Drive or Fly with 3 Kids? long

[kmwek]

I need some help here please. I am not sure what to do about our trip next year. Driving vs. Flying. We are a driving vacation family. I have not flew in 15 years and my husband has never flew. I am seriously thinking about flying to WDW. We have 3 children, they will be 2, 4, & 8 next year. Heres how the debate is going in my head. From our home to the nearest airport is 2 -3 hours away. Since we are new to flying I would like to arrive 3 hrs early for a flight. Thats 5-6 hours already, 2 more on the plane, getting our luggage, and rental car, will put it at aroung 9-10 hours total? It will take us at least 16 hrs to drive and thats only figuring in 2 hours worth of rest stops and such. So I am looking at shaving off at least 6 hours worth of driving time each way. Now on to costs. I figured up that it will probably cost around $1000 to drive down. $400-500 in gas(SUV),350-400 hotels, 150-250 food. I will only fly if I can get airfare and rental car for less that driving costs. My DH is uptight about maneauvering around the airport with 3 kids and luggage. Would it be easier to fly or drive with 3 small kids. Any advice would also be much appreciated. thanks for any input.

 

[NashvilleTrio]

Are you staying on Disney property? If you are, then you wouldn't necessarily need to rent a car if you chose to fly down. You could just use the free Disney transportation - Magical Express. That would save some money for you.

If you're not staying on Disney property, then it might be difficult to pay less to fly/rent a car than to just drive down.

FYI - We usually fly because it's faster and we don't have to hear our son ask 18 million times about how much farther.

Good luck - and remember that no matter what you decide, you'll have a great time once you're there!

 

[kmwek]

Are you staying on Disney property? If you are, then you wouldn't necessarily need to rent a car if you chose to fly down. You could just use the free Disney transportation - Magical Express. That would save some money for you.

If you're not staying on Disney property, then it might be difficult to pay less to fly/rent a car than to just drive down.

FYI - We usually fly because it's faster and we don't have to hear our son ask 18 million times about how much farther.

Good luck - and remember that no matter what you decide, you'll have a great time once you're there!

We are staying at the Wilderness Lodge, we will need a rental because we are going to Cape Canaveral, NASA and Cocoa Beach the first two days of our trip, Planning on returning it when we get into the World, and using a Towncar or Van to return to the airport for departure.

NashvilleTrio, we may fly out of Nashville, is the airport pretty simple to get around in? Thanks

 

[NashvilleTrio]

Yeah, it's not a huge airport, so it's pretty easy to get around. However, they have just started some renovations and we haven't been there since that started. We're planning to fly to Orlando in January to go to Universal - I'll try to remember to let you know how things are at the airport. Is your trip after January?

 

[Honeymooners1021]

I was lucky enough to fly quite a bit when I was a kid. It was so much fun and it was a great part of our vacation adventure!

 

[Hannathy]

I would vote for flying with 3 kids any day! The other thing to figure in to the equation is number of vacation days- you have to add more to drive, and how tired you will be after driving 16 hrs with young children. As you do your homework you may feel relaxed enough to not get to the airport 3 hours early 2 will usually do it. If you find an early morning flight you may want to look into staying the night before and leaving your car with the hotel and saving the money on parking and breaking up the travel time and arriving rested.

 

[Minnie824]

I used to fly all the time...not since kids yet though. We're in Il, and driving down next week. We did the same last year, and it went really well....was 20 hrs straight thru, left at 2am, kids slept the first 6 hr, and did awesome in the car. They're actually looking forward to the drive again. To me, dealing w/all the stuff in the airport wasn't worth it. You'll have your car there if you drive as well, and if your kids are used to it, I would drive.

 

[disney6family]

We too are a driving vacation family - we do 600 miles the first day (take sus 12 hours with potty breaks), stop overnight, then do the last 360 or so the next day which gets us in around 2 and we're off to the parks! Our kids do better in our SUV than on a plane - we flew to DL last year for the 50th. The airports were crazy and then flights delayed, packing restrictions - when we drive we can take our extra water, snacks, whatever and the kids can stretch out, which unless the plane is empty you can't do.
Plus for us cost is a huge factor - we drive in two days (one overnight) which gives us 400 for gas (9 mpg when we tow our trailer), 80 for the room overnight (we get 50 at a campground, but have used a fairfield for 80), 150 for food (we take all of our drinks in the cooler and snacks) Sometimes if I'm ambitious I make our sandwiches for the first day just like I am packing lunch, but not ususally After all of the rest of the packing I am too tired! So that is a total of $630 - so for the 6 of us we would need to get tix for $105 to make that worth it!
Plus, the drive is some quality family time, talking about what we'll do or what we did, playing games both ways - it's not all NLVacation!

 

[jillyjoey]

This is our first "flying" trip as an entire family. While I don't think that driving trips are unbearable (drove to Outer Banks this summer, 3 dogs, 2 kids, DH & me, I-40 closed (4 hour detour) + dual DVD player saved kids from griping)... we are flying next month due to finding 4 plane tickets that were just $100 more than the cost of driving. One other cost factor to consider the wear on your car...(I didn't consider in my calculation - so I am probably breaking even 1632 miles +). That said, while I am looking forward to flying and gettin an extra day at WDW , if the cost difference was greater (i.e. if I had to rent a car -or fares weren't such a great deal), I would still be driving for I am a cheapskate!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Since we are new to flying I would like to arrive 3 hrs early for a flight.

Arriving at the airport three hours before a flight is WAY too early, even for an inexpericed traveler with 3 kids.

Don't worry, you and your husband will manage just fine if you fly (which is what I would do).

 

[jillyjoey]

Disney6family :

saw you are from Uniontown -- so am I -went to Uniontown High School (but now live in TN) -- maybe we know each other?

KMWEK: My older sis gave me good advice when searching for airfare (she travels just about every week --lifestyles of the rich and famous) -- she says always go to the airlines site first -- their prices will be lower than expedia, travelocity etc and to buy tickets on Tuesday -- she says for some reason you can get better prices on Tuesdays. I personally cannot vouch for this -- as like I said before we rarely fly -but she was right on the airline having cheaper fares than any other online source. Our tickets for December trip round trip from Nashville to MCO on USAirways $628 for the 4 of us. If your flight times are very flexible (ours weren't) you can always bid for tickets on priceline -- you may end up with good travel times or you may not.

 

[disney6family]

JillyJoey:
We went to LH ('82 and '84), but we have family that went/ goes to Uniontown I think my neice graduated in '96, nephew in '98 maybe? We are leaving in 3 days for a 2 week extravaganza there to celebrate our 20th Anniversary and many family members will be there to see another neice march in the parade in the afternoon on Sun 11/26 at MK
Small world - not many people know where Uniontown is - when we lived in San Diego we always had to say we were from south of Pgh.

 

[disney6family]

OP, I have gotten better deals on Tuesdays also! Our last trip from PIT to SAN we got $130 tickets

 

[jillyjoey]

JillyJoey:
We went to LH ('82 and '84), but we have family that went/ goes to Uniontown I think my neice graduated in '96, nephew in '98 maybe?

How cool is this -- I graduated in 86. My sis in 84 -- she dated a guy from LH her senior year so you probably know him. I went to St. Vincent for college 1990. Left PA in 1991 -- but still have family in Mon Valley -- both of my kids were baptized in Belle Vernon.

 

[disney6family]

We do probably know him or at least have him in our yearbooks!
We went to Pitt, DH '86, I just moved from major to major until I got to San Diego and graduated there.
We moved back here in '98

 

[minnierocks]

We are definitely a driving family
We have always driven because it was cheaper than flying...it's about an 18 hour drive for us! Since Disney flew us down for our last trip...I don't know if I can EVER drive again!!!
It was so nice to get on a plane and be there in 2 hours
I would say that if you can get some cheap flights-than go for it!
If not...you can always drive...

TIP: We bought each of our kids new suitcases with wheels for the airport. Everyone handled their own. I know you have kids a little younger than mine, but I think your oldest one could do it...Oh, and leave lots of time to get everyone through those security checkpoints!!!

Have a great trip!!!

 

[kmwek]

Thanks for all the replies, advice, and input. I appreciate it. I would like to fly this trip, so I am trying to justify it to DH. I have a long hard winter winter ahead of me probably.

 

[Reese]

We to are a driving family. For our first trip to WDW we decided to fly since I found some really cheap airfare. DH was a little hesitant as neither one of us had flown for years and never with kids. Well with five kids in tow and seven months pregnant we headed off to an airport we had never set foot in. It was so much better than driving. DH said that even if it costs more than driving we are only flying to WDW. Also it took so little time that we were able to spend and extra day since DH didn't have to take the extra days off work to drive.