Is It Worth Taking a Car To Disney World?

[quinda]

Is it worth taking a car to disney world, or would you be better off just using the shuttles between the different parks / to the parks from the hotels, and just renting a car for the days that you are spending outside of the parks?

I'm leaning towards just using the shuttles, but I thought I'd see what other people thought.

[spondishy]

Are you just doing Disney, or going elsewhere in Orlando? Are you planning on staying in a Disney Resort or elsewhere?

If your just Going to Magic Kingdom etc and staying in a Disney Resort then you can survive no problems without a car.


Personally I go to all the parks, shop and eat all over. I couldn't survive without a car.

[quinda]

Thanks for the thoughts.

The plan was to start the holiday by going to the Disney resorts (Epcot then probably MGM and Animal Kingdom) - we'd like to stay there for 3 days, possibly 4 depending on how it works out, then move 'outside' to another hotel and explore the rest of orlando for about a week.

The thing is the budget is getting very stretched, so we were wondering if we really needed a car for the days we were at disney, or if we could get away with just getting one for the days we would be planning on being out and about.

[spondishy]

Ah got ya. Depending on the hotel you stop at, they sometimes have pickup points for the car-rentals (although they are normally the more upscale hotels).

You'll need a transfer from the airport to the hotel as well, so you'll need to work that into your costs if you don't pickup the car straight away.

[quinda]

Bah, this is getting more and more complicated to work out - I hadn't thought about that. I'd kinda assumed that all the hotels would do a pickup service from the airport, so we would just need to tip the driver.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll plan out a few possibilities all the way...

Is parking free if you stay in a resort hotel, or is it still the $8 or $9 I keep seeing quoted?

[jmac]

Quinda - get a car - it gives you so much freedom of choice. Not to mention that there is so much else about Orlando that just Disney. You can get car rental for about £100 ($200) per week inc Collision Damage from some companies!