For past trips I’ve rented a car for my stay. I found it convenient to be able to come and go wherever and whenever I want. However, that was when a rental for a week was $200 and parking at the resorts was free. Now a rental will cost me over $600 plus $225 to park it during my stay!
So, now I’m thinking about using a combo of Uber and the Disney buses.
I would need Uber from the airport to the resort (and back).
I would need Uber for my two planned trips to Universal (to and back).
I’d use the Disney buses, boats, skyliner and walking to get from my resort (Beach Club) and the parks.
I estimate the Uber trips will cost me about $200 total vs. $825 for the car rental and parking.
What do you guys think? Think I can make good use of the Disney transport enough to do rope drop correctly, and ditch the car rental this time?
I have always been a rent a car at Disney person. Until this year. The cost of rental cars is just ridiculous. I’ve done two trips this years without a car (and will do a third one starting tomorrow). I did DME once from the airport but it took forever and I won’t do it again. My cost for Ubers to and from the airport has been $27-38. So not bad. You are staying at a great resort since you can walk to two parks. You can use Disney transport and successfully RD at MK and AK.
I’m a former rental car person. I now Uber to the resort and even use it while there to RD. This is often faster in the mornings than buses. (pre-COVID) You can do this and then use the buses & such on the way home while still saving versus a rental if you are a hardcore RD person
If I didn’t have multiple kids that need car seats, I would 100% Uber / Lyft all the way. We’re still ~5 years off from that. So for now we DME / Disney transport / Car service as needed. Much less stressful than driving a rental car (worrying about tolls, walking to your car, damage, etc.), IMO.
DW, DD and I went back in February and stayed at Caribbean Beach. The plan was to use the Buses and Skyliner the whole week. After two day’s of the buses being absolutely horrible, we switched to Lyft. Twice we waited for over an hour for a bus to arrive. One of those times it filled up before we could get on then had to wait another 45 minutes. Lyft was great, we are going back in two weeks and the plan is to use Lyft the entire time.
I will happily provide you my perspective in about 10 days if you’re interested. We, like many here, have historically been ALWAYS rent a car people. I am in the “I take enough public transport” that I would rather drive myself on vacation. We also have kids in car seats. But next week it will just be DH and I and we are planning to rely completely on Disney transport and ride-share. We are staying off-site for most of the trip so we will lean more toward ride share.
I did find a rental car for $145 (luckily DVC get free resort parking) and my estimated Lyft costs currently are $185 so it was very close but the rental car calculation would still require a few Lyft’s or else we would have to fight over DD responsibilities, so we are sticking with Lyft only unless the car drops below $100.
Won’t be an exact apple-to-apples comparison since we’re staying on-site. But would be happy to hear your experience upon your return.
Don’t forget, since you’re staying off-site, if you drive to the parks you will have to pay for parking your rental there.
Thanks!
I have used lyft/iner on my last 3 trips. They have included both onsite and offsite stays.
I used uber/lyft to and from the airport. I took uber/lyft to get to the parks early enough before RD. These were the tines where you would get into the park early because they did not want evryone lined up outside (during the first year of RotR). Back then you had to get there before the buses even started running.
The rest of the time I would take Disney transportation between parks and at the end of our day.
It has worked out well for me and I will continue to ise this method on future trips.
I feel Uber/Lyft and Disney transport is the way to go. I especially love not having to stress over driving on vacation. It’s nice to be driven and not have to remember where I parked etc. I also like to drink on vacation so when I’m not driving I don’t have to worry about that either.
If you Uber to universal during a busy time I suggest taking an Uber to Sapphire falls and then taking the boat over. It’s a lovely hotel, a nice boat ride and the security check is at the hotel so the only line is to wait for the boat to come.