Minnie Van Service

Hello and Happy Spring!


Here in Indiana, it’s currently snowing on this late-March day. Not very spring-like! Let’s hope that we see some sunshine and mild weather soon!

My family did get away for our Winter 2018 Babymoon last month, and we had a wonderful time. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge for the very first time, and I developed such an emotional attachment to this resort. This place is gorgeous, there are so many activities to enjoy, the pools (we checked out the pools at both Jambo House, the main resort, and Kidani Village, the Disney Vacation Club addition) are amazing, and of course the animals are beautiful and majestic. Both my husband and I agreed that will not be our last stay there!

(Enjoying the beautiful savanna at Animal Kingdom Lodge)

The one downfall to Animal Kingdom Lodge (AKL) was that it is far out from many of the resorts we like to visit in the evenings, as it is close to, of course, Animal Kingdom Theme Park which is located in the southwest corner of Walt Disney World. My husband and I tend to favor the Magic Kingdom Resort Area restaurants, dining in these resorts 3 out of 4 nights that we were not eating at the theme parks. Luckily, we had the Minnie Van service activated on our phones back in November, so we were able to use this service several times on our trip. Let me explain to you how the Minnie Van service works!

(Enjoying dinner and a view of the fireworks at the Grand Floridian Cafe near the Magic Kingdom)

The first step in using this service is to get your phone activated from one of the resorts that officially offers this service. At this time, the Minnie Van service is still in a test phase, and every resort cannot unlock the service, but all of the deluxe resorts and several of the moderate and value resorts do. I believe that my husband and I both downloaded the ‘Lyft’ app on our iPhones prior to activating the Minnie Van.

EDIT: As of April 2019, the Minnie Van service is no longer in test phase, and you can view the Minnie Van as a vehicle type when you are on the Lyft app. It is typically the last vehicle type so you may have to scroll through a few options. If you’ve never used Lyft before, you will receive an offer for $15 off your first ride.

(Our Minnie Van picking us up at the Boardwalk one evening)

Once the service is unlocked, you simply go onto the ‘Lyft’ app, and once you are in, you will see several options of pick-up vehicles, one being the Minnie Van (available daily from 6:30am until 12:30am). You will choose this option, and verify your current location, and a short while later, a Minnie Van will be pulling up to you to whisk you away to the Walt Disney World location of your choice! Easy as that!

(Our Minnie Van whisked us away to our 'home' Animal Kingdom Lodge in February)

I am not one to use Uber or Lyft, because I have young children and I don’t like that I cannot verify the integrity of the car seats in these privately-owned vehicles. I also do not live in a big city, so there is no reason really for me to use these services. However, the Minnie Van service is operated by Disney Cast Members, and these Cast Members have been trained on car seat installation and safety. Since these vehicles are owned by Disney, I feel confident that these car seats are safe, not past their expiration dates, and have not been in a previous accident. Two car seats are loaded into the back of each Minnie Van, and it takes just moments for the Cast Member to install the seats for the children in your party.

(My husband getting into the Minnie Van after getting our son loaded into his car seat)

The Minnie Vans are all Chevy Traverses, which allow six passengers per ride. Back in November 2017 when we traveled with my parents and my Aunt, we were actually planning to eat dinner over at Animal Kingdom Lodge (we were staying at Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa). We got a later start than we had planned, and my husband suggested we use the Minnie Van service, as all six of us could go together in one Minnie Van.

(Back in November when we were staying at Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa- after we had dinner at Animal Kingdom Lodge, I grabbed some infamous Zebra Domes to take back to our resort for dessert!)

The price of the Minnie Van has gone up since our February 2018 visit, where we paid $25 per ride- now the price varies depending on the milage of your trip. I still recommend going this route if you are in a hurry, or you simply don't want to deal with switching transportation at a park when going from one resort to another and don't mind spending some cash.

(After a fun night at Top of the World Lounge, we shared a Minnie Van with friends back to our Disney Resorts)

We mostly used this service at night, when we were tired and didn’t want to deal with multiple transfers to get back to AKL. We also used this service one day back in November when we were having professional photographs taken by Disney Fine Art Photography- the temperature was in the high-80’s and we didn’t want to be sweaty messes by the time we arrived at the Grand Floridian for our session. We were able to wait in the shade for our Minnie Van to pull up to our resort, and it took us right to the lobby of the Grand Floridian, where we were meeting our photographer. This service is also nice if you have dining reservations at another resort- typically you must allow at least an hour-and-a-half to get from one resort to another, but using this service, it can take under half an hour!

(Awaiting our Minnie Van to take us to the Grand Floridian for our photo session)

(When we got out of the Minnie Van for our photo session, we were greeted by Richard at the Grand Floridian!)

Two more things to mention- out of the six times that we have used this service, we’ve only had to wait more than 10 minutes once. This was just after 9pm one night, and so I think many people were probably using this service to leave the parks after the fireworks. The nights we used it closer to midnight, we probably only waited 2-3 minutes for a Minnie Van to show up.

EDIT: As of April 2019, we’ve now used this service at least a dozen times. It’s addicting! While it used to take at least an hour typically to transfer from, let’s say Port Orleans Riverside Resort to the Polynesian Village Resort, it now takes 10 minutes via Minnie Van. We LOVE chatting with the friendly cast members driving the Minnie Vans, they are always so professional and courteous, and they install the car seats correctly and efficiently (the seats are Grace Forever car seats, which will safely transport children of all ages, including infants). They play fun Disney-themed music in the vehicles, and you can control the climate. 

The final point is that this service now offers airport transfers as well as transfer to Port Canaveral for your Disney Cruise. It’s a much heftier price tag for the trip over to Orlando International Airport or to Port Canaveral. Since the Magical Express service to and from the airport is free, I don’t think my family would ever use this feature, but I could see us using it over to Port Canaveral at some point in time since those transfers are not free.

(Disney's Magical Express- photo from wdwinfo.com)

I hope you learned something about the Minnie Van service- as always, if you have any questions on the Minnie Van service or anything Disney-related, or are interested in using my complimentary services to help book your next Walt Disney World vacation, please feel free to email me at dana_w@wishingonastartravel.com. Happy Travels!