One thing that drives me crazy is when I see hotels or vacation rentals being advertised as being 5 miles from Disney’s “Main Gate”!

Disney World is so huge, there is no ‘Main Gate’.

What does ‘Main Gate’ mean exactly? Making such a claim is just an attempt to trick people unfamiliar with the area into thinking that a ‘Main Gate’ location is close to where they want to be!

But in reality, it makes no sense. Just imagine any good size city in a central location. There will probably be 10 different highways leading into it, from 10 different directions. They don’t close off all the other highways and select one to call the ‘Main Highway’. It’s silly.

So what about those photos you see of the ‘gates’ leading to Walt Disney World? Yes, they’re real, and they do exist, but there are five roads with ‘gate’ signage (and likely more coming). And yet there are ten different roads that actually enter into the resort boundary!

With there being different gates, it really becomes meaningless for one property to claim that they are ‘only so far from the gate’ while another says the same thing. They can all be referring to different gates, so a comparison becomes meaningless. To complicate things more, the various gates themselves are different distances from the attractions! And the roads they’re on vary tremendously in how congested they often are and how far you can get in a set amount of time!

For example, if you enter by the most Northern access, which happens to be closest to Orlando proper, you will very shortly hit the worst traffic congestion area in all of Walt Disney World, right in front of Disney Springs. (This may or may not happen depending on the time and day of the week you are there.)

So how do you know what to choose for your vacation?

Where is the best location (from a driving perspective) to stay in a Disney Area Vacation villa?

Of course we’ve got the perfect answer for you!

Smart Walt Disney World vacation planners think in time, not distance. Choose where to stay by picking great accommodations that allow you to get in and out of Disney World in the least amount of time!

For further information, see the articles: Why people get confused about Walt Disney World