We had a car for our first trip (2014), and did not have one for our last trip (2017). We did do a one-day outing to Universal, and rented a car for 2 nights for that. Other than that we used the busses, which weren’t too bad. Sometimes there is a few minutes wait for one, but I figure we probably make up most of that by not having to park a car and get from the parking lot to the park entrance.
In Jan 2020, we are not going to rent at all. We have never experienced Uber/Lyft but are going to try it out for our Universal day this time, and possibly use it to get to the parks a couple of times, on the very early days.
There have been studies that show parental involvement is the number one predictor of a child’s long-term academic success. So, even if you have to send your child to a school that is barely pumping out kids who can read, the child who has involved parents will excel.
No, it really doesn’t. You can go and meet the characters during the event which is pretty easy to do since it’s in the Launch Bay. The lines are usually not really long because many people who aren’t at the dessert party are lining up for Fantasmic or the SW fireworks. But the Launch Bay is open to all guests at that time so the lines can vary.
All depends on what’s important to you. I always rent a car because I like to have the flexibility to come and go as I please without having to wait in line (you’re doing enough of that at Disney anyway). If you like to get to the parks early for rope drop, it’s also much easier to have a car.
I didn’t want to dissuade you from going green but I always rent a car. I can usually find a discounted rate by searching and updating. But I get free parking with DVC so I don’t know if paying for parking at my resort would change my mind.
I have to admit that I have periodically searched for rental cars, but I haven’t found any really great prices so I need to stop and just accept that I am trying something new this trip.
You will be fine. You are going with BFFs so waiting for buses is intrinsically fun! And since you don’t have a horde of family to get to rode drop and such, you can be more chill.
I think I just convinced myself that maybe I don’t need a rental car when DD21 and I are there together in January…
Update–We returned from our fabulous girls trip without a rental car. I will be renting a car for my upcoming trip in November now. I did love the ease of MDE and not dealing with luggage, but that’s was about all I liked. We stayed until park closing most of our nights and waiting for the bus was awful. It took forever (not really but it was 35 minutes one night at MK). We stayed at BWI and sometimes we shared a bus with the Swan and Dolphin and sometimes we didn’t. It was confusing and annoying.
No, the times we really needed it were at the end of the night and the demand was apparently rather high based on the cost and wait times. Plus at MK we would have had to go somewhere like the TTC to get an Uber/Lyft.
I almost thought about doing it this trip (trip number 3) , but I just cant get out of my comfort zone. We had a car on our very first trip and it went so smoothly I cant imagine doing it any other way!!
