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Car Hire & Transportation Discuss the best way of getting around Florida.

View Poll Results: Do you hire a car when staying on site at WDW?
Yes - for the whole duration of the holiday 126 63.00%
Yes - only for part of the holiday 31 15.50%
No 43 21.50%
Voters: 200. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 13 Jun 18, 08:50 AM  
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act1980
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Do you still hire a car when staying on site?

Hi everyone

We're staying on site at the Poly for 14 nights and I'm unsure as to whether to hire a car or not. This will be our first complete on site stay so I'm used to having the freedom a car gives us.

We're planning on mostly relying on Disney transport but do you think it's worth hiring a car just for a few days at least? We do like to visit the malls and get our fix in Target & Walmart while there. We will have our DD with us so we won't be driving to the parks as we'll have to up the stroller and get on the tram each time. The buses take you straight to the park entrance so I don't think we would bother driving to the parks, just the malls.

I've just priced up a one way journey to the Florida Mall with Mears and it's not cheap. A few journeys like that will end up costing a fortune.

What do you do?
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Old 13 Jun 18, 08:55 AM  
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choccielover
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we do because i hate being reliant on "public" transport. when i'm ready to leave or go i want to move, not stand in a line.

we aren't drinkers so its not like we miss out on having a cheeky tipple with dinner though so this may be a consideration for others.
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Old 13 Jun 18, 09:03 AM  
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stupet11
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We booked Hertz hire for couple of days in advance when staying at OKW one year. It was quire cheap - and they picked us up from OKW and dropped us back after (the car pick up point was at Bonnet Creak).

Usually we have needed a car as saved money by landing at other airports to MCO, done split stays or the car has been part of the package.

When we have had car onsite, we've used it less than half the time. Find buses more relaxing. Not much time to be made up, after parking, getting tram etc. Depends on park and time...
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Old 13 Jun 18, 09:05 AM  
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SimplyDisney
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It tends to cost me £200 per week for an SUV. We stayed in Polynesian (2 weeks) and GF (1 week) in May and we hired the car. We have always hired a car but this year I did think we could have planned a bit better and saved by taking it for half the trip for instance. I then think about the hassle to or from the airport, not being able to change plans spontaneously etc. for instance the weather broke in our third week and we were caught in Animal Kingdom in a downpour. Having the car to jump into with the kids was worth the cost alone rather than waiting for buses! It's just a convenience thing though. With Uber and even the Minnie Van Service combined with the Monorail and the boats/buses you probably don't 'need' it as much but it's nice to have. We aren't big drinkers either which I suspect would have a bearing on your decision.
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Old 13 Jun 18, 09:12 AM  
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We do. We prefer the flexibility.
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Old 13 Jun 18, 09:15 AM  
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Yes. We like to be able to go where we want when we want.
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Old 13 Jun 18, 09:20 AM  
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We have always had a car. I did consider not getting one this year as it was coming out really expensive, but when I costed out all the trips using Uber fare estimator there was only going to be about a €100 saving, so decided that we'd keep it. I then subsequently sourced the same class of car for almost 1/2 the original price so that was decision made.

We do, however, do a lot of off-site travel (even when we had the DDP), this year we don't have the DDP so they're likely be even more. We are also doing Busch and KSC which would have been both expensive and more time consuming without a car. For the 4 of us, including accom, flights, food, etc it's an expensive holiday (like us all ) well into 5 figures, so the convenience of having a car versus the cost gives us so much more flexibility. Christmas is an extremely busy time, so we generally do the EMH park in the morning to midday or early afternoon, then head off and come back later at night to use FP's etc, or we just change our mind and head to waterparks, it's nice to be able to decide at the drop of a hat, simply hop into the car and go.

Also instead of Mears, why not look at Uber, it's far cheaper, though you'd likely have to have your own car seat with you for the little one. They have a fare estimator so you'll get a rough idea of prices
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Old 13 Jun 18, 09:33 AM  
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Tynxuk
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Our first visit we had a fly drive deal so used the car to get to Disney but only used it for one walmart trip during 11 night stay then on to Universal & KSC.

Our original plan for this year was rely completely on Disney transport but a few blips in our plan allowed us to add 3 nights to our holiday but no availability at our chosen resort for the first night so opted for 1 day hire car and 2 bed apartment at a nearby resort, as a family of 5 it's cheaper to hire a car for the day than uber from airport then uber the following day to POR especially as we paid for it using avios points from last years fly drive.
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Old 13 Jun 18, 09:36 AM  
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act1980
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Thanks for the replies so far! We will have our DD with us too so I'm thinking of the convenience of not having to park & then fold up the stroller and get on the tram each time. I guess with the buses they take you straight to the park entrance so I don't think we would bother driving to the parks, just the malls.
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Old 13 Jun 18, 09:44 AM  
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Originally Posted by act1980 View Post
Hi everyone

We're staying on site at the Poly for 14 nights and I'm unsure as to whether to hire a car or not. This will be our first complete on site stay so I'm used to having the freedom a car gives us.

We're planning on mostly relying on Disney transport but do you think it's worth hiring a car just for a few days at least? We do like to visit the malls and get our fix in Target & Walmart while there.

I've just priced up a one way journey to the Florida Mall with Mears and it's not cheap. A few journeys like that will end up costing a fortune.

What do you do?
Have you thought of using uber? We have always stayed on site with occasional trips to Universal / Malls / Walmart and its always worked out cheaper to use them than to rent a car.

I have just checked on my uber history and here was the costs for a few of our trips so you can work out whether its worth it:

AKL - Walmart - $20 Return
AKL - Universal $22 Return
AKL - Florida Mall $35 Return

Can't find how much to any of the outlets unfortunately but you can download the app and put the locations in to estimate the price.
Max we spend on transport for the entire holiday for us is max $80!
Hope this helps
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