Drive or Fly? On-Site or Off? Opinions wanted

[Befferk]

As much as I hate the long drive (from Northern WI!), we're doing it again in May. There are 4 adults and 1 child. Roughly $250 per person round trip to fly, plus ~$400 for a rental = $1650 for all of us, versus about $600 total to drive (we'd be driving a van, that gets about 18mpg, so if we took a car would be even cheaper). Plus for us, it's a 3.5 hour drive one way just to get to the airport!

We're staying offsite. This works for us because we do so much more than Disney (i.e. Universal, air boat rides, plus a couple days in Key West). My parents love the idea of all the extra room on a townhouse, and being able to do some cooking. You have to weigh it out. We'll be driving straight through, but we'll have 4 drivers.

 

[shelemm]

I think you could fly AND stay offsite. Unless the car rental puts this option completely out of your budget. Car rentals are usually so cheap in Orlando, though. I imagine food will be less if you are offsite and have your own kitchen.

 

[neonurse]

We fly from Buffalo, stay off site and rent a car. Right now they have a great deal on southwest vacations that includes car rental (40% off), direct flights, buy one get one free tickets to seaworld and universal and buy one night get one free at sheraton vistana villages! The price was too good to pass up! 9 nights $2564 for 4 people.

If we drove I would lose 2 days there and back plus hotel stay and gas along the way.

Last march break we stayed onsite because of the 4/3 deal. So what it boiled down to is $$$ for me. I always rent a car because I like to shop and eat outside of disney.

Good luck with your plans!

 

[neonurse]

Check out mousesavers dot com for discount codes on rental cars!

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

I don't know if it was mentioned or not, but staying off site you will have to pay the daily parking fee at WDW. I have had good luck with daily weekend rental rates from Alamo. In March, I obtained a rate of $10 per day. With this rate you could pick up the car at 9 am Thursday and return it on Monday. My family also did this in August with a rate of $20 per day. I just used Disney transportation and picked up the car at the Dolphin. The car care center can arrange a van for pick up.

 

[patman]

For each family it will be different according to how your kids behave.

It takes 8 hours to fly not 2.5. an hour to the ariport and to park, arriving an hour before the flight, 2.5 for the flight 1 hour to leave the airport after renting a car finding out how to operate, seats, lights etc. and an hour to get to your home or to get to Disney. Anything less than 8 and all the stars aligned for you.

If any of your kids are in diapers I would fly and stay on site, preferably in a monorail resort. Lugging the stollers on and off buses will kill you.

If your kids are older take an extra day off and drive. Take turns driving, let your husband go in the back with kids and play, most of us could use that extra time with the kids. You save on the transportation, no rental car, you bring your own strollers, food, games, stuffed animals etc.

Off site you have your own pool, a bedroom for both of you with a door on it!
Multiple TVs. The money you save on food, snacks and drinks will amaze you.

Pre school kids will benefit from a break in the day, It is more likely that they will nap for you better in thier own stroller than Disney's.

Driving and staying off site will save you enough money in two trips to pay for a third.

 

[preschoolmom]

It takes 8 hours to fly not 2.5. an hour to the ariport and to park, arriving an hour before the flight, 2.5 for the flight 1 hour to leave the airport after renting a car finding out how to operate, seats, lights etc. and an hour to get to your home or to get to Disney. Anything less than 8 and all the stars aligned for you.

Driving and staying off site will save you enough money in two trips to pay for a third.

Thanks for this post. That is a really good point about how flying really does take all day... Driving takes two days, though - and the last time we did a driving trip (this summer to NJ), we were exhausted, and swore never again

Now I'm leaning towards staying on-site and driving. I just can't seem to decide! I guess this is a good problem to have!

Thanks for your posts, everyone.

If we take our own car, we have our own transportation to Sea World. If we stay on-site, we'll have a food court (fantastic for our picky eaters) and the Pop Pool, which just looks really fun to me. It would be cheaper to stay off-site, but I'm afraid to me, it will feel like we're missing out on something by not being at a resort. Plus, on-site, it is easier to split up if my husband and son want to go back to the room while the girls and I go eat with the princesses.

I'm glad I have some time to decide.

Oh, our kids are all in elementary school. They will be 6, 6, & 7 when we travel.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

For each family it will be different according to how your kids behave.

It takes 8 hours to fly not 2.5. an hour to the ariport and to park, arriving an hour before the flight, 2.5 for the flight 1 hour to leave the airport after renting a car finding out how to operate, seats, lights etc. and an hour to get to your home or to get to Disney. Anything less than 8 and all the stars aligned for you.

If any of your kids are in diapers I would fly and stay on site, preferably in a monorail resort. Lugging the stollers on and off buses will kill you.

If your kids are older take an extra day off and drive. Take turns driving, let your husband go in the back with kids and play, most of us could use that extra time with the kids. You save on the transportation, no rental car, you bring your own strollers, food, games, stuffed animals etc.

Off site you have your own pool, a bedroom for both of you with a door on it!
Multiple TVs. The money you save on food, snacks and drinks will amaze you.

Pre school kids will benefit from a break in the day, It is more likely that they will nap for you better in thier own stroller than Disney's.

Driving and staying off site will save you enough money in two trips to pay for a third.

While I agree there's more to flying than the 2 hr flight, the whole thing including driving to PHL has never been more than 5 hrs for us max. Also arriving at the the airport 2 hrs before our flight and sitting by the gate is really not stressful for us. Maybe it is with toddlers, strollers, car seats, etc but with school age kids who are experienced flyers, knowing when to remove shoes, etc. it's really easy peasy.
As I said earlier, I can work in Philly until 5 pm, return to NJ, change clothes, eat dinner, and leave for PHL by 6:30, arriving at MCO by 11:30. Most of that time is laying back with my eyes closed or watching Nemo with my kids rather than dealing with the stress of I-95.
Where would you be after 5 hrs of driving? Virginia, if you're lucky.

 

[preschoolmom]

While I agree there's more to flying than the 2 hr flight, the whole thing including driving to PHL has never been more than 5 hrs for us max. Also arriving at the the airport 2 hrs before our flight and sitting by the gate is really not stressful for us. Maybe it is with toddlers, strollers, car seats, etc but with school age kids who are experienced flyers, knowing when to remove shoes, etc. it's really easy peasy.
As I said earlier, I can work in Philly until 5 pm, return to NJ, change clothes, eat dinner, and leave for PHL by 6:30, arriving at MCO by 11:30. Most of that time is laying back with my eyes closed or watching Nemo with my kids rather than dealing with the stress of I-95.
Where would you be after 5 hrs of driving? Virginia, if you're lucky.

Yes, This! I think (yes, I know, I keep posting that I've changed my mind) we are flying now, and staying on-site.

The kids have never flown before, but keeping them entertained in an airport (when both of us are totally available to them, vs. driving, when one person is trying to focus on the road!), is not going to be hard at all. We can feed them while we wait for the plane, have them use the bathroom before we load. Two and a half hours on a flight - no problem. We'll read, bring Leapsters, maybe a DVD, a coloring book - and we'll be landing. Then we can use the bathroom in the airport in Orlando, get our bags, go to Magical Express, and let someone else do the driving to Pop. If we leave our house 2-3 hours before our flight, fly for 2.5 hours, and then take another two hours with Magical Express - that is still only 7 hours. Not even half way in the car!

 

[isla bonita]

For each family it will be different according to how your kids behave. It takes 8 hours to fly not 2.5. an hour to the ariport and to park, arriving an hour before the flight, 2.5 for the flight 1 hour to leave the airport after renting a car finding out how to operate, seats, lights etc. and an hour to get to your home or to get to Disney. Anything less than 8 and all the stars aligned for you. If your kids are older take an extra day off and drive. Take turns driving, let your husband go in the back with kids and play, most of us could use that extra time with the kids. You save on the transportation, no rental car, you bring your own strollers, food, games, stuffed animals etc. Off site you have your own pool, a bedroom for both of you with a door on it! Multiple TVs. The money you save on food, snacks and drinks will amaze you. Pre school kids will benefit from a break in the day, It is more likely that they will nap for you better in thier own stroller than Disney's. Driving and staying off site will save you enough money in two trips to pay for a third.

Also from RI.
Have to agree totally with you. If we had the $$$$ it would be flying and renting a car. Since we do not at the moment driving it is. We spend over 3 weeks in Florida so we do not loose any vaca days. We have our own van with DVD player, an additional DVD player and XBOX so all are happy, happy.

The $$$$ saved is great! It is something we can not avoid we own outside of Disney and I go down and do the heavy cleaning. We can no longer do school vacation times it has gotten to expensive and the children are to old to pull them.

Also it is great packing the car with all our new stuff for the house without the TSA opening all of our bags and going thru them. I take everything down with us. I am surprised it is not cheaper for you to drive?