Anyone travelling from Baltimore/Maryland area??

[SRUAlmn]

Hey everyone! We are (hopefully) planning to visit WDW this fall and we are trying to decide whether to drive, fly, take amtrak, etc... For those of you who have driven from this area, about how long did it take? (We are actually a little north of the city in Bel Air) Did you stay over night half way? How much did you end up spending on gas? We are trying to weigh and balance the costs of just paying for airfare. I actually got an email from travelocity yesterday stating that there is a special fare available from BWI to Orlando for $88 RT/adult. Really cannot pass that up, but I need to go check the date & time restrictions and what airline it is. I'll share the info if anyone else is interested! Thanks for any help that can be contributed!!

 

[eljojo]

We live an hour north of Baltimore and with the airfare so cheap, it was better to fly for us (of course, I didn't find an $88 rate like you saw!). We're paying $79 each way for 5 of us, but with the price of gas and food on the way plus a night at a hotel, it's worth it. Plus my husband didn't want to take any more time off work.

 

[SRUAlmn]

I was emailed the $88.30 rate from travelocity and found it when I went to their website, but I couldn't find out how to check availability or book, so I emailed them. I'll let you know when I get an answer. I did, however, find rates for $103.00 RT/person which would save you about $50 a person. Just search rates with flexible dates from BWI to Orlando. I think there were 3 different airlines offering that rate between now and November.

 

[disneyfor3]

We drove several years ago from Annapolis to Orlando - there were torrential downpours when we hit Florida so it ended up taking 18 hours down. On the way back we stopped at a hotel in Georgia overnight (cannot recall the town but it was a resort island) to break things up. This past September we flew Southwest Airlines for $39 each way. We love flying Southwest out of BWI and have decided we will definitely fly with the cost of airfare vs. gasoline right now. We are going next week and got airfare out of BWI on Southwest for $49.00 each way. It is very nice to be able to be in Florida in 2 hours!

We joined National's Emerald Club through Turner Travel (from the www.mousesavers.com website) and we always rent from the Emerald Aisle (we have an intermediate car reserved thru them for our trip next week for $121.00 for the week). You just get off the plane, get your luggage, and walk right out to the Emerald Aisle and pick a car.

 

[jk1]

I am just south of Bel Air and drive every summer and some January's to WDW. We leave late afternoon/early evening and drive straight through. With minimal stops, we can make it in 15 hours 45 minutes (I have all teens-20s). If we have to pull over for a couple hours rest, we still make it in no more than 18-19 hours.

If you are looking at doing an overnight stop, I suggest trying to get to Savannah, GA area. From there, you have only about a 5 hour drive the next day.

When we fly during the other parts of the year, we always fly Southwest or Air Tran out of BWI. They are the only two airlines that fly non-stop to Orlando. Luckily for us, they are also budget airlines! Sign up for weekly emails from Southwest and you will learn of their Internet specials so you can hopefully snag a good air rate.

 

[maciec]

We live just outside of Ocean City and we can only fly out of Salisbury with USAir (it's our only carrier). The rate we just got to fly in October was $217 a person. The rates you guys are getting to fly out of BWI are a steal. I would much rather pay that, but we don't think it's worth our time and energy to drive the 2.5 hours up and back to save the money.

My advice (especially if you are staying on site) is to FLY

It is so much more relaxing and easy in my opinion.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Mrs U and I never liked to fly much to begin with, but now with the incredible hassles, etc at the airports, we've driven our last 4 trips.
If $$ is an object, that airfare is hard to beat. And down in 2 hours is nice too.
However--if you do wind up driving:
We live off I-83 about 10 miles into Pa. We leave at 4:00 AM on Friday (just to get around DC!!) and are in Brunswick Ga. by 4:30-5:00 and we stop for a full breakfast, anong with the usual gas/rest stops. We stay at the Hampton Inn, and leave around 6:00 AM the next day. We're in WDW by 10:30 (depending on road construction, etc).
Going home, we leave WDW around 6:00 AM on Saturday and are in Emporia Va. by 6:00 PM--after a dinner stop and the other stops. On Sunday, we leave Emporia at 6:00 AM and are usually home by 1030-11:00.

 

[Madhatter266]

We live in HDG and have never driven. Even with the additional security, we have never had any problems at BWI. I will admit that on one trip we left from Dulles and that did seem to be a little bit more "drawn-out." The flight is only 2 hours!

 

[Gillian]

Flying is usually less expensive, but we are driving this time (from NJ), because we have a 3 year old and a baby. It's just too much of a pain for us going through security. We always try to travel light, but there's still the stroller(s), diaper changing stuff, snacks and toys to worry about. It's no fun shoving everything on the belt while removing your shoes and trying to hold on to a toddler and a 22 pound baby. I know it's over quickly, but we're going to drive this time and see how it goes.

I also had 2 bad experiences last time we flew, which is NOT typical! For our flight down they changed our gate from the far end of one area to the far end of another. I was 6 months pregnant and luckily my mom, DS & I were able to get a ride to the new gate. It was a real hike! They also had a last minute aircraft switch but we were not affected by it.

On the way back, my mom lost her passport and was told everything would be okay but as we were pre-boarding she was held back for an extra search (?), leaving me with a stroller, a 3 year old, and carry ons for all of us. They wouldn't let me wait for her and actually shut the gate door behind me, but I had too much stuff (mostly my mom's) to move by myself. So I just stood in the little hallway crying. I'm not quite over it yet.

If you don't have little kids, flying is much easier. I like road trips and I'm hoping this one is fun!

 

[eljojo]

It seemed like all the really cheap rates on Travelocity were connecting flights very early in the morning or late at night. I'd rather pay more for a direct flight, plus with three kids, we're not very flexible with dates and times. Some great prices if you can head down with little notice!

 

[laurabelle]

We just did it for the first time during Easter week...we're driving down again in July. At Easter, it was a no-brainer for us, airfare was high and would have cost us a small fortune for the 4 of us to fly. It cost us $200 to drive including fast food stops. We had ressies along I-95, but decided to drive straight through. We saw the cheap flights for Southwest this summer, but we're still driving down, we really liked the freedom, to bring more stuff, to have our own wheels (don't forget you still need transportation/parking fees at the airports) and I second the flying hassles others have mentioned. The best reason of all for us to drive instead of flying is with the money I saved not flying, we're able to stay longer and we managed to get in 2 family vacations to WDW this year without breaking the bank!

 

[Kimickey]

I live 25 minutes from BWI. DH and I used to fly out of National Airport all of the time, but last year we decided to try something a little different and fly out of BWI. Our tickets were cheaper, the flight times were alot better, and more airport parking. DH and I were really nervous, but hey we said what the heck. I tell you we loved it. We paid $175 roundtrip on Delta this year and cannot wait. BWI has not become the airport of choice for us, I don't think I'll pay to fly out of DCA again.