Having (or Not Having) a Car at Walt Disney World

This Article Was Contributed by Keith

When going to the Walt Disney World resort the inevitable question comes up, do we need to have a car? Rather than sitting on the fence, the conventional wisdom says unequivocally "maybe". It literally all depends on your needs, financial position and your comfort level navigating your way around the resort.

It used to be that everyone traveled by WDW transportation and very few people indeed would think of getting from "a to b" in their own car. Several factors have changed that thought process:

• The WDW Resort has expanded from one park, two hotels and a campground to its current 2009 configuration.
• The volume of visitors, both domestic and international, has expanded exponentially.
• The WDW Resort is not simply a vacation destination; it also a large convention magnet.
• The transportation system has evolved from a point to point to a hub and spoke system.

The last-mentioned factor is probably the largest single decision making factor that influences most visitors when it comes to deciding whether or not to bring or rent a car. A point to point system is convenient to the customer whereas a hub and spoke system is convenient to the transportation provider. Let's say visitors want to go from point b to point j. They used to be able to get on that particular mode of transport (Gold flagged launch) and it took them directly from b to j. With the hub and spoke system you now go from Point b to Hub A via Mode 1 and switch to Mode 2 to get from Hub A to Point j. The exception to that rule is that the park buses do go directly, or as directly as they can, from the hotels to the parks and vice-versa.

So, back to the decision-making process. If you are only going to arrive at your hotel, stay at that hotel to eat and sleep and go only to the four theme parks, two water parks and Downtown Disney, it is probably a bad decision to rent a car unless you enjoy paying a daily rental rate for a car only to have it sit in the hotel parking lot for a week making Messrs. Avis, Hertz et al very rich folks indeed. If you are someone who either cannot navigate their way out of a wet paper bag or simply think that "I'm on vacation, I refuse to drive" then you also probably want to use the Disney transportation system. The big bonus of the WDW Transportation system is that the drivers uncannily seem to know exactly where they are going and don't get lost. Those CMs are also handy tour guides because they can offer you information such as "how do I get to...?" or "what time does the park close today?" or "when is the parade?" or "where can we meet Mickey?"

If alternately you are someone who will visit the other hotels to eat, will take trips off property to explore or go shopping or feel comfortable navigating the roads of Walt Disney World, then driving a car is probably in your future.

Let's assume that you have decided to have a car, let's look at some of the main advantages of driving around property. Time and convenience:

1. In almost all instances it will save you time to hop in your car and drive to a particular place. The one exception is the Magic Kingdom. Because the MK is so geographically separated from its associated parking lot, it is probably most advantageous to use Disney transportation to get to the MK. Obviously if you are staying on the monorail loop, you are probably saying "Well, duh!!!" right about now. To most spots it is going to save you between 20 minutes and up to 1 hour of time to use your car. Downtown Disney is the most clear-cut of those examples because it is set up to receive lots and lots of vehicles and park them reasonably close to the shops and restaurants.

2. You also have the ability to lug around more stuff than you can in a bus. Let's say you know that you are going to be standing around all day in 80 degree temperatures but, when you are planning to watch Wishes, the temperature is supposed to be in the 40s, you are probably going to love the fact that you can scoot back to your car and bring back warmer clothing for those evening hours. You can of course bring everything in with you when you first visit and drop excess items in one of the lockers but you still have to lug it all to the park entrance in the first place.

3. Heading out to Publix (market) for supplies or shopping off-property in general is probably the main reason for having your car or a rental. Getting a cab in and around the Disney area is not prohibitively expensive but, if you are hopping a cab every day, it is going to mount up.

Best kept secret (probably not any more):

The writer has had a car, either owned or rented, at WDW for the past 20 years and actually does use it for getting to and from the parks. This is absolutely not a guaranteed strategy and it does require going off-season, having compliant Disney Security staff and having the confidence to do something that you are probably not supposed to do. We only go the AK theme park's parking lot to park. For all the other respective parks we go to the nearest hotel parking lots and leave the car there. For the MK we park in the Polynesian Resort East parking lot (by the TTC) or the Contemporary lot on the left as soon as you pass Security. For Epcot we park in the Boardwalk Resort's main lot (we sometimes have to park across the street in the overflow lot). Disney Security has woken up to this strategy and will block off the BW main car park during Food & Wine to all but Boardwalk guests. We also do the same for Disney's Hollywood Studios since it is easy to walk to both parks from there.

One challenge:

The WDW Resort road system is excellent and, if you know the shortcomings of their signage, you will find it a breeze to navigate around until you begin to memorize the layout. Shortcomings??? Well how hard can it be? Well Disney is a little sneaky in its assumption that you know in which hotel group your hotel is assigned. As you come in from the freeway, let's say, towards POFQ you will not see a signpost for Port Orleans until right before the junction you see a small purple sign that says the hotel name. Up to that point there have only seen advance signs for the Downtown Disney Resort Area (which you are supposed to have deduced contains your hotel, Sherlock). The writer is convinced that this is why the roads are made out of concrete around there, because concrete does not show skid marks from excessive tire lock-up as bad as asphalt does.

As someone who has driven around the Resort for those last 20 years (and counting) it really is very easy to get around if you know where you are going. There are also multiple ways to get around from "a to b" and, if you miss one exit, there will be another. There is no need to slam it in reverse and start barreling backwards up the road (or even the freeway!). Been there, seen that!!!

The one major assumption that Disney makes is that folks in their cars are actually paying attention to road signs. Yeah, right!!! These are carloads of folks who are excited, unfocused and are so full of adrenaline that they finally got to Lake Buena Vista that they are really not paying attention to anything. This is why there is a turn-around loop at every park and hotel for guests who show up at the respective gates looking for something, anything except where they have arrived. Folks can and do arrive at the MK entrance plaza looking for the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Carloads do arrive at the Epcot entrance plaza looking for their hotel because it's in the Epcot Resort area.

There are pros and cons to having an automobile and you simply have to weigh those accordingly. There is no right or wrong answer and that answer may change from year to year.

Last Updated: May 10, 2009