To Rent A Car or To Not Rent A Car - That Is The Question!

Hi everyone!

Firstly, I want to say that I absolutely LOVE this website, forum and chat. You all are so helpful even when I ask the silliest of questions. My DH thinks I am a bit crazy, but I know he is going to appreciate the hours and hours I have spent researching when we finally get to WDW in February :smile:

Anywho, we are staying at CBR. I have seen on quite a few different threads that many people talk about renting cars because of the bus system. We will also be heading to UOR for two nights before heading back to the MCO airport. So is it worth it to rent a car? I have never rented a car in the States before (am from Saskatchewan, Canada). Are cabs expensive to get us to and from the parks? (if we decide not to wait for the bus to ensure we make rope drop). Where do you park to get into the parks? Is it difficult to get back to CBR at night? Will I be intimidated by freeways and stuff (especially to get us to WDW from MCO, to UOR from WDW and then back to MCO from UOR).

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

All I can say is the buses are crowded .Sometimes you need to stand or wait for the next one I will use them again though as it lets me take a vacation from driving too.

Getting from mco to the world is really easy as is getting from wdw to uor. Cans are around twenty dollars each inside the world and about fifty to get wdw to uor. If you plan to take very many cabs a car would be worth it.

I would vote for a car rental @tlrj4488! Someone reported here last week that the taxi to UOR was about $38.40usd one way plus tip. Two trips back and forth? That’s around 150 already! Check out this link for car rental tips:
car rental advice from JackOfAll
Enjoy your trip!!

I would vote for car rental as well. A lot of that comes from I am kind of a control freak about going where I want when I want.

I would rent a car. We usually do and adjust our travel times to MK (since you park at TTC and have to ferry/mono to the park). I’m also a control freak like that. And Disney resort guests have free parking at the parks.

When we did UOR/IOA a couple years back, it was sooooo easy to just drive ourselves and pay for the parking.

I have done several trips without a car, and they were all great (I was at WDW how bad could things be really?!). i never thought we would bother to hire a car, but I have to say that the last trip we did where we did hire a car was so much better.

It was just great to have the freedom to drive to a resort for an ADR instead of having to get 2 buses, or a bus then a boat. I also preferred being able to drive over to UOR (we always spend at least too days there, and cab fares or mears bus fares soon add up. Also liked being able drive to the shopping malls and grocery stores. Finally, as we were staying at Old Key West in a villa a very long way from the main building, it was handy having the car for when we just couldn’t be bothered to walk over or wait for a bus.

We did use the disney buses etc a lot too, but I really liked the options that having access to a car gave us.

You’d do fine without one, but I say if the budget allows it, hire a car.

Era - don’t worry about the drive from the airport - do a bit of checking up on any slightly different ‘rules of the road’ before you go, and you’ll be fine. I come from a tiny island with no freeways and only one 2 lane highway - we were nervous to start with, but did fine. Satnav is a must though!

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We’ve decided to hire a car. We’ll be trying really hard to stay on the correct side of the road - but if you see a carload of screaming Aussies coming toward you - look out!

But seriously we’ve driven in the USA before - as long as you have a sat Nav you’ll be able to navigate just fine.
My husband didn’t want to hire but the peeps on here helped me convince him otherwise. :smile:

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Vote for car rental

Our last trip we stayed at CBR and rented a car for the first time. However we used ME from airport and picked up car on property. I have to say having the car saved a lot of time. No waiting for the right bus to arrive from the resort, having to stand or being refused due to capacity. The signage makes it very easy to get around. Never had a problem with traffic or parking. It made park hopping easier as well. On our next trip we will pick up car at MCO as the rates are better. Weekly rates are about US$200 for rental. Don’t forget that there is a toll on the highway between MCO and WDW.

Don’t bother with cabs, it can get expensive. Personally I’d be fine taking the bus myself but I’m a patient person. When travelling with a family of 4 however, having your own transportation can’t be beat.

Thanks all! We checked out that post about renting a car @quicha so thank you for that link! So far its about 350 dollars for the time we will be there (February 13 - 21). So we will keep looking to see if prices drop. We are staying at UOR so we don’t need to drive back and forth so we would just use the car to get from MCO to WDW, then over to UOR and then back to MCO and then to and from WDW parks. So I think we will just check how many times we think we would use it for going to and from the parks and see if price drops. Because that is pretty expensive…

Thanks all though! Everyone is so helpful :smile:

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try this site too.
http://www.rentalcars.com/
this is what we use when coming from Australia as it includes some of the insurances in the pricing also. (not sure if you have insurance included because you are from Canada, but we need to add it here, so thus also need it when in the USA)
I always find this site a lot cheaper than going through any of the ones direct and some of the others too.
I have used them in the past (car from Alamo) and had no issue. We were also able to upgrade the car to a larger size when we arrived, as we ended up with too much luggage and mountain bike. :smile:

Stayed at CBR in Sept. Had a car, but my kids love the bus – but BOY was that a mistake. Should’ve driven a lot more than we did, even to MK. The evening busride from MK back to CBR was a killer.