Please be honest,how BAD is the public transport in Orlando?

This is a question for the peeps that are there now or were there already-but anyone eles can answer?
Truthfully speaking, how bad is the public transportation system in Orlando? If people don’t have cars, will we died trying to get around? ???
For example, I live in Dollard des Ormeaux, Quebec that is a suburb of Montreal. The public buses run every 30 mins with the closest metro (sorry: Subway! For the non-Quebecer!) being about 45mins by bus to get to . However once you are in Montreal the public buses run every 5-10 mins and you also have the metro (I mean subway) that can take you almost anywhere in MTL in under 30mins.
So is the Orlando public transportation system similar to MTL or is it similar to DDO? Or would I be better off buying a car in Orlando? ???
Thanks in advance for the info,
Aliyyah

 

if u dont want to buy a car you will probably be better of renting one cos it will be easier and cheaper (thats what im doing) public transport isnt that great to be honest unless your on the international drive aarea then there is plenty of buses and taxis but staying in disney were not that near to that - hope this helps (if i cant sara can lol)
Kel xx ;D

 

Thanks for the advice! around how much is it to rent a car vs. taking public transport?
Ali

 

it definatly depends on the company but i think some give a discount to disney employees - this is a question for sara or tinkerbell cos they no loads - if there not on here now they will be later on ;D

 

Thanks!

 

across from the commons is the premium outlet mall where there is a link bus stop.......

from that stop u can get on a bus to go the whole way up I-drive and also u can get to florida mall, there are also busses to busch gardens........ so u have some pretty good options there without having to rent a car........and u just walk thru the church parking lot to get to the mall

its never more than 1.25 dollars each way on the bus depending on how far u go, in fact the bus that takes u to florida mall goes on to the international airport i think so u can even get to there!

its worth hiring a car to go for trips, like to the beach and stuff, and we always used to hire them if someone was leaving, so we could take them to the airport, and make sure that wen u do hire a car u take a trip to walmart in it to pick up heavy items such as boxes of washing powder, bottled water and any goods that are heavy or will melt easily, this is where u can buy huge tubs of ice cream and get it home before it melts cos u dont have to wait for crappy dynamic to pick u up and then dont have to sit at crappy vista for 15 mins before getting to commons!!!

as for renting a car, we used to use AVIS cos they give discount to disney employees and also because u work for disney u can hire from age 18 which is a bonus, u just ring them from the commons and say wat time u want them to come pick u up and they send out a driver to collect u from the commons and take u to their base which is at the hilton in downtown disney.... then they sort you out with a car and give u the keys and voila..... u have rented a car........ i think it was around 80 dollars for a day, maybe a little cheaper....... and wen u had four people in the car going on a trip to the beach for the day that was only like 20 dollars each which is nothing!!!!!

in my opinion AVIS were the best cos they had the best service......... my fave car to rent was the Chevrolet Impala, it had 3 seats in the front and 3 in the back and was still in cheap category for hiring

laura
xxxxx

 

lol kelly

ali yeah the public transport isnt that great, i mean we can get around disney easy enough with the commons transport, which has supposedly improved recently, ive heard its not bad at all.
international drive is actually pretty close, just the other side of the mall, i mean the i-ride which u go on for $1 is good way of gettin up and down there where the shops/restaurants/hotels r. so thats not too bad

i mean theres a bus to wal mart from the commons for food shoppin but theres also a publix behind the premium outlets which is good for doin bits if u need 2, and the crossroads centre is just under the i-4 a short walk away which has a goodings, and all fast food places like burger king, mcdonalds, taco bell, and a tgi fridays.

but yeah on the transport issue again its not great, but places u need 2 get things frm r pretty close or in easy reach, theres ways to get around it like car hire is good, not sure on the actual rate from the car rental place we get discount as its near downtown disney at one of the hotels,. im sure someone will tell u more on that tho one of the guys there at the min

anythin else u wana ask, just holla

xxx

 

god yeh i just remembered the wonder of crossroads..... we didnt bother walking there because it takes about half hour and in the heat... man u would pass out!!!

we used to get a taxi to there, one of the minibus ones, was cheap enough and usually we rang kojak cos he was fun! or the other taxi firm that was good was yellow cabs i think their number was 407-699-9999 so there u go girls and boys stick that in ur address book and ul be sorted for gettin a taxi in ur first few days at commons!

word of advice, try not to do much shopping at goodings cos its damn expensive, we worked out that its so expensive cos they ahve to maintain the upkeep of the CARPETTED floor in that supermarket!!! LOL

we only used goodings for cashing our disney checks in the first few weeks.......but we used to go to TGI's all the time cos it was great and if u walked round the corner into the parking lot and went over to the fence near the miniature golf, there was a hole and u could walk thru to the part where hooters is and theres a great place called CICI'S PIZZA and basically u pay like 4 dollars for all u can eat, its so good, u get salad buffet and pizza buffet and pudding buffet too, their brownies were so good and they had great cinnamon buns too!!! mmmmmmm

and if u show them ur cm ID at cici's u get a lil card and everytime u visit u get a stamp on the card and after visiting 5 times u get ur 6th time free!!!! yay!!!! its a great place for merchies to go cos u wont ahve any money

just a few lil tips there for ya

 

hehe does it take that long... i guess as ive only ever drove past and not walked from the commons to crossroads its deceiving

yeah pirates cove and hooters haha! and red lobsters there as well, crossroads its a cool little place

ive never been cici's ill defo b goin there tho, cheers for the tip laura.

sizzlers just a bit further up the road from crossroads as well, love that place

xxx

 

yeh well because u have the I-4 running between the commons and crossroads there is no easy way to get there so u have to walk a long way round and yeh it realyl does take ages! if there were a subway running under the I-4 then ud be there in minutes.....

there is also olive garden just up from crossroads, altho the walk up that bit of road is a little precarious, uneven pavement (my friend fell over walking along there! nearly pissed myself laughing with steve!) but well worth it cos i like olive garden, they ahve the most gorgeous bread sticks, its worth going there just for them!!!!!

there is a dynamic bus which goes to crossroads but takes forever so we just used to get taxi there but sometimes would get bus back as the route was fairly short back to commons

 

OMG ;D guys, all this info is AWSOME!!!!! and the tips are great too!!!! I was getting worried for a bit there cause other posts were saying how you needed to buy a car to get around. I feel alot better for not having to be responsible for any used car!
Anyways keep them coming I am sure this is helping other people as well ;D !!!!!
PS: Thanks for mentioning that there is a Taco Bell, Olive Garden and TGI Fridays near by. That answered another question that I had! LOVE all of the resturants!!!YUMMM can't wait to start eating once I am there ;D !!!!

 

yeh buying a car is not a necessity at all.......... dont worry!!!

my roomie decided to buy a car, she worked her ass off and also bought a lot of money with her from norway so she bought one, sometimes i would get a lift in with her, specially wen i was on the 8 am start at work, cos she was in akershus restaurant so she started at 7.30 so i would go to work with her in the car.......

but i survived without one and just made the most of wen i did hire them occassionally, in fact i missed out the greatest thing about having a hire car.........

u can take a trip to mall at millenia and also to target!!!!! that store is so amaze, and like so cheap and has fab clothes (mostly by cherokee - yep the same brand as used by tesco!!)

WE LOVE SUPER TARGET!!!!!

 

yeah i know its down to the 535 and under the i4 2 crossroads it is a longwya, u wud think theyd have a subway or somethin with the amount of people livin/workin there! oh well there u go!

yeah olive garden is cool only ever been once mind

and super target gota get me ass there once i arrive

xxx

 

yeh super target is the cheapest place to buy a christmas tree and decorations for the tree..........

i wish we had super target here!!!

 

I managed to never take the Lynx bus my whole year.  I took the I-Ride once to Sea World (I think)...we called it the Scuzz bus.  Most of the time, I'd rent a car...about $75-80 sounds about right.  It got a little cheaper when I realized that if I booked it on my credit card, it covered the insurance so it saved me about $20-25 bucks.  There was one company though that made you get it if you were under 25, so I just went to another company (can't remember which).  Don't rule out Enterprise, I got some great deals from them.

We used to walk over to the Publix plaza all the time and go to Outback for dinner.  You could get a great steak dinner for like $16 bucks.  There is a Quiznos over there too...get the phone number...they deliver.  I miss lying at the pool and someone yelling for orders...then running back to my apt (luckily only building 8!) for money and having Quiznos by the pool.  Mmmmm...glad we have it here.

Crossroads is great.  We went to TGI's a lot...Craig had lots of points on his card.  Jungle Jim's is okay...the food wasn't great and the service was crap the last couple times i went though.  TGI's is better.  They used to have some good stores too, but a lot of them have closed.  Another girl and I took the bus there one night for dinner and missed it to go home, so we killed the 30 mins or so in Bath and Body works.  We just bought a whole bunch of random stuff because it was like 5 for $30 or something.  Perkins has a good all day breakfast and they have chocolate silk pie which is to die for.

Highly recommend Cici's pizza.  There is a great bar...Kitty O'Sheas in the same plaza, over near Hooters.  Had a couple of very drunken nights there.  Two Cdn girls and I walked home from there one night...very drunk...only made it to Perkins and picked up two weirdo american guys to drive us back to the commons...then ditched them.  i think one of them showed up at the park a couple days later too!!!

If you've never been to Olive Garden, you must go.  Laura is right...you can just order salad and breaksticks if you want.  The Ale House is across the street from Olive Garden and it's pretty good too.  So are a couple great tacky souvenir shops.  One of the UK guys used to play the most useless thing for under $5 game...we got some strange stuff!!!  All of those are a pretty easy walk from Crossroads.

And I must mention Chick-Fil-A beside Vista Way.  Besides Olive Garden, it's my fav American restaurant!!!! (Cracker Barrel is good too, but there isn't one near the Commons).

Shan

 

There is a new Target (unsure of its "Super" status...although they are all super in my books!) on the way to the Kissimmee Walmart at the corner of 535 and 192. It opened after I left, probably September or October.

Shan

 

mmmm yeh i never got round to ordering quizznos but i remember all the times that we would order in to the commons, papa johns was the best ever!! gotta love their cheese sticks!!!!

perkins was good for getting baked goods..... they have a counter in the restaurant where u can buy muffins and stuff, yummm

and how did i forget about outback steakhouse........ once we discovered that place we never bothered going anywhere else for dinner, they ahve the most amazingly gorgeous bread there and its divine, there isnt anywhere else that u can get better bread............ adn then their blooming onion, to die for and the steaks were the best that i had had, they also do fab french onion soup and well, if u find their website or anything or just go their for dinner once, i promise u will love it!!!!!!

there used to be bath and body works at crossroads but they closed it down so now u ahve to go to florida mall for ur bath adn body works stuff, i ahve to say that the warm vanilla sugar range there is divine!!!!!!!!!

 

I think we had Pizza at least once if not twice a week. Yuck.

Shan

 

It sounds a lot like the camp situation...except a little better I would imagine!

I was out in the middle of the mountains so making friends with someone who had a car was a must!

I'm planning on renting if theres somewhere I really want to go (days off etc) - otherwise, I don't think people would really begrudge you a ride

 

I like Winn-Dixe there is one near crossroads. they give you a discount card if you're a Florida resident i used to use the one in Palm Beach all the time and they even let me use the card in Orlando...gooood stuff! ;D