Ok...pathetic question!

[Nikciburd]

So I’ve never rented a car for myself before. My husband travels for work and does it all the time but I’ve never had the need. So I’m a complete novice. I’d ask him but he thinks we can do this whole trip without a car due to the buses. The more I read about the Disney buses and the fact that we plan on taking a midday break each day makes me skeptical.

1. We booked prior to the deadline so we should have free parking. How do I confirm that? Does Disney give me something for the car?

2. I was thinking of only renting it for 4 of the 7 days we are there. The first two days we’re spending two half days at MK and back at the resort or maybe Disney springs. So there will be no rushing around. I’ve also heard parking at MK requires a lot of trams anyway so might as well take the resort bus.

3. The rest of the week we are visiting water parks, AK, HS and Epcot from Coronado springs. This is when I think it will be really helpful to have a mini-van for us (we are a party of 7)

4. What about my 3 year old? At home she rides in a car seat but I’m not bringing that on the plane? How do I handle that? Do they rent car seats or is that a whole other thing I’m going to have to plan? Argh.

So we leave in 2 weeks and 6 days. What do you guys think? Am I making sense or nonsense. Should I agree with the hubby and not rent a car and then get one if we’re miserable or will that be too late?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[sponica]

If you were going to rent the car, you'd need to bring the car seat or look into renting one for the rental.

I was going to suggest a minnie van to get to the water parks, then saw you were a party of 7. So maybe split into 2 groups (if enough adults). The group that needs the car seat takes the minnie van, and the other group get a regular uber.

 

[kaytieeldr]

1. You should, and the resort should have a record of this.

2. Price it out. The week total may not be much more than the per day total.

3. Really just the water parks, because these require a bus transfer each way. Coronado is close to AK, and not particularly far from HS/EP.

4. She will need a car seat. Rental agencies do rent them, as do companies like Kingdom Strollers and A Baby's Best Friend - but they won't be or meet you at the airport.

I'd say no car.

 

[Nikciburd]

If you were going to rent the car, you'd need to bring the car seat or look into renting one for the rental.

I was going to suggest a minnie van to get to the water parks, then saw you were a party of 7. So maybe split into 2 groups (if enough adults). The group that needs the car seat takes the minnie van, and the other group get a regular uber.

Yeah I thought of doing the minnievan route for some days. But it will get pricey quick. Myinlaws probably won’t even go to the water park. They might just take my 3 year old somewhere like Epcot. She’s pretty easy going as long as she is out and about buthates swimming so it’s an easy choice. Lol

 

[Euby]

I wouldn't get a rental. Use the buses and Minnie Vans or Uber when you may need to. The Minnie Vans have 2 car seats available for use.

I use an ECV when visiting the parks and still like using the buses. You can meet some nice people during the drive over. My past trip I was talking to a gentleman from Scotland. It definitely helped make the drive feel shorter.

 

[Nikciburd]

I wouldn't get a rental. Use the buses and Minnie Vans or Uber when you may need to. The Minnie Vans have 2 car seats available for use.

I use an ECV when visiting the parks and still like using the buses. You can meet some nice people during the drive over. My past trip I was talking to a gentleman from Scotland. It definitely helped make the drive feel shorter.

Thank you all! I’ll just stick with the plan then. Thanks for reassuring me that the buses aren’t that horrible. It’s just when I read to give yourself an hour, I’m thinking that it’s 4 hours of my day traveling which seems like a lot when staying on property.

 

[sam_gordon]

Thank you all! I’ll just stick with the plan then. Thanks for reassuring me that the buses aren’t that horrible. It’s just when I read to give yourself an hour, I’m thinking that it’s 4 hours of my day traveling which seems like a lot when staying on property.

I think when you read the "give yourself an hour" is for when you need to be somewhere at a certain time (ie: ADR). This allows for the "worst case scenario" and still gets you where you need to be on time. However, if you count the amount of time it takes to exit a park and get to the bus area, the wait for the bus, then the ride to the resort, it could be problematic. A car will save you some time, but I don't think a lot. We've never been ones to take midday breaks at the hotel. When the kids were little, we often let them nap in the stroller while we sat in an air conditioned venue.

 

[sommergirl25]

I don’t have any advice about car rentals or for the water parks but do have remarks about Coronado Springs buses. We stayed at Coronado in Sept 2016 ( previously stayed at AS Movies in Feb 2013) and honestly never had any issues with the buses except coming back from Disney Springs. The longest we ever waited was maybe 10 minutes and I don’t think we ever had to stand. We also always took a mid day break and didn’t feel like we were wasting time waiting on buses or anything.