Bonnet creek transportation options

[bnoble]

Orlando is not particularly difficult to drive in. The tourist zones do have more than their fair share of cars making last minute decisions to e.g. exit the freeway from something other than the right lane. But as long as you are paying attention, no big deal.

 

[ShawnH]

SFB to Walt Disney World is around 51-55 minutes using the Greeneway (toll roads), depending on where at WDW you're going. WDW is over 40 square miles (DisneyLand in CA can fit in the Hollywood Studios parking lot).

TS

Mostly just from airport to bonnet creek. I’ll have to figure out navigating to what park I want from bonnet creek from there

 

[ShawnH]

Orlando is not particularly difficult to drive in. The tourist zones do have more than their fair share of cars making last minute decisions to e.g. exit the freeway from something other than the right lane. But as long as you are paying attention, no big deal.

So not any worse then traversing any large city, with maybe the exception of Atlanta which still is the worst driving experience I’ve ever had.

 

[ShawnH]

SFB to Walt Disney World is around 51-55 minutes using the Greeneway (toll roads), depending on where at WDW you're going. WDW is over 40 square miles (DisneyLand in CA can fit in the Hollywood Studios parking lot).

TS

This brings to mind another question, how do the tolls work in Florida especially in a rental car. If I were in my personal car my states Etag would work in Florida but since im going to be in a rental might be handy to understand the toll system there. I know several states are moving to cashless tolling.

 

[rickandcindy23]

MCO has serious baggage handling issues. We waited over 90 minutes for our bags to hit the carousel, with lots of apologies by Southwest employees, while the belt stopped repeatedly, jamming the system. This was mid-May.

Rick had the car from an off-site lot and was heading back, and I told him the luggage wasn't there yet. He was surprised and had to pull into the cell phone lot to wait for me to call. When our luggage finally did arrive, the backup was 30 minutes to get to passenger pickup because of the luggage delay. Cars were packed in the pickup area and not one cop was directing people to move out. It was a nightmare of an evening.

Talking to an employee, she said it was becoming a problem nearly daily. It was even a Wednesday. Think of that? I booked Bonnet Creek for a few days before to save on airfare.

 

[ShawnH]

MCO has serious baggage handling issues. We waited over 90 minutes for our bags to hit the carousel, with lots of apologies by Southwest employees, while the belt stopped repeatedly, jamming the system. This was mid-May.

Rick had the car from an off-site lot and was heading back, and I told him the luggage wasn't there yet. He was surprised and had to pull into the cell phone lot to wait for me to call. When our luggage finally did arrive, the backup was 30 minutes to get to passenger pickup because of the luggage delay. Cars were packed in the pickup area and not one cop was directing people to move out. It was a nightmare of an evening.

Talking to an employee, she said it was becoming a problem nearly daily. It was even a Wednesday. Think of that? I booked Bonnet Creek for a few days before to save on airfare.

I’ve noticed post pandemic that there are a lot of efficiency issues everywhere……. We could speculate on this but that’s best left to another forum probably.

I don’t think baggage will be an issue on the flight out since I’m fairly confident we can fit everything into our carry on, we will take an extra bag to pack our souvenirs in that we likely will check on the return flight.

There is a reason we no longer take flights with connections. Our trip in 2022 had probably the worst traveling experience of my life on both the outbound and returning trip. Now we search all the airports in a 2-3 hour radius for direct flights, if there are none consider the time it takes to drive or in one instance we chartered a private plane. I won’t lie and say private charter was cheap by any stretch but not dealing with the terminal, security, baggage, other passengers ect was a wonderful traveling experience. For reference the trip we took was slightly more expensive than a typical first class ticket, but flight time, aircraft type, destination airport and amount of passengers all play a role in cost of private charter. I will say the price was much lower than I had anticipated.

If I were more wealthy I’d likely travel this way all the time, it was that nice. And we only used a turbo prop aircraft I hear the small jets are nicer and faster. Now since we’ve done it once I get emails all the time on “specials”.

 

[bnoble]

how do the tolls work in Florida

Most areas are cashless and will do toll-by-plate, but there are few places still with cash as an option. I have what is now called the Uni to avoid thinking about all that. It works pretty much everywhere east of the Mississippi. Very convenient, and easy to move from car to car. Don't forget to de-register your rental car, or you'll be paying tolls for the next driver even if you remove the transponder.

CFX

The Central Florida Expressway Authority is responsible for construction, maintenance and operation of toll roads in four counties of Greater Orlando.

www.cfxway.com

 

[dioxide45]

This brings to mind another question, how do the tolls work in Florida especially in a rental car. If I were in my personal car my states Etag would work in Florida but since im going to be in a rental might be handy to understand the toll system there. I know several states are moving to cashless tolling.

It all depends on the rental car company. They all seem to have slightly different policies on how they handle tolls. Some have a transponder in the car that can be activated and deactivated. Some use toll by plate. Either one works if you have your own SunPass or EPass transponder. Many of the tolls in Orlando are all electronic. You wouldn't have that issue with MCO as the ones in and around there still tend to have manned tollbooths or still take coins through a hopper. However from Sanford there are many more all electronic tolls. Especially the I-4 Express Lane. That I-4 Express Lane is by far the best thing ever made and would help significantly getting from Sanford to Bonnet Creek. If you don't already have a compatible toll transponder (Florida tolls are compatible with many other state systems), you may be best to order a SunPass Pro transponder on their website and have it sent to your home and take it with you. Setup an account online and then tell the toll agency that you don't want to use their toll system. Alamo is easy as they use Toll By Plate, so as long as you have a transponder and register the vehicle before you hit the first toll, the tolls will all go against your SunPass account.

 

[ShawnH]

It all depends on the rental car company. They all seem to have slightly different policies on how they handle tolls. Some have a transponder in the car that can be activated and deactivated. Some use toll by plate. Either one works if you have your own SunPass or EPass transponder. Many of the tolls in Orlando are all electronic. You wouldn't have that issue with MCO as the ones in and around there still tend to have manned tollbooths or still take coins through a hopper. However from Sanford there are many more all electronic tolls. Especially the I-4 Express Lane. That I-4 Express Lane is by far the best thing ever made and would help significantly getting from Sanford to Bonnet Creek. If you don't already have a compatible toll transponder (Florida tolls are compatible with many other state systems), you may be best to order a SunPass Pro transponder on their website and have it sent to your home and take it with you. Setup an account online and then tell the toll agency that you don't want to use their toll system. Alamo is easy as they use Toll By Plate, so as long as you have a transponder and register the vehicle before you hit the first toll, the tolls will all go against your SunPass account.

Thanks for this information, the pass we have in our state affixes to the vehicle and cannot be moved from vehicle to vehicle though I heard there is a version you can. Maybe the first thing I’ll do is call and find out about that option first since I already have an account there. Next thing I’d do if that doesn’t pan out is the sun pass you mentioned.

 

[steve_solo]

Good advice to stick with common rental agencies like Alamo, Budget, Avis, etc.
I rented from some outfit named Argus in Ft Lauderdale.
The car had a built in transponder but you had to prepay $10/day to use it, plus the tolls to your credit card.
If you declined theirs, there was a $50 fee each time you hit a toll. You could not use your own transponder.
Luckily I knew how to get to Pompano without hitting a toll.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I’ll have to figure out navigating to what park I want from bonnet creek from there

That part is easy. WDW road signs are very easy to follow.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

So not any worse then traversing any large city, with maybe the exception of Atlanta which still is the worst driving experience I’ve ever had.

Driving in the areas around WDW isn’t like City driving at all. It’s more akin to suburban driving.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

This brings to mind another question, how do the tolls work in Florida especially in a rental car. If I were in my personal car my states Etag would work in Florida but since im going to be in a rental might be handy to understand the toll system there. I know several states are moving to cashless tolling.

The road from SFB to Disney has cash toll options. I’d just make sure to have a bunch of quarters because I think some might be exact change only at certain times of day. Your worst case scenario if you don’t have exact change is they bill the rental company which bills you (and depending on the company might add a premium).

 

[Zekes]

Also Wait times for cars are way less at SFB

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

The road from SFB to Disney has cash toll options. I’d just make sure to have a bunch of quarters because I think some might be exact change only at certain times of day. Your worst case scenario if you don’t have exact change is they bill the rental company which bills you (and depending on the company might add a premium).

Not any more, the Greeneway (SR-417) between SFB and WDW is 100% cashless. All the cash toll booths are permanently closed. If you do not have a transponder, they'll do a toll-by-plate, but they will charge an additional $25.

TS

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Not any more, the Greeneway (SR-417) between SFB and WDW is 100% cashless. All the cash toll booths are permanently closed. If you do not have a transponder, they'll do a toll-by-plate, but they will charge an additional $25.

TS

Is that super recent? We last flew into SFB Christmas last year and we were still using quarters.

 

[ShawnH]

Is that super recent? We last flew into SFB Christmas last year and we were still using quarters.

I know a lot of states are moving to cashless tolling, mine recently did and even though they claimed we would be able to access our accounts 2 weeks after the switch to make any changes i still have no access. The plus is the trip isnt until the end of january so i have hope that i can get a portable transponder to move between vehicles before then since our system works with florida. If not ill just pay what ever rental company i wind up with their fee. Right now the best price i have found is with my costco membership thru enterprise which is a mini van for just under $400 for the week.