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

[mayfam2010]

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.

I think it would be SO FUN to go just DH and I! Someday... we'd like to try the Food and Wine festival on our own!

 

[mayfam2010]

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.

Confession: we didn't do Downtown Disney last time we were there. We ran out of time! But we definitely want to go next time and driving sounds like a better plan for that.

 

[mikat]

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!

If you do stay on-property and really want the bag delivery, consider taking DME to the resort and picking up a rental car later in your trip from Disney's Car Care Center or the National/Alamo desk at the Swan and Dolphin. Or your DH could pick up the rental car and you and the kids could take DME!

I've done trips with and without a car, and there are definite pros and cons for both. But I definitely would agree with PPs who said to take the bus to MK!

 

[mayfam2010]

If you do stay on-property and really want the bag delivery, consider taking DME to the resort and picking up a rental car later in your trip from Disney's Car Care Center or the National/Alamo desk at the Swan and Dolphin. Or your DH could pick up the rental car and you and the kids could take DME!

I've done trips with and without a car, and there are definite pros and cons for both. But I definitely would agree with PPs who said to take the bus to MK!

Great idea!! We did really love that feature so we could head straight to the parks! Plus I think check out is really smooth with DME. Thank you for the great suggestion!

 

[Disneyhenry]

We have stayed off site once and on site twice. We rented a car every time. When we stayed off site, the parking fee's seemed so high, staying on site you do not pay for parking. I personally have never tried Disney's bus system, I just love driving to the parks myself, this gives me the chance to leave when I want to and I do not have to wait for a bus. Plus I hate crowded buses. For our family renting a car is the only way to go. Have fun!

 

[JimS4210]

We always stay on-site and always rent a car. It's so much more convenient to hop into your own car instead of waiting on the buses. You can make a grocery run or hit a restaurant outside the World if you get Disneyed-out! The rental rates aren't that bad if you're persistent and check on them to see when they go down (and they always seem to go down) or check online for rental car codes.

Jim

 

[buzznina]

We always drive to WDW and rarely use our car when there. Both DD's love riding the bus and I do not want to deal with all the drivers not knowing where they are going and pulling/turning in front of me. We will use the car to go to another resort and to DTD. But really have no issues with the bus transportation.

 

[sooner7]

We've done both, but I always found having a car is best for us since the resort is so spread out & we usually do a lot of park hopping, to & from our hotel during the day. We also like the flexibility to go off site & eat occassionally. However, even when we have a car, we still prefer to stay at a resort that does have easy monorail or boat transportation to the Magic Kingdom since we spend most of our time there since you have to take the Monorail or Ferry anyways to get there.

 

[raven69david]

Disney transportation sucks, to put it bluntly. You'll waste half of your time on that bus. We tried the bus on 3 separate trips and after the 1st, we use it only to remind ourselves how slow and inefficient it really is. On a few occasions, I've put DW and DD on the bus and I've taken our rental car to the parks. In nearly every attempt, I beat them to the front gate to any of the parks.

Of course, if you've never had a rental car and have only used Disney transportation, it would then seem nice and convenient. It is, if you don't mind waiting for the bus to pick you up and drop you off at your destination.

 

[Tigger's ally]

Disney transportation sucks, to put it bluntly. You'll waste half of your time on that bus. We tried the bus on 3 separate trips and after the 1st, we use it only to remind ourselves how slow and inefficient it really is. On a few occasions, I've put DW and DD on the bus and I've taken our rental car to the parks. In nearly every attempt, I beat them to the front gate to any of the parks.

Of course, if you've never had a rental car and have only used Disney transportation, it would then seem nice and convenient. It is, if you don't mind waiting for the bus to pick you up and drop you off at your destination.

Not to pick on you, but Disney transportation doesn't suck. It is just public transportation. Here's the deal. They transport thousands of guests to every inch of their property. They go out of their way to make disabled people part of mainstream life They do it with a smile on their face and they start at daybreak and end at after 3 a.m. extra magic hours. Is it a limo? no. Is it your own personal car? no But does it suck? no

Now then, I hope all the people that can't wait 20 minutes for a bus decide to forego disney transportation because those of us that are on vacation, taking it easy and going with the flow won't have to worry about you guys acting like everything has to be in a hurry! I am rushed at home. I am rushed at work. I am rushed around town. I refuse to be rushed at WDW!

I drive my van from Illinois to the world all the time. I then park it in the hotel lot and totally ignore the horse I rode in on until it is time to go home. Love having CM's take care of me, chauffer me, clean my room, fix my dinner, clean up after me. After all, I am paying them

 

[smiths02]

I guess my advice will have to be taken with a grain of salt since 1) We have only had 3 trips (2003, 2009, 2011) and 2) we always have a car because we drive down

Even though we had a car...we always used buses to the parks (we stayed AKL and CBR so transportation was all bus-no boats, monorail, etc.)
Taking the buses to the parks was just easier for us...we never had any delay problems...my son thought this was neat (like an extra ride ). I like to walk to the bus stop, take the bus, and then just be walking distance to the front gate of the park.
Another plus, the buses were usually nice and cold whereas our car would have to get the a/c going

Car would involve extra walking and time: get to resort parking lot which is always farther than bus stops, load our son into a car seat, park, unload kid from car seat, then walk a distance or take a tram to entrance

We did like driving to other resorts for meals. (I made the mistake last trip of using Disney transport to get from CBR to Cape May clambake and it really clouded my experience of the meal)


I saw that someone said they preferred driving to DTD...well, that was actually a total nightmare for us. There was NO parking there the night we decided to have dinner there. We circled the parking lot for soooo long that even a slow bus would have been better.

ETA: Another reason to take my advice with a grain of salt...I never leave a park at closing or right after a parade or fireworks. We don't care for parads or fireworks, and we don't need to close the park. So I should add that our great bus experience is in the morning and afternoon.

 

[buzznina]

Disney transportation sucks, to put it bluntly. You'll waste half of your time on that bus. We tried the bus on 3 separate trips and after the 1st, we use it only to remind ourselves how slow and inefficient it really is. On a few occasions, I've put DW and DD on the bus and I've taken our rental car to the parks. In nearly every attempt, I beat them to the front gate to any of the parks.

Of course, if you've never had a rental car and have only used Disney transportation, it would then seem nice and convenient. It is, if you don't mind waiting for the bus to pick you up and drop you off at your destination.

We did the same test, DW did the buses and I did the car and after 5 days the time difference was mostly negligible, one trip I did beat them by 10 minutes. I will admit that I thought the time went by faster since I was not standing and waiting in line. Also; a car is faster if you are planning on leaving at park closing, we try to leave before or after the mad herd of people.

 

[stepdisney]

We will visit US/Ioa and Sea World before Disney so we rent a car from the airport and keep for a week. I would never stay off site without a car because I've read that other resort transportation to the park is no reliable and I taxi's or private cars are expensive. We go to the grocery store and out to eat before we check in t Disney. Once we check in, we rarely use our car. We will have our car 3 of the 5 nights that we are on site. We may use it to go to DTD but we will turn it in at the Dolphin (easy since we are booked at YC). We love the Disney Transportation. We certainly have a choice at the YC. We love the boats and walking to Epcot. We don't mind the bus to MK because we are dropped of close to the park. Also, as PP admitted, getting to the parking lot or the TTC for your car will take just as long as waiting for the bus at night. I'm not sure why everyone makes a mad rush to the bus/boat at MK when there are so many people. Best thing is to stroll the shops, grab a snack, watch the castle for the kiss goodnight then walk onto your resort bus. We plan our resort dinners to coincide with our parks. Our Boma dinner, the hardest IMO to navigate, will be at the beginning when we still have our car so, we will drive over to AKL. In the past, we just took the bus from AK to AKL then took the bus from AKL to either Epcot or DHS and walked or boated back to our resort.

We always take ME back to the airport. Nice not having to unload luggage. I like having our luggage checked at the resort and the no-hassle ride back to the airport.

 

[mayfam2010]

Love hearing all the different experiences! It gives us a lot to think about as we decide.

Re: not being in a hurry/not patient for busses... I actually don't mind "public transportation" and my older 2 loved it. However, we have one of those "strong willed" kinds in our youngest, and entertaining him for 20 mins after a long hot day in the park was not fun. At least if we were walking he'd be distracted
And, the monorail was quick and easy since we were at the Poly, and if we do rent a car we'll definitely have to catch that to MK.

 

[Cap'nJack'sMum]

After many trips and having rented a car for our trip last August, we are only renting cars from now on.

For us, the advantage of renting a car is that we can leave when we want to leave. No waiting for the bus. We are fairly unlucky as far as buses go. We miss them by a second or two. End up waiting 20-45 (yes 45) minutes for one. Or end up on a sardine-packed standing room only bus.

When we take a car, we purchase a little cooler when we go grocery shopping. We put ice and sodas in the cooler, and pop it in the trunk. Then, on the way back to our room, we each have a nice, cold soda for the trip. It makes the ride pleasant. We can listen to the radio, and we're not sharing our personal space with other people.

We only rented a car once, but never parked "a million miles" from the park. We took the tram, which was pleasant, and walked, at most 10 yards to our car.

The buses are hit and miss, and it depends (a lot) on which resort you're at. We had great success with buses at POFQ. I would not rent a car if we stayed there. We bombed out at POR and AKL. HORRIBLE bus service. Our stays at POP were hit and miss. Sometimes they were great, coming back from any park, however, is a nightmare. LONG waits and LONG lines with PACKED buses.