If you’re under 21 years old, you know that life between 18 and 21 is rough and kind of confusing. You’re technically an adult, but can’t do anything that adult can do, like drink or take someone to a rated R movie. Among these oppressions is the ability to rent a car. If by some miracle of God you manage to find a rental company that will rent to people under 21 or even under 25, be prepared to pay out the ass for insurance costs. I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the next few years that will magically transform me into a responsible driver, but I digress.
The moral of the story is there is no cheap way to get your lovely under-25 self from MCO to Disney World and then to the various destinations within. Thankfully, Disney has provided many travel options. First, and my most beloved, is Magical Express, a bus service from the airport to your Disney accommodations, along with your luggage, for FREE. Once you’re on property, there are buses, boats, and monorails to get you between any two places on property. Gone are the worries of remembering where you parked, hauling across the parking lot, and paying $10 a day for parking. Gone, too, are the battles over who has to stay sober during a night at La Cava de Tequila in order to drag your drunken comrades back to your All-Star suite (if you’re over 21, of course *coughcough*). For our younger crowd, let your parents know that Disney has superb security and, as well as being the most magical, is the safest place on earth, and they’re likely to let your unlicensed butt travel wherever you please without needing to call Mommy and Daddy to come pick you up. It’s just too good to be true!
Well, it isn’t that good. In order to take advantage of this lovely perk, you have to be staying on property. The extra cost of staying in a Disney hotel could be more than renting a car and staying off property. And driving from Caribbean Beach to Ohana is going to take a lot less time than waiting 30 minutes for a bus to Magic Kingdom and then taking the monorail to the Polynesian. If you decide to watch Wishes at Magic Kingdom afterwords, you may not be thrilled about the prospect of watching three buses go by as you wait to move up in the bus stop line. You may be even less thrilled that when you finally get on a bus, you’ll be standing next to fifty other people who also want to be back at their hotels and will do anything to get on a bus. Also, you have to accommodate EVERYONE. No hate to my differently-abled friends, but once I had to wait for literally seven people in wheelchairs to be strapped onto a bus after waiting forty minutes for said bus to arrive. Not a great way to start off the day. And if you’re a hardcore night owl, you’ll be shit out of luck when Disney transportation stops running two hours after park closing.
So the system’s not perfect, but, hey, it’s free. Unfortunately, for those of us that can’t rent a car, there aren’t many other options. For the littleuns who can’t drive, it’s a having-the-world-at-your-feet dream come true. Either way, it’s another way that Disney tries to get you to stay on property and it works on me.
What do you guys think of Disney transportation? When do you use it and when do you opt for another system? Let me know in the comments!
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