While we’ve long praised using Uber at Disney World, we’ve also expanded our transit options to occasionally include Minnie Vans—the Disney / Lyft rideshare service. In this post, we introduce you to Minnie Vans, discuss their prices, and go over the best and worst ways to use Minnie Vans. Read on to learn all you need to know about Minnie Vans!
What is a Minnie Van?
The Minnie Van service is a partnership between Disney and Lyft that allows guests to request a Cast Member driven vehicle—a van or SUV (Chevy Traverse) themed to Minnie, specifically—for rides around Disney World through the Lyft app. The red and white polka dots design makes these vehicles unmistakable as they make their way around the resort.
Unlike other forms of Disney transportation, Minnie Vans are not free, as discussed more below. Like Uber or regular Lyft, the service allows you to order your own vehicle between two points from the convenience of an app (in this case, the Lyft app). In the case of Minnie Vans, these are Disney vehicles driven by Disney Cast Members.
Minnie Vans come with two car seats in each van. By contrast, UberX Car Seat cars will usually only have one car seat each. It’s rare that a Minnie Van will cost twice as much as an UberX Car Seat, so it will usually make sense to Minnie Van if you need two car seats.
If you’re planning a Walt Disney World vacation, you’ll at least want to be aware of the ins and outs of this transportation option.
Sidenote: Minnie Van Airport Service
Separate from rest of this post—which focuses on using Minnie Vans to get around Walt Disney World—Minnie Vans are available for service to/from Orlando International Airport for Club Level guests only. The one-way price will be $199. If you don’t have Club Level, we have a post on ways to get between MCO and Disney World.
Club Level guests can book Minnie Vans for airport service by calling Disney Signature Services between 9AM and 5PM Eastern Time at (407) 939-7777 or emailing disney.signature.services@disneyworld.com.
The rest of this post focuses on the usual, rideshare Minnie Van service.
Where Can and Can’t Minnie Vans Go
Officially, Minnie Vans can transport you between most points on Walt Disney World property. I’ll admit, I’ve never tried to take one to, say, the Reedy Creek Fire Department, but anywhere you’d regularly need to go should be covered.
This includes all four Disney theme parks, the two water parks, all the Disney hotels, select partner hotels, Disney Springs, Fantasia Gardens, and anywhere else on property I might be forgetting.
As with Uber/Lyft, Minnie Vans will be most useful when going between two hotels. Most pairs of hotels don’t have direct transportation between them, so you might be looking at an hour or more using free Disney transportation or 15 minutes via rideshare.
As we’ll discuss later, Minnie Vans aren’t technically supposed to go off Disney property, though I’ve seen plenty of people claim they’ve done this. Your experience may vary, and I’d never recommend counting on this.
I’ve never heard of any reports of Minnie Vans making it as far as, for example, the Universal Orlando theme parks. For those, you’ll need to use Uber/Lyft or another transportation service.
Minnie Van Prices
The big thing you want to know—and really the thing that matters most here is:
How much do Minnie Vans Cost?
Minnie Vans typically cost between $30 and $70 around Walt Disney World. This compares to $10 to $20 for the lowest price Uber and regular Lyft options and $20 to $30 for Uber options with car seats. You can check rideshare prices, including for Minnie Vans, from anywhere. Just use a start and end location at Disney World to see sample Minnie Van prices in the Lyft app.
When Minnie Vans first debuted, they charged a flat rate for trips around Disney World. That’s no longer the case, and the flat fee has been replaced by a distance-based model.
Do you tip Minnie Van drivers?
Tipping is available in the Lyft app, and Minnie Van drivers will accept cash tips. Personally, I tip a few dollars. Keeping in mind that I find Minnie Vans to be incredibly overpriced already, I tip the amount I would otherwise tip a rideshare driver for this trip.
Minnie Van Hours
Historically, standard operating hours for Minnie Vans have been 6:30AM to 12:30AM. In my experience, these are not reflected in the Lyft app, so you might be able to request a Minnie Van and then be left on the “finding your ride” screen indefinitely. Hours definitely vary somewhat, so if you’re planning on leaving a park late you might want to see if there’s a sign indicating today’s hours:
Using Minnie Vans
If you’re familiar with Lyft or Uber, you should have no problem understanding how to order a Minnie Van. It is simply a ride type in the Lyft app, so when booking your ride you just swipe over to “Minnie Van.” Make sure you reset your pickup and drop off spots from “Lyft Pickup” to “Minnie Van Pickup” when selecting a Minnie Van.
If you’re new to Lyft, here’s a quick primer.
Setting Up your Lyft Account
The first thing you need to do is setup your Lyft account. You can download the Lyft app onto your phone and set up an account, including adding payment information, through the app.
Ordering a Lyft (Or Minnie Van)
Lyft is an intuitive app. When you open it, you’ll be asked “Where are you going?” Type in a destination. Your default pickup is your current location, but you can change that as well if you need to be picked up at a different spot (just don’t set something too far, you need to beat your ride there).
If you pick a spot like one of the Disney parks or a large hotel, you’ll get confirmation that you’ll be picked up at the “Lyft Pickup Area.” Confusingly (discussed more below) there is also a separate Minnie Van Pickup Area when you request a Minnie Van.
When you order your ride, you’ll most likely see “Lyft” and “Lyft XL” options, but you can swipe to other options, including all the way to the Minnie Van option, seen above. (Note: Minnie Vans are ordered via the Lyft app, not the My Disney Experience app.)
If you swipe to the Minnie Van option, we recommend you click back into your pickup and drop off at the top and reset them to make sure the Minnie Van pickup and drop-off spots are selected. We discuss this issue more in the next section.
Once you order your ride, you’ll be given an estimated pickup time. You can call your driver through the app, if necessary. You’ll also see the Minnie Van number in the app, which you can match the number on the side of the actual Minnie Van.
Payment is done entirely through the app, and you can add a tip in the app.
Minnie Van vs. Lyft Pickup and Drop-off
We mentioned above that you can swipe between ride options in the Lyft app to get to Minnie Vans. When you do this, the app doesn’t seem to automatically reset your pickup and drop-off points. This results in a weird situation where you might request a Minnie Van to pick you up in the Lyft spot or vice versa.
The app might automatically correct this—I’m honestly not sure. You can avoid this by simply redoing the search once you’ve selected your vehicle type. If you click back into pickup/drop-off, it will give you a new option. If you accidentally request the wrong location, you may need to call the driver (a feature available in the app) to sort that out.
Is there a “Disney difference”?
Minnie Van Cast Members are, in our experience, incredibly friendly. But this isn’t really a notable difference from the rideshare drivers we’ve had around Walt Disney World Resort. The biggest difference is usually that the Minnie Van has cartoons playing for kids to watch, which even some rideshare drivers have nowadays.
Overall, most drivers working this area seems to know they’re dealing with vacationers looking for a magical time and with a few bucks to spare (for tips), so we’ve found service to be quite good on Uber and Lyft.
Can Minnie Vans Go Off Disney Property?
Disney is pretty clear that the service is meant to be used on Walt Disney World property. Currently the app will allow you to request rides from Disney property to a limited range outside of Disney property. It won’t allow you to request a pickup off Disney property, even going to Disney property.
In any case, I would never count on being able to access Minnie Van services outside of Disney property.
What car seats do Minnie Vans use?
Each Minnie Van has two Graco 4Ever car seats. These are stored in the trunk and installed when the Minnie Van arrives to pick you up.
Downside of Minnie Vans
There are a few reasons Minnie Vans probably won’t become your first option for getting around Walt Disney World.
First, Uber and Lyft have significantly lower prices than Minnie Vans. It’s common for prices for these services to be 1/3 or even 1/4 the price of a Minnie Van for the exact same trip.
Sure, you won’t have the benefit of a Cast Member who is trained in navigating the area, but for the most part Uber and Lyft drivers do fine getting around and can always just follow the signs.
Second, the Minnie Van car seat arrangement is only so beneficial for a select group of people. We have a toddler, but they’re already big/old enough to technically qualify for Uber Car Seat (cheaper than Minnie Van). The Uber Car Seat should come equipped with one IMMI GO car seat, but in this case you’re dealing with independent drivers, so you run a risk of them arriving with some sort of other car seat.
Now, most of those vehicles only have one car seat, while Minnie Vans have two. So if you need two car seats, or if your child isn’t old/big enough for Uber Car Seat, then Minnie Vans are going to make a lot more sense.
Third, there are fewer Minnie Vans than Uber and Lyft drivers. This means you may sometimes have to wait much longer for a Minnie Van than another car service. On a recent trip, I had to cancel a Minnie Van request because it was estimating a 15 minute wait time, while an Uber was able to get me in 5 minutes.
That said, Uber Car Seat availability isn’t always great and is sometimes worse than Minnie Van availability. Neither of these options should be counted on to get you from your hotel to rope drop within 15 minutes of stepping foot out the door.
Leaving Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party solo one night at 1AM, there weren’t any Minnie Vans available (the service stops at 12:30AM, which the app didn’t tell me). That’s not hugely shocking, except that Disney Springs is open until 2AM and guests were still leaving the Halloween party.
Finally, for all locations except Magic Kingdom (more on that next), Minnie Vans use similar (in terms of convenience, not exact location) pickup and drop off spots as Uber and Lyft. The theme parks all use the same spots, and the hotels are mostly the same.
The one minor exception we’ve encountered (other than Magic Kingdom) is that Minnie Van drivers tend to be a little more competent in getting you as close as possible to your room when dropping you off at at your Walt Disney World Resort hotel.
In both Uber and Lyft you can set your building as a pickup or dropoff point, too, usually. But if the resort is tough to navigate or your Uber driver winds up in the bus lane, things can get messy.
The Time We Most Use Minnie Vans
The time we most use Minnie Vans and recommend you be open to using Minnie Vans is when going to or coming from Magic Kingdom.
The only vehicles that can drop off directly at Magic Kingdom are official Disney vehicles—mainly Disney buses and Minnie Vans. Other guests have to get dropped off at the Transportation and Ticket Center and then take a monorail or ferryboat to Magic Kingdom. The Minnie Van drop off is alongside the Disney buses just a few steps from the Magic Kingdom gates. Minnie Vans have a clear advantage over Uber and Lyft in this regard.
As mentioned a few times above, Minnie Vans are often going to be the most economical option if you need two car seats.
Overall, we find this to be a good balance. On a four-day trip there’s probably one occurrence that calls for a Minnie Van. Either you’re in a hurry to get to/from Magic Kingdom, or you just want to check it out.
For the other three or so times we need to quickly get around the resort, Uber/Lyft is more than satisfactory. And most of our transportation is still on Disney free transportation, be it bus, boat, walking path, monorail, or Skyliner.
Are Minnie Vans Worth It?
Look—you can put a lot of value on the intangibles here. You’re working with a Cast Member, not a “stranger.” You’re riding in a Disney vehicle. You get to be in a “cool” vehicle. I don’t really value these things enough to say that Minnie Vans are generally worth the extra cost. (To be clear, though, my toddler is in the habit of asking for a “Minnie car” whenever we have to get around, so some people definitely prefer them to regular cars.)
In most cases, using a Minnie Van doesn’t impact how long it’ll take you to get around the resort (it’s actually often slower since there are fewer Minnie Vans), so you’re not usually saving time by using one. Time is arguably the most valuable thing you have at Disney World, so it’s disappointing (but unsurprising) to see Disney charging so much without any time benefit.
That said, there are a select set of circumstances when there are time or even money savings as a result of using Minnie Vans. From a practical perspective, Minnie Vans are a pretty straightforward analysis:
If you need two car seats, your best rideshare option is Minnie Van
If you need an infant car seat, your best rideshare option is Minnie Van
If you need one car seat (non-infant), compare prices and availability with UberX Car Seat and UberXL Car Seat
If you’re in a hurry to Magic Kingdom, Minnie Van is your best option
If you need zero car seats and not going to Magic Kingdom (or not in a hurry), use standard UberX or Lyft
So if the time to get to Magic Kingdom is worth it, or if the car seat math makes it worth it, then take the Minnie Van. Otherwise, you’ll have to figure out for yourself how much the “official Disney” of it all means to you. To us, it doesn’t mean enough to justify the high prices.
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