For those who drive to WDW or rent a car how often do you go off site?

[John park hopper]

Why do you drive to WDW? If you stay on site how often do you drive off site and why?

 

[Master Yoda]

Always drive and almost always stay on site, but we rarely leave property. When we do it is usually to go to an off property restaurant or to a store to get something we forgot.

 

[nickys]

What about if we hire a car when we're there? I come from the UK but we always hire a car for some of the time at least.

Is this about why people visit elsewhere, or something else?

 

[networkpro]

Your question and the poll are not in alignment.

We drive to WDW as time-wise it's a wash. We live 6 hours away but our local airport is also the world's busiest. For the same amount of time required to fly, we can drive the same distance so it's inconvenient.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Have stayed on-site once (never again). Even then I had a rental and I did leave numerous times for meals, or exploring.
(Drove to Cocoa Beach that trip looking for a fancy bottle with a genie in it. Didn't find one.) However, in all 45 trips there over 35 years I always had either a rental or my own vehicle. It may just be me, but, I cannot stand the thought of being held captive with no options that don't cost a lot of money to obtain freedom. I like the variety of dining places offsite that don't require knowing what I am in the mood for 6 months in advance or require a reservation. I enjoy being able to hop in my car and deciding at that point what I want to do that day. I have been known to be heading for World Drive from 192 and just before the entrance decided to go up to Silver Springs because at that point in time, that is what appealed to me.

I also like the idea that I can pay for my hotel room, my car rental, my gasoline usage, my meals and since I'm frugal (cheap) whatever souvenirs I might pick up and still pay less then I would have if I had stayed at a Disney resort, just for the room. That part I like a lot. However, I get my enjoyment out of the parks and it doesn't matter where I sleep as long as I chose a hotel close to the main entrances to WDW. I accept others desires for the immersive experience, but, I don't understand it. When I had that experience I couldn't wait to get out of the place. But, that may just be me.

 

[Todd H]

We drive and often leave the property while we are there. Food is a whole lot cheaper off-site so we often head out for lunch and/or dinner.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

We've stayed on site a few times, but we rent a car and we fly in. We go off site a few times for a grocery run, to grab coffee, etc.

 

[Hakunamatata]

We have rarely flown. Honeymoon in 2002 being one of the few times. Prior to Harry Potterville opening up down the road, we never left property. With the Harry Potterville fans in our home getting to the age that they wont be accompanying us any longer unless they pay theor own way, we are likely prone again to not leaving property.

We have however started focusing on what retirement will look like and a travel trailer with a couple of month long stays at Fort Wilderness looks very economical.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

We usually go off site maybe once a day. We usually will make Walmart trips, or head over to UNI City Walk. We also will stop by McDonalds or other fast food places that are open after park close to take back to the room to eat. We usually drive to the parks (get there super early and get an awesome parking space, take busses back to hotel if needed mid-day, and be able to take a short walk to our closely parked car instead of waiting for busses at the end of the day) so its usually easy to stop at a drive through on our way back to the resort.

 

[wplong1]

Zero. We drive, but we park the car and don't get in it while there. We use Uber to get everywhere the monorail can't take us (and even then we will Uber if time is an issue such as making a dining reservation) including Uber for a day at Universal to hit Diagon Alley/Hogsmeade (which we do first so we don't have to leave WDW again). Well worth the cost to go door to door quickly. I think it was $15 to Universal, so $30 round trip vs $20 parking and hassles. Other than that we stay in the bubble and out of our car.

 

[winstongator]

We always drive. We rarely drive off prop unless to visit family staying off-site. I despise the traffic outside the bubble, and that’s drilled into me when we stay off-site. My wife and daughter did walk from grand cypress to Disney springs springs.

 

[OneofThree]

We live within 3 hours and so always drive, but never go off-site. Now, the reason we never go off site, is because we lived in Southwest Orlando for over a decade. So during that time, we'd pretty much seen and experienced everything the area had to offer. Since there is so much to do there however, I would recommend that anyone not familiar with the area get out and explore during their Disney stay, particularly if they are there for a week or more.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

We have rarely flown. Honeymoon in 2002 being one of the few times. Prior to Harry Potterville opening up down the road, we never left property. With the Harry Potterville fans in our home getting to the age that they wont be accompanying us any longer unless they pay theor own way, we are likely prone again to not leaving property.

We have however started focusing on what retirement will look like and a travel trailer with a couple of month long stays at Fort Wilderness looks very economical.

<Jealous>

 

[eliza61nyc]

For me it depends on how long I'm staying. I live in Pennsylvania so it's a long drive. we don't do it if we are only going for a long weekend.
I think for me it's a combination of things, I am a city dweller so I hate going on vacation and riding hte bus. lol, do it to much in real life.
next I like eating at resort restaurants as oppose to the parks and getting from resort to resort can be extremely time consuming on Disney transportation.
Lastly we do go off site and pick up staples. we also are big breakfast lovers so we go to Ihop and Denny's etc.

 

[eliza61nyc]

I also like the idea that I can pay for my hotel room, my car rental, my gasoline usage, my meals and since I'm frugal (cheap) whatever souvenirs I might pick up and still pay less then I would have if I had stayed at a Disney resort, just for the room. That part I like a lot. However, I get my enjoyment out of the parks and it doesn't matter where I sleep as long as I chose a hotel close to the main entrances to WDW. I accept others desires for the immersive experience, but, I don't understand it. When I had that experience I couldn't wait to get out of the place. But, that may just be me.

It's easy. different strokes for different folks. I don't want to stay in a hotel that looks like the same type of place I get in Philly and lol, unfortunately I'm also the type that will pay a bunch for convenience. I totally admit that I will pay 5 bucks a gallon for milk just to avoid going to the supermarket. I guess it's the same reason why I pay exorbitant prices for the "pleasure" of living in the middle of a city so I accept the fact that, the convenience cost me. Yep I'll folk out 400 bucks a night to be able to walk to Epcot although I purchased my dvc to cut down on that but yep I'll folk out 700 bucks a night to be able to walk to Big Ben when I went to London.

I do spend quite a bit of time at my resort since I tend to go to WDW when it's nuclear hot so it does matter immensely where I sleep. I don't like food courts so having a table service restaurant is a plus.

Generally I say I'm frugal 48 weeks of the year so I can not be frugal on vacation. so I'd rather not go if I can't stay on site.

 

[Skibum1970]

13 - 15 hour car drive with a wife who has back issues from a car wreck? No thanks. We fly. We typically land, board the DME, and go to our Disney resort. Most trips, we never rented a vehicle but just depended on buses and eating at what was available. However, I am starting to rent in order to go to UNI/IOA as well as having more food options available that offset the cost of the car. Further, I can get to the non-MK parks much more quickly. MK is not as easy as those who are driving themselves have to use the monorail or boats to get to the park instead of being dropped off at the bus stop.

 

[nickys]

We hire a car each time, not necessarily for the whole trip though.

Depending whether we stay for 10 days or 3 weeks, we will always visit Kennedy at least twice. We go to some of Universal, Legoland, other local attractions, shopping at the malls, visiting Davenport or Celebration.

DS and I been to the theatre in Orlando too - DH dropped us off and we got a taxi back (pre- Uber days).

We went down to Fort Lauderdale for a couple of nights one time, just kept our DVC villa and left most of our stuff. Thinking of going down to the Keys next time, DH and I went a long time ago before the kids were on the scene. Not sure if we’d keep our villa again or not.

 

[Much-Pixie-Dust]

We always fly, always stay on property, and always rent a car. We sometimes We don’t like the buses, so we drive to the parks. Afterward, we will typically go to Denny’s or McDs to get a late night bite. Love the Target on 192, so go there to get supplies at least twice. Flippers Pizza is also great. We love to mini-golfing so we drive to those on property too.

 

[JillC LI]

I wasn't sure whether to vote for 0 or 1. We like to rent a car if possible and will use it to visit US, but we usually do that before or after Disney, not in the middle. While we're at Disney we don't leave.

 

[sxeensweet]

We always drive and the only places we usually go offsite for is to visit Celebration, FL (used to be owned by Disney), and an occasional Walgreen’s stop. (We are there 2 weeks so sometimes end up needing something lol). We try to not leave the bubble at all.