Would you rather rent a car or take Disney transportation?

[FirestoneRocks]

We've driven a few times to Disney and LOVE having our car, even when we stay at the POLY and use the monorail. The car is nice to go to AK, Studios and even Epcot sometimes.

If we ever fly, I will be in the same boat as you OP! I won't know whether to rent a car or not!

Have a great trip!

 

[hsmamato2]

car- much faster than buses especially for dinner,etc. plus we go offsite for food a lot.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

If I had to rely on Disney transportation I wouldn't go! Nothing is more frustrating to me than having 16 waking hours a day for vacation and wasting 3 or 4 of them on buses or waiting for buses... or being stuck in a single park because we don't want to waste the transportation time. The only exceptions are the monorails... they are more like an attraction than transportation!

 

[skelooch]

If I had to rely on Disney transportation I wouldn't go! Nothing is more frustrating to me than having 16 waking hours a day for vacation and wasting 3 or 4 of them on buses or waiting for buses... or being stuck in a single park because we don't want to waste the transportation time. The only exceptions are the monorails... they are more like an attraction than transportation!

I couldn't agree with you more, take that 3-4 hours a day and multiply it times 7 and you have spent 1 whole day of your expensive vacation either waiting for or riding on buses, boats or monorails.
I'm paying a great deal of money for my vacations, and therefore the less time I waste the better value my vacation is. A rental car is a small percentage of my total vacation cost. To me it's penny wise and pound foolish.

But to each there own. Some even think it's fun to wait for and ride buses.

 

[GrtWtNorth]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned alcohol. One of the reasons I regularly take Disney transportation is that I have the flexibility to enjoy an evening wine-flight at The Brown Derby, cocktails at California Grill, and/or drinking around the world at Epcot. I'm not going to ruin my vacation (or worse) doing something stupid behind the wheel of a rental car.

And there's the whole "preferred renter" thing at the rental agencies. I don't travel enough to maintain my loyalty card, so I'm always stuck in the slow line. Rental car companies don't make it easy for me to like them.

In my experience, the most grumpy Disney bus driver was nicer than the most pleasant rental car staff I've ever dealt with.

 

[skelooch]

If you do get to sloshed to drive, and it can happen, nobody would expect or want you to be driving. That's when you leave the car where you are and take the bus back to your resort.
Many of the rental companies now have kiosks or online check-in, so you don't even see a person until you leave the garage with your car and that's just to show your CC and DL.
I can't remember the last time I went to the rental counter.

 

[katemarcail]

Personally I can't imagine anything more peaceful and easy than staring my vacation with MME, continuing it by letting others do the driving, and finishing it with that MME bus whisking me back to reality. The whole parking, remembering WHERE I parked, navigating the roads (admittedly, they do have fantastic signage), and walking to and from the car just feels like a hassle to me and we won't be doing it again. For me the transport system is just part of the magic. And our last trip (and only one with a car) was at AKL so it's not like we were on the monorail or had easy trips to any of the parks.

I wouldn't be surprised if we felt differently if we were slogging around a couple kids and all the accessories but we're not, it's just us two, and the wait for a bus has never been too long nor have we had any bad experiences. We like people-watching and can amuse ourselves happily at the bus stop so no worries there.

Driving just wasn't fun, for us it was too ordinary, too much a connection with our non-disney lives. Others obviously disagree so, hey, enjoy your cars and I'll enjoy the slightly less crowded busses and boats!

 

[mkoerner]

We always use Disney transportation when staying on site. I commute 80 miles a day for work every day, so when I'm in Disney the last thing I want to do is drive and hassle with traffic. In all the years my family has visited, transportation has been efficient to and from parks. Realize though, if you're traveling from one resort to another, it may take as much as 90 minutes. Enjoy your trip!