flying down to the college program?

[kmarsico]

i heard if you are flying to the college program at wdw they give you a discount on a shuttle bus. where exactly does the shuttle take you? i need to go to a hotel the night before check in but dont know how id get there. also, how do i get to walmart the night of check in to pick up my site-to-store order? can we use the disney transportation ever though we dont have our ids yet? any help is greatly appreciated! thanks!

 

[SportsChick]

the only place that Magical Express goes is to the Disney resorts - if you're staying at an offsite hotel you'll need to make other arrangements. As for Wal-Mart, I'd go after you do the housing meeting using CP buses - you get your housing ID (needed for the CP buses) first thing in the morning. You don't get your Disney ID until Traditions

 

[taigirl87]

there's also mears shuttle service. they are very familiar with the cp housing and the hotels surrounding wdw. I believe thats the one that you can get a discount on. I used it once, when i came back from visiting my family, and they werent too expensive. I think i paid 20 dollars plus a tip for one way.

 

[kmarsico]

there's also mears shuttle service. they are very familiar with the cp housing and the hotels surrounding wdw. I believe thats the one that you can get a discount on. I used it once, when i came back from visiting my family, and they werent too expensive. I think i paid 20 dollars plus a tip for one way.

yess, i was talking about the mears shuttle, does that take you anywhere specific or is it similar to a taxi & i can tell them where i need to go?
sorry, i am SOO unknowledgable about this, i planned on driving my car down but as of today my parents said i can NOT bring my car

 

[taigirl87]

yess, i was talking about the mears shuttle, does that take you anywhere specific or is it similar to a taxi & i can tell them where i need to go?
sorry, i am SOO unknowledgable about this, i planned on driving my car down but as of today my parents said i can NOT bring my car

im like 99.9 percent sure they will take you anywhere. it is a shared shuttle, and makes stops at different places, so it takes longer, but its not bad, and the drivers are usually really nice! There is a check in place at the airport and you just tell them where you need to go and they give you a ticket/pass thing.
I remember stopping at a lot of different resorts, and I was the last stop at Chatham.

 

[cindyr222]

What hotel are you staying at? If you are booked at the Holiday Inn Sunspree now Holiday Inn Lake Buena Vista, it is right across the street from Vista Way apts. where you will check in the next day. The day you check in, you will get a bus pass for cp's. The cp bus will take you to Walmart that day so you can pick up your things. As for the shuttle from the airport , it depends on where you are staying. If you are staying at a disney resort , you can get magical express transportion for free to your resort. If not, use Mears shuttle service. Show your cp paperwork to the person at Mears counter when you get your ticket for the shuttle. They will give you $5 off. The shuttle goes around to many hotels. It may take a while to get to your hotel depending on where they need to stop. It cost $20 one way plus tip. Taxi is double that unless you share a cab with someone at the airport. Hope this helps.

 

[kmarsico]

What hotel are you staying at? If you are booked at the Holiday Inn Sunspree now Holiday Inn Lake Buena Vista, it is right across the street from Vista Way apts. where you will check in the next day. The day you check in, you will get a bus pass for cp's. The cp bus will take you to Walmart that day so you can pick up your things. As for the shuttle from the airport , it depends on where you are staying. If you are staying at a disney resort , you can get magical express transportion for free to your resort. If not, use Mears shuttle service. Show your cp paperwork to the person at Mears counter when you get your ticket for the shuttle. They will give you $5 off. The shuttle goes around to many hotels. It may take a while to get to your hotel depending on where they need to stop. It cost $20 one way plus tip. Taxi is double that unless you share a cab with someone at the airport. Hope this helps.

it did! thank you, i'm not going until spring 2012 (hopefully) and i'd be staying by myself so id stay at the sunspree so i didnt have a hard time getting to check in! haha

 

[cindyr222]

The hotel is just across the street. We had a pre check in dinner the night before. Formed a facebook group and decided to meet up at the Sunspree at
Applebees for Dinner. Met my roommate there. The people you stand next to in line at check in will be your roommates if they request the same apt. complex and type of room. You can pick one person to room with ahead of time if you find a facebook group or someone on the college board here. The buses are ok but I would have liked a car. I have an hour commute one way to work right now. Not fun. Oh , well I am at Disney! Yeah!

 

[kmarsico]

The hotel is just across the street. We had a pre check in dinner the night before. Formed a facebook group and decided to meet up at the Sunspree at
Applebees for Dinner. Met my roommate there. The people you stand next to in line at check in will be your roommates if they request the same apt. complex and type of room. You can pick one person to room with ahead of time if you find a facebook group or someone on the college board here. The buses are ok but I would have liked a car. I have an hour commute one way to work right now. Not fun. Oh , well I am at Disney! Yeah!

id love to bring my car down, but my parents said itd be too expensive and they dont trust my car down there :/ so i guess im stuck with the busses

 

[cindyr222]

Yeah , same here. You may get lucky and have a short route. I just happen to be the last stop on my route. Oh, well.

 

[bluelobster]

id love to bring my car down, but my parents said itd be too expensive and they dont trust my car down there :/ so i guess im stuck with the busses

It's really not that bad. Disney - and the CP apartments - occupy the far southwestern corner of Orange County - a decent commute from Metro Orlando.

All three apartment complexes have very over-eager security staffs, so the odds are *very* good that no one's going to break in to your car, try to steal it, etc. while you're at home.

When you're actually at work, you're on Disney property, and Disney usually takes their internal security very seriously, so your car is typically safe there as well.

The rest of the time your car is just as safe as it typically would be in any large metro area - if you use common sense, you're fine. Traffic is a mess in the morning and evening rush hours, but again, it's the same as it would be in any other metro.

As for expensive: Since your Florida address isn't actually your permanent address, you can still keep your insurance address as the one back home. It's no different than the standard procedure when you're in college. And as long as avoid about 3 or 4 tourist trap gas stations*, gas prices are the same as they are pretty much everywhere else, MAYBE 10c more expensive at worst.

*There's an Exxon over by Downtown Disney and a Shell on Vineland that like to charge $1.50-$2 more than surrounding stations, since tourists don't know better, and a Chevron by Vista that typically charges 30c-40c more than average. Avoid these three and you're fine.

 

[andylcq]

Nice thread! I really need above answer,thank you!

 

[jeenyus720]

*There's an Exxon over by Downtown Disney and a Shell on Vineland that like to charge $1.50-$2 more than surrounding stations, since tourists don't know better, and a Chevron by Vista that typically charges 30c-40c more than average. Avoid these three and you're fine.

That one on Vineland Ave just stays at $4.99
I've seen it on national news when they're doing stories on high gas prices.