Buses, Monorails, or Car?

One of the biggest problems Allison and I are having when planning our epic Disney World trip is deciding which hotel we should stay at.  We keep saying that we’ve made up our mind, but at least once a week we investigate another option.  Right now we’re in a really big debate about Port Orleans French Quarter and the Yacht and Beach Club resorts.  There are two factors that are really making this decision difficult, price and location.

While price is a fairly easy term to figure out, paying less money is always better, location is really much more complicated.  The biggest problem we have with location is wondering if the location of our hotel can really make a difference towards improving our visit.  Disney has many different transportation options to choose from, from buses, to monorails, to highways.  You can pretty much get anywhere you’ll need to go from any hotel.  The problem is how convenient are al of these transportation methods.

The Monorails seem like they’re pretty efficient, they run on time, they’re fast, and they seem like they’re big enough to handle some big loads.  The problem with the monorails is the limited places that it goes.  Park wise you basically have Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, hotel wise there’s only 3 directly on the Monorail line.  The buses go everywhere, but I’m told that they can be very crowded.  They also don’t go from one resort to another, only from the resorts to the parks.  So if you want to travel to a resort for a meal, you’ll be transferring.

The other option is our car.  Since we’re driving all the way down from Canada, we’ll have our car with us.  Each of the parks offers free parking for all guests staying on site.  The resorts all offer free parking as well.  With the car we’ll have the flexibility to travel where we want, when we want.  The problem is gas prices, having to walk through crowded parking lots, and the general inconvenience of having a car.

This is why we’re having such a hard time picking a hotel.  Is it worth getting a hotel that’s a little closer to the action, and relying on Disney transportation?  Or is it better to stay in a cheaper hotel and just drive to the parks and resorts.  Just because we’re staying closer to the action, does that mean we won’t be driving at all, or are there still a few things we’ll want to drive to?