Taxi's to Universal and Lego Land

[moepanz]

Hi,

Planning our Dec 2013 trying to figure out our plans to go to Universal and Lego land while staying at AOA. We have never "left the property" while on our WDW trips. I can't see renting a car for the 9 days to have it parked for the majority of the time.

So what I'm asking is has anyone done this and about how much are the cabs?

Thanks,
Maureen

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Don't have any experience with this yet, but we're planning a one-day trip to Legoland during our stay in August. After asking a lot of questions and looking at options, we've decided to do a one-day car rental for that day. My understanding is that the car center on property does rentals and will shuttle you back and forth from your resort to the car center. We don't want the car for the whole trip, just one day. Maybe you could do your two off-site days back-to-back and rent for just the two days. My understanding is taxis are WAY more expensive. Will be interested to see other responses here!

 

[erionm]

According to the Mears Taxi Fare Estimator (one-way):

AoA to Universal Orlando: $40.00
AoA to Legoland FL: $90.00

http://www.mearstransportation.com/taxi-services/taxi-fare-estimator/

 

[missangelalexis]

In January I took a cab from Pop to Universal and it cost around $40 each way. Though it's a little pricey, I had no interest in renting a car. It was pretty convenient- got a cab right in front of the hotel and going back to the hotel there were plenty of taxis.

You may want to check out this thread, which breaks down transportation options from Disney to Universal: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2494908

 

[Samdari]

Definitely don't take a cab to Lego Land - its 40 miles away, but count on a full hour of travel before you are in the park. You can rent a car for the week for less than the cab ride

I would recommend skipping Legoland altogether. The rides are pretty lame, and unlike Disney, they are horribly inefficient at getting people on and off them.

We took my Lego obsessed son to the Lego store in DTD, during which he asked "Is this Legoland?" Enjoyed it more than Legoland. The highlight of LegoLand is miniland USA, which is pretty cool, but just looking at built Lego models. Not interactive at all. The other part my son liked was the imagination zone - in which kids get to play with Legos. Like at home, or if you need a fix while on vacation, in the Lego Store.

My son was/is obsessed with Legos, and I am an adult who still asks for Legos for birthday/Christmas gifts, and we were both pretty disappointed in Lego Land. Not worth the time/money, IMO.

 

[erionm]

If you really want to do Legoland, they run a shuttle from the Premium Outlets for $5 per person (plus tax).

http://florida.legoland.com/en/buy_tickets/Admission-Tickets1/shuttle/

 

[cruisingkat]

Legoland is not in Orlando (it is in Winter Haven) and it takes about 45 minutes to get there. If you don't want to rent a car, there is a shuttle but you have to be at the Vineland Ave. Outlet Mall before 9 am and you do have to preschedule that.
Here is a link to the shuttle http://florida.legoland.com/en/buy_tickets/Admission-Tickets1/shuttle/. However, you would probably have to take a cab from your resort to the shuttle pick up spot so I don't know what the savings would be doing it this way and you would be subject to that shuttles time for getting their and coming back.
If you want to go to Universal, there is a Mears shuttle that you can book that will pick you up at your resort. There have been several threads regarding this shuttle.
Whichever mode of transport you take, please take time and number of people into consideration when figuring out which is the best option for you.

 

[jjl181]

We have not been to Legoland, but we do at least one Universal day every trip. We usually call Mears for the shuttle bus that comes to the resort main entrance. You have to call and schedule ahead of time, and they do make stops at a few resorts plus Sea World. Despite this, the shuttles have never been full when we have used them and as of last year was $18 per person round trip. You also have to call for pickup a couple of hours ahead of time but it's relatively consistent and we enjoy this method.
We actually realized that for us to rent a car for one day just for Universal we would spend more than if we took the shuttle.

 

[crazy4wdw]

Dreams Unlimited Travel (sponsor of these boards) offers a Universal ticket which includes transportation from Disney Resorts to the Univerasal parks. I've never tried them but am considering buying these for my trip in October.

http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/universal/tickets.htm

 

[Julie711]

We use Mears when we visit Universal during our Disney vacation! Like pp stated they pick you up at main entrance of your resort, you just call and schedule pick up date & time & they will be there!

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

We use Mears when we visit Universal during our Disney vacation! Like pp stated they pick you up at main entrance of your resort, you just call and schedule pick up date & time & they will be there!

Does Mears go to Legoland? My guess is they don't since I can't seem to find anything about it.

 

[moepanz]

Wow! Amazing responses! Thank you all so much.
More options to choose from!

Thanks,
Maureen

 

[pixarmom]

We took a cab to Universal in January. We usually don't leave Disney property while in Orlando and probably won't again. But we love Harry Potter and it was worth it to see WWOHP just once (and Forbidden Journey is a truly amazing ride.) It was pretty easy - got the cab right in front of BWI and went back to our Universal drop-off spot to grab another cab "home." The cab driver on the way home didn't really know where to go (not familiar with Disney and hadn't heard of the Boardwalk) but we helped and made it back!

We considered renting a car, but I'm really glad we went with the cab to Universal.

 

[Kimberle]

We took a cab from BC to US in April. The fare was almost exactly $34 (plus tip) each way. It was very easy. The folks in the front of BC called a cab for us. It came in just a couple minutes. At US, there is a taxi line with a dispatcher. We hopped right in and left. We considered doing the shuttle, but I knew when we were tired, we'd want to leave.