cheapest way to get to Disney

[Gumbo4x4]

For our family of four, we find driving to be cheaper for all our family vacations, particularly if you end up somewhere you wind up having to rent a car. When it was just the wife & I, flying was an option. But, not with 4 of us. Besides, we actually really enjoy the driving part (well, other than crossing say Kansas) and all the fun places you can visit (and all the great food) along the way.

 

[brota]

If you have a car with you the savings can be significant. You have transportation to go off-site for meals and can stay off-site.

We drive from NC ($300 last trip but gas is going up), get Disney Y.E.S. tickets ($1,100 last trip for 8 day hoppers for 5 of us plus water parks and more option), $300 for two weeks of a condo stay, $400 budgeted for food plus our Disney dollars of about $200. However, since we normally spend about $150 per week on food and we were there for 2 weeks, I didn't count all of that $400 into the budget.

So, under $2,000 including gas for a family of 5 for two weeks of Disney.

Which condo did you stay at?
Thank you!!

 

[MaleficentRN]

You didn't say when you are going. On Southwest, at the end of June, You can get a direct flight from PHL to MCO for $270 R/T. A tiny bit cheaper than $300.
One cost that no one mentions is vacation pay. I would hate to use up two days of paid vacation to drive to and from my destination. You can save money by driving, but it seams a shame to spend hard earned vacation time driving.

 

[DawnM]

We have stayed in a variety of condos, but always through SkyAuction.com. I haven't seen the $149/wk deals lately, but I have seen the $199-$249 deals. I have never paid over $249/wk.

Dawn

Which condo did you stay at?
Thank you!!

 

[pigletto]

We have always flown, and will be flying again for our May trip.
We've just booked a Disney cruise for after Christmas next year. We are driving for that one. For one, it's a second trip and it's a way to keep costs down. For two, it will be Christmas break so flight prices will be really high for us. And lastly, because it's Christmas break we have more time off and it won't eat too much vacation time to drive.
I'm kind of looking forward to it. We do an 8 hour drive on other trips well and the kids are great.
So what's another 11 hours.

ETA) We'll be doing it in two days though. We'll stop for a break and a swim and dinner at a hotel the first night and sleep there so that will break it up.

 

[stacy347]

We drive 1200 miles each way. I much prefer the drive to flying (I have flown, but I do NOT enjoy it)!
We just make the drive part of the vacation, and the kids pick things along the route that they want to see. We usually do about 8-10 hours the first day, and 8-10 hours the second day.
It generally costs about $300 in gas round-trip, but I'm budgeting a little more this year with the hikes. That is significantly less than I would spend on airfare for the 6 of us this trip, even when you factor in mileage on the vehicle.

 

[RachelsMommie]

Crazy idea, but this is what we did...
Our 4 flights to Disney on the day we wanted to go were consistently priced at $1928 (if I added in baggage fees for 2 checked bags roundtrip). I found a flight leaving the day before that would cost the four of us $960 and no baggage fees. So I added a day to our Disney trip for $525. So we're getting an extra day at Disney with dining, but still paying $443 less than airfare was running on the day we originally planned to go.

Crazy, but true. I checked fares for every week between now and our departure date for months to see the trends, and they were pretty consistent for Sundays...so we're leaving on Saturday. =)

 

[torinsmom]

How about taking the train? I know from NC, it is about $134 round trip for adults and half price for kids. You would just need a shuttle to get you to your resort.

 

[pigletto]

We drive 1200 miles each way. I much prefer the drive to flying (I have flown, but I do NOT enjoy it)!
We just make the drive part of the vacation, and the kids pick things along the route that they want to see. We usually do about 8-10 hours the first day, and 8-10 hours the second day.
It generally costs about $300 in gas round-trip, but I'm budgeting a little more this year with the hikes. That is significantly less than I would spend on airfare for the 6 of us this trip, even when you factor in mileage on the vehicle.

This is our plan for now as well. Just to make it part of the trip. I know if we were to approach it in a "Step on the gas pedal and get there!!!" kind of way we'd be complete stress balls and never do it again.
If we need to stop, we'll stop. If we want to pull over and stretch our legs and look at something neat, so be it.
Our cruise leaves the 30th. We plan to leave here on the 27th. Plenty of time hopefully.

If I only had a week.. there's no way I would drive though.

 

[SaraJayne]

We drive 1200 miles each way. I much prefer the drive to flying (I have flown, but I do NOT enjoy it)!
We just make the drive part of the vacation, and the kids pick things along the route that they want to see. We usually do about 8-10 hours the first day, and 8-10 hours the second day.
It generally costs about $300 in gas round-trip, but I'm budgeting a little more this year with the hikes. That is significantly less than I would spend on airfare for the 6 of us this trip, even when you factor in mileage on the vehicle.

If we had 4 extra days to waste on driving, we'd maybe consider it. But we don't.

I don't want to sit in the car for four days, when I can be there and back in five hours.

 

[DawnM]

I just priced out the train from Charlotte.....for 5 of us it is almost $700. Plus it is 17.5 hours of a trip.

Driving is half the price, half the time, and we don't have to get a shuttle and will have a car with us.

I am just posting so that anyone wishing to take the train is carefully pricing and timing it out.

Dawn

How about taking the train? I know from NC, it is about $134 round trip for adults and half price for kids. You would just need a shuttle to get you to your resort.

 

[disney4us2002]

As Dawn pointed out above, we priced the autotrain from Virginia and first, it is crazy expensive (the car is more than the 3 of us) and second, the time is just nutty. You have to arrive something like 4 hrs before you leave to load the cars. I absolutely love flying but I haven't seen any $59 flights from bwi to mco in quite a while. The cheapest on their current calendar is $122 each way in May and son can't miss school then.

We are driving for spring break. From Maryland we are going to Brunswick, GA which is about 10 hrs and then the next day into Orlando is about 4. I know many said they stop on the way back rather than on the way down but I'd rather be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the beginning of my vacation and poop out on the way home.

Someone else mentioned vacation leave/time off, I have so much that I lose it every year or have to donate it to the leave pool for coworkers with long-term illnesses so that isn't a concern for me. I know not many people are in that situation though so I certainly agree that time off could be a factor.

 

[Natalie's Mommy]

we fly jet blue direct from Syracuse NY. it's not cheap but driving from this far away is just not an option for us. i am the worst in the car and get carsick easily so flying was the only option for us. when pricing out flying vs driving we actually priced out my hubby driving down with the kids and just me flying.

 

[sbell111]

If we had 4 extra days to waste on driving, we'd maybe consider it. But we don't.

I don't want to sit in the car for four days, when I can be there and back in five hours.

I can't think of a place in the continental US that would be a four DAY drive from Orlando, but only a few hour flight.

I can only imagine that you live on the west coast, are only counting time actually in the air, and you meant to type 'I can be there OR back in five hours'.

 

[NancyIL]

I can't think of a place in the continental US that would be a four DAY drive from Orlando, but only a few hour flight.

I can only imagine that you live on the west coast, are only counting time actually in the air, and you meant to type 'I can be there OR back in five hours'.

I imagine she meant 2 days of driving each way.

 

[torinsmom]

I just priced out the train from Charlotte.....for 5 of us it is almost $700. Plus it is 17.5 hours of a trip.

Driving is half the price, half the time, and we don't have to get a shuttle and will have a car with us.

I am just posting so that anyone wishing to take the train is carefully pricing and timing it out.

Dawn

Yeah, just giving the OP an idea to check though, since she seemed to be against driving. We are driving this year as well. I'm surprised it's so much from Charlotte. From Cary, it is $134 round trip for adults, $67 for kids 2-15.

 

[robin09]

I am in NH and am renting a car. The only local rental doesnt do unlimited to FL anymore GRRR!! So I get the car at $228/week, 150miles a day and .25/mile after that. With the car parked 8days it helps, but I get 2100miles and paying after that. Total will approx be around $750ish, with gas, about $1100. We drive straight through as well. Just get a hotel cheap in Orlando that night, get sleep and check into WDW the next morning. I priced airfare adn couldnt find anything under $1600. So I figured we would enjoy some quality family time in the car lol!! We used to go 95straight down, the northeast is the worst! Now we zip over to I believe 81 through PA and connect to 95 right below DC. The NY-NJ area is a nightmare!! Nevermind the tolls!!
In a perfect world I could just pay off my WDW balance and teleport myself there LOL!!
Out of curiousity.. is airfare cheaper if you book flights earlier than closer to your dates?

Have you checked puttin g the car on auto train at lorton virginia? It might save you some $ on mileage.... I know the furthur out on your date you are , the cheaper the auto train...

 

[crisi]

Fly. We are also 20+ hours away. For us, vacation time is more valuable than money, so we fly.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

We're from NJ and it's a 17 hour trip.
We drive straight through.

We leave around 9:00 at night and get there around 2:00 in the afternoon.
We usually stay the first night at a DTD hotel, swim and head over to RFC for dinner and hit the sack. We check in at our Disney resort EARLY and head out to the parks!

I pack food and we only stop for gas and bathroom breaks!

 

[stacy347]

If we had 4 extra days to waste on driving, we'd maybe consider it. But we don't.

I don't want to sit in the car for four days, when I can be there and back in five hours.

To each his (or her) own. It's not a waste for us, but it's great that there are options so that we can do what works best for our own families.

Personally, with as much as I truly hate flying...there simply wouldn't be a flight quick enough to suit me, LOL.