Trying to finalize my daily plans and the only piece I’m missing is transportation. Myself my DW, DS, and DD, are staying at the Polynesian, so I’ve committed to using Disney transportation for our trips to Epcot and MK. When it comes transportation to HS, AK, DS, and to HDDR, I’m torn. I don’t want to spend money just to spend it, but at the same time for what this trip has already cost me I don’t really want to be terribly inconvenienced relying on Disney transportation. I’m wondering about people’s thoughts on using UBER to transport us to the places listed above? Am I missing out on anything by not using Disney transport? Outside of the cost, I’m not really seeing any downside to using UBER at Disney, am I missing something? Thanks as usual Liners!!
You wouldn’t be missing anything - it’s basically a city bus - with lines. Overall it’s fairly convenient though where I’m not sure I’d spend $ to avoid it. The only time the bus is really obnoxious is at park close where you’re tired, just want to get “home”, but are queued up 3 buses deep and are unlikely to get a seat on the bus you do finally get on. In those instances I’d consider paying for Uber and maybe an early morning ADR where you could sleep in longer if assured you have a car waiting to drop you off. Beyond that, the bus service is pretty good IMO and not really worth paying to avoid…YMMV of course. I’d say try it a few times probably before paying though and if you don’t like it, you have a fallback planned for future days…
Hi again! We just returned from a split stay @ Dolphin and then Poly with our 2 kids. We live in an urban area, and both travel frequently for work, so we are HUGE Uber users in daily life - so take my response with a grain of salt.
The only slight slight inconvenience for us using Uber @ WDW was having to make sure it was an UberFamily, since our kids are still in car seats. We brought one easily-transportable booster with us and then used the Uber-provided car seat for our other son. UberFamily was usually a 10 or 15-minute longer wait than a regular UberX. We used it one morning from Poly to AK because a CM had given us incorrect information about buses to AK for AM EMH, and we arrived too late to make a bus to get to 8 am rope drop. We then had to lug the booster seat around with us at AK; something we didn’t have to do when we took the bus to/from HS. We also used it to/from Wilderness Lodge for dinner. If your kids don’t need car seats, Uber will be even easier for you to use.
We did use Uber it to/from the airport - FYI from the airport was super expensive because even though it says it is an UberFamily, it’s really an UberBlack/UberBlack SUV because those are the only Ubers who can pick up from the airport (the one to the airport was half the price, since anyone can drop off).
We were fine with the buses when we did take them - there were waits, and we didn’t always get seats, but nothing bad. Uber was just nice to have as a backup - or when transpo isn’t straightforward, like between non-Monorail resorts - which we obviously ended up needing/using.
If you want to use Uber, by all means do it. But I don’t see Disney transport as an inconvenience. Rather, it takes the need to be the driver or navigator out of the equation, allows us to live completely in the bubble, and lets us relax all the more.
That’s a fair point. I probably worded my original post poorly. My bigger point was that I’m trying to balance the need to leave super early by taking Disney transportation to ADR’s and RD’s against having that extra time in the room or a given park.
How old are your children if you don’t mind me asking? My DD will be 5 when we are in the world and she meets the requirements to just be in a booster seat here in Oklahoma. I’ve heard different things about the kids having to be in car seats or not. For a short drive to and from, I may be okay with her being just seat belted in a normal seat.
I have had NO problems with busses from resorts to parks and back again. Yes, there will be a line, yes, you might have to stand, but they are dependable and will get you where you need to be. I drive as little as possible once I’m there and am too cheap to pay for a cab (I’ve never used Uber; something about it scares me).
The one exception I make is going from resort to resort, especially after the parks have closed. Transferring busses at DS or at one of the parks is tedious and time consuming. However, your one example of this is going from the Poly to HDRR (which is one of the most awkward places to get to in WDW). You could take the mono to either MK or CR and then take the boat to FW and be dropped off very close to the HDRR location. Yes it will still take some time, but the “boat ride to the wilderness outpost” can actually be kind of fun. And if you want a faster way home, you could cab or Uber back from there.
I was trying to avoid using my credit card so I did not use Uber but I did take a cab to HS one night when I was tight on time and I had to meet family. It was $15.25 from Poly to HS and it took about 15 minutes from the time I got to bell services to the front gate of HS.
Almost 5 & almost 3. Leaving Wilderness Lodge we couldn’t get an Uber Family so we ordered a regular UberX and figured for the short ride our almost 5 year old would just sit in a regular belted seat & our other son would use the booster. The driver wouldn’t allow it; said it’s a $200 fine for them. I’m not well-versed in Florida’s laws; I think it was a judgement call by the driver of how old she perceived our kids to be which is completely her right. We didn’t push it and waited for a different vehicle to become available. But if you do the research beforehand on their car seat laws you will be way ahead in case a situation like that comes up!
I’ll go against the grain here lol. We really dislike the buses. We are hardcore park goers usually from open to close and there is nothing worse than having to walk all the way out to the bus stop and then wait for one to show up and then wait for another one to show up and then maybe even another depending on the line, and then have to stand on a crowded hot bus with smelly sweaty people bumping into you when you’re feet are on fire and you’re exhausted. Our first trip after leaving the Christmas party we literally had to wait over 45 minutes for a bus to POR because they only had one bus going back and forth and there was a very long line. It took us almost 90 minutes to get back to the resort. Last trip we used some buses just for getting to the parks as that seems to be when they have the best staffing and most buses, and then took cabs home at night. It was awesome! Home to the resort in 20 minutes or less usually, and was great when going from resort to resort.The fees for that though can add up quickly. This trip we’re just renting a car that way we can drive or bus whenever we feel like it. MK is the only park that driving too is a little more painful but even that is just a bit longer walk Plus you’re guaranteed a place to sit down and you can blast the A/C in your face. It’s just so much easier for us. It also makes it easy for us to leave the bubble if we want. Get some non Disney priced food, and some pretty good restaurants in town, head down I-Drive, hit Universal, the Disney Outlet store for souvenirs at a third of the normal price… it just makes sense for us all around.
ETA we’re renting a convertible for about $25 a day over our 10 day trip. Could have gotten something a bit more sensible for much less so for the cost of one cab or uber a day we have our own vehicle to use as much or as little as we want.
I think what it’s going to come down to is this. I would like for us to take a midday break everyday to go back to the resort and relax. Mainly for our DD, but it will probably benefit all of us. Every night we have an ADR or some sort of other event going on. So if we take Disney transport, we either need to spend less time in our morning parks in order to get to the hotel with enough time to make a break worthwhile. Or we skip the afternoon break. My thought is if we take an Uber to some locations, ADR’s at HS, HDDR, DS, we will be able to get more time in the park or the hotel. But @bswan26 your points are well take and perhaps I am making the inconvenience factor more of an issue than it really is.
@bciranow,
Unless you are prepared to lug a carsseat around all day, or wait for an UberFamily (UberX+CarSeat) car, just use the Disney Transport system. Uber drivers can, will, and have (as you see above) turned people down if their kids require a car seat. They are protecting your children and themselves.
Having said that, if you do wind up using UberX+CarSeat, and you have never used Uber before, you can use this Promotion Code to save up to $20 off your first ride with them: n4rcz1pkue
Have a great trip!
(Btw, on another topic, if you don’t plan to already - rent a stroller!! You will love it so your DD doesn’t have to walk between attractions, keeping her from getting too tired too quick, and keep you guys moving. If you rent from Disney (which I recommend you do), at your first park, go to the stroller rental place and pay for all the days you need in advance. You’ll save money that way, and makes the next days’ pickups very easy! Also, you don’t have to lug it back to your hotel with you (in an Uber 
or on the bus) and if you park hop, you can simply go get a stroller at the next park without having to pay extra.)
Yea I won’t be lugging around a car seat all day. So what it comes down to is what the rules are in Florida in regards to children and car seats. We use Uber all the time here but have never tried with our children, of course laws here are almost certainly different than in Florida.
In my mind, it isn’t about the laws. It is about your child’s safety! YOU, as their parent, shouldn’t let them ride in a seat where the seat-belt does not sit properly on them, meaning they need a booster.
I think Uber falls under the laws for taxis which do not require car seats I believe. I know my son didn’t need a car seat in FL taxis but that was probably 8-10 years ago so it’s possible the law changed.
Now what you think is safe for your kids is a different matter & worse would be having an Uber driver refuse service because he wasn’t comfortable and thus you get a longer wait than DIS transport would have been.
While I appreciate your concern for my children’s safety. I know that whatever choice my wife and I make will be made with the safety of our daughter in mind.
And if the Uber driver took them without the proper seat and got into an accident, the driver would be held liable. Hence why some will refuse.
Doing some googling, it appears Florida passed a new law in 2015 and there don’t seem to be any exceptions for taxis/Uber in the car seat/booster rules. My reading is you’re stuck to using a car seat/booster in FL for a 5 year old. It says the “supervising adult” is subject to a $60 fine and 3 points on their license - hard to say if that’s always the driver or you, but would make sense the Uber driver may be reluctant to risk license points over it.
Here’s an excerpt from the FL DMV (Florida Safety Laws - Cell Phone, Seat Belt, & Car Seat | DMV.ORG):
* Children 5 years old or younger must be secured in a federally approved child restraint system.
* Children 3 years old and younger must use a separate car-seat or the vehicle’s built-in child seat.
* Children 4 through 5 years must sit in either a separate car seat, a built in child seat or a seat belt, depending on the child’s height and weight.
* Children 6 through 17 years old must be in a seatbelt.
We stay at Wilderness Lodge and of course take the boat to MK, but have always taken the Disney buses to HS and have taken both the bus to Epcot and gone the route of taking the boat to MK then hopping on the Epcot monorail line. Neither has ever been inconvenient for us. I don’t think the buses are anything spectacular, not fun like the monorail or boats, but we’ve never had an issue w/ them. I do know the transport times are about the same as an UBER but the variable can be how long you wait for your particular bus to arrive…we’ve walked outside to the bus stop before and a bus for HS was literally pulling up right then and we’ve also just missed it and had to wait 15 minutes for the next one but never longer than that, I definitely wouldn’t say it’s ever been too inconvenient to pay for something else. You could always test it the first time and decide from then on if you’re satisfied or not and want to utilize UBER. 
We went into our WDW trip fully expecting to utilize UBER at some point because we stayed at All Star Movies and I had heard horror stories about the transportation from All Stars. We came back not once using UBER and only wishing we had used it for one instance: getting to & from Disney Springs (( There were two Old Key West busses, for every one All Star bus. No one was waiting for Old Key West and maybe one party got onto the 4 busses we saw come by and on the on flip side the line for All Stars just kept growing and growing and it took us our 3rd bus finally before we got on)).
We actually took a couple of busses from the parks to the Polynesian for our Ohana ADR and then to transfer there to a monorail so we could ride a monorail into the Contemporary for our Chef Mickey ADR on our very first day there. The two buses specifically to the Poly weren’t crowded and never a long wait and the whole aura of the Poly was just more relaxed so from my perspective it didn’t seem like there was any stress to transportation from such a beautiful, centrally located resort.
Also, my kids & I would chat with the guests around us and we had some good conversations with people about their trips and we enjoyed that. I have always felt that part of the Disney magic is the people you are with. Nothing kills the magic faster than rude or inconsiderate guests around you, but by the same token, there is no magic better than being in a group of people, strangers or friends & family, that is in awe of the magic just as much as you are and contributing to the general uplifting atmosphere that brings so many people back and back again.
Anyway, my two (or maybe more since I rambled there) cents aside, I’m curious how you make out and what you decide!