Rental car vs Disney Transportation to the Parks

[dweitzel0]

My wife and I have rented a car for the time we will be at WDW, but I have also heard that the busses to and from the hotels are great. We are staying at the Music Resort, any suggestions as to whether we should drive or take the buss to the different parks?

 

[meatloafsfan]

I think the number 1 question needs to be.....Do you (or your wife) like to drive?

My mom and dad both love to drive, me - not so much. They would not consider going to Disney without a vehicle, but personally I'm alright with taking the buses.

 

[DisneyPhD]

On a side note to the poster who said they like to have a car in case of an illness. I became ill at WDW a few years ago and found out that there is a clinic on property that will send a car to pick you up at a resort and take you to the dr. and then bring you back when you have been treated. They also took me to a pharmacy. Very nice.

They will even provide an child car seat if needed. 2 years in a row our DD ended up a Centra Care (once for an allerigc reaction to antibiocs started before the trip, once for an ear infections.) Both times we got Art as our driver. He remembered us. Every trip we don't end up at Centra Care we consider it a very good trip (even the ones we do are pretty good also.) I am happy they are there. Even if you have a car it is nice to have them take you since you don't have to bother with directions and they will take you to the least busy clinic, 7 days a week.

 

[missypie]

I thought about this a lot and researched a lot and decided to rent a car for the first trip. We are a famiy of 5, so shuttle transportation to and from the airport is pretty expensive. I looked on mousesavers and found a good rate code for the car rental. We'll be making a couple of trips to a grocery store, because we like to have breakfast and snacks in the room. The other issue is that I'm a maniac for being the first ones in line at rope drop when the parks open (we were at DL last year and at DL Paris this year). I would go nuts if I couldn't get on a bus to get me to the parks super early. So in my case, having a car should alleviate stress. What I'm hoping is that we won't use the car much at all, so for future trips we can skip the car!

 

[nickcarraway]

This may be a little Jiminy Cricket-ish of me, but since no way has mentioned it, you should take into consideration that it's environmentally friendly to use mass transporation rather rent a car. Think like Walt! If everyone in the world used mass transporation when they could, the world would be a much better place.

 

[csm7030]

We used to love taking the Disney buses around everywhere when we stayed on property. It is part of the experience of staying on property. Even if we had our car, we would use the resort transportation. Then we lived locally for a couple years and got used to free parking with our AP's and found how much quicker it is to drive. We just got back from a trip over the Labor Day weekend (yes we were there for Frances) and it seemed to take forever to get anywhere by bus from the All Star Movies. We still love Disney transportation and decided that we will have to stay at one of the resorts with boat or Monorail transportation in the future. We don't go to Animal Kingdom that often anyway. We took the boat from the Studios to and from Epcot. Then took the Monorail to and from Magic Kingdom. Avoiding the buses was very enjoyable.

 

[CiNdErELLiE930]

I always rent a car. We stay on property, but we go to Universal IOA and Studios. For this coming Dec 23-Jan 2, I got a rate of $185. YOu can't beat that. TO take the shuttle, and go to Universal, I would probably pay just as much. THis gives me the freedom to get to places faster. Also, sometimes we go to the mall or other places. It is a convenience.

 

[saltmom1]

You can also use Mears to go off property. Universal and Sea World are $ 14 round trip per person.If you are planning on going off property ,you can go to mearstransportation.com and find out if where you want to go is listed and the cost per person. You just call 24 hours in advance of when you want to go and arrange a time. We used them to go to Universal 2 days ansd Sea World 1 day during our stay and they were great. We had someone in our party get sick while we were in Universal and they pushed up our time so thatwe had to rush to get to the buses. And that was during a pouring rainstom.

 

[Mr Smee]

I would recomend renting a car if you plan on resort hopping. We enjoy going to the diffrent resteraunts that the resorts offer, and taking Disney busses can be a real hassle. Depending on wich resort you are staying in and trying to get to can average 45 min to an hour of travel time. Disney roads are clearly marked by park and resort areas and you should have very little problem finding your destination. :wave:

 

[tigsmom]

We always have a car when we go to WDW...either our own or a rental (we usually visit family on the Gulf during our trip). We like to rely on WDW transportation as much as possible and have never really had a problem with it. We do use our own car when we go to play mini golf & hang out at the Boardwalk. We also use it if we are planning to stay our late...hate those extra crowded late night bus rides when the kids are exhausted.

Parking is free because you are staying on site and all you need to do is have your pass on the dash (as was stated earlier), but it much nicer to be dropped at the gate & not have to park, walk to the tram...well you get the point.

The roads are tricky and unless you are used to them (and after all of our trips we are) I would say stick to WDW transportation, especially at night as its very easy to get lost.

 

[dweitzel0]

Thanks for all the advice. I love to drive and being from California feel lost without my own car, but I think I will use the disney transportaion as much as possible. It will still be nice if we decide to go explore anywhere off property though. Thanks again.