Use bus transport. or car for parks

[BetzJC]

This is our 1st visit to WDW we are going in Oct, staying at Coronado Springs, we are renting a car, is it best to drive to the individual parks and park in the lots or just use the resort buses? Any advice would be great! Thanks!

 

[Disney Doll]

It depends on the park.

For the MK, it's a schlep to drive.You park in the TTC, take a tram to the actual TTC area where you get a monorail or boat to the MK.IMHO, the bus is better...drops you off practically at the gate!

For the AK, the parking is right there, and the bus drops you off right there...there's no taking the bus to the boat to the train to the plane, so either is probably OK, with car maybe slightly better due to no waiting.

For MGM, you park and take a tram to the front entrance or the bus drops you off at the front entrance or the boat from the BW area drops you off near the front entrance. Again, not terrible any way you do it...car maybe a little more convenient due to no wait for a bus. The trams run frequently to get you out to the parking lot.

For Epcot, you take a bus that drops you off at the front gate, or a tram from the parking lot to the front gate. Same scenario as MGM.If you're at the MK and want to go to Epcot, there's a monorail that runs...pretty cool. But of course, if you drove to MK than you have to get back to the TTC once you're done at Epcot.

 

[paras4ri]

We've done both and vote for bus....drops you right off at the park entrance!

 

[kendall]

Coronado Springs has its own bus (no sharing with other resorts) - we took it to all the parks without much delay at all. I think the only time we really had to wait was at AK. If you have meal reservations at another resort however, be sure to allow for bus transfer time - in that case you may prefer to take your own car. We did drive to WL for breakfast at Artist's Pointe and Poly for the kid's luau. But for the parks, you really can't beat the bus drop off - much closer than walking from your car!

 

[drusba]

Driving is faster except to MK where bus would be preferred method. However, Coronado's bus system to other parks is OK. I would definitely drive to locations other than the theme parks, such as other resorts (except possibly to BW as there is a bus that goes between Coronado and BW), Downtown Disney, or waterparks.

 

[Jacket93]

Use the bus system to the parks.

And I would definitly take the bus to Magic Kingdom. We drove there one year and it was a very inconveneint.

You can drive to the other parks but you still will have to take a tram to and from your car.

Another place the bus system worked well is at Downtown Disney. If you do Downtown Disney from one end to the other (ex.Starting at the Market Place and ending up at West Side) you can get droped of at the bus station on on side of Downtown Disney and go back to the resort from the other side of Downtown Disney. It saves a lot of walking back to the car. There are three bus stations at Downtown Disney.

The only thing you might want to do is take your car to one of the bus stops in Coronodo Springs. When we stayed there there was three Bus stops around The resort and it was a long walk from our room to the bus stop.

Coronado is a Big Resort and if you stay in the Ranchos like we did it is a far trip to El Centro.

 

[Sandi]

I also think the busses are great. My only caveat is that if you are staying late at a park for something like Illuminations, you might want to bring your car for that. The lines for the busses can be terribly long. They try to get everyone moving, but with that many people it just isn't possible sometimes. I'm not even sure if you actually get back to your resort any faster with the car, but at least your moving! (And sometimes that all my DH needs.)

 

[ztbz]

If you are staying at Coronado Springs you could use the Epcot Back Entrance/Exit, what you do is to take the Bus to the Board-Walk from the Coronado, then get on the Boat or Walk to the Epcot Back Entrance which is located next to U.K. and France inside Epcot (its Called International Gateway) this is the Best way to Leave Epcot after lluminations is over.
when at the Coronado during the day Downtown Disney runs this route and Disney/Mgm runs it after 4 pm to the Close of Disney/MGM then Downtown Disney take over again until 2 am.

 

[CityKid]

BetzJC,

We just did seven nights at WL (the resort with the most disputes about the quality of the WDW transportation). We had a car. I love to drive at home. Other than the airport travel, we touched the car twice at WDW. Both times when we were late for specific events--never for park transportation. On the buses, we never had a wait of more than a few (meaning 5-6) minutes.

Take the Disney buses. When you add in your room-to-car walks, your car-to-tram walks, the various tram-to-park walks or rides and return connections, the buses work and the car doesn't work as well. Also, your car will sit in the sun and the buses are a/c-ed. And an occasional boat ride is quite pleasant.

The bus drivers were all polite and YOU CAN INTERACT WITH OTHER VACATIONERS ON THE BUSES. WDW transportation is more relaxed and it works.