Traveling to universal while staying in Disney hotel.
Walt Disney World: What ways there are to get to other attractions while staying within disney
Hi, im garry from england. I will be 24 when I visit Orlando and my girlfriend will be 21. I have booked up for 2 weeks staying in a Disney resort hotel and have already bought all of my park tickets. My querie is, what is the best way to travel to universal/seaworld/international drive attractions whilst staying within Disney?
I really do not want to hire a car, the opposite side of the road thing worries me. And according to some websites a taxi would cost $40 between Disney and universal.
Any suggestions would be brilliant. Thank you.
Short of renting a car I believe a taxi would be the best bet. I could be wrong, but I don't believe there are shuttles for International Drive area at the Disney resorts.
Yeah. Sadly that's about the only two options. Taxi is probably the best!
Several of the hotels on Hotel Plaza Blvd. (near Downtown Disney) have rental car counters. I don't have personal experience with them, but I wonder if taking Magical Express from the airport, then picking up a car at one of the hotels might be cheaper than renting from the airport.
There's also an Orlando Lynx city bus that stops at TTC, Downtown Disney Westside and SeaWorld (route 50), if you want to get from Disney to SeaWorld. But the two public transit options from there to Universal aren't great. Either stay on the 50 to downtown Orlando, then pick up one of the three routes that head back down to Universal Orlando, or ride the I-Drive "I-Ride" trolley green line from SeaWorld up to Major Blvd. and Kirkman and walk the rest of the way to Universal.
(See how the local government helps Disney to keep you from going directly from Disney to Universal?)
yeah i travel from universal area i use the iride and lynx bus (route 50) to get to and from disney it's the cheapest option so i would go with robert's suggestion unless you can afford the cab fare
From Tom Rigg
Posted January 16, 2012 at 5:08 AM
Mears (who owns essentially all of transportation in Orlando) does have a shuttle service you can rent, but its pricey. That said, if you can find several other people who want to go out those days you can bring the cost down to as cheap at 10 a person each. You may try posting on some forums and whatnot, just looking for other people trying to do the same thing as when you are and using a larger number of people to bring down the price.
Also, using Lynx to get to and from Disney property as a tourist is awful for two reasons. One: the timing is not set up for tourism, but for commerce so the arrival and departure times often don't sync up with touring agendas. Two: it takes an exorbitant amount of time to get from Disney to Universal on the bus system, something like 2+ hours. I did it once and will never never never never do it again. Nothing went wrong per say, its just that as it is, the system is far from optimal.
Mears Taxi is really your best bet. It's pricey, but you can schedule them in advance and there are always cabs standing at Universal and all the Disney resorts and parks.
I have been given a free hire car with my holiday package but I would have to pay around £220 ($340) insurance for the two weeks. I don't want to have to spend 2 hours going each way to and from universal but I will spend a lot of days in Disney. Would say 1 week of taxi's cost more than that?
From Scott B
Posted January 16, 2012 at 6:03 AM
I say be adventurous and go for the car. Orlando has some of the cheapest car rentals I have ever seen. I remember being freaked out when I rented a car in England, but after the first day, I got used to the driving on the opposite side of the road thing.
And driving in the Orlando area is way easier because of the wider and straighter roads. When ever I visit down there I just know where to go, the roads makes sense. Whereas here in the Boston area I still need my GPS from time to time because NOTHING makes sense.
Just wanted to say it will not take 2 hours to drive to Universal from any Disney resort hotel. The drive isn't that bad at all.
I've never had it take two hours to get from any area of Disney over towards Universal, even on the surface roads on Saturday in august.
Your maybe 30 minutes, 45 at the most if their is a solid ton of traffic on the way in. The Orlando roads, at least in the tourist area aren't very hard to navigate and are fairly well marked out. Honestly a week of a taxi and rental car plus insurance and parking fee is probably about the same price in the long run. So it would depends on what you'd think is more convenient.
Weighing the Circumstances, keeping yourself and others safe you should probablly take a taxi. But maybe i read it wrong but if your going to Disney for part of it, there is a very nifty bus that picks you up at your hotel that is 100% free. That bus takes you to all of the parks of course whichever one the bus is labled. I've seen how hard and destructive it can be to Drive on the oppisite side of the road you are used to. So consider a taxi, bus, anything that you won't have to drive yourself is suitable.
Thanks everyone that has got back to me, I went on meats website and pretended to book a taxi from my hotel to universal = $30. So even if I go to universal 4 times (2 parks 2 nights) it would cost $240 which is no where near the price of the insurance. So I'll play it safe (this time) I will be returning to Florida in years to come so I will drive then.
Thanks everyone.
Garry said, "I went on meats website "
Do they have fish and chips, too? :) J/K! Welcome to TPI!
This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.
