Coming from Barrie, how much time to estimate to Detroit (DTW) airport? We were thinking of leaving at 9am for a 5:45pm flight? Does this sound like plenty of enough time?
Spend the extra $1.00 a day for the preferred long term parking at the Smith Terminal you can walk to the terminal no waiting for a shuttle. Drop the family off first at the terminal with the bags.
We just returned from flying out of Detroit DTW to Orlando MCO. As long as there is no traffic problems i.e. closed 401 or border issues there shouldn't be a problem. I would leave at 8:00 and take the 407 west to the 401.
We crossed at the bridge for our 17:45 flight at about 12:00 with a 3 car wait. There is a huge amount of construction and poor signage on the US side of the Ambassador Bridge.
Prebook your bags if flying Spirit to save money. We tried to book on line, all kinds of web site problems with Spirit. Spoke with a CSR and was instructed they would fix the price at the airport. Long story short, lots of hassles. Spirit flight crew was great the folks at the ticket counter not so helpful at DTW or MCO.