Driving for the first time????

[goofyandmickey]

Can anyone help with a budget af what it would cost to drive from PA to Disney World??? I think it is more cost effective than flying so with needing to save every penny I can it looks like driving is it for us. Help please.

 

[Goofypop]

You will need to consider sleeping overnight somewhere along the way. The gas your car will take to get there, around while you're there, and then back again. And you will need to consider food along the way.

For me it would be far more expensive to drive from Southern Indiana to Disney than flying. I would lose most everything in the divorce that would follow that kind of trip.

 

[JB2K]

For me it would be far more expensive to drive from Southern Indiana to Disney than flying. I would lose most everything in the divorce that would follow that kind of trip.

Obviously, I am not "getting" the in-joke/wink (unless the poster may be referring to the "adults only" establishments along I-75 in Florida, which are easily-ignored by me)...

For those who take their travel seriously, I am from the St. Louis area, which isn't too much different. I drove down (2 adults/1 child) two weeks ago, and here's how mine played-out...

Gas expenses were about $175 from home-WDW-home (that could be even less, now that gas prices in many locations along the KY/TN/GA route are now posting below $3 a gallon). For the record, my car was getting about 33 MPG on the route down.

To further cut costs on gas, I did something a little different - I went to Kroger and purchased $500 worth of Disney/fast food gift cards. The $500 purchase gave me quadruple points for Kroger gas purchases, which equated to two fill-ups discounted at $1 per gallon (my total savings was about $33 on gas). Also took advantage of Murphy USA's (Walmart gas stations in the midwest/south) 10-cent a gallon discounts for the entire month of September.

As for my lodging, I do an overnight stop at my Dad's, which eliminates my expense for lodging (but, for everyone else, you could "go cheap" for 8 hours at about $40-$50 a night), or even rotate adult drivers every 6 hours, eliminating the need for overnight lodging, altogether.

Tolls are just a few bucks (on Florida's Turnpike and the state roads leading to WDW). I keep a Florida SunPass loaded with the bare minimum $ fir this.

Road food was a combination of fast food and a picnic basket full of snicky-snacks.

Also brought a small cooler with water/soda.

It can be done, and it can be done for way less than any airplane tickets if you plan ahead and scout-out deals.

On, and did I mention I had MY car to use any way I wanted to while I was there?

 

[pklein09]

We're from Central Jersey, and have driven the past 3 times. It's definitely cheaper for us to drive that fly, but there are 6 of us. How many of you are there? Based on my personal experience, if there are 4 or more of you, driving makes sense.

Here's where my money went while driving round-trip (approximately):

Gas: $267 (gas was averaged about $3.65/gal, my van got about 24-25 mpg, included my initial fill-up and a fill-up while at WDW)
Tolls: $20
Meals: about $150 for 2 dinners and 2 lunches (breakfast was free at the hotels)
Hotel: $320 ($160 each night, room slept 6....look for suites)

Grand Total: $757

That's much cheaper considering the best I could do for airfare for 6 of us was $230/pp or about $1380 plus airport parking for a week. We probably would have taken ME had we flown, but I like a grocery stop to offset the cost of breakfasts and water while on-site.

And as JB2K mentioned, I had my van to use the entire trip.

I hope this helps. Have a great trip!

 

[mebbradley]

My fiance and I will be making the trip from Dover, Delaware on Wednesday. We've done this trip before. We are 21 and 20, so our age does play into the fact. We tend to drive because Plane tickets are often non-refundable if leave from the the air force gets canceled on us last-minute.

It will cost us the following:

Gas: 240.00 [an estimate, it will take about 3 tanks to go and 3 to come, Chris's car is very fuel-efficient]

Hotel: 50.00 [another estimate, we are not staying in a hotel going down. Coming back, we may stay in a hotel as we are planning on stopping in Georgia at Ft. Stewart to see Chris's best friend.]

Tolls: 10.00 or so.

So all-in-all, It will end up costing us about 300.00. We don't count food in this budget as we would still be eating even if we flew!

Flights for the pair would run about 450.00 total.

As well, we enjoy traveling to see my friends that still work in the Orlando area as well as taking quick trips off-property or to the parks.

Hope that helps!

 

[loveysbydesign]

We are driving from PA in 2 weeks. we drove once before and since there are 5 of us is saves us quite a bit of money. Be sure to check out the 2,000 miles thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=42749665#post42749665

 

[Goofypop]

Obviously, I am not "getting" the in-joke/wink (unless the poster may be referring to the "adults only" establishments along I-75 in Florida, which are easily-ignored by me)...

For those who take their travel seriously,

Wow. Lighten up. I wasn't being nasty about that. But that does show where you are thinking. Nice. I was referring to the arguing that would ensue from all that time with us in the car. And I was in no way trying to say that it is like that for others. And I do take my traveling seriously. God forbid I make a joke.

Thanks for proving that a person cannot make a simple comment here on the boards without someone getting hateful about it. And I guess you didn't get the joke.

 

[amylevan]

It's about 1,000 miles from our house in the Lehigh Valley. At 22 mpg (my SUV) and app. $3.25/gal, that's about $150 each way or $300.

Hotel if stopping - say $50/night.

Tolls $20

And then you have to decide about food and if you will buy any entertainment for the kiddos (I have about $50 spent on our upcoming trip on new toys, dvds, etc.).

What that doesn't take into account is the value of time (we haven't driven in the past when the prices were close because DH only gets limited vacation time, so to waste the extra days in the car threw the weight in the other direction.)

 

[loveadobie]

We live north of Grand Rapids, Mi.

We priced out airline tickts from there, for 3 of us came to 275.00 each, total 825.00. In this case driving would probably be cheaper.

We always look at pricing tickets from other airports. We ended up getting tickets from Detroit to Orlando, $180.00 each, total $540.00. Definitely, cheaper, and easier to fly in that case, just a 3 hour drive to another airport.

Maybe you could check that out, maybe airfare from Pittsburgh or Philly, depending on where you live, might prove to be cheaper.

Plus more time for the fun stuff, rather then 2 days each way driving.

 

[disney_me]

We live in Smyrna, Delaware and will be driving to FL in Feburay. According to the AAA fuel calculator it will cost us : $ 382.64 round trip. Hotel will be $100.00 per night. Dinner for 3 will be about $45.00 per night. Breakfast is free at the hotel and for lunch we pack a cooler and make sandwiches.

Total trip cost: $527.64

I will make sure to keep $600.00 set aside for the trip. It would cost the 3 of us almost $1,200.00 between plane tickets and a car rental to get to FL so we are driving!

Just remember it is a long trip and I'm not sure how old your kids are so make sure you have enough things to keep them busy!

PS I have a 15 yr old and I pack her a "surprise" fun bag. I pick up thing here and there from the Dollar Tree and put in a fun bag for her. She loved it!

 

[findmewdw]

For me it would be far more expensive to drive from Southern Indiana to Disney than flying. I would lose most everything in the divorce that would follow that kind of trip.

I did get your joke! All joking aside, we do not travel well together in the car either! Unfortunately for our trip coming up in five days, we have decided that we will drive to save money. We'll be coming from Louisville area, so close to your drive. Friends of ours are driving also. We've already told them that DH and I will probably not be speaking on our first day in the park. We'll still be fuming from not reading maps correctly, road rage, etc!

 

[Goofypop]

I did get your joke! All joking aside, we do not travel well together in the car either! Unfortunately for our trip coming up in five days, we have decided that we will drive to save money. We'll be coming from Louisville area, so close to your drive. Friends of ours are driving also. We've already told them that DH and I will probably not be speaking on our first day in the park. We'll still be fuming from not reading maps correctly, road rage, etc!

I know what you mean. I live in Sellersburg and drive to work at the Clark County Corrections Center. And that drive alone makes me insane with the speeders, stop sign runners, etc.... There's no way I could deal with driving to Disney. LOL

 

[roumic]

We drive now. Initially DF would only fly but with the price of flights and the amount of time that it take to get through airport security now there was not much difference in the amount if time that it took to drive (total of 3 hours difference). Youq also have to factor in the cost of parking at the airport and consider any bag fees. Plus as many people have mentioned we used our car alo when we are at WDW to avoid awaiting for busses and getting groceries (so it saves us time and money while we are there). There are website to help plan the tolls and we pack our lunch for on the road (cheaper and healthier than fast food). We leave super early in the morning to avoid traffic in the major cities that we have drive through.

 

[goofyandmickey]

Thank you all for the info! I am looking at driving becasue there will be 4 of us going, myself, my 2 boys 17 and 9, and a friend. Just for the boys and I it was going to be $800 for tickets at least at this point.... yuck! I am trying to keep my options open and know it will be time wise a far cry from the 2 hour and 15 minute plane ride from Pittsburgh to Orlando. I am looking for any savings we can have
We can make a stop in Atlanta if we can make it that far the first day becasuemy sister lives there and will be joinging us on the trip so we are looking at just meeting there.

 

[mrodgers]

Thank you all for the info! I am looking at driving becasue there will be 4 of us going, myself, my 2 boys 17 and 9, and a friend. Just for the boys and I it was going to be $800 for tickets at least at this point.... yuck! I am trying to keep my options open and know it will be time wise a far cry from the 2 hour and 15 minute plane ride from Pittsburgh to Orlando. I am looking for any savings we can have
We can make a stop in Atlanta if we can make it that far the first day becasuemy sister lives there and will be joinging us on the trip so we are looking at just meeting there.

Keep in mind if you have any layover, as well as what time you would be arriving as opposed to how much time you have off work, etc. For us, it was faster to drive. Vacation time didn't matter, we had 6 days in Orlando whether we drove the day before or flew that day. We drove from just north of Pittsburgh to Savannah, GA the first day. $94 for the hotel in Savannah. Drove 4 hours or whatever it was the next day and arrived around noon, my daughters standing in front of the Castle in Magic Kingdom for the first time by 1 PM. If flying, there would have been the 2 hour drive to Pittsburgh International, an hour or 2 in the airport, 1.5 hour flight? to Atlanta, then the best I could see on the day we planned was a 6 hour layover in Atlanta, putting us at waking up at 4-5 am and getting just to Orlando around 5 pm. Arriving by car at noon, the whole day was head of us. Arriving to Orlando airport at 5, most of the day is gone.

I did tally up a vacation sheet when we got home. Average of about $2.60/gallon in 2010 and 20 mpg, we spend $225 in gas round trip. $94 for the overnight stay in Savannah and whatever eating because we aren't picky. We just grabbed cheap.

On the way home we drove 1091 miles straight home. Left Pop Century at 3:30 am and walked in the door at home at 10:30 at night.

As for the divorce driving that distance? That was our first time ever going on vacation. 9 year old and 6 year old girls at the time, we didn't hear a single peep out of them the entire way down or the entire way home. They had the never before watched DVD player for the ride down which played non-stop, but the 19 straight hours on the way home, the DVD player didn't turn on once. They sat in the back chatting and playing and we never heard a peep. I was pretty impressed being the first time they ever traveled more than an hour in the car.

 

[rock_doctor]

Can anyone help with a budget af what it would cost to drive from PA to Disney World??? I think it is more cost effective than flying so with needing to save every penny I can it looks like driving is it for us. Help please.

We drive from outside Philly... I 95 south all the way to I-4. We spend about $300 in fuel, less then $150 in hotel rooms and we bring the food with us. You have to consider that you now have a car with you so you can make food runs to walmart, drive to the other resorts when you want to look around and you can drive yourself to the parks. For us we always drive, tried to fly once but the idea of having to get to the airport and then security and so on...it just wasn't worth it, we ended up just canceling the tickets and drove anyway.

We use the "redbook" for hotel coupons, stop in Florence SC the first night then stop in Kiss the second night. You don't really need to do it in three days but we find if we stay in Kiss the second night we can hit WDW super early the next morning well rested. So it is worth the extra money. We stop for Diesel in Dillion SC, Exit 6 in GA and Carmel Church VA (on the way home only). We don't usually stop for fuel in Fla because we can carry enough but if you need to the Hess Stations in Disney are actually not out of wack with their prices. We prefer Flying J stations because if you have one of their frequent travelers club cards you can use your CC and pay the cash price. The station on GA is a racetrack or something like that. If you can make it to GA the first night stay outside Savanna GA. Rooms are super cheap and if you leave relatively early the next day you can get to Disney by 1pm and do it in two days. Map out your trip, do not rely on GPS only. Take all beltways (i.e. around Wilmington, Washington, Richmond and Jacksonville). Be super careful on I4 going though Orlando. Stay in the center right lane. At one point I4 hooks to the right and one lane goes off for I4 and the rest hook off to the left to another highway. If not careful you will get "sucked" off and onto the wrong road. We prefer to drive. The idea of having everything we want to make us comfortable plus not having to use Disney transportation makes it well worth the time. You don't say were you are coming from but there are many ways to do. I95 is probably the hardest drive but the fastest way to go.

on edit, i see you are coming from Pitts. that does add some travel time. I would still suggest catching up to I95 at some point but i know that there are other members from the Harrisburg/Pitts area. I am sure they will join in and give you very specific information. The up side (or maybe down side) the 17 yr old can get some driving time in...

 

[mrseace711]

We have 4 kids and live in NW Indiana flying would have cost more than WDW for us! On the way down we ended up driving straight thru due to a last minute emergency the morning of our drive that delayed us 10 hours! So it saved us a hotel room there. Way down we filled up 3 times we stopped for breakfast in the AM and made sandwiches in the car for lunch snacked the rest of the way had dinner in Disney =) Way home we filled up in Disney stayed the night in GA, and had 2 more fill ups. Gas cost us $45-60 (depending on price which varied) to fill up we ONLY filled up at WalMarts and Krogers so we could get 10 cents and up off one of our fill ups I used 1,000 Kroger points and got a WHOLE $1.00 OFF each gallon cost us $30 at that fill up. So $51 for 1 hotel night, approx $300 for gas, $150 for 3 sit down meals total on the road = $501 travel. We actually enjoyed the drive next time we will have more time and will stop in TN for sightseeing.

 

[Eeyoretiggerzpigletz]

We drove fro m RI to Florida in two days. You will need someplace to sleep overnight.

 

[budafam]

We drove from central Wisconsin in May when the gas was at an all time high (average $3.80/gal). The entire trip costed just under $500 in gas (we filled up about 50 min. from home so I would say close to $460ish or so). We stopped on the way down there and on the way back. Both times we found hotels that were $75 and one included a complimentary breakfast. My suggestion is to pack a good lunch that first day... bring a cooler and lots of snacks. This way you won't have to stop until that night to eat. You can make good time doing that

We would fly as well but the cost is just ridiculous, then there's renting a car while we're down there and you never know about cancellations, weather, etc.

It was our first long drive as husband and wife with a 4 & 2 year old. The kids were awesome the entire time. We never fought once. It went extremely well... we're doing it again next May but my MIL is coming along. Not sure if there will be no fighting this next time... lol...

 

[MrsPete]

You'll have to do the math for both scenerios and determine which is better for you. Just be sure that you include EVERYTHING in each budget:

If you drive --
Expected gas costs
Tolls
Meals on the road
Hotel, if necessary for the length of your drive
Parking, if required at your hotels

If you fly --
Ticket cost
Checked baggage, if necessary
Gas to the airport
Parking at the airport
Meals or drinks at the airport
Ground transportation once you arrive

Also consider the non-financial aspects of the choice:

We do not consider car maintenance or wear-and-tear on the vehicle in the calculations. We'd need oil changes and new tires occasionally whether or not we drive on vacations, and we buy our cars to use, not to save for trade-in values. We tend to keep them 'til they're so worn out that we end up donating them anyway.

Calculate the entire time it takes to fly (driving to the airport, arriving 1-2 hours early to go through security, retrieving baggage at the end, locating ground transportation) -- not just your time in the air.

Consider that if you drive, you have the freedom to bring sodas and snacks easily, and that means savings once you're in Orlando.

And finally, consider that if you need a drive of more than a day, you're cutting into your vacation time.

For us, no matter how many times we do the math and how low the airfare, driving always wins. We get 40 MPG, so it's economical to drive, and we live in the land of high airfare. Even when we took our nieces along on a 14-hour drive and needed to rent a van, driving was less than 50% of the cost of flying.