Best route to Walt Disney World from the Villas

We have been renting our properties in Thousand Oaks since 2009, however we first stayed in the area in 2003.

Because I am a very curious person, and it is also important to me and to the value we provide our guests, I have always timed the drive from the villas to any of the locations within Disney World. I would start a timer when I left the driveway of the villa, and stop it when I arrived at the parking lot of whichever theme park we were going to.

It was with great pride and satisfaction that I discovered that the drive took exactly just under 15 minutes, every time that I measured it, with very few exceptions. Those exceptions were when there was an accident or some other type of unusual situation that slowed down traffic, but even in those circumstances, it only added 5 minutes at maximum to the trip.

And that was always the case, up until just before the Covid Pandemic, and since then, it has been different, which is explained in detail below.

Is Old Lake Wilson Road a Good Way to Go to Walt Disney World?

I have heard some claim that taking Old Lake Wilson Road can take up to 30 minutes to reach Walt Disney World from Osceola Polk Line Road. Since the intersection was redeveloped in the last year, I have not found it to take that long, having driven it myself a number of times over the last four months. For reference, my wife and I just returned on March 1st, 2025 from Florida. We were there from November 1st through February 28th, with a three week break at Christmas time, which we spent at home, so I have been in the area quite a bit very recently.

I completely agree that Old Lake Wilson Road has gotten extremely busy over the last few years. There are two important reasons for this, which are important to know when considering traffic in the area.

1) There has been tremendous growth in the local population in the area, in both housing developments, and apartment building complexes that have sprung up in the area. And of course, commercial development has come along with it. When we first stayed in the area, there were still rural orange groves right at Exit 58, where Champions Gate is off I-4! Things have changed dramatically.

2) I-4 has gotten ridiculously busy going into Orlando, basically just south of Exit 55, all the way up to the area around Universal Studios. In both directions. It has become so busy, that traffic often gets so congested that traffic stops moving. There is no accident or other issue, the sheer number of vehicles just gridlocks the traffic. According to the Florida Department of Transport, it is the busiest highway corridor in the United States!

This all causes drivers to try to do anything to avoid I-4, by taking other routes through the area. One of the only other North-South routes in the area is Old Lake Wilson Road, and it ends up carrying far more traffic than it was ever intended for, resulting in it being very busy, congested and slow. This is true, however of all the roads in the area.

(If you’re not familiar with the area being discussed here check out the location page where you will see a small map showing the location of the villa in relation to Walt Disney World.)

192, which you either have to get on or cross to get into Disney World has always been extremely busy. As the major ‘tourist’ thoroughfare through the area, it is a highway cluttered with shops, restaurants and hotels, and all of the traffic lights, multiple lanes, turns and u-turns, and foreign drivers unfamiliar with the area that one could expect in an area around Walt Disney World. So it is always busy and congested. Taking Old Lake Wilson Road North towards Walt Disney World means joining it (or crossing it at a minimum, if one knows how to do that) which means that there is effectively no great place for traffic coming off Old Lake Wilson Road heading towards Walt Disney World to go that isn’t already congested.

So as far as Old Lake Wilson Road, that trip should only take 15 minutes, but can and does stretch into 20 minutes, or even 30 if things are really bad.

All of this can be traced back to the fact that I-4 has not been working properly, and it was so bad that people were doing anything they could to avoid it.

If one is in Thousand Oaks, you don’t want to take Old Lake Wilson Road to get to Walt Disney World unless you absolutely have to. You should take an entirely different route!

Going up straight Old Lake Wilson Road may seem like the most direct route to Disney World, and direction wise, it makes sense, but it is definitely not the fastest.

The route that used to take under 15 minutes from our properties is still often the fastest route, unless I4 is completely shut down. If I4 is busy, it adds 5-10 minutes (though honestly if feels much longer when you’re in it) but even with that, then you are still only at 20 – 25 minutes for the trip, or even at bit less.

For many years, I have found that Google Maps adds 4-5 minutes to the drive time, no matter how heavy the traffic. I just checked it as I write this, Saturday Mid-Afternoon, and it says the time to do the drive is 23 minutes, with heaving traffic on I4, which is what I expect. See the screenshot from Google Maps below. Notice the times it indicates for when I4 is not busy like it is right now.

The route we use is to go straight to I-4 down Osceola-Polk County Line Road to Exit 58, and get on I4 and take it up to World Drive, where the south entrance to Celebration is. You get on World Drive and you take it right straight up into Walt Disney World, leading to wherever you want to go.

Why is this such a fast route? Because World Drive is never busy or congested, and it completely avoids 192, which always is. It also avoids all of the congestion on Old Lake Wilson Road, if any.

The distance we take is longer, but it is almost all on freeways going 60-70 miles per hour. So it takes less time. Once one gets off I4, you just sail straight up into Walt Disney World.

It is very frustrating to be on I4, and stuck in slowly moving traffic, but the truth is, even when very slow, it is almost always moving, even at 20-30 miles per hour. On this route, you only drive on I-4 for four miles, and the only intersection along that section is the exit to 429, which takes a bit of the congestion away. Once past that, things often speed up, and once you hit the exit lanes to World Drive, traffic is moving again.

I have STILL done the drive between our villas and anywhere in Walt Disney World in 15 minutes, in the last few months, but that was late at night when traffic was unusually light, but it proves the point that the route is indeed very fast. And when I4 is busy and congested, then the time increases to what you might expect by taking Old Lake Wilson Road.  I have to admit that sometimes Old Lake Wilson Road feels faster, because one is usually always moving, but it is not nearly as fast time-wise, because you’re not driving on 4-6 lane freeways at a high speed.

And I must add that, with the exception of congestion on I4, the drive that is shown on my map is much more pleasant and relaxing. When not on I4, It is comfortable and relatively stress free, with fewer other vehicles to worry about, and just about zero trucks.

See this article on our website I wrote about this years ago, which explains the route that I describe above in detail.

One of the reasons we chose where our villas are is because we discovered we could get just about anywhere very quickly, and we practically never have to drive on 192 when we stay there.

Upcoming Local Road Improvements

Celebration Boulevard is being extended South right now, and within a couple of years, will reach Osceola-Polk County Line Road, which will mean that our guests will be able to drive to Disney World without using I4 at all! They will just take the South entrance into Celebration, drive up to World Drive, and then take World Drive to wherever in Disney World they want to go! That will be neat! And very fast.

In addition, a new freeway is being built in the area, which will extend Poinciana Parkway to I4 and connect it to the 429 Toll Express Way.  It will run in between Reunion Resort and Celebration, with an entrance just a couple of miles away from where our Villas are. This will take a lot of congestion out of our immediate area, and a bunch of traffic off I4.

Finally, I4 is being enlarged right through Walt Disney World. While construction is never fun, they will be adding Toll Express Lanes in the center, and additional regular lanes on the outside. They have already made these changes on I4 through the centre of Orlando by Downtown, and what used to always be a congested mess is always now free, open, and fast. Similar improvements through Walt Disney World will take a while, and our patience, while the work is done on I4 in our area, but I expect the changes will eliminate the congestion and delays, just like it did in the downtown area. And when that happens, the congestion on Old Lake Wilson Road, and on other local roads, will go down dramatically.

As of May 2025, I-4 is Dramatically Better!

In a surprisingly unbureaucratic move, the Florida Department of Transport decided that before they did anything else with I4, that they should add an additional lane for traffic in each direction on I4. This work was started and completed in just six months, and when the additional lanes were opened, drivers in the area were so shocked and surprised by the difference, they began posting online asking what happened and why their commutes were so much faster. 90 minute trips were being reduced down to 20!

So while the work is being done to improve I-4 even more, and add the toll express lanes (which our guests will most likely never need to use) traffic is moving at a better pace right now!

Our guests no longer need to fear using I-4, or budgeting a lot of extra time to get through the congestion!