Do You Fly Or Drive???

[judykins]

We have always driven...it just seemed easier for us...
Not having to lug all the luggage thru the airport with kids in tow, etc....

We usually leave at night so driving down isn't so bad when the kiddos are all asleep.

 

[PRINCESSplazola]

Ok, if you're afraid of flying, stop reading now. But per request, here's my scary flying story:

Like I mentioned in the previous post, we were coming back from our WDW honeymoon this past June; we took a late flight so we could spend the morning and afternoon at DTD. Well, we get to the airport and our 7:00pm flight ends up being delayed nearly 4 hours - no biggie. I had to be at work the next morning, but I'm used to flight delays.

So, we finally get on the plane and take off (btw, we're on the largest plane that AA flies - don't remember the number, but it's huge). It's about a 2 hour to 2 1/2 hour flight from Orlando to Dallas. We get about 30 minutes in to the flight and the flight attendants start offering drinks, snacks, etc. We hadn't hit ANY turbulance and everything was smooth going. All of a sudden, our plane literally fell straight down through the sky. The seatbelt sign was off, so a ton of people (including a baby near us) flew out of their chairs. The flight attendants were knocked off their feet on to the ground, and many of them got beat up pretty bad by the free-rolling beverage carts.

Because drinks were out, those went all over the place, too. You know in movies when a plane falls down through the sky, you see the liquid in cups fly straight up, crystalize, and then fall back down? That's really what happens; it was frozen when it came back down. Our pilot tried to pull the plane back up, we fell again; tried to pull it up for a second time, and we fell for a third time. I really did think this was it for us; everyone on the plane was crying - men included. There was one dad (also coming back from WDW) that was a good 20 rows in front of his kids and wife; he was yelling back at them to see if any of them were badly hurt - while he was crying at the same time.

Our pilot finally got control of the plane; by then, everyone was soaking wet from drinks, a lot of people were banged up pretty bad, there was glass all over the first class area where they'd been eating/drinking using glassware, and one of the flight attendants had gotten hit straight on by the beverage cart. (She had to be laid down the rest of the trip.) The ceilings and walls were dripping wet with drinks and condensation, too.

Oddly enough, they came on the speakers and said they hit a batch of turbulance that wasn't on the radar and that no airplane in front of us had reported. To be honest, I think we had a severe technical malfunction. The flight attendants came around with first aid kits, towels, etc. and we continued on to Dallas. Most people were crying the rest of the way back; keep in mind, too, that we still had over 3/4 of our flight to go.

One of the attendants told my DH and I that she'd been doing this for over 25 years, and she'd never seen anything like this happen. She also told us (with an hour left to go in the air) that they were damaging out our plane as soon as we landed. (Which is why I think there was way more than turbulance wrong; the walls/ceilings/floors could have easily been cleaned up.) That's not really something you want to hear while still in flight!

People were praying out loud as we landed; it was the scariest experience of my life. My DH broke in to tears as soon as our feet touched the ground in Dallas; he knew how scared I was and didn't let on to how terrified he was until we landed.

There were people that were supposed to be getting on connecting flights that were refusing to do so; they were all lined up at customer service demanding refunds for the last leg of their trip and a rental car.

It was horrible; and, about 2 weeks later, I had to fly back to Orlando with DH's family. They'd booked a cruise 2 years out and had paid for me to go, too, as a newlywed gift; they'd upgraded DH and myself to have our own cabin. Let's just say the whole night before the flight was horrible; I had a horrible panic/anxiety attack (first one ever) and cried the whole way down there on the plane. I didn't even enjoy the cruise because I was just dreading the flight home.

The whole thing was awful; I don't know if I'll ever be able to get back on to a plane without suffering from an anxiety attack or having to be doped up on something. And, my friend is in the airforce; I talked to him about what happened and told him about the whole drinks-turning-in-to-crystals part; he said he didn't really think I wanted to hear how fast and far we fell for that to happen, but that "you're lucky to be here." I still thank God everyday that we at least had an amazing pilot that was able to get control again.

same thing...dont read if you dont want hear about bad plane experiences!!
oh my goodness! im so sorry you had to go through that....i understand what you're going through though, b/c that happened to us too (on our way to the middle east!). ill admit it wasnt as bad as what happened to you; our plane did fall a few times also...it was right after they had given us dinner, and of course our food and drinks were all over the place everyone was crying and praying...i remember the look on my fathers face sooo well; he was trying to stay strong so we wouldnt be so scared, but we all thought we were going to die and like you, we still had 4 hours left in our flight, and a couple weeks after that, we had the whole 17 hour flight to go through to get back home. pure terror is what i felt...its like you're just sitting there waiting to crash down and die...there's just nothing you can do up there in the air! the pilot had told us that we had gone through a rough patch between two clouds....when the plane dropped it felt like a free fall, and it also would turn over side to side seeming like it was going to flip upside-down..but really really rough.
so like you, i really dont like planes much. i did fly to DL a few times after that, but i decided i like driving much better anyways. especially with all the plane crashes and stuff happening lately...have you seen all the planes that have fallen in the last couple months? whats going on with these things??
thank you for sharing your story with us i know how hard it can be to re-live all that again. so so so scary.

 

[PRINCESSplazola]

OK, gotta ask- how do you get there in less than 5 hours? Is that driving during the day or in the middle of the night? We also live in San Jose and it takes us 8 hours or more sometimes. We do fine until we hit the LA area and then we spend at least 2 hours in stop and go traffic before we get to Anaheim. We've done it on weekdays and weekends and it never seems to get any better. I wish we could get there in 5 hours or less!

I also live in San Jose, and we are driving in about a month. Please share your tips on how you get there in 5 hours! And the places you stop.

Thanks

yay you're both from san jose!! where in san jose are you? im in south san jose
so we left on thursday morning...we started driving around 7am and got there by 12:30pm. we did stop and eat for half an hour (buttonwillow i think!!), so we only did about 5 hours of driving . and we also made one other stop at starbucks! the fastest we went was 80mph, and thats only on I-5. there was noooo traffic at all! not even in the LA area when you hit that freeway (traffic was on the other side ). ive been stuck in that traffic before...i hate it! if you travel on weekends, you're probably more likely to get traffic. this is the fastest we ever got to DL....we USED to travel at night--like leave around 6pm on a friday, and we would get there around midnight. im alllll about traveling early morning on weekdays now!! we planned to leave at 5am, but after pumping gas, and a few other errands we ran, we didnt leave til 7am. still worked out great though!! hope this helps!

 

[PRINCESSplazola]

You can't get from San Jose to Anaheim in 5 hours period. I guess if you started past the 152? 156?? (the winding road past gilroy) you could make it in 5 hours but starting from San Jose going through Gilroy, over the Pachaco Pass onto the 5 then getting through LA in 5 hours? No you can't unless you drive like 100 miles hour or maybe go in the middle of the night. Let me know when you make your drive so I can avoid you driving like a bat out of hell.

it is possible, we did it. and we dont go 100mph...i have a baby and would never put him or other people on the road in danger like that. anaheim is not that far away. we live in san jose and it only takes us 20 minutes to get to gilroy...and pacheco pass isnt that much further. maybe its people like you who drive toooo slow and cause traffic to back up, making the drive longer for the rest of us. why dont YOU let US know when you're driving so we can avoid that slow traffic

 

[PRINCESSplazola]

thanks everyone for your replies!! it seems a lot more people like driving more than flying..i wasnt expecting that at all! good to know im not the only one who likes being out on the road

 

[Jenn1116]

We drive, we are 6 hrs away so it's less $$ for us to drive.

Now I have to know how it only takes you 6 hours.

When I drove my friends and our kids down in February, we were on the road at 4:09am, stopped for about 30 min for breakfast around 8:30am, stopped after Bakersfield at the base of the vine to get gas, and still didn't get there until 11:45am. And we take hwy12 to 5.

That's 7 hrs 45 min.

Trust me, I'm not a slow driver... probably why I was ticketed on the way home!

So please please please tell me how it only takes you 6!!!

 

[Brina78]

We've always driven to DL, but to get there faster, we fly low! Seriously, we're about 88 miles south of Anaheim. It's a good one hour and twenty minute drive to get there. The first time I drove to DL without either of my parents was in 2004 with my sister and her Internet pal, Sergeant Josh Horton. He was leaving for overseas pretty soon and never been to DL before. He asked Christine if she had been there and we both decided to play 'tour guide' for him.

 

[wvnative]

It depends on how many are going and how cheap I can get a flight. We're about 6.5 hours from DL depending on Phoenix traffic and how often we have to stop. Costs me close to $150 to drive so if I can get a fllight for the two of us at about that price, we fly and save ourselves a couple of hours.

Usually it's more than just the two of us though so we drive to save money. Plus, when we drive we can pack food to save money in the park too.

 

[mom4princesses]

We with 5 kids you couldn't pay me enough money to get on a plane (ages: 11,9,8,2,10months). Can't imagine taking them all on a plane and dragging along the suitcases. If we can drive we will. Not to mention the fighting that goes on, no one else needs to see or hear my kids doing that. Oh wait did I say my kids fight, no they are little angels. Just like everyone else we like to bring food, drinks and the best is the toddler toilet so we can just pull over where ever and the little ones can go potty.

 

[hulamom]

We usually drive when we're heading to DL, LA, or anywhere in Southern California. And, we're from the San Jose area too. I actually find the worst traffic either here, getting out of the bay area or sometime after the grapevine.

Believe it or not, but with DH ("65 is slow") behind the wheel, we've actually made it down within 6 hours. But I think that BIL's house (Los Feliz area near Griffith Park) was the destination which is a bit north of Anaheim.

There was a previous thread about alternate routes to take than 5 on a busy Friday evening. I remember reading that there were other roundabout routes. Can somebody remind me?

Mahalo,

-- Hulamom

 

[evilprncess96]

We are actually taking the train for our trip in December. I think my DS will love it!!

 

[disneymom8589]

This December will be my 14th time at DLR and all but my 1st time in 1974 we've flown. I would actually like to drive down with my DH sometime. I think a road trip would be fun for a change!

 

[consultant]

I've done both. Growing up in the 70's we drove from Seattle. That's about 20+ hours of driving each way or about 1.5 days each way. That was back when the disparity between gas costs and airline tickets was much much wider.

The primary consideration for *most* people is basically cost in terms of money, time, and hassle. With money the most important followed by time, then hassle. This is what *most* people consider when making a decision on *average*.

We wouldn't ever consider driving for three reasons: a) too costly in money because of gas and depreciation of the fairly new and expensive cars we own, b) too costly in time taking up 3 full days of our vacation that we'd prefer to be sitting by the pool or riding the rides, and c) safety factor which is often overlooked with almost all drivers. I'll write more about that later.

Again there's not a formula that can be blindly applied to everyone but here's food for thought on why we make the decision to fly.

Now with a family of 4, an easy simple way to determine driving costs is the current 2008 IRS business write-off rate of $0.58 a mile. You could determine your MPG times the miles times the price of gas, then add in depreciation costs on putting all those miles on your car (wear and tear on brakes, tires, engine, etc), then add in the cost of meals along the drive. Then add in your lost cost of opportunity unless you really enjoy sitting in the car for 20 hours and have fairly limitless vacation time, then the lost cost of opportunity is $0 for you. if you'd rather be doing something else, say swimming at a water park or riding a ride, and have say only a week for the vacation, then put an arbitrary number on what doing something more fun than riding in a car is worth to you if you could pay to do that instead, say $5 or $10/hr? It could also be vice versa. If you are terrified of flying determine how much per hour of flight you would pay to not fly and factor that as a negative hourly rate like -$10/hr times the flight time.

Even if you set your lost opportunity cost to $0 assuming you like road trips, but aren't terrified of flying either, from Seattle to Anaheim is 1,163 miles. Let's say a minivan that gets decent gas mileage of 25 MPG on the freeway and you're looking at 93 gallons of gas X $3.75 gallon = $350 in gas. Let's say the 2,300 miles you put on the car costs in depreciation and wear and tear about $0.10 a mile which is a little over $1000. This comes out to a total of $1350. This doesn't including meals for the 3 total days you are on the road or a hotel room for the night.

Most people will have difficulty grasping and acknowledging the whole depreciation, wear & tear aspect since it is something that is not easily observed in a short period of time. They just look at the immediate costs driving the vehicle that far. It's not like you will have to immediately get a brake job, tune up, and 4 new tires right after your trip. It also matters whether your vehicle is newer (under 20,000 miles) or older (over 80,000 miles) as the amount of depreciation slows with age. That's why I recommend just using the IRS write-off rate of currently $0.58 because that rate reflects the IRS's calculations on the average cost per mile of driving an average car. Using this calculation $0.58 X 2,300 miles = $1334... gee about right on $1350. It may be overkill for some circumstances, or too conservative for others, like if you are driving an Escalade on premium gas the whole way versus a Toyota Camry with 100,000 miles on it.

Figure $20 for some fast food for 4 for 4-5 meals plus $60 for a cheap hotel room each way, you've then got about $300 in motel and meal costs on the road. So even if we figured the mileage rate was too high and was closer to $1000 instead of $1350, it still comes out to about $1300 including motels and meals on the road. (Just gas, motel, and meals alone is $750).

Let's look at someone who loves road trips and hates the hassle of the whole airport process. Lets say including baggage checkin-in/pick-up, security and waiting + flight time, the total airport+flight time is 5 hrs each way or 10 hrs and you'd say $10/hr per person to AVOID flying so -$40 X 10 hrs = -$400 and you have an old Honda sedan that gets good gas mileage so + $1000 in gas and depreciation/wear+tear instead of $1350 less thr $400 to not fly = $600 cost.

If you put a lost cost of opportunity of $10/person per hour of driving that's $40 X 40 = $1600 + $1350 = $2950. So the cost of driving 2300 miles to DLR could be as little as $600 or as much as $2950 depending on how you figure it, all things considered. The average of those two figures would be $1775. Pretty amazing.

We got 4 tickets to Orange County for $225 a piece. We fly a lot so the airport process is always smooth and quick, arriving 1 hr before the flight. We stay within walking distance of the DLR gate so we don't need a rental car. So total cost from Seattle to Disneyland is $900 + taxi to/from Orange County airport (relatives drive us to/from SeaTac.) So even if we said we are neutral about long roadtrips, the decision is an easy one for us - $950 or so in travel costs and 3 extra days of playing at the resort, or $1350 and 3 less days to play at the resort.

Now if you live closer, like anywhere in Cal, Nevada, or Arizona and have a blast on roadtrips, then driving would be more of a viable option.

After having done both several times, from Seattle. I can say I like flying much better, even if cost was cheap and driving cost half as much as flying, I prefer to spend the three days by the pool rather than in the car. Not that I've really enjoyed the road trips too! I've already seen just about everything there is to see in WA, OR, and CA and we play the same games and such in the condo or hotel room that we can play in the car.

I'd say we'd have to be within 8 hrs drive to make it not worth going through the airport and flying into Orange County. That would be cities within 500 miles of Anaheim.

Other considerations, if you have a family larger than 4, the total airfare cost could become more prohibitive obviously.

The last word is on safety. Most people, have the irrational belief that driving is much safer than flying. The pure and simple fact it is that it is not, in fact it doesn't even come close to the safety of flying. This is somewhat counterintuitive because airline accidents usually result in fatalities and car accidents do not. Plus the fact with cars you feel more in control because you are driving - but, you aren't driving all the thousands of other cars on the road that you will be passing or that will be passing you.

First we need to agree on the terminology. Safe means without accidents that result in economic loss, bodily injury, or fatality.

In the US, each year there are about 40,000 deaths per year in automobile accidents vs. about 200 in air transport. To put this in perspective, the chance of dying in an automobile accident is about 1000 times more than winning a typical state lottery in a year.

Even if we ignore property and bodily damage (there are many more car accidents that result in injuries and not death) and focus on fatalities only, we should look at fatality rates per passenger mile traveled. This require some research. You can go to the National Transportation Safety board website
(http://www.itsasafety.org) to do some research or look at a summary table here (http://hazmat.dot.gov/riskcompare.htm). According to the latter, each year in the US 1 out of 6800 drivers dies in an auto accident. The rate for airline passengers is 1 in 1.6 million. The same table shows that per passenger mile, air travel is safer by more than a factor of two. I doubt this last figure; I think it should be about 100x safer, because I guess we drive and fly the same number of miles (give or take a factor or 2-5) per year, yet fatalities are 200 times higher for autos than for airlines. It's more about the exposure time to the risk. With flying you are only exposing yourself to death or injury about 1/10th the time you are when driving since flying is 10 times faster for any given distance.

So for me personally, if I have the money, I'll fly even if it is more costly than driving because it is quicker, giving me more vacation time at the destination, and a lot safer. But that's just me.

 

[Jackoman]

We fly, because it's too far for us Oregonians. Plus, it would be too tough on my little brother, who is still too young for driving. Plus, it's a lot faster.

 

[pixiewings71]

Now I have to know how it only takes you 6 hours.

When I drove my friends and our kids down in February, we were on the road at 4:09am, stopped for about 30 min for breakfast around 8:30am, stopped after Bakersfield at the base of the vine to get gas, and still didn't get there until 11:45am. And we take hwy12 to 5.

That's 7 hrs 45 min.

Trust me, I'm not a slow driver... probably why I was ticketed on the way home!

So please please please tell me how it only takes you 6!!!

I really don't know. We are at the end of Suisun right next to Walters so maybe that helps? Seriously, we get onto Walters (3 min. from home tops) and then we are on 12 in seconds. We drive until we get to Lost Hills, take a quick break to gas up, use the bathroom and grab a bite to eat then it's right back on the road. We go about 80 the whole way (well NOT on 12, we don't have a death wish) unless traffic is really bad and then it takes us longer. We normally leave around 7 pm and get to the hotel around 1 or 1:30 to check in.

 

[ParkHoppa]

Living in SoCal i would be there in about 10 minutes through plane, and with the luggage and renting a car and hotel YUKKK! I also love seeing my "trademark" roadspots. Like The flower pictures on the wall next to the freeway. Than you know your gettin close! Also the giant cube, and NOTHING beats seeing the Tower of Terror from afar! Ooh! That gets me every time!

 

[consultant]

Living in SoCal i would be there in about 10 minutes through plane, and with the luggage and renting a car and hotel YUKKK! I also love seeing my "trademark" roadspots. Like The flower pictures on the wall next to the freeway. Than you know your gettin close! Also the giant cube, and NOTHING beats seeing the Tower of Terror from afar! Ooh! That gets me every time!

Living in SoCal, we'd all thing you were nuts if you flied, unless you were some billionaire with a helicopter that landed on top of the DLR parking garage. You're lucky. Although I though if I ever lived in SoCal, I would visit DLR more often and it would take away from the anticipation/excitement/novelty of it if I went there a half dozen times a year as opposed to one if I'm lucky.

 

[hoosiergirl7]

If we were still living in So. Cal then no doubt we would drive. However, we now live 2/3 of the way across country and you couldn't pay me enough to drive that far with a 5 yr old even with the built in DVD player in my mini-van. So we fly.

I'm sorry for those of you that have had some scary experiences on planes. I've experienced horrible turbulence a few times that causes the plane to drop, but not a lot. More so on puddle jumpers.

I am married to a pilot (not commercial) and I guess being around him all the time keeps me from worrying about it. Yes, some accidents are pilot error but there are times you can check and check and check the plane and still things happen to it just like a car. Luckily the best is when good pilots can get those planes safely on the ground.

 

[katrina4]

You can't get from San Jose to Anaheim in 5 hours period. I guess if you started past the 152? 156?? (the winding road past gilroy) you could make it in 5 hours but starting from San Jose going through Gilroy, over the Pachaco Pass onto the 5 then getting through LA in 5 hours? No you can't unless you drive like 100 miles hour or maybe go in the middle of the night. Let me know when you make your drive so I can avoid you driving like a bat out of hell.

Sorry but we are also coming from san jose (East) and it takes us about 5-6 hours and we arent going 100 miles per hour... so it IS possible we have done it plenty of times.

 

[katrina4]

i was just wondering...what do you all prefer...flying to DL or driving?

i used to fly all the time growing up, but now i totally loooove driving! i love all the stops we always make (buttonwillow!) haha, and how we're on our OWN schedual (never have to rush to the airport anymore, and if we decide to stay longer, its totally cool). i think roadtrips are fun and we always have a great time. and we get there in less than 5 hours, so its not bad at all maybe one day we'll fly, but id rather stay on the ground if i can

what do you like?

We always drive... it really isn't a bad drive. I usually sleep while my bf drives This time though we will have my son in the car so I don't know how the drive is going to be...hopefully he sleeps the whole way or half of it!