in the first row and take the monorail or our preferred method the boat.

 

[willowsnn3]

Have to put my two cents in..
We drive so we always have a car. We drive to all the parks INCLUDING M/K.
We have done the bus thing and it is clearly not for us, lol. We usually plan around the early EMH hours so we are always among the first in the parking lots so it isn't a far walk. Altho I do get upset if I don't get to ride the tram a few times during the trip. The trams are one of my favorite rides..

 

[OklahomaTourist]

We've always stayed on-property, driven to WDW in our own car, but taken the bus to the parks with only outlier exceptions.

One exception was getting to a dinner ADR at Chef Mickey's from the Swan on our very first day of our very first trip to WDW in 2001. The other was on our last day in Orlando one year, and we opted to get one last ride in at Soarin' early before we left. There was another time that, for reasons I frankly don't remember, we drove to MK, not realizing that doing so takes you to the TTC, so I wouldn't do that again.

If you drive and park-hop, you have to allow for the time to get from the 2nd park back to the park where your car is located, which can be a hassle, esp with a load of tired kids or family. OTOH, if you're someone who just doesn't like buses, then driving makes sense.

In general, to each his own, but I give the nod to just letting Disney burn the gas I've already paid for and ride the buses unless there's an overarching reason to drive.

 

[cymbaldiva]

I drive - every single time, period.

Yes, I hate Disney buses that much.

 

[Cyrano]

Moving to Transportation

 

[g8torphan]

Always drive. Always.

If you go for RD you don't have to worry about the Tram because you'll be close enough to walk to TTC. The monorail/ferry over is part of the magic and takes minimal time.

But please, everyone continue to bus it...works out better for me!

 

[Bullseye]

I drive - every single time, period.

Yes, I hate Disney buses that much.

Right on diva! I drive everywhere including the MK. Everybody makes such a big deal about going from the parking lot to the Magic Kingdom. It's a short walk to the trams and then they get you to the TTC in a minute or two. Then a nice ferry (my preference) or monorail ride to the park which to me is part of WDW experience. It so nice at end of day having my own car waiting for me instead of waiting in lines to cram into a crowded noisy odorous bus. More power to those who want to ride the buses, but OP you have a car, use it, you won't regret it.

 

[River Country]

I used to drive all the time. I used to leave my car at the contemporary, are you not allowed to do that anymore? I had bfast ADR at Chef Mickey's adn would park the car there and take the monorail into MK or EPCOT did this all the time

 

[wdwrich]

I used to leave my car at the contemporary, are you not allowed to do that anymore? I had bfast ADR at Chef Mickey's adn would park the car there and take the monorail into MK or EPCOT did this all the time

Actually, no- you are not supposed to do this. Signs in the resort lots state that theme park parking is prohibited. At times, they will give you a three-hour parking pass for an ADR at a resort where you're not staying. I have also seen the gate guard jot down license plate numbers after checking your name on the ADR list. I'm not trying to be the "parking police" here, but I have seen cars towed from the Poly and CR lots. YMMV.

 

[bumbershoot]

We have tried the buses, given them a really good chance to win us over, to MK, but we're giving that up from now on.

First, the bus doesn't drop you AT the front gate. Especially if your bus stops waaaaaay at a far away stop. You still have a walk, some of it not really flat, to get up to bag check. We barely had any time at MK last trip, but next time I'm going to map it out (especially since I'll probably have a GPS watch by that time) to compare the walk from the bus stops to bag check vs the walk from monorail and boat to bag check.

When we have parked at TTC, we have had tremendous luck (we recognize that), with getting there really early, or late enough and after a big storm, so the only place we have parked has been right near the walkway up to get to the boat or monorail.


Last trip we were SO frustrated with the bus from Kidani that when it was time to leave we just took a cab instead. WELL worth the money to avoid the bus nonsense for us.

We always have a car, and from now on we'll just drive. Even to MK.

 

[sotoalf]

The MK bus stops aren't far at all from the MK main gate unless you need a wheelchair.

No one's mentioned this point: I'd say bus vs car is a draw unless you grab dinner and drinks (which we always do). Depending on distance from hotel, a cab would be best at that point.