Staying on-site and my trip starts on 12/18. We are renting car in FL and want to know if it is better to drive vs. taking Disney bus. Which one will save more time. Are there certain advantages of taking Disney transportation?
It’s quicker to drive, except to MK. At MK you have to park at the TTC and get the ferry or monorail, whereas the buses go right there.
in general, we drive to the parks. MK is the only park where we may make an exception, as WDW transportation takes you to the main gate whereas you have to take either the ferry or monorail from the TTC parking area to get to MK.
I agree with the previous posts. We drive to all parks except MK. On our MK days, I make breakfast ADR’s at a monorail resort or WL and we park there.
I prefer to drive (even to MK) based on what resort I am at and assuming that the transportation to the park in question is BUS only.
The bus MAY be quicker on occasion - but would you rather be actively driving of just waiting for the bus. I do even like driving to MK as the Ferry or Monorail is the “transport” to the MK.
MK was specifically put on “the other side” of 7 Seas so that you had to “travel” to it. Come on - what is cooler than arriving on a monorail?!?
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We used to be Disney Transport all the way people but last several trips we’ve had a car and I really like not waiting for buses and not having to stand on buses when we leave at park close. We do still use Disney transport but tend to stick to the boats and monorails.
I’m hiring a car for our trip, and will drive even to mk despite the car park hassle.
I can’t imagine my dh enjoying waiting to get on a bus after fireworks on New Years eve, and it would probably destroy every she’s off patience he has left.
And yes, the carpark might be congested, but at least we’re in our own space and not being squished sardines when we’re all exhausted. I think it will just make it a bit more relaxing at the end of some long days to not deal with the crowds to get home.
Depending on where you are staying - I fully agree (for what it is worth) with your choice on this. So what you MAY want to do is watch the fireworks near the TRAIN STATION so you can mad dash out of the park. Beeline to either the launch or monorail.
However I would suggest that you either watch the fireworks near the Train Station, mad dash and beat the crowd - or hang for awhile and wait for the crowds to subside.
There will be constable hanging back 
Good choice!! We loved hanging and just meandering. We were among the very last to leave one evening YEARS ago. have a great time!!!
There is a $20 fee for parking (and a $40 fee for preferred parking) so, if you’re trying to save some money, you might factor this into your decision as well.
If you stay on site parking is free.
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Well, I guess I’ll chime in with the opposite of everything said above haha. We drove to all parks for years, because we stayed offsite a lot & also onsite, we just were used to driving, almost always had a car.
On granchildrens’ first trip (& since then) we’ve chosen to not have a car, stayed onsite. So started using Disney transport (as we had many yrs ago) & remembered how much we really loved doing that a long time ago.
Last trip we stayed 1/2 of time offsite & the grands were disappointed there was no bus, couldn’t wait to take bus from onsite resort second 1/2 ! They actually think that’s part of the fun!
That said, we’ve always had terrific bus service, maybe b/c we’re RDers each day & b/c we only stay 1 latish night at parks. We take a break every day for pool & rest/nap, never had a problem with transport.
I have heard on Touring Plans that others have had awful luck with some of the buses, though. For what it’s worth, we always stay @Dolphin, so we share buses (only 2 stops total) with Boardwalk Resort.
The one change I’ll make in future is @ the park(s) after nighttime parade or fireworks. Yes, that is very crazy. My plan is to drive/cab from Contemporary. For parking, we would have dinner that night @Wave, so no problem parking there for that evening.
And I will say that there is something really special for us taking the ferry from TTC to MK, so if we have a car that trip, we’d probably fit that in one day or evening.
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We’ve only stayed onsite once, last year, and only used buses and the service was fantastic. My answer above is in terms of general timings, but I’m happy stocking to the buses even though we had a hire car parked up at POFQ.
Glad to see that I’m not the only one who see’s the bus, boat, and monorail as another ride. lol