Decided to drive to WDW

[luvmy3]

We decided to fly this year, it will cost us more but are thoughts were this:

Our drive is 22 hours, if we drive straight through the first two days we are exhausted and it would take away from the fun. Plus I would have needed to use at least 2 more vacation days.

Its 24 hours for us to drive, and vacation time is a valuable commodity in our house. Thats two days of vacation time - worth far more than $1000.

ITA
Ours is around 20, but a 2 1/2 hour plane ride. The cost of airfare is worth many things, including not having to be stuck in a car for a day or 2. I also can wake up in NY and have lunch in WDW, and we don't have to cut or vacation short so that dh can be back at work on Monday (or in our case because of Labor Day, Tuesday).
Saving money is great, and obviously for some a necessity, but as long as I am planning trips longer than a 7 hour car ride, I'm paying for airfare. Its totally worth it

 

[stayhomemom77]

We drive from Canada!

Way cheaper, the kids are good travelers and we love to road trip. We flew for our winter trip but our two May trips were in the car.

FWIW, we've driven between Detroit, MI and Kamloops, BC several times (2500 miles one way) so our next drive to the World should be nuthin'!!

 

[pigletto]

See? You guys are all probably driving further than us, and we drive 7 hours just to stay a weekend at my parents. 17 hours for a week at Disney ought not to be horrible! My kids are good travelers. And we will definitely spend the night once on the way there and on the way back. Even with two hotel stays....$1000!! We are thinking of staying somewhere great in Pensecola on the way there and getting our first ever look at sugar sand beaches

That sounds fabulous. It's all what you make of it really. My parents just bought a family cottage. It's a 6-7 hour drive and we've done it once already this month for a 4 day weekend, and will be doing it again at the end of the month for a week. I'll make that drive as long as I have 3 days, and we'll be doing it for years to come. So really, the 22 hour drive to get to Disney won't be the end of the world.
I think it's really important to make it an event in and of itself. We'll push ourselves on the way down and be excited. I want to leave plenty of the time to stop in a few neat places on the way back though. Driving will allow us to keep going twice in a calendar year as well as spending long weekends at the cottage, and one other trip to somewhere else. So really I'd rather have 3 vacations in the course of 12-18 months than fly everywhere and have to cut one out because of the budget.

 

[texasroni75]

When our family was smaller and DH and I both worked - we flew to WDW. Since moving to Texas, becoming a SAHM, and adding another baby to the family, we drive there (17 hours each way). I can see why lots of people prefer to fly, but for us driving works. Like some PP mentioned, we use the drive there as part of the vacation - seeing different states and stopping in interesting places along the way. It makes for great photo memories for the scrapbooks! So, our time spent driving is not "wasted time", just used differently. And every minute of the "Disney" portion of our vacation is still enjoyed to the maximum!

Did the "Fly or Drive" calculator - $1796 to fly.....$721 to drive. Significant enough savings for me to feel very good about choosing to drive!!

 

[runsandjumps]

We save about $1500 by driving simply because there are five of us and we do multiple amusement parks besides Disney.

To fly and rent a minivan costs is about $2500 not including gas for the rental.

Ana

 

[fisherjenn]

We've driven numerous times and it can be fun! In addition to our luggage (duh), we bring a large cooler with sodas, water, sandwiches, etc. We also bring along our portable dvd player and things like that. It's also good to bring along cds. I've always brought a book or too and it's nice to have quiet time.

 

[Skjhjb]

That's taking into account all the driving costs? Gas, tolls, wear-n-tear, etc.?

If you really want to see the price difference, try http://www.befrugal.com/tools/fly-or-drive-calculator/.

Cool calculator! It doesn't take into account the Canadian part of our trip, but we still save over $1000 by driving for sure. When we did the drive last year, gas and hotels cost us about $700 for round trip. Plus, we can afford to take a few extra days outside our booked Disney days. We take two to drive down and two to drive back. We stay off site the night before and on our last day. So we don't miss any of our Disney park time with a mid day arrival.

Can't wait to book our May 2014 trip! Especially since this trip we will be driving my new van instead of a small Mazda 6 with three teenagers!

 

[ssawka]

Cool calculator! It doesn't take into account the Canadian part of our trip, but we still save over $1000 by driving for sure. When we did the drive last year, gas and hotels cost us about $700 for round trip. Plus, we can afford to take a few extra days outside our booked Disney days. We take two to drive down and two to drive back. We stay off site the night before and on our last day. So we don't miss any of our Disney park time with a mid day arrival.

Can't wait to book our May 2014 trip! Especially since this trip we will be driving my new van instead of a small Mazda 6 with three teenagers!

Yes, this really depends on the size of your family. In our case, with just 3 of us, I think it is actually cheaper for us to fly. We tend to get very good airfare where we live and being DVC members, we rarely rent a car when going to the World. I guess you can say "we paid up front!"

Also, if we drove we would have to rent a car because our two vehicles are way too small to drive comfortably.

 

[HookdonWDW]

According to the calculator, it would cost us a little more than $300.00 more to drive than to fly.

 

[Chelley00]

According to the calculator, it would cost us a little more than $300.00 more to drive than to fly.

For us, it's $900 cheaper to drive it.

 

[Enchanted Minnie]

We've tossed the idea around to drive also. It's a 26 hour drive, one way But, there's 5 of us and so far even the cheapest flights, it comes to about $2K to fly. If we drive It's about $700 for gas, hotel and wear and tear. We just got a 2012 Chrysler Town and Country with stow and go seats and we can hook up the X-box if needed. Plus the DVD player. My DH and I thought it could be part of the adventure and expose the kids to new sights and states. Kind of like the Griswalds, hopefully minus some unfortunate incidents!

 

[Narnia_girl]

We have driven and flown all over the country. Both have their perks, but I do think it's great to at least once do the summer road trip. There is just so much you can do/see/experience in a car; the savings are a bonus.

 

[atwmommy]

We wanted to stay off site this trip but I didn't look forward to the 18 hr drive. The autotrain worked fabulous for us.

 

[Aurora D]

All our trips to Florida have been road trips. We consider it part of the fun. We have a traveling "mascot" who comes with us, a plastic dinosaur the kids named Sammy Sosa about 8 years ago. We play car bingo, 20 questions, license plate games, etc. We stop at Cracker Barrel(none near us at home). Stop at South of the Border. Some of our funniest memories have come from the driving parts of our trip. Have fun with it!

 

[Planogirl]

That's taking into account all the driving costs? Gas, tolls, wear-n-tear, etc.?

If you really want to see the price difference, try http://www.befrugal.com/tools/fly-or-drive-calculator/.

Wow! If we rent a car the cost is $1,256.88 to fly vs $527.16. Without a car it's $856.88 to fly with the same to drive. There would be just two of us.

 

[Tys Nanny]

When DD was young, we always drove to FL. We left in the evening and drove through the night, stopped late afternoon and stayed in a nice motel with a pool and then reached FL the next afternoon. We only did car vacations growing up, and it's what we're used to. We read or listen to books on tape, sight see, do cross-stitch or knit. We find it enjoyable and relaxing, but then we both like to drive.

Last year we took a cruise that left from FL with a group of friends. They all flew, but although we could easily afford to fly, we drove, stopping in Savannah on the way down and Charleston on the way back. It seemed like we stretched out the trip to much longer than it really was, plus we didn't have any worries about snow or bad weather throwing a money wrench in our plans. If bad weather had been forecast, we would have left earlier or stayed longer in FL.

For our Disney trip next week, we're flying, and I'm not looking forward to it. Our grandsons are 3 years and four months, respectively,, and DD thought driving would be too difficult. (We drove when she was four months old, and had no problems.) Flying is quicker, but such a hassle now. Traffic is miserable getting to the airport, and you have to be there so much earlier. Long lines to go through security, minus shoes. The seats are crowded and uncomfortable, and they jam too many people in the plane. The flight crews are harried and often short. The overheads are packed too full, and getting a checked bag, for which you paid a nice amount of money, can be a nightmare. It seems flights are always delayed, and a change or stopover is a hassle. A one-hour plane change in Pittsburgh stretched to almost six hours, getting us home in the middle of the night, and, of course, National had lost our reservation for a car to drive home. I can't bring all my "stuff," as I can in the car. (Can you tell I got spoiled by flights on my company's jet?) We used to love to fly, but the only reason we'll do it now is to share DGS3's excitement over his first plane ride.

 

[Tys Nanny]

All our trips to Florida have been road trips. We consider it part of the fun. We have a traveling "mascot" who comes with us, a plastic dinosaur the kids named Sammy Sosa about 8 years ago. We play car bingo, 20 questions, license plate games, etc. We stop at Cracker Barrel(none near us at home). Stop at South of the Border. Some of our funniest memories have come from the driving parts of our trip. Have fun with it!

I forgot South of the Border! DD loved it, and it was a must-stop every trip. Have you ever seen it at night? I bet they can see it from the space shuttle.

 

[zy144622]

I have driven to FL one time from MI 22-24 hours. I will never do it again and this was before kids. Ok I might consider it if I was to stay for a month or more. I really prefer to get there in under 3 hours. I drive 12-20 hours a week for work and that's to much time in the car already. From this area airfare for 4 is $900-1100. So after gas, hotel, food, missed Disney days we would be losing big time. If the drive was 6 hours or less I think I would reconsider.

 

[Fab5Mom]

We love to drive, takes about 18 hours but it's part of our trip. We do our Cracker Barrel stop ( we don't have any at home) and take rest stops along the way as needed. Love having a car at WDW and the expense to fly and rent a car with a family of 8 would be just to much. This year we are stopping at HHI on the way down, but usually we drive straight through. By driving we have had the opportunity in the past to extend our vacation by a day or two.

 

[Mom2Ben02]

That's taking into account all the driving costs? Gas, tolls, wear-n-tear, etc.?

If you really want to see the price difference, try http://www.befrugal.com/tools/fly-or-drive-calculator/.

Wow...$486 to drive...and $2124 to fly.