Staying on-site but using car vs. Disney transportation?

[mayfam2010]

We've only been to Disney once, but we're already planning our next visit! We stayed at the Poly our first visit and it was AMAZING, but this next visit will likely have a tighter budget. We're working on gathering pricing for staying on site vs off site since the next trip will probably include a few other Orlando tourist attractions.

So my question is this: Does anyone have any advice/experience with staying at one of the Disney resorts but bring your own vehicle or renting a car? Did you use the car to get to each park or did you use the Disney Transportation and which is quicker/easier? Is the walking to and from the parking lots more trouble than the wait to get on a bus?

Also, cost wise, if we're not going to stay at Disney for each day of our trip and might rent a car, I wonder if its worth it to stay off site? I hate to do that because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the resorts and amenities, plus we'd likely want to do the dining plan or better yet use the free dining promo, at least for the days we're on Disney property. If anyone has any advice on this, we'd love to hear your experience!

As I see it, our options are to stay on property and use Disney trasnportation on our Disney days and then just rent a car for the day or use cabs for day trips (we want to do the Wizarding World of HP, and a day at the beach as well), OR stay on Disney property and rent a car for the full trip and use it to get park to park as well as on our day trips OR stay off site and rent a car for the full week, just driving to/from Disney or our other destinations each day.

We're just in the planning stages of our next one, but before I do too much research into car rentals, etc I wanted to get some opinions! TIA

 

[MindyMouse76]

Hello!

Here is my two cents. We stayed onsite in 2009 at POFQ. We loved the bus transportation. Part of the fun of it was not dealing with traffic, where to park, getting in a hot car, getting lost driving etc etc. Also the best perk I felt was that they drop you off right in front of the parks. I couldn't imagine having to park far (especially at Magic Kingdom) and walking back to the hot car after a long day in the parks. We also actually didn't mind withing the 5 minutes for the buses. That is when we would talk to people also waiting from our resort. We would share information etc etc. We also split up a few times (nap time etc), so it was nice that I could take my daughter back to the park and my husband could rider Tower of Terror etc on his own without us waiting for him. We would be back relaxing at the resort.

That is just my thoughts. Hope it helps.

Thanks.

 

[Sue M]

We prefer staying on site when in WDW and don't use a rental car.
We fly into Ft. lauderdale to visit family first, and have a rental car there, then drive up to WDW and return the rental after resort check in, and use WDW transportation. I find it to be quite good, and prefer Disney to do the driving. We use the Magic Express to return to MCO.

On occasion we will work in a couple of days at Cocoa Beach, or the Gulf Coast before arriving at WDW while we still have a car. Alamo and National have car desks in WDW. Budget and Avis have desks in DTD hotel area.

One trip, we did WDW in the middle of our trip, had to get back to Ft. Lauderdale after WDW, and our car rental just sat in the hotel parking lot.

 

[Gorechick]

I prefer having a car and will continue to do so. I don't like to wait around for the crowded buses. The tram at TTC takes you to the lot, mark your rental with a ribbon or something and you're good to go. We like to go back to the resort in the middle of the day and park hop. Many people don't want to drive around on vacation. We don't mind it and like the convenience.

 

[mayfam2010]

Thanks for the feedback on both sides! It definitely gives us things to consider! I didn't realize that the rental car companies had booths in WDW, that certainly makes things easier if we do decide to do a few day trips!

So if you do rent a car, do you park it at TTC, take the tram and get to the right bus/monorail from there? Or do you drive it to each park?

We loved having the monorail at the Poly, but when we did HS or AK, we had to wait over 20 mins for a bus each time.

 

[WillowBelle]

Remember, if you stay off site parking fees need to be budgeted.

We stay on site in the value resorts and USUALLY use Disney transportation.

I've found though, for early morning TS reservations at, say Ohana, it's quicker to drive myself rather take a bus to the TTC then hop on the monorail. I vallet park the car for the day, then hit either MK or EP, so we can ride the monorail from breakfast straight to the park & then back again at night.

 

[emmabelle]

We always rent a car and use both. I prefer to drive to go to Downtown Disney or the water parks. I'd definitely use the bus to go to MK. We also like to eat at other resorts, so using the bus is a hassle if you want to go from your resort as opposed to going from a park.

 

[socialgal]

We always drive. But we never go during peak season, so we never got stuck in traffic there in 15 visits. It is so convenient to hop in the car and go somewhere to eat, to the hotel to shower and nap or to a little shop.

 

[goofy Jr. 88]

Unti the last trip we used a rental car for everything. On the last trip we stayed at AKL and we did have our rental car, but we did try the buses a few times and that was fine as well. . Sometimes we go off site, we did Harry Potter and Discovery cove, (glad we had a rental) on this last trip. We also ate off site a couple of times (cheaper) and bought some groceries(cheaper still). Buying a few groceries and having 2-3 meals off site $ave$ some money that helped pay for the rental.

We did have an ADR for CRT before park opening and we used our car to drive from AKL to TTC-monorail to MK. We did not want the stress of waiting for a bus that early in the AM and wondering if it would get us to our res on time. I love eating at CRT and being called "my Lord" by the staff, and the kids like seeing the princesses, win-win.

Maybe try a rental for a few days and see what you think. But check rates, it could be just as inexpensive to rent the car for the whole week.


Have a fun time planning.

 

[Salrx95]

With us, we drove our first trip from Ct and will for our second trip, too. We stayed value the first time and are splurging for the AoA cars suite this time (want to do cars while boys are still into cars). Both times, it will be off peak in February.

Since we had our car, we drove it back and forth to all the parks. We felt it was best, especially with the strollers/diaper bag/souvenirs. We thought it would be a hassle getting those on and off buses with tired kids, 3 and 5, especially at night. There will be less souvenirs this time and no diaper bag this time but I still see us using our car, except for maybe MK. Due to monorail, we might bus it to try it. We stayed at AS movies first time so it would have been a long bus ride. Kids were able to eat breakfast/snack in car on way over. For us, it was convenient and quicker. IT may be hot car but once AC gets going, it is better than a crowded bus. We will likely to try fly once kids are older and if we stayed on site, which we likely would, I could see us not renting a car and busing it.

 

[Sue M]

Thanks for the feedback on both sides! It definitely gives us things to consider! I didn't realize that the rental car companies had booths in WDW, that certainly makes things easier if we do decide to do a few day trips!

So if you do rent a car, do you park it at TTC, take the tram and get to the right bus/monorail from there? Or do you drive it to each park?

We loved having the monorail at the Poly, but when we did HS or AK, we had to wait over 20 mins for a bus each time.

You only have to park at TTC for MK. Then you'd hop on the parking lot tram to get to the Monorail or boat to MK. I would not drive to MK, because IMO Disney transportation from your r4esort will be faster

All the other parks you can drive to their parking lot.

 

[mayfam2010]

You only have to park at TTC for MK. Then you'd hop on the parking lot tram to get to the Monorail or boat to MK. I would not drive to MK, because IMO Disney transportation from your r4esort will be faster

All the other parks you can drive to their parking lot.

That makes sense! I can't remember - can you get on the monorail to Epcot from the TTC?

 

[vicki_c]

That makes sense! I can't remember - can you get on the monorail to Epcot from the TTC?

Yes.

 

[KatMark]

We have rented a car over 80% of our trips and driven to ALL the parks. We find the monorail overrated (even when we stayed at Poly). We've just recently started using the buses most if the time.

 

[mayfam2010]

Unti the last trip we used a rental car for everything. On the last trip we stayed at AKL and we did have our rental car, but we did try the buses a few times and that was fine as well. . Sometimes we go off site, we did Harry Potter and Discovery cove, (glad we had a rental) on this last trip. We also ate off site a couple of times (cheaper) and bought some groceries(cheaper still). Buying a few groceries and having 2-3 meals off site $ave$ some money that helped pay for the rental.

We did have an ADR for CRT before park opening and we used our car to drive from AKL to TTC-monorail to MK. We did not want the stress of waiting for a bus that early in the AM and wondering if it would get us to our res on time. I love eating at CRT and being called "my Lord" by the staff, and the kids like seeing the princesses, win-win.

Maybe try a rental for a few days and see what you think. But check rates, it could be just as inexpensive to rent the car for the whole week.


Have a fun time planning.

Thanks! My husband was thinking the same thing - even if the car sat in the lot for our Disney days, it is probably cheaper to do the full week, depending on what we get.

Of course, the downside is since we're flying into Orlando, so we wouldn't be able to use the Magical Express and have our bags delivered. We're pampered!

 

[mayfam2010]

We have rented a car over 80% of our trips and driven to ALL the parks. We find the monorail overrated (even when we stayed at Poly). We've just recently started using the buses most if the time.

Maybe its the ages of our kiddos but the busses were kind of a problem for us last time. Like I said, we had 20+ minute waits most of the time, and that was in September when it wasn't busy at all. We waited more for buses than to get on any of the rides (except Toy Story of course ) But, then again walking to our car might take 20 mins as well!!

 

[Chelley00]

When we stay onsite we have a car (whether we drive to Disney or fly in and rent a car) I'd rather drive to Downtown Disney than take bus, and if we have an early morning ADR I like having the car instead of chancing a bus being late.

We ALWAYS take a bus to MK though.

 

[eliza61]

My take.
I hate disney transportation. well hate maybe a bit strong. Sorry, I did the "end of the night" madness one year and said never again in life. LOL.
Personally I've never got caught in traffic once in 10 years.
Now in the interest in full disclosure, I'm the one who is probably ADHD. I hate waiting.

Next,
we like to eat at resort restaurants, have you tried getting from resort to resort? 1 hour easy. then another hour to get back? Nope. even when we eat offsite it doesn't take us an hour to get there.

MK is probably the only resort we don't drive to. every where else I rather have my car.

 

[KatMark]

Maybe its the ages of our kiddos but the busses were kind of a problem for us last time. Like I said, we had 20+ minute waits most of the time, and that was in September when it wasn't busy at all. We waited more for buses than to get on any of the rides (except Toy Story of course ) But, then again walking to our car might take 20 mins as well!!

I can understand that. We travel without kids now (and always took the car with the kids). We've stayed DVC last time and had great luck with the buses.

 

[mayfam2010]

My take.
I hate disney transportation. well hate maybe a bit strong. Sorry, I did the "end of the night" madness one year and said never again in life. LOL.
Personally I've never got caught in traffic once in 10 years.
Now in the interest in full disclosure, I'm the one who is probably ADHD. I hate waiting.

Next,
we like to eat at resort restaurants, have you tried getting from resort to resort? 1 hour easy. then another hour to get back? Nope. even when we eat offsite it doesn't take us an hour to get there.

MK is probably the only resort we don't drive to. every where else I rather have my car.

I hadn't thought about the Resort restaurants... we stayed at the Poly and did O'Hana, and the only other Resort Restaurant we did was Chef Mickey's which was on the monorail so no big deal from the Poly. We didn't attempt any of the others, but would definitely like the option next time!