rental car vs disney busses

[WDW2002]

Opinons Opinons Opinons, please.

What are others experiences with the disney busses ? Renting a car?
I like to come and go when I please would busses work for us? I will be staying at ASMo. Should I rent a car? Or are the busses adequit(sp)? Is there anything close if we decide to rent a car once there?

 

[drusba]

Some consider a car a necessity (like us), some as completely unnecessary, and many are in between. Basically what you will find is that using the busses to go to the theme parks or a water park is OK because it is a single bus ride without stops in between (except for stops at your own resort). In fact, using the bus to MK is actually better than taking a car because the MK parking lot is still a boat or monorail ride away from the park and the bus leaves you near the front gate. Nevertheless, it is somewhat quicker by car to the other parks, and if you plan to go to another resort (such as for dinner) or off-site, a car is the way. Taking a bus from one resort to another requires switching busses at a location in between (like a park) and the trip can often take well over an hour-- you can drive to anywhere in WDW in 15 minutes or less. Taking a car to Downtown Disney is also better than the bus (there are sometimes stops in between for the bus and there are three stops in the DD area which can result in long trips).

I am not sure what you are asking about whether "there is anything close." If you are talking about off-site, there are a lot of things, although not necessarily close--for example, Sea World is about 5 miles away

 

[cbrfan]

I think the biggest factor in deciding whether to rent a car or use Disney transportation is the passengers. Do you have young children, infants, strollers? We never rent a car and find Disney transportation more than adequate for our needs, but we're all adults. If I had an infant with a stroller, diaper bag and a couple of toddlers in tow I think I'd find a car a necessity. Those poor people always seem to need a few more hands and a bigger lap on the busses.

 

[Ted and Holly]

In the past, I would have said DISNEY BUSSES!!!!! They have more direct service, and you can sit back and relax on your way to and from the parks. HOWEVER, after this last trip, I'm not so sure. The beginning of Thanksgiving week, the AKL bus service was TERRIBLE!!! Average wait was 30 minutes, I was quite frustrated. I kept tellling Ted, "Next time we'll have a car!" The bus drivers would wait and wait until there were so many people on the bus that there was not longer any room for the people standing to hold on. Once, a bus driver even got MOOOO'd at because he was treating us all like cattle.

Later in the week when the crowds picked up, so did the busses. Average wait was around 5-10 minutes. Here's a true test. I was at AKL finishing up from my afternoon date with the pool and lounge chairs. Ted was out in the parks with his friend Steve who lives in Orlando. I spoke with them, they were at MGM, just getting to RNR with walk-on passes. They promised to head straight to Epcot to get good seats for the 4pm Tapestry of Dreams. They had car transportation, I had the busses.

I took a shower, changed, and did my hair. I ambled on out to the bus stop. I waited and waited... A bus showed up and literally broke down under the gate to AKL. Someone said it was on fire. It was completely blocking hte entrance, and many busses arrived, dropped off the passengers out in the street (they had to walk the rest of the way) and then the busses left!! FINALLY, it was moved out of the way. Another several minutes later, an EPCOT bus came. I was worried that I wasn't going to find the guys in time for the parade! I got to Epcot and started booking it toward WS. I called them on the cell, and they weren't even at EPCOT yet!!! I found okay seats for the parade in China, and they arrived just as the parade was starting. Car=0 Bus =1 Busses win that time!!

Either way has its benefits, I think it depends on whether or not you'll be traveling off-property for shopping, dining or other parks. If not, I say go with the busses.

Holly

 

[WDW2002]

Originally posted by drusba
I am not sure what you are asking about whether "there is anything close."

By this I meant, a car rental facility. If we decide to "try" the busses and decide we need a car.

 

[tonilea]

I think it depends on you personally, we have never used Disney busses, but we are most comfortable with a car. We stay off site, so of course we need one, but even when we were planning to stay on-site (before the collapse of early entry) DH insisted on a car.

If you are accustom to having a vehicle at your disposal, rather than waiting on someone else's schedule, it is my opinion that you will be happiest with a rental car. You may even want to visit some of the outlets for shopping.... We found some GREAT DEALS!

Good luck and have a fantastic WDW vacation!

 

[atigeg]

Normally, I am a big fan of Disney buses, but after the horror story above, I'm not so sure!!! W are very lazy while on vacation and refuse to do any driving. We use Happy Limo for our airport transportation and Mears if we want to head to IOA from WDW, and the rest of the time we take Disney transportation. Over the course of many trips, this has usually worked out well for us. But the bus service at some resorts is definitely better than others (for example, we were at the last bus stop at Caribbean Beach, and RARELY saw a bus...a 40 minute wait was not unusual--in contrast, Dixie Landings and AK Lodge were both good). Another drawback is the stampede at night when the parks close. But overall, we prefer it to driving as we don't want to have to worry about parking, finding our way around the property etc. It always feels weird not to drive for a week and then to fly home and get in the car!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[drusba]

You can rent a car while already at WDW. National has cars on site--I believe it is in an area on the boulevard to Magic Kingdom. However, if you are seriously considering a car it may be better to rent it at the airport for the entire trip. For example, if you just rent a car on site for a couple of days, you may be stuck paying their high regular daily rate with no discount while if you order in advance for a car for a week with pick up at the airport, you can get a discount rate. As a result, renting a car for a week can turn out to cost less than the cost of transfer by limo or taxi to and and from the airport plus the cost of renting for a couple days while on site.

 

[ztbz]

Part of the problem that you folks may or may not of notice is that Disney is trying to cut cost everywhere on Disney property and this includes the bus service, Disney is trying to have less bus drivers and less buses so the buses you do see are Loaded with more and more guests, after a while the bus fills up and no more passengers can get on they have to wait sometimes for the bus that just filled up to come back to get pick up.

Also Disney is also Cutting more. For those of you that are staying at the Boardwalk & Coronado Springs you will note that you may or may not be able to travel between these two resorts anymore (This route was known as the Internal route Between the Boardwalk and Coronado and was part of the Downtown Disney route) Now the Bus drivers are told to go a certain way via Epcot Drive so that guest staying at the Boardwalk won't notice the longer trip back and also that they won't mind having to wait till the 5th stop after riding to the Coronado Springs to get to their Boardwalk resort hotel room, Stop order for this route is Downtown Disney to the Coronado Springs to the Boardwalk then back to Downtown Disney.

Port Orleans now only has one stop and that’s at the Main Stop at Port Orleans Riverside (use to be called Dixie Landings). Also the Internal route that took guest to Ft Wilderness has been cut out and is gone now too.