Would this work?

[DreadpiratK]

Is there a bus from DTD to the TTC, or other parks?
We are trying to save as much $$ as possible, and it occurs to me that parking at the parks is expensive, but DTD it's free, sooo.. Why not park there and take the bus?

Takes longer to get to the parks, certainly, but I'm hoping that this year will be like previous years, and crowds will be light enough that we won't care about the extra time, plus we will be there for 2 weeks with 7 or 8 day tickets, so we don't plan on being super rushed about anything.

Anyway, is there a rule against this, or will it not work for some reason?
It could save us $70 on this trip, and every little bit helps!

 

[BethR]

I don't think that there is a rule regarding this, per se. But I think that the busses that go from DTD go primarily to the resorts. So you will go from DTD to a resort to the parks. It is really not an efficient means of travel, and personally, I would rather spend the money to park and have the extra time at the parks.

 

[DreadpiratK]

Yea, it's probably not a great idea, we'll play it by ear. If it's real slow, we may do it a day or two, take the bus to the contemporary or Poly and use the monorail from there. It just depends on how much of a hurry we are in.

We are planning on going to DTD on Sunday (day after arival) but not the parks, so maybe we'll try a dry run, just to see. Is there any resource out there that shows the Disney bus routes? All I can find on the Dis is stat and end times.

 

[poohj80]

The one time we had to exchange buses at DTD, we waited 45 minutes for a bus to arrive. They definitely don't come as often as they do at the parks and resorts.

 

[EthansMom]

The busses at DTD don't run that often -- especially during the day when there aren't too many people at DTD. Also, there aren't really that many parking spots available, so you may have to wait a while to get a spot. And the busses from DTD only go to resorts, not to other parks. I'm not positive, but there may be a time limit on parking at DTD.

At any rate, you could easily spend an hour finding a parking spot, waiting for a bus and then taking the bus to a resort. Ugh! There are much easier ways to save money at WDW.

 

[DreadpiratK]

I'm sure you're right, but it's been such a horrible summer (actually six months or more) for us financially, that we need to cut anywhere and everywhere to go on vacation at all this time. That's why I'm taking notes on all the tips here. Getting to the parks a little late is better than not getting there at all!

That being said, we may not do this, I just thought I'd float it out there and see if others had the same thought.

 

[Acklander]

You might want to consider upgrading one of your passes to an annual pass. With the annual pass you get free parking, plus you could also get the DDE card to help save money on some of your meals.

 

[MrsPete]

In a word, no. It won't work.

DTD is a large shopping area with a small parking lot. You may not be able to get a parking space. If you do get a space, the busses don't come by often, so you'll waste a good bit of time waiting. Then you'll have to wait a long time to get a bus back from the park to DTD.

Even if you ignore the fact that it's against the rules, it just isn't a feasible idea.

 

[ducklite]

You can't take a bus directly from DTD to a park, so it's not going to work. It's also not allowed. In all honesty, if $70 is going to make or break your trip, I'd rethink it to begin with. What if you have an unexpected expense like having to go to Urgent Care? Or a car problem? Or some sort of delay where you have to spend an extra day or two in Orlando due to a weather problem?

Anne

 

[DreadpiratK]

OK, OK I surrender, it's a bad idea! It was just a 'why don't people do this' kind of thought.

We've been to DTD several times, and never had a problem with parking, that I remember. Maybe it's the tme of year.

And no, $70 will not make or break us, we are simply trying to cut back where we can, so we can give the kids the trip we promised as comfortably as possible. It's not that we don't have the money, it's that we are 'cash poor' as they say, in the process of transitioning out of one business, and purchasing another.

As far as it being against the rules, that's what I was asking! (I figured, but didn't know)

It certainly is possible- park at the back of the DTD lot, walk across the street to any hotel and hop the bus to your chosen park. Not allowed, not efficient, certainly, but possible. We've stayed at those hotels twice now, and walked back and forth several times. No one would notice.

I like the anual pass idea, I'll look into it.

Please, no lectures, I'm not looking to 'get over' here, just playing with theorecticals.

 

[figgy4me]

Excuse, please.. But if you are going to ask those type of questions, you might as well be ready for the lectures. I thought the responds were mild compared to the usual in these circumstances.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

I don't think that the AP will be saving you any money.

An AP costs $420.86 w/tax. There are no discounts to be had on them unless you're renewing or you're a DVC member.

The cost of an 8-day MYW Hopper (expiry) at Ticketmania.com is $233, taxes included and free shipping.

That makes the difference in cost to be about $187.

A DDE card would cost an AP holder another $50. It's good for a 20% discount at select restaurants. You can see a list of the restaurants here:
http://allearsnet.com/din/dde.htm#list.

You would have to spend $250 on food just to break even on the cost of the card. You would have to spend another $935 on food to recover the cost difference between the 8-day pass and the AP.

Unless you intend to visit WDW again in less than a year, my advise would be to skip the AP this time around. It's not worth the cost just to get free parking.

As for parking at DTD and using WDW transportation to get to the parks, I think that you would tire of the long bus rides and transfers that you would need to make in order to get to your final destination. At $8/day, the parking fee is not that bad when you compare it to other amusement and sports venues. Hopefully, you can find another area where you can cut the cost back. I don't think that you would be happy with doing it this way.

 

[kaytieeldr]

As far as it being against the rules, that's what I was asking! (I figured, but didn't know)

It certainly is possible- park at the back of the DTD lot, walk across the street to any hotel and hop the bus to your chosen park. Not allowed, not efficient, certainly, but possible. We've stayed at those hotels twice now, and walked back and forth several times. No one would notice.

Well, now, the problem with THAT plan is that those hotels across the street are not owned by Disney and unlike the Swan/Dolphin do NOT use Disney's transportation system. They have their own buses that pick up at all seven properties (or however many are open at the moment), then head to the designated Disney park. AND each Guest of those hotels is issued an ID card to be used to gain access to the bus. I'm not saying every driver checks all the time, but why risk it? Then, too, those buses don't drop off passengers as close to the parks as the Disney buses do, but rather somewhere out in the 'general bus' dropoff area.

And Disney's own buses do not provide transportation between Downtown Disney and ANY of the theme parks, precisely because Guests were parking at DtD to avoid paying for parking at the parks.

 

[poohj80]

I don't think that the AP will be saving you any money.

An AP costs $420.86 w/tax. There are no discounts to be had on them unless you're renewing or you're a DVC member.

The cost of an 8-day MYW Hopper (expiry) at Ticketmania.com is $233, taxes included and free shipping.

That makes the difference in cost to be about $187.

A DDE card would cost an AP holder another $50. It's good for a 20% discount at select restaurants. You can see a list of the restaurants here:
http://allearsnet.com/din/dde.htm#list.

You would have to spend $250 on food just to break even on the cost of the card. You would have to spend another $935 on food to recover the cost difference between the 8-day pass and the AP.

Not exactly. The difference is $187 as you stated, but first subtract 8 days worth of parking the AP will save and the OP is down to a $123 difference. If the OP and his family are truly trying to cut costs, I doubt the DDE will help much as I imagine they will be eating mostly off-site or cooking themselves.

Therefore, the only reasons I see to consider getting the AP would be 1) the family plans another trip within the next year, 2) use the AP to get a discount for on-site accommodations (then maybe consider DDE), or 3) they expect to spend enough on souvenoirs that the 10% discount at the WoD store will make up the difference.

 

[DreadpiratK]

Wow, didn't mean to open such a can of worms, it was just a passing thought.

We've just been going through the line items on the trip budget discussing how to cut some of them, and thought of this.

We've stayed in one of the hotels along that row twice, and were never issued a bus pass of any kind, all we needed were Disney Tickets to get on, and we were never asked to see even these. In fact we stopped at a different hotel than ours (got tired) and got on the bus there with no problem. The last time was in 01, so maybe that's changed since then. See what you can learn by asking here?

The AP idea almost works for us, except that we are getting plus tickets, so the AP holder would have to pay at the waterparks, or get a premium AP, wich kills the savings.

More of that 'magical Disney math'. We were going to just buy shorter tickets, but it just doesn't save any money. Once you get the 4 or 5 day passes, the extra days are so cheap, that NOT buying them would likely cost more (in that anything else you might do with your family on those days would cost more than the extra days on the passes) Disney ain't stupid!

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

More of that 'magical Disney math'. We were going to just buy shorter tickets, but it just doesn't save any money. Once you get the 4 or 5 day passes, the extra days are so cheap, that NOT buying them would likely cost more (in that anything else you might do with your family on those days would cost more than the extra days on the passes) Disney ain't stupid!

This is SO TRUE! Ticketmania actually sells their 8-day MYW Hopper (expiry) for LESS than they sell a 7-day MYW Hopper (expiry)! I'm still trying to figure out the logic to that one!