to drive or not?

[jturnage]

We leave next week (March 4th) for 4 days and we are staying at CBR, in a Pirate Rooms . We are a family of 6. My question is I have read from several ppl the location of our room is pretty far from the main pool food court etc. which Im ok with. The part that concerns me though is the bus situation.We have only ever stayed at mostly deluxe resorts that have boats or monorail access so this is a new 1 for me. We will be driving in so we will have our own car. Should we take our own car to the parks etc? I dont want to be crammed on late busses and every become frustrated. However I think the busses are such a part of the Disney Vacation that I cant decide. HELP!:mickey:

[disney100%]

We love CBR. We rent a car so it makes the commute to parks easier. I would suggest taking the bus to Magic Kingdom - otherwise, you have to drive to the TTC and then take the monorail or ferry to MK. This upcoming trip, we made and ADR for breakfast at Chef Mickey's on one of the days we are visiting MK. So, we will drive to the Contemporary and then after breakfast walk into the park. We'll then get our car on our way back to the hotel for afternoon naps. The ride to all other parks by car is very easy. I would highly recommend taking your car to the parks. The buses at CBR fill up by the time they get to Trinidad South (we stayed in that section once). We spent many rides standing.

[crltkcagle]

We have never stayed at that particular resort but we drive and always drive our own car to the parks. Dh hates taking the bus. It is much easier to come and go when you have your own car. Plus there's no long line to wait in at park closing. You jump on a tram and go to your car. I like to ride the buses and agree that its part of disney! I also like to talk to different people on the buses and see where everyone is from.

[kakn7294]

We have stayed at CBR although not in the section with the Pirate rooms. Both times we've stayed there, we've had a car and both times, it's never left the lot once it was parked. We always rely on Disney transportation just because we feel it's so much nicer to jump on a bus / boat / monorail and leave the driving to someone else. I'd rather wait for the bus than drive myself.

[caryrae]

We rent a car, it is very easy to get around and if we decide we don't want to go straight back to the Resort after a Park we can. Parking is free and getting in and out of the lot is pretty easy in our experiences. Either way you do it works just fine.

[caryrae]

This upcoming trip, we made and ADR for breakfast at Chef Mickey's on one of the days we are visiting MK. So, we will drive to the Contemporary and then after breakfast walk into the park. We'll then get our car on our way back to the hotel for afternoon naps.

Can you do this? I thought you were only allowed to park at a Resort you are not staying for only a few hours?

[crazypoohbear]

Can you do this? I thought you were only allowed to park at a Resort you are not staying for only a few hours?
This is their rule and at the MK resorts this is much more strictly inforced. I personally would not want to risk having my car towed while I was at the park.
Park at the TTC, take the monorail to the resort and save the worries.

[Mitzie]

When we stayed at CRB we only had one small problem waiting for a bus to MK to go to MVMCP. We were in Barbados so it wasn't that the bus was full. One just didn't come. I know what you mean about the buses being apart of Disney. We were just laughing the other day about that guys voice..."Take small children by the hand"...We personally like the buses and can't wait to get back to Disney and hear that guy.

[azcavalier]

We always used Disney Transportation until our last trip. Then we found out that we could park for free at the parks (didn't know this previously). So, we tried it. It was awesome. The buses can be fun, but you waste so much time waiting for them, stopping at other places, etc, etc.

Here's an example of why we would drive. We have never stayed for any of the fireworks shows at Epcot. We never wanted to fight the crowds to get out, wait in line for a bus with young, tired kids in tow, and then have to stand all the way back to the resort. But we drove, got decent parking, and after Illuminations we walked out to our car, drove back to POR, and got the kids in bed within 20 minutes. It was *awesome*. Had we tried to catch a bus, we would probably have still been waiting for one by the time we were actually in bed relaxing.

Only two problems driving your own car:

1. You really still can't drive to MK. You have to go to the TTC and take the monorail, so you're still having to wait on Disney Transportation. In this case, i'd just take the bus/boat/whatever to the MK.

2. Disney really hasn't done a very good job of Wayfinding on their freeway system. Many of the signs are not clear as to where you need to go. For example, coming out of POR, the sign says to go a certain way for "Theme Parks". But if you go that way, it takes you to the MK, which is the wrong direction. You have to flip a U turn, go back, and figure out how to get to Epcot. So IF you drive your own car, use a map to figure out how to get to where you want to go. Don't rely on Disney's signs.

[TwinniesNMeLoveWDW]

I've always used the WDW transportation on all of our trips whether we had our car with us or not, until last August. I agree that the buses continue that Disney immersion while you're there, but we decided to drive to the parks during our last trip, and I couldn't believe how much time we saved! There are 2 times where you'll save the most time by driving a car:
a) travelling resort-to-resort (ie dining reservations)
b) leaving the parks at the end of the night
Also, it was nice to know that we all always had a seat on the way back to the resort, regardless of how crowded the parks and buses were!

[TwinniesNMeLoveWDW]

So IF you drive your own car, use a map to figure out how to get to where you want to go. Don't rely on Disney's signs.

I agree with this as well! We used a map and our GPS; wouldn't have found anything just following the signs.

[OogieBoogieMan]

We always prefer to have a car, it just seems more convenient, especially on the way out.