Taking breaks during the day at WDW?

[megs4413]

I came across this blog on touringplans.com today. I think it's visible without a sub., but maybe not. Anyhow, you're pretty good, but check out WL and FW!

http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/02...me-in-transit/

I read it, but I don't buy it. Not by a long-shot. I have never, ever considered an itinerary like the one they used, though. it's ludicrous. who on earth would CHOOSE to arrive to Mk mid day and then leave MK to go to the contemporary for dinner and then try to commute from the contemporary to another resort? you would spend your ENTIRE day transporting. that makes NO sense. the itinerary they used is asinine.

but it also very clearly shows why i strongly recommend having a car there. i ALWAYS transport by car except if i'm at a monorail/boat launch resort and headed to MK. the car is faster. we drove to disney the 2nd time we went so we had a car. the 1st time we used a friend's car (a local friend.) so it didn't cost me extra either time. if you can't have a car with you for free, i STILL think it's worth looking into a rental.

[KrisM]

I read it, but I don't buy it. Not by a long-shot. I have never, ever considered an itinerary like the one they used, though. it's ludicrous. who on earth would CHOOSE to arrive to Mk mid day and then leave MK to go to the contemporary for dinner and then try to commute from the contemporary to another resort? you would spend your ENTIRE day transporting. that makes NO sense. the itinerary they used is asinine.

but it also very clearly shows why i strongly recommend having a car there. i ALWAYS transport by car except if i'm at a monorail/boat launch resort and headed to MK. the car is faster. we drove to disney the 2nd time we went so we had a car. the 1st time we used a friend's car (a local friend.) so it didn't cost me extra either time. if you can't have a car with you for free, i STILL think it's worth looking into a rental.

You can use the times to make many itineraries though. The time from MK to POR is always the same. Other than the first day, they follow their own advice of mid-day naps. And, actually, I can see planning a first day like that. Plane arrives at 10 am, get to WDW and check in, head to MK. Want some character interaction, so book a fun character meal. I hope to research enough to avoid that, but I think plenty of people would not realize going from Chef Mickey's to a resort would be terrible.

Getting a car would be much easier now than when it involved carseats . I could see why you'd want one, especially if you're at one of the places that have those really long times!

[megs4413]

You can use the times to make many itineraries though. The time from MK to POR is always the same. Other than the first day, they follow their own advice of mid-day naps. And, actually, I can see planning a first day like that. Plane arrives at 10 am, get to WDW and check in, head to MK. Want some character interaction, so book a fun character meal. I hope to research enough to avoid that, but I think plenty of people would not realize going from Chef Mickey's to a resort would be terrible.

Getting a car would be much easier now than when it involved carseats . I could see why you'd want one, especially if you're at one of the places that have those really long times!

I don't buy the time estimates either...if I'm understanding correctly they're using an average of reported times. Idk, it certainly doesn't reflect my experience at the World.

[BayGirl2]

Here's a travel time calculator that gives various travel time options. It seemed fairly accurate to me, maybe a bit longer estimated: http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/aspx...x#.UafpgUBwo9U

We did not seriously consider renting a car. Our reasons:
1. We are public transit people, we'll generally take PT instead of drive whenever possible. Lots of reasons for this, but for us its just the right thing to do when we can.
2. The rare opportunity to not bring carseats. We took the Magical Express to/from the airport which doesn't allow carseats. Shuttle buses don't allow carseats. This was our first time flying without carseats, we did borrow a CARES harness for DD. It was nice not to have them. I'd never take a taxi or rent a car without them, so we'd have that to deal with.
3. We stayed at a monorail resort and were able to take the monorail and not fold the stroller for MK and Epcot days.
4. We would have had to pay for valet parking at the resort as well as car rental, or park super far away and walk even further each day. Just not worth it to me.

We only needed to take the bus on 3 of 7 days - to AK, to HS, and to downtown Disney. The rides were fine for us, never had a very long wait or drive, I was only annoyed because we had to fold the stroller. (would have applied to driving too) The only time the ride was longer than it should have been was because I chose to go from AK to Boardwalk then walk to Epcot because I wanted to see the Boardwalk area. There were several stops and we were last. Had we taken the Epcot direct bus it would have been much shorter.

Again this is one of those issues that will be different for every family. Just sharing the reasons behind our decision in case it helps.

[egoldber]

Well FWIW our itineraries look a lot like what they posted. We park hop and move around a lot.

I also absolutely believe their analysis that a value or moderate has better overall transportation. Perhaps not if you spend most of your time at the MK. But if you spend a lot of time at the parks the monorail resorts have some of the worst transportation IMO. The monorail to Epcot takes forever when we have taken it. The resorts with only buses have dedicated buses. The deluxes almost always share buses among several resorts. When we stay at the Boardwalk we get off at the first stop on the circuit (Swan/Dolphin) and walk instead of waiting for the bus to make the full loop around. It can save 15 minutes.

[KrisM]

I don't buy the time estimates either...if I'm understanding correctly they're using an average of reported times. Idk, it certainly doesn't reflect my experience at the World.

I'm sure they are averaging. They probably include very crowded times where you wait for a second bus to come, and low crowd times and you just walk on. People just like you, but lots of them, so a better sampling than just your trips. Not saying it's accurate at all, but generally averaging more people into a number is better than just one person's number.

Here's a travel time calculator that gives various travel time options. It seemed fairly accurate to me, maybe a bit longer estimated: http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/aspx...x#.UafpgUBwo9U

We did not seriously consider renting a car. Our reasons:
1. We are public transit people, we'll generally take PT instead of drive whenever possible. Lots of reasons for this, but for us its just the right thing to do when we can.
2. The rare opportunity to not bring carseats. We took the Magical Express to/from the airport which doesn't allow carseats. Shuttle buses don't allow carseats. This was our first time flying without carseats, we did borrow a CARES harness for DD. It was nice not to have them. I'd never take a taxi or rent a car without them, so we'd have that to deal with.
3. We stayed at a monorail resort and were able to take the monorail and not fold the stroller for MK and Epcot days.
4. We would have had to pay for valet parking at the resort as well as car rental, or park super far away and walk even further each day. Just not worth it to me.

We only needed to take the bus on 3 of 7 days - to AK, to HS, and to downtown Disney. The rides were fine for us, never had a very long wait or drive, I was only annoyed because we had to fold the stroller. (would have applied to driving too) The only time the ride was longer than it should have been was because I chose to go from AK to Boardwalk then walk to Epcot because I wanted to see the Boardwalk area. There were several stops and we were last. Had we taken the Epcot direct bus it would have been much shorter.

Again this is one of those issues that will be different for every family. Just sharing the reasons behind our decision in case it helps.

These are the reasons that I'm coming up with for staying in a monorail resort or Epcot resort. We'll be out of carseats by then. DS1 will probably be with nothing and the other 2 in boosters, so easier for sure. We never take public transportation, so I figure the kids will think it's neat .

[megs4413]

Here's a travel time calculator that gives various travel time options. It seemed fairly accurate to me, maybe a bit longer estimated: http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/aspx...x#.UafpgUBwo9U

We did not seriously consider renting a car. Our reasons:
1. We are public transit people, we'll generally take PT instead of drive whenever possible. Lots of reasons for this, but for us its just the right thing to do when we can.
2. The rare opportunity to not bring carseats. We took the Magical Express to/from the airport which doesn't allow carseats. Shuttle buses don't allow carseats. This was our first time flying without carseats, we did borrow a CARES harness for DD. It was nice not to have them. I'd never take a taxi or rent a car without them, so we'd have that to deal with.
3. We stayed at a monorail resort and were able to take the monorail and not fold the stroller for MK and Epcot days.
4. We would have had to pay for valet parking at the resort as well as car rental, or park super far away and walk even further each day. Just not worth it to me.

We only needed to take the bus on 3 of 7 days - to AK, to HS, and to downtown Disney. The rides were fine for us, never had a very long wait or drive, I was only annoyed because we had to fold the stroller. (would have applied to driving too) The only time the ride was longer than it should have been was because I chose to go from AK to Boardwalk then walk to Epcot because I wanted to see the Boardwalk area. There were several stops and we were last. Had we taken the Epcot direct bus it would have been much shorter.

Again this is one of those issues that will be different for every family. Just sharing the reasons behind our decision in case it helps.

oh I totally agree if you have to fly anyway that the benefit might not be worthwhile to rent a car...especially if you are at a boardwalk area resort that is within walking distance to TWO parks! That's killer!

for us, we drive anyway, so it's not a problem to have the car and I like having it. you couldn't possibly drive from CA! LOL

[megs4413]

I'm sure they are averaging. They probably include very crowded times where you wait for a second bus to come, and low crowd times and you just walk on. People just like you, but lots of them, so a better sampling than just your trips. Not saying it's accurate at all, but generally averaging more people into a number is better than just one person's number.



These are the reasons that I'm coming up with for staying in a monorail resort or Epcot resort. We'll be out of carseats by then. DS1 will probably be with nothing and the other 2 in boosters, so easier for sure. We never take public transportation, so I figure the kids will think it's neat .

if you're looking at epcot or monorail resorts, I wouldn't even worry about transportation. honestly. they are convenient and wonderful resorts. It's a shame that AKL isn't more accessible without a car because it was a FANTASTIC resort.

[KrisM]

if you're looking at epcot or monorail resorts, I wouldn't even worry about transportation. honestly. they are convenient and wonderful resorts. It's a shame that AKL isn't more accessible without a car because it was a FANTASTIC resort.

There would have to be some outstanding discounts for that one. Waaaay out of our budget! It does sound nice!

[westwoodmom04]

I can see the upside of using Disney transportation, but here's why we liked having a car: took us only twenty minutes or so to get to the resort from the airport, we didn't have to stop at any other resorts like the shuttle does. We had our bags with us as soon as we arrived. We could chose our departure time for airport which we could not have done with Disney express.

We were able to get a "good" parking spot at our resort (BLT) every time we took the car out. There was no charge for parking and we could park free at every park as guests staying at a Disney resort. It didn't take more than 10 minutes to drive to any park and we never had to sit around waiting for the bus. Having a car enabled us to go to AKL for dinner which is virtually inaccessible by Disney public transportation (you can get there, but would probably take an hour from MK resorts). That resort is really something special, and the food there was probably the best of our trip.

In contrast, it took 30 minutes to monorail to Epcot from the Contemporary. A good portion of the time we were there only one monorail was running, and it drives me crazy how the monorail only runs in one direction. We did get a taste of the monorail (took to Epcot and dinners at Polynesian and Grand Floridian) and the boat (took to Wilderness Lodge for dinner). We walked to MK. We didn't step foot on a bus.

I'm not really a car person. I commuted to work nearly the whole time I was working by foot or by metro/train. This is one of those decisions where you just have to go with the method that works best for your family; there is no right or wrong way.