Decided to drive to WDW

[bigmama67]

Determined to do it in '15 with our kids who will be 12 and 6 at the time...DH is leery but if anything, we would take the Auto Train heading back...probably not though as we could see friends in Richmond (we lived there for 2 years) or hit some DC museums on the way home. That should lessen the blow.

We're planning to go for 15 days altogether so that gives us almost 2 weeks in FL.

 

[bigmama67]

If we went now...$735 to drive, $2200 to fly. No-brainer for this family of 4!

 

[ssawka]

Determined to do it in '15 with our kids who will be 12 and 6 at the time...DH is leery but if anything, we would take the Auto Train heading back...probably not though as we could see friends in Richmond (we lived there for 2 years) or hit some DC museums on the way home. That should lessen the blow.

We're planning to go for 15 days altogether so that gives us almost 2 weeks in FL.

I've thought about the AutoTrain (because the VA station is about 10 minutes from our home), but every time I price it out it is more than flying. I think the big thing for us is when we go to the World, we do not leave the property. Thus, we have no need for a rental car. I think if we did rent a car, flying would no longer be cheaper. Still, it is a question of what your vacation time is worth. We prefer to maximize my time at Disney.

 

[Skjhjb]

I also think the type of vehicle you drive for the trip is very important. No offense but I would be miserable driving 20+ hours in a compact car with luggage and 4 people.

Absolutely! We did the 20 hour drive last summer with three kids (16, 14 & 11 then) in a Mazda 6. We rotated seats every stop, but the ride home was jam packed after all the shopping we did. Kids were awesome the whole time, but said never again unless we got a new van.

New van is now in our possession, so it will be smooth sailing for this trip!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

That is true, but you don't always have to drive 12+ hours for those types of vacations. I have driven to some beautiful places all within 7 hours of my home.
Dh, I and our dd drove from NY to CA once. The sights were amazing but being in the car that long definitely took its toll, and that is even with stopping every night. We were an hour away from the Grand Canyon, an hour! But by that time in the trip we just wanted to get to our destination in CA. Some people just aren't meant for road trips!

No, defintely not for everyone - same for air travel too. Many people despise it. But, I do think everyone owes it to themselves to give it a shot one time, as you did

 

[burnurcomputer]

The cost is estimated to be $2,581.94 or to drive $410.59........irony of it is, it only lets us calculate for 6 people and there are 7 of us!

Driving would save us a ton!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Think this is true when you have multiple children. With only one, I am not sure she is missing much. Besides, the only way for us to avoid I-95 traffic is to leave at 4:00 AM. Not thanks! I'll take the two hour flight with TV and Snacks on Jet Blue and save money to boot (for us).

Not sure why # of kids makes any difference in missing out. Obviously, it alters price. But, I've taken road trips with numerous combinations of children/adults including some entirely by myself. Altering the # didn't alter what I did or didn't miss

As for I95, again nobody said you had to pick Disney for your road trip

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Because it will save us about $1000 versus flying. Who can argue with that, even on a trip with three kids that will take 17 hours? It's $1000!! I just can't make any argument that justifies that much money.

I have to admit I haven't read all the replies but I can't stand driving that long of a time anymore. We used to do the 24 hour drive from GA to MN every other year and after the 4th time, I couldn't stand it anymore. Add in carsick kids and it was a nightmare.

I'd be spending the extra money to fly.

Good luck on your drive!

 

[Eureka]

We always drive. It's 874 miles from our house. We stop overnight, but even with a hotel, gas and meals on the road, it doesn't come close to how much it would cost four of us to fly. The cheapest flights are out of BWI, which is over an hour from our house (in the wrong direction even!), so that is more driving too. The kids are great travelers though; we are from New England so they have spent their whole lives driving long distances.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

We drive every year from Chicago to Disney with our kids (sometimes we're a family of 5, sometimes 6) and stay for two weeks. When our kids were younger we stopped overnight. Now that they're a little older, we drive straight through. All told it's 18-21 hours on the road. We have a DVD player in our van, and the kids bring ipods, laptops and Nintendo DS systems. Even considering wear and tear on our van, we still come out way ahead. According to the Fly or Drive Calculator, driving will cost us $460.99, and flying would cost $2,547.66.

Enjoy the drive everyone!

 

[baldy6060]

Another Hoosier here with a 17+ hr drive. It's half the fun (except the drive back). We pack food, take our time, sleep at a rest stop or seedy hotel, whatever we can to save money. Two kids have always been good with the drive. I give cheap, fun gifts on the way down whenever they seem bored (pins to trade, books, origami activity, old handheld games, etc.). It's just a fun time. Kids fight at home but not in the car ride to WDW. Can't wait for the next trip. We will have a little one next time. It'll be interesting.

 

[yesiamcrazy]

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/.

It's a 22 hours drive for us. We've driven 3 times. Flew once. The fly or drive calculator only lets you go up to 6 passengers (we travel with 9), but for 6 passengers it's saves over $1000. Our 6 kids travel well, we consider it part of the adventure.

 

[yesiamcrazy]

The cost is estimated to be $2,581.94 or to drive $410.59........irony of it is, it only lets us calculate for 6 people and there are 7 of us!

Driving would save us a ton!

My problem too... It only calculates 6, we travel as 9.

 

[luvmy3]

No, defintely not for everyone - same for air travel too. Many people despise it. But, I do think everyone owes it to themselves to give it a shot one time, as you did

I agree, you'll never know unless you do it. We have some great memories of that and awesome pictures!
We have talked about doing another, but the road trip would be the vacation and we'd rent an RV and take 2 weeks or more to do it. I'm willing to do that, but no way would I get into a car to drive 12+ hours to a specific destination and a week later drive home. For me that would be torture

 

[amber_cntrygrl]

According to the calculator, we'll save a little over $800 by driving. It's about a 10 hour drive down there, but pop a DVD in, and the kids are good to go!
We also love seeing all the deer hanging out, eating on the side of the interstate in FL. We seriously counted more than 70 deer on the way down on our last trip! DH and DS were having a fit!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Tys Nanny]

I'm sorry I used that calculator. It's costing us $1500 to fly, and that's using their estimation of $250 hotel rooms when we never pay anywhere near that amount. We're not even gaining that much time at DW since we booked first flight to make delays less likely.

I feel sick.

 

[TravelMommy]

We paid $1156. for our currently planned WDW trip for flights. My parents drove last year and paid approx. $650 for gas, tolls, overnight stay (approx. 26 hour drive).There is no way I could stay in a car for that long

 

[ssawka]

Not sure why # of kids makes any difference in missing out. Obviously, it alters price. But, I've taken road trips with numerous combinations of children/adults including some entirely by myself. Altering the # didn't alter what I did or didn't miss

My point with the # of kids is that multiple kids can entertain each other and discuss what they saw. With only one child, I believe it would be a long boring trip for DD. Sure, we could stop and see some things along the way, but she would not really experience the "together" time since she is with DW and I all the time anyway.

Actually, I enjoy long car rides as long as I am driving. However, the most I've ever driven is 9 hours. I don't think I could do much further than that in one day. Also, DW does not like long car rides and she gets "flustered" when driving in areas that she is not familiar with.

 

[elaine amj]

We fly. For many years we said there was no way we would drive. Even a 4 hr drive to visit relatives that we did 1-2 times a year was sometimes a little much. DH and I don't care a whole lot for driving and the kids drove us nuts.

Now that they are older, they are so much better and we are more willing to consider long drives. Last year we drove nearly 10 hours to camp for 3 nights. This year we drove 6 hours to camp for 2 nights. We're definitely expanding our driving radius.

Next year we plan to drive 10-12 hours to the Smokies, possibly for just 4 days, most likely for a full 7-8 days.

As for WDW, that's a 22-24 hour drive for us. We use a combo of cheap flights and airmiles so it is much cheaper for the 4 of us to fly. In the last two years, we have been travelling to Florida with close friends who have been driving. Both years, I have told them I will drive if they can figure out a way for us to drive together (so the men can take turns driving) and if it is a decent savings over flying. Since it costs us $0 to a max of $800 for the 4 of us to fly, we can't manage to save enough driving to make it worth it. At cheapest it will cost around $400+ to drive and that's just not enough savings to waste 2 vacation days and endure the exhaustion of a long drive.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My point with the # of kids is that multiple kids can entertain each other and discuss what they saw. With only one child, I believe it would be a long boring trip for DD. Sure, we could stop and see some things along the way, but she would not really experience the "together" time since she is with DW and I all the time anyway.

Actually, I enjoy long car rides as long as I am driving. However, the most I've ever driven is 9 hours. I don't think I could do much further than that in one day. Also, DW does not like long car rides and she gets "flustered" when driving in areas that she is not familiar with.

You defintely lose the "fun" factor when you try to go too far all at once. Admittedly, we do it frequently when we have somewhere specific to be. But, we are used to it. A few weeks ago, we took a trip with the road really AS the destination. And we really cut back in the miles per day to make it more enjoyable.

We did take a couple trips with just our oldest (before #2 was born), and we made sure to do lots of fun things along the way. She enjoyed it & and has always been great in the car