On
Jul 2, 2008
Jamie from PA
Asked
Note: This answer was provided prior to the change to planDisney and may still contain references to Disney Parks Moms Panel.
Experiences, policies, pricing and other offerings are subject to change and may have changed since the date of this answer.
“
We've recently seen a couple of ? about Disney Transportation vs driving car -can we get a HONEST opinion from someone that is more pro Disney Transportation? The prior answers admitted to being biased toward driving. Having both sides helps weigh options.”
I love the Disney transportion system. In 20+ trips to WDW, we've rented a car only twice.
The complaint I hear about the Disney system is that sometimes you have to wait for a bus. This is true. Depending on where you are in the cycle, you could have anywhere from no wait to a 20 minute wait. But I personally would rather be waiting for a bus than hunting around a hot parking lot for my nondescript rental. Then there's the hassle of the car: Take travel to the Magic Kingdom as an example. If you're staying at Port Orleans and you want to go to the MK, you have to remember where you parked at PO, walk to your car, get the kiddos buckled in, drive to the Transportation and Ticket Center, go through the gates, park, take the tram to the boat or monorail station, and then ride the boat or monorail to the MK. To get from Port Orleans to the MK via Disney transport, you take the bus and it drops you at the MK entrance.
Consider what happens if you want to go to Epcot later that day. With a car, you must go back to the TTC, find the car, buckle in the kiddos, drive to Epcot, go through the gates, park, and take the tram to the Epcot entrance. Using Disney transport, you get to take the speedy monorail right to the Epcot turnstiles. In my mind, using Disney transport to go from a resort to a park, or from park to park is easy and MUCH more relaxing than all that in and out of the car. My philosophy is that I want my vacation to be as much of a vacation as possible. Half my life at home is driving in carpools. Why would I want to do that on vacation too? I will admit that Disney transport does become more cumbersome when traveling from resort to resort. In this case, we take a cab. Most rides from one part of WDW to another are in the $15 range. Even if we do this several times, it still ends up cheaper than renting. Plus, we don't have to worry about refilling the tank, getting to the airport early to return the car, etc.
I say leave the driving to Disney.