to drive or not

[mssong85]

We will be staying at AsMo September 20-26. Is there a reason not to take Disney transportation? Monday we have a reservation at trex in the middle of our MK day.

 

[Happy 2 B Me]

I am going to give my reasons for using my own transportation when at WDW.

1. You will have free parking at all the parks

2. You will not be wasting time waiting for a certain bus. I hate having an Epcot or AK bus go by while I need a MK bus.

3. Traffic has never been bad when I left a park in the evening. I have had to wait for several busses to get back to the bwv when staying there. Most of time we use the monorail to the transportation center then transfer to the monorail going to epcot. We walk to the friendship gate and then walk the 5 mins to the hotel. You do need to do this while the monorails are still running.

4. I think driving myself saves a travel time so that I can have more park time and it is so easy to get around the Disney Road system. Just follow the signs .

5. I always stay at a value resort when traveling solo. I personally love the pool areas, the food courts, and the theming. When the family goes we stay at an Epcot Villa because using the friendship gate to Epcot or the boats to the old mgm is so easy for my husband who is restricted to using a wheelchair. Traveling via bus has been an issue for him. Poor guy actually got dumped to the side once-- right by the door in the front. Poor driver did not have him secured correctly. He was not hurt thank goodness so no harm no foul rule played this time . Sure scared the people on the bus including the driver.

This is just my .02. Remember you will have a bit of gear and maybe your own stroller to get on and off the bus. Opps forgot seating goes fast so you could be standing the whole trip.

No matter have fun.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

The general consensus on the transportation board seems to be to drive yourself everywhere but MK.

 

[Autumnslight]

I went to Disney once before, and used their transportation. Never again! It's nice that they have the option, but I hated the waiting, the crowding, the extra stops, trying to get on and off quickly with a child and a bunch of gear, etc. If I was travelling without kids, and at a leisurely pace, it would be mostly fine. But with kids, and lots of stuff planned to do, I wouldn't even consider not having a car, especially if I was going to multiple places each day.

 

[Disneychica18]

We have three kids and drive ourselves. It's nice to have our own vehicle at night when everyone is tired. We had an instance one year where I had to stand holding my then 6 month old one night. No one even offered to get up and offer their seat. If traveling with kids, drive yourself.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Guess I'll be the voice of dissent here. We don't mind taking the Disney buses most of the time. We occasionally will have a longer-than-average wait, but we typically only drive to DTD and use the park buses the rest of the time. Once while I was there by myself with my kids, I did drive to MK one afternoon to stay through Wishes, and afterwards I said I'd never do that again. We had to wait for a ferry to get back to the TTC (MK parking lot), then waited through the line for several trams to leave, full, before we could get on, then almost at the end of the route to get to our car and in the meantime, my youngest had fallen asleep so I had to do everything while holding him. Never again. I'd rather wait for a bus.

Re: your specific situation, I would re-schedule that ADR. If you're dead-set on having that T-Rex ADR mid-day, you can drive to MK, then ferry/monorail back to the parking lot, then drive to DTD, then reverse, or you could walk to the CR and get a bus there to go to DTD. That's probably what I'd do. Either option is going to take 40-60 min, from the time you walk out of the gate to the time you arrive at T-Rex. I personally wouldn't take 4 hours from the middle of my MK touring day to eat at T-Rex, but I wasn't that impressed with it.

 

[trewin]

I don't know if you want the reservation @ trex in the middle of the day? If the time you wanted wasn't available - call trex directly (unless of course you planned it that way). I did this when I couldn't get an ADR, my son insisted we go there!

 

[mssong85]

Thank you so much for all the responses. I was hoping that by going to Trex mid day would get my DD(3) to take a nap. This is our only day that is rope drop through EMH. If not Trex any suggestions to get her to pass out?

 

[mssong85]

Should I just head back to the hotel?

 

[baloo's girl]

I would head back to the hotel if you're wanting a nap. Trex will probably overstimulate your little one. When mine were younger, we would hit the parks at rope drop, have lunch in the park, then go back to hotel for naps or swimming (if they weren't tired), then we'd go back to the parks just before or after dinner time.

And we drive to all the parks, its much quicker.

Could you do Trex on a slow day? Or on your check-out day? We've gone to Trex twice with no reservation-the trick is to get there right when they open. (We usually do this on check-in or out day).