What's better? Resort trans. or having a rental car for a 4yr?

[5rochelle9]

My husbad and I are taking our 4yr daughter to Disney World in May. We'll be flying in and staying at the Shades of Green Hotel. My question is: Should we get a rental car or just use the resort transportation? I have heard both pros and cons on both resort transportation and having a rental car and just wanted some other families advice. Thanks

 

[Julia M]

My husbad and I are taking our 4yr daughter to Disney World in May. We'll be flying in and staying at the Shades of Green Hotel. My question is: Should we get a rental car or just use the resort transportation? I have heard both pros and cons on both resort transportation and having a rental car and just wanted some other families advice. Thanks

We always rent a car.

We always pack a cooler with drinks and a snack, so when we hit the car, we have a cold drink and something to eat.

(While we stay on site, we also stay off site, but rent a car, regardless)

Julia

 

[minkydog]

We always stay onsite and have never used our own transportation. We find the busses and boats easy to use. In fact, our kids look forward to riding the bus because it's just a new, fun experience every time. I usually pack a small snack in my bag just for "that time of day", when we are leaving the park and they are tired out, need a quick pick up. We can eat it while we wait for the bus. My kids are older now, but they used to love to ride the bus and cuddle with mom & dad.

 

[all4fun]

We usually stay on-site, since we are DVC members. In general we feel it's always better to have a rental car, because it gives you a little more freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want to. If you want to save some $$ though, then using the transportation system is the way to go, just be sure to add a little travel time to your day because it will take longer to get places.

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

If I were only bringing one 4 year old child, I would not rent a car.

My kids love the busses---when they were 2 or 3, I think it was their favorite attraction at WDW

 

[HappyLawyer]

this was my first time renting a car and i cannot see any future florida vacations without renting one

 

[sha_lyn]

We always have our own car but leave it at the resort. DH said the bast part of staying onsite is taking a vaction from drivng

 

[crisi]

Done both, when we rent we tend to leave it parked..... but here are some questions for you:

Buses don't have seatbelts or carseats. Your four year old may need to stand on the bus. Will you regret not having them in a booster? (Of couse, we'd all regret if something happened, but some parents regret even after an uneventful week).

Will you be going offsite - groceries? dining? other attractions? Or will you be doing resort to resort travel? Cars are easier (we can do these with cabs for about the same cost, but we aren't rental car people.)

Do you enjoy driving strange roads or do you find it stressful? We find driving to be stressful and waiting for the bus to be pleasant, so we tend to leave cars behind. On the other hand, will waiting 20 or 30 minutes for a bus send you into fits? Make yourself happy and rent a car.

 

[Onthebay]

We just got back and used a town car pick up and drop off. It went Very well. I was a little nervous but it went off with out a flaw. The Disney Trans is well run , as I said we just got back and I think it was the most crowded I have ever seen it and we got around just fine.
If you are not going anywhere else, it's the way to go.
Tim

 

[esk]

Keep in mind that SOG is set far back from the POLY and so if you are taking the monorail and plan to walk from there, it can be a long walk if it is hot and you didn't bring a stroller. SOG bus transportation is good too though.

We've always rent a car with our 3 year old but that is because we like to hit the outlet malls (we're from SD, not much shopping here) and always toy with the idea of going to SeaWorld. Plus, we don't like shuttle buses to and from the airport.

We always drive to AK and Epcot and MGM because it is usually faster than waiting for the bus and we want the option of a quick escape if meltdown occurs.

Side note: if you get a car, consider Armed Forces Vacation Club condos; $249 a week for a 1 bedroom, right outside Disney, VERY NICE accomodations and can't beat the price. We like the magic of Disney but have also stayed with AFVC for a cheaper trip.

 

[crisi]

esk, if you ever go carless, skip the shuttles and get a towncar. Hated shuttles myself. But towncars/Disney transport/the occational cab works pretty well.

 

[catherines_mama]

I think if I told DD she couldnt ride the Disney bus.. I'd have mutany on my hands. The WDW Transpo is wonderful and kids love it. Just figure out what you'd rather deal with and your 4yr old will be fine with it. Hey, what they don't know can't hurt them.

 

[Schmeck]

There have been a few threads on this site about blocked entry to some parking lots on EE days, so if you plan to try EE, you'd most likely be better off using the bus, instead of getting stuck in a line of cars waiting to be let in.

If you don't have monorail/boat access to MK, use the bus. Otherwise, you'll be waiting for the tram, waiting for the boat/monorail on your way there, and waiting for the boat/monorail and then the tram on the way back. There's no guarantee for a seat on them either. At least once you get on the bus, you're all set until you get to the hotel!

 

[Amirah95]

Two thumbs up for the rental car.

 

[LuvAriel]

we always rent a car, with 2 kids under the age of 4 we find it absolutely necessary.

 

[turnerx5]

We went through this same decision making process for our trip in November. In the end, I was glad we rented a car. We stayed at the Poly, and it worked great for our Magic Kingdom visits. Our second day we went to MGM, and decided to try the bus system. That morning we waited 30 minutes for an MGM bus. IMO, this is too long to ask people to wait. We may have just missed the prior bus, but I didn't see one on our walk to the bus stop. I didn't have any maps with me, and did not feel comfortable just hopping in the car without looking at a map. That evening, we returned to MGM for Fantasmic and drove - it was 10 minutes parking lot to door, and another 2 minute tram ride to the front gate. We used the rental after that for non-MK park days with the exception of Epcot (the Poly is a 5 minute walk to the TTA and the Epcot Monorail).

We, for one, were very glad we rented a car. It also takes the hassle our of scheduling your trip back to the airport with a limo or driver - you leave when you're ready. The cost is only marginally more money than a limo/driver: make sure you check the transportation board and Mousesavers.com for rental discount codes.

Hope this helps, Tx5

 

[TSirgey]

We are going from April 27-5/7 and staying at SOG too! We decided to rent a van this time as we are going with friends. We really like the freedom to go wherever we please so our own car is essential. Parking is free and if it is only the three of you, a good rental deal should be easy to find. Last year we rented a car through expedia.com for under $200 for a week. I just felt safer with our dd in a carseat.

 

[rkmassa]

We always rent. Our last rental was for 79.00 a week, and we couldn't pass that up. Cheaper than transfers from the airport. It was nice to have a car for us to use when needed. One evening we had dinner at the Poly, so we would have had to take a bus to one of the parks and catch another bus or monorail to the Poly. We just hoped in the car and were there in less than 10 minutes. We also had parking in the AAA Diamond lot. Great at EPCOT, but no help at the Disney Studios. We took the bus to the Studios next time and took the boat to EPCOT from there. That was fun. We also waited on a bus one night for over and hour. Not so fun. If you can get a good deal, I would rent.

 

[Barbday62]

We like to do both disney buses and Car rental. We took 3 year old and 6 month old last Summer and it was no problme to take bus from SOG to MK as it ran every 15 minutes. You could count on the schedule.

I prefered to use rental car to Animal Kingdom and MGM. Was noce not to stand in the heat for a bus that may be on time or not. I dont know about that bus schedule. SOG has 2 buses and Bus B had more stops than Bus A so I dont know if it could be on time having to go in real traffic.

We did walk to Poly twice and it was a long walk but a nice one. They had a cart to take us half way there and we walked remainder of way. I dont think it was any faster than the bus.