Drive or Fly

[DWhittles]

Hi all!
We are having a major dilemma in my house these days.
We live in Hoboken NJ and will be in Disney the first week in October.
The dilemma is do we drive or do we fly?
My husband is afraid to fly but isn't crazy about driving because of the vacation time it eats up.
My son is going to be about 9 months old and in creating a packing list for him, I've realized how much stuff there is to bring with us.
What do you guys think?
Drive or fly?
Any tips for making either way smooth with an infant?
Diana

 

[lkc0538]

If you end up flying, a tip I got from these boards is to use A Baby's Best Friend. Website is www.abbf.com. Everyone has posted very positive reviews, and it seems they rent just about everything a baby could need at fairly reasonable prices. We have older children, but still ended up reserving 2 sets of pool toys from them.

Also, we were going to take the auto train when we go down, but ended up cancelling it and will be flying instead. This is because we did take the Auto train in July, and while it was a nice, pleasant experience, it did take 4 full days of our vacation.

Good luck

 

[FreeTime]

We have driven and flown when our children were young. They are 15 months apart and one was about 4 months old when we flew for the first time with both of them. Even though you will have tons of stuff (imagine how much we had with 2! ) I think that flying is the best. The only think that I ever had a concern about is that they would, um, hmmm, stinky their diaper, and I was always worried about how I would manuever the change. Some planes do have small diaper decks in them now. Some suggestions on reducing the amount of stuff you have whether you fly and/or drive is:

1) pack one suitcase full of baby things that you will use during the week (diapers, shampoo, formula, swimmies, etc) use this empty suitcase to bring home all of your goodies that you will buy.

2) pack only enough diapers for the flight, or drive (take a few extras in case of delays) and stop at publix once you get there.

3) only take a few small toys for baby for the car as you will buy too many at WDW

4) Use the stroller to push your luggage at the airport and carry baby. It is too hard to push baby and a luggage cart even with two people. The cars seats always fall off of the cart. And you will save a few bucks too. Be sure to bring your own car seat as the rental car companies charge a lot and you never know if they have been involved in an accident.


My kids are 3 & 4 now and one thing that I will be buying for each trip are the Huggies disposable wash clothes. They are great to clean the kids or baby up in the late afternoon after a hot day. They help the kids feel refreshed.

Have fun!

 

[Jenn Lynn]

Give me a couple of hours on a plane instead of 10+ in a car any day. I would definitely fly. On DD's first flight she was 1 1/2. She slept the whole way down and back. Now she doesn't like to sleep.

I would also buy a seat for your son. Most airlines offer 1/2 price for kids under 2.

 

[Amirah95]

New Jersey here...Teaneck to be specific!!! And we drive down to Orlando every year...took us 17 hours last time. We go non-stop and we just stop for short bathroom breaks and snacks. We only fly when the destination is out of country. It's fun to us. People fly because it's quicker and they can get to the magic faster.

 

[Alicia Gist]

We're from Muscle Shoals, AL. It's a 12 hour drive to Orlando from here. We have done both ways. The last time we flew my daughter "threw up" all over me and I swore I would never fly again. We have a van with a DVD player and that makes the trip a lot quicker. We're going in December. We're planning on taking all Christmas DVDs to watch. We went on the cruise in May. I ordered the Disney Cruise Planning DVD. We didn't watch it until we were an hour away from the terminal. It was soooo nice. If you don't have a DVD or VHS player, some rental places will rent them. We used to rent a TV/VCR player for $10/day from Rent One.

 

[DisneyPete]

Flying is more expensive than driving but when you figure in recovery time and travel it saves about 3 days on the trip so it is well worth it to me.

Another option is the Auto train. You drive down to Virginia and than you take the train overnight to Sanford, just outside Orlando. But I recomend it only to people just too afraid to fly because it is slower than driving and more expensive than flying. But the food is great!

 

[CapeCodFam]

If you choose to fly Have your husband call his doctor. His doctor can prescribe something to get him through his flight. My husband does it every time we fly. It helps him tremendously. He says it takes the edge off. He can even get up to take the kids to the bathroom. The first time we flew he took dramamin(sp) it did nothing he was so white knuckled and pale he made the airline stewardess nervous.

Good luck on your decision.(boy, I can't spell )
Joy

 

[TrinaC]

I have been to disney 7 times. Driven 5 and flew down there 2. I hate flying, so much that i will cry the whole way there. But next time we go to Disney I am gonna beg for us to fly. 17 hours in the car none stop is fun for like the first 4 hours. After awhile everyone gets restless plus you miss a whole day of the vacation because you have to drive there. 2 hours on a plane is scary but you would be better off flying.

 

[Amirah95]

Welcome to the Dis Trina.

 

[TrinaC]

Thanks! Glad to be here!

 

[cheyita]

Yes, Trina, welcome to the DIS!

I feel the same way you do about the mode of travel!

 

[The Princess]

Well here's my 2 cents:

1st time we went DD were 5 and 2. We took the auto train and I hated it. I call it my trip from hell.


2nd time we did fly and we loved it although 2 days after we got home was 9/11.

Next time we are going to drive. We have an SUV with a DVD and yesterday I bought a hook up so they can play playstation.

All I need to do now is book the trip and I will be set.

 

[Amirah95]

We just got a brand spanking new minivan with the DVD setup as well and this will be our first time taking it to Florida so we shall see how it goes. The good thing is that we can take the back seats out and roll away the last row of seats so that DH and I can take turns sleeping. DD can relax back there without saying her legs are cramped up. I'm excited!

 

[eeyore kelly]

We are going to fly, because I hate road trips with the kids. I have about a 12 hour drive. The down side is that it does cost $$$, and has put back the trip by 6-7 weeks. We were going to go right after new year in 2006, now we are going at the end of Feb. 2006.

I am afraid to fly and plan on getting something from the Doctor. I hear Xanax is great, and I am also looking into Paxil.

My kids are older now, but they never traveled well when they were little. I would take into account how well they travel when making the decision.

 

[tinkerbellsfan]

We have driven the last three years in a row and leaving again on Sunday. DS does not do well on planes and since 9/11 he vows not to fly. We pack the van up with snacks and DVD's and lay the back see of the van down and kids can sleep. Gives us some quality time together. DH and I take turns. We have always driven straight thru with stops for gas and food, but we are thinking of staying over night somewhere in Georgia to get some rest. Our drive from NJ is about 17hrs.

 

[DisneyBill]

Tolerance to flying notwithstanding, when you just factor use of your vehicle, gasoline, wear on tires as follows, driving isn't always cheaper on a 2000 mile round trip. We just flew a family of four for $916. Plus transport from MCO.
$30000 car with 100,000 mile life, 2000 miles is 2% of the 30k, or $600.
50000 mile tires at $500 p/set, 2000 miles is 4% of the $500, or $20.
2000 miles @ 20mpg is 100 gallons. 100 gallons time 1.80 p/gal is $180.
These 3 are $800.
Don't forget about the food both ways, and even an extra hotel night if you split the drive over two days.
Just my way of rationalizing the cost to fly.

 

[kerry34]

I would recommend flying with the little one. Unfortunately we have always driven down (and its quite a haul from here) for one big reason....$$$. We have five kids and are a single income family. It is just expensive to fly seven people no matter how you cut it, so i bear with the drive. It's better than missing out on the fun. My kids are very good on the drives and of course we take a couple of days to get there; however, if I had my choice I would fly for sure. I have never driven with kids under 2 1/2 so I am not exactly sure how a nine month old would be. The older ones are pretty easy to occupy.

If you do decide to drive, don't kill yourself getting there in one day if you dont have too. Stay over night somewhere if you can plan for the extra time. We always break it up and it works out pretty well because everyone gets some rest. Good Luck either way you go!!!

 

[Amirah95]

Driving 1100 miles one way and 1100 miles back isn't for everybody so the best advice I can give is to weigh out your options and most importantly, try to figure out how much you can tolerate when on the road.

It is 2200 miles roundtrip for us Do you think you can handle something like that?

 

[justhat]

I posted on your other thread about how my daughter was on the flights she took at 3 months, 4 months, and 5 months. We are from NJ too (though temporarily living in DC) and so we flew to WDW once from DC and once form NJ with our daughter. My daughter absolutely hates the car and the drive from DC to NJ is bad enough so there's no way I'd ever attempt to drive to Florida with her. She's getting better now, but used to scream from the moment she was strapped into that car seat till we took her out. She didn't do that on the plane though, and actually fell asleep in her carseat as soon as the plane took off on almost every flight (if not every flight). Plus, it's so much easier to keep them amused for the 2.5 hour flight from NJ to Orlando than on a 20 hour drive. Also, even though my daughter her own seat and stayed in her carseat most of the flights, when she did get tired of the seat I could just take her out and hold her, which isn't an option in the car. I kept her in the seat for takeoff, landing, and turbulence, but if it was smooth and she got fussy she came out. Much easier than stopping the car to give the baby a break, especially since some of those rest stops from NJ to SC (as far as I've driven) can be kinda sketchy at night. And don't worry about your son bothering others if he cries on the plane, they'll get over it. On all our flights, only 1 couple was annoyed with my daughter when she started crying because she was exhausted and we had been stuck on the plane circling over VA because of a storm in DC and we weren't allowed out of our seats because we were within 30 minutes of DC so I could walk around with her. They kept turning around to glare at me, which was fine with me since she was 3 months old and that's what 3 month olds do when they're tired and can't fall asleep (plus, I got my own enjoyment out of the fact that the 'glarer' couldn't recline her seat since Madison's rear-facing carseat was in her way). Other than that couple, most people are very understanding. We even ran into a family in the MK that was on our flight and they recognized us because they remembered my daughter. Anyway, anything to shorten the journey is worth it to me (and I'm afraid of flying too).