Yup, and now that our group is at the other end of the spectrum a wheel chair and scooter require extra planning. We use buses at times but mostly I drive to each park and Disney Springs. Parking outside the unit at OKW, SSR is great. For other resorts I am the Uber guy who drives to resort drop off and loads wheelchair and scooter for the start/end of the day which I prefer. Of course, when at BCV & BWV I can push the wheelchair to EPCOT or Hollywood Studios. But depending on day it is a boat ride back which has its own logistics. BLT and VGF allow me to push to Magic Kingdom but normally boat/Monorail back.
Agree each family needs to develop a strategy that works for them. Transportation is not a factor in our resort selection. We like staying in different resorts. But having a vehicle has bought us freedom.
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It absolutely factors into our thinking, we never fly - we always drive to WDW, and so here is why like SSR and similar resorts:
That's us too but we still love BRV! Husband said he does loves the SSR parking situation. It's so nice when you get back to the resort late at night, your room is right there. You have already walked 20K steps, the last night you want is to walk another 10 mins back to your room.
But still, that's not the main reason why we bought there.
As someone mentioned earlier, I think it's the taking luggage/groceries to the room. Not sure why, but we've always like to do it ourselves. Kudos to AKV and CCV/BRV that will still let you use the luggage carts for yourselves!
To me it's more like the car makes it easy to get to the parking lot at the parks. At least at the resorts where it's relatively easy to get to/from your car. Then it's a long walk and/or tram ride to get anywhere near the actual park entrance. And reverse on the way home. For us it's the parking lots at the parks and hotels we are trying to avoid by taking Disney transport or being able to walk to a park entrance, more than avoiding the trip itself. IME actual door to door from my room to the entrance tapstiles, driving doesn't save much time overall over the course of a week trip. So I consider that a wash.
I get that, I also find the parking situation frustrating at times, but setting aside MK (where I think everyone agrees the car situation is worse than disney transport), at AK and Epcot if you get there early you park close, and at DHS probably 50% of the parking lot is closer than the furthest bus stops are.
Agreed. This is the exact reason why we rent a car every time. Time is money to us, especially on vacation. If we need to swing by the store after the parks, or grab dinner outside the bubble, we can easily to do that with a car.
Totally get that. Even if the total time averages out, with driving yourself the time spent is way more predictable. We definitely prefer walking, skyliner, boats, and monorail (in that order) over the buses. It's been MANY years since we spent an entire week at a bus-only resort. We will do 2 or 3 nights at AKL just because we love the resort and the bus situation there has been decent for us. Other than that it's been Swolfin/Riviera/Poly/BWV/etc. Also rarely ride a bus if we're in a hurry trying to make rope drop, etc. We'll take Uber/Lyft.
