Walt Disney World is expensive and one thing you can do to save money is use their massive transportation system. It has its drawbacks but the more you know about it the better off you’ll be.

1. 1)Use Disney’s Magical Express. This amazing little perk for resort guests must have put a few town car services out of business in the Orlando area. It sounds too good to be true, but if I book a Magical Express Delivery, Disney will send me luggage tags, I’ll put them on my bags here in Cleveland, check my bags at our airport, and I’ll not see them again until I get to my room at the Polynesian. Magical, don’t you think? Not only that but they’ll give me a ride to the resort and back to MCO and the cost of all this is $0.00 - free.
   

2. 2)Get to know the transportation system before you leave for WDW.  I hate studying for vacation (like when Brian tells me to “learn a little French” before we go to Paris) but this studying will save your sanity. If you decide to use Magical Express and then Disney’s transportation system to get around WDW, familiarizing yourself  with it (check out Mouseplanet’s charts) is a good idea. It’s massive, can be very confusing and there are ways better than others to use it, for instance,
   

3. 3)the boat is better than the buses in getting from your resort to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. The HDDR is at Fort Wilderness & Campground and there are two basic ways (and other complicated ones) to get there using Disney transportation - by bus (from your resort with a transfer at the Ticket and Transportation Center) and by boat (from either the Magic Kingdom or the Contemporary Resort). It can take an obscenely long time to get there and back to your resort using the buses, and so make sure that you plan your HDDR dinner performance for the hours that the boats are running and save yourself time and headaches.
   

4. 4)Don’t leave the parks when they close. When I find myself in a WDW park for the nightly fireworks or whatever other extravaganza they’ve got going there, I am surely not going to fight that crowd out of the turnstiles when the park closes. I get myself a cup of coffee and poke around the shops awhile or just find myself a bench and park myself until the chaos dies down.  Unless you want to wait in a mile long line for your bus (and watch them fill up 2 or 3 times before you get on one), don’t be in a rush to leave the park. They won’t kick you out for a couple of hours.
   

5. 5)Consider a cab after dinner at a resort other than your own. This one is sanity saving and not money saving, but it is worth the small investment if you, for instance, have dinner at Jiko (Animal Kingdom Resort) and are staying at Wilderness Lodge. There are no resort to resort buses and so you have to get yourself to either the Transportation and Ticket Center, Downtown Disney, or a park and then transfer to the resort, and if it is late you could wait awhile. After a nice dinner, who wants to do that?
   

6. 6)Take the boat or walk from EPCOT to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Friendship boats leave from the International Gateway of EPCOT (located near the UK in World Showcase) for a lovely little voyage over to The Studios, but you can walk there, too, just following the boat’s course.
   

7. 7)Look for a good rate at the Contemporary Resort. If you plan on spending lots of time at the Magic Kingdom, a room at the CR means a 5 minute walk over to the park, plus a 5 minute monorail ride to EPCOT’s monorail. Or,
   

8. 8)look for a good rate at the Polynesian Resort. There is a path from the Polynesian Resort to the Ticket and Transportation Center where you can catch monorails to the Magic Kingdom or EPCOT, the paddle boat to the Magic Kingdom, or buses to other resorts, water parks, and Downtown Disney.
   

9. 9) EPCOT resorts give easy access to EPCOT and Disney Hollywood Studios. So if you can get a good rate at the Boardwalk Inn, the Yacht or Beach Clubs, the Swan or the Dolphin, you can easily take the boats or walk to either park.
   

10. 10)Don’t be a hero. I know you want to pack in as much as you can, but if you are using Disney transportation (particularly but not just) don’t make such a hectic schedule that you are jumping on buses more than you are at the parks. Study the transportation charts and plan things that make sense.
    

There are probably 100 other ideas, but these are the basics - I’ll save more for other entries. For now, study those charts - and learn a little French  (so that you can talk to the French cast members at World Showcase!)