Driving vs. flying from NE

[mlacreta]

Hello all...I know ultimately I have to make the decision but with just 5 weeks left I'd love to hear any and all opinions..should we drive or fly....heres the info.....i estimate that to drive our family of 7 from NH to DW will cost about 350gas, 50 tolls, and 200 food round trip. also taking into consideration the over 100 we will save on luggage tips at resorts (and the fatc that we are staying at thv 3 nites where i hear a car may make life easier) would make it about say 500/550ish to drive. flying at the moment least expensive would be AT out of boston..i hate going to logan...with a change of planes..at about 1050rt or if SW out of manchester (our prefered airport) comes down maybe 1200rt. sorry this is messy but i have to be quick...baby screaming upstairs!!! TIA for all the advice!!!

 

[TheWog]

strictly monitary it seems driving would save you money. To save your sanity it might be flying. I have no idea what your children are like, but a car ride for 24ish hours nonstop or a stop over night could make you crazy. What's the value to you? Is a 3 hour plane ride worth about $600? That's your call. JB is running a sale, so you should check them as well.

 

[taitai]

Not sure how many bags you have where you think you are going to drop $100 on tips. That seems really steep unless you truly have 25 bags (assuming $2/bag for arriving and departing).

A couple other factors into your algorithm. Cost of hotel or are you driving straight through? What about wear and tear on the car and tires? How rested will you be if you drive straight through? Will you need to add a day to sleep on either end? Will you need to take more vacation time from work if you drive? If so, how much is a day's salary that you will be forgoing?

Good luck in your decision

 

[Darcy03231]

Also, do you have enough extra money/cc available to you if you run into car trouble on the way down/back? I remember reading a trip report from someone who had car (engine?) trouble on the way down. They ended up having to get the car to a dealer, renting a car for the rest of trip and making arrangements to pick the car up on the way back (as I recall it was a fairly new car and covered by a warranty). I'd hate to be stuck part way there with not enough money for repairs or a car rental.

Personally, I live in NH and there is no way you could pay be enough to drive to WDW. The only way I would even consider doing it is if I had two to three weeks and we were going to stop and do stuff on the way down and the way back.

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

I live in NH and we are a family of 4, therefore we always fly, have never driven. Never even considered it. Now....being a family of 7 I would definitely consider it depending on a few things. You need to add the cost of a hotel on the way there and the way back, probably another $200. What are the ages of the kids? You mentioned a baby crying. How much time do you or your DH have for the trip? Do you have longer than a week because you will lose 2 days down and 2 days back. That is 4 days and if you are only gone a week, not worth it too me. Lots to consider. It is doable and not totally insane. People do it all the time, just not me.

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

My husband and I calculated the cost of driving from PA (our family of four) last night. It appears that it will cost us about $400 RT with a drive time of 16hours-rest stops only. The drive there will not be bad - we will all be super excited. I am worried about the drive home, however. After calculating airline fees (using USAirways) out of our airport (Phila.): security,domestic segment, and facility charges,$23 per person, luggage $30 (we will have one suitcase) plus tax (it must be on a chart b/c I couldn't calculate it), I would need our airfare to be about $122RT per person to total about $600. A $200 cost difference would be worth the convience of flying. We aren't planning our trip until June 2010, so I have plenty of time to try for cheap air. (Even if the cost is a little more, I am thinking that flying is just worth it.)

I would have to ask you what is it worth? Can you get cheap enough fare to make it worth it?? I immediately thought - SEVEN? DRIVE... but then I thought about being in the car for that long with the six other family members on the drive HOME and thought - FLY! Good Luck!

 

[mlacreta]

Not sure how many bags you have where you think you are going to drop $100 on tips. That seems really steep unless you truly have 25 bags (assuming $2/bag for arriving and departing).

A couple other factors into your algorithm. Cost of hotel or are you driving straight through? What about wear and tear on the car and tires? How rested will you be if you drive straight through? Will you need to add a day to sleep on either end? Will you need to take more vacation time from work if you drive? If so, how much is a day's salary that you will be forgoing?

Good luck in your decision

Well, last time we went we actually had atleast 10 bags..this time we may get by on 5-7 since we are not packing food. The bag tipping adds up because we are staying at 3 different resorts so we will be arriving aprox 4 times and departing 4 times! I don't think we would stop at a hotel because that would add to the cost. We would actually be leaving I think around 8am sept. 8th..giving us plenty of time for 4-6 half hour stops and even the possibility for a half hour cat nap at a rest stop if needed...although i am a night person so i could prob drive the nite shift no prob after naping all day while dh drives. that would have us arriving hopefully early afternoon and we planned to just enjoy the resort pools for the afternoon and get to bed early to be ready for our first full day so i don't think the lack of sleep would be an issue. DH has 6 hours vaca time left so he could get the extra day off paid making salary loss not an issue.

 

[mlacreta]

I live in NH and we are a family of 4, therefore we always fly, have never driven. Never even considered it. Now....being a family of 7 I would definitely consider it depending on a few things. You need to add the cost of a hotel on the way there and the way back, probably another $200. What are the ages of the kids? You mentioned a baby crying. How much time do you or your DH have for the trip? Do you have longer than a week because you will lose 2 days down and 2 days back. That is 4 days and if you are only gone a week, not worth it too me. Lots to consider. It is doable and not totally insane. People do it all the time, just not me.

Our stay is actually for 16 nights. we come home on a thurs so DH already had the friday off from work to help unpack..we are supose to arrive on the wens after labor day so he would have to take tues off and he only has 6 hours vaca time left..so we would lose maybe 2 hours unpaid..unless we moved around previous time off...which might be possible...actually i think it is possible....will have to look into that....i don't think we would stay overnight in a hotel..not wanting to add more to the cost..that would make it alot closer in cost to flying...with this size family it is rare to be able to stay overnight in one room together..legally anyway!!!

 

[jd_mouse]

Only you can decide what your level of comfort is...
Do you want to save money? Save time? Save your SANITY with 5 kids in the car for at least a full day?!?!
We live in PA. If I was going to be in Disney for 2 weeks, I might consider driving. Anything less than that...no way. I remember years ago booking my flight out of Baltimore because I was saving $50 per ticket. I can tell you honestly, that when we were returning and flew into Baltimore, the $250 I saved on the 5 of us out of Philly was NOTHING. I would've given anything to be flying right into PHL.

You know your family best...if a road trip is not an issue for them, then drive and have fun! Othewise, I'd say fly...and give yourself more time to enjoy the parks and your resort(s).

 

[mlacreta]

Only you can decide what your level of comfort is...
Do you want to save money? Save time? Save your SANITY with 5 kids in the car for at least a full day?!?!
We live in PA. If I was going to be in Disney for 2 weeks, I might consider driving. Anything less than that...no way. I remember years ago booking my flight out of Baltimore because I was saving $50 per ticket. I can tell you honestly, that when we were returning and flew into Baltimore, the $250 I saved on the 5 of us out of Philly was NOTHING. I would've given anything to be flying right into PHL.

You know your family best...if a road trip is not an issue for them, then drive and have fun! Othewise, I'd say fly...and give yourself more time to enjoy the parks and your resort(s).

honostly i don't know how the kids will do on a 24 hour trip. The longest we've driven is to hershey PA and they've done fine with that..as long as they have their video games! i think they'll be so excited that the trip will be ok but you never know. it won't cut into our time at the parks at all. we had a few days on both ends of the trip that are clear/weekends so we can atleast take our time on the way back anyway...as many stops as we need.

 

[skatermom]

I live in Massachusetts and have driven to Disney World(flown as well) many times over the years, with 4 children. the first time I drove they were 14, 9, 5 and 10 months and it was really not too bad. Its nice to have your own car when your traveling with family, you can pack so much more. The most important thing is to try to avoid traffic as much as you can in the northeast corridor, NYC and DC. We usually travel on weekends avoiding the commuter traffic. I would leave @ 5 am out of NH to go thru NYC @10 am then DC by 2pm or you will have a mess in DC................that then 10 month old will be 18yrs old next month and is disappointed when we don't drive!!

 

[mlacreta]

I live in Massachusetts and have driven to Disney World(flown as well) many times over the years, with 4 children. the first time I drove they were 14, 9, 5 and 10 months and it was really not too bad. Its nice to have your own car when your traveling with family, you can pack so much more. The most important thing is to try to avoid traffic as much as you can in the northeast corridor, NYC and DC. We usually travel on weekends avoiding the commuter traffic. I would leave @ 5 am out of NH to go thru NYC @10 am then DC by 2pm or you will have a mess in DC................that then 10 month old will be 18yrs old next month and is disappointed when we don't drive!!

Thanks for the info. I was reverse timing and thinking we should leave at 8am to get there when we want time wise but i would deff. leave at 5 to beat traffic and then have a few more hours to maybe take longer brakes for the kids or a rest stop cat nap at night!

 

[TheWog]

Thanks for the info. I was reverse timing and thinking we should leave at 8am to get there when we want time wise but i would deff. leave at 5 to beat traffic and then have a few more hours to maybe take longer brakes for the kids or a rest stop cat nap at night!

I think you 8:00 a.m. departure time would serve you better for getting through/around NYC than leaving at 5:00 a.m.

Where in NH are you leaving from? This would help decide your time as well. We are in Nashua, but if you are in Berlin things change.

 

[mlacreta]

I think you 8:00 a.m. departure time would serve you better for getting through/around NYC than leaving at 5:00 a.m.

Where in NH are you leaving from? This would help decide your time as well. We are in Nashua, but if you are in Berlin things change.

We would also be leaving from the nashua area.

 

[Hannathy]

I would just like to point out you said you could stay up and drive at night cause you would have napped during the day. Please don't count on it because while your DH is driving YOU will be dealing with the kids, entertaining, feeding, refereeing,planning, etc. Also if the kids have slept and sat all day don't count on them doing sound long sleeps at night. If you truly are a night person one way to cover a lot of peaceful miles is to start out at night and get the first 6 hours in while they are asleep, but you have to be well rested enough to do this. Also plan on a couple of longer than 30 min rest stops so the kids can really get their energy out. I used to look for McD's with a large kids area and let them play while I had a cup of coffee and chilled sometimes for 45 min to an hour. Also count on the kids not all sleeping at the same time and throw in there having to go to the BR at different times. You can do it but you have to be flexible and count on things taking longer and being more expensive.

 

[annagirl]

Southwest is coming to Boston - might be worth looking into (I forget when they start but sometime this month, I think). They are a great airline, it would be nonstop and they have no fees for the first 2 bags per ticket.

 

[Darcy03231]

We would also be leaving from the nashua area.

My brother and his wife (then girlfriend) drove from my house in Nashua. They drove straight through both there and back, with minimal stops for gas/restrooms/fast food and averaged 24-26 hours for the trip. They did run into a lot of traffic and construction both ways.

 

[TheWog]

Southwest is coming to Boston - might be worth looking into (I forget when they start but sometime this month, I think). They are a great airline, it would be nonstop and they have no fees for the first 2 bags per ticket.

I don't think they have nonstop to MCO out of Logan scheduled yet (I believe service begins August 16). If SW is the choice, MHT is the better option from Nashua.

If you leave at 8:00 am you will be getting through Worcester about 9:00ish and onto the Pike and will hit Hartford about 10:00 or so. That should put you just past rush hour. You will hit some Rte. 3 traffic around 495 and then some more traffic again in the Worcester area. If you are West of Nashua - say Milford, Amherst, Brookline you might consider going 13 to 2 to 190 to 290 and then pick up the Pike. Anyway, this timing will get you to NYC area about midday and past the city before the evening rush begins. After that you will need someone else to help for timing, but you don't want to hit NYC around 8:00 - 9:00 in the morning. Just my 2 cents. Good luck deciding.

 

[mlacreta]

I would just like to point out you said you could stay up and drive at night cause you would have napped during the day. Please don't count on it because while your DH is driving YOU will be dealing with the kids, entertaining, feeding, refereeing,planning, etc. Also if the kids have slept and sat all day don't count on them doing sound long sleeps at night. If you truly are a night person one way to cover a lot of peaceful miles is to start out at night and get the first 6 hours in while they are asleep, but you have to be well rested enough to do this. Also plan on a couple of longer than 30 min rest stops so the kids can really get their energy out. I used to look for McD's with a large kids area and let them play while I had a cup of coffee and chilled sometimes for 45 min to an hour. Also count on the kids not all sleeping at the same time and throw in there having to go to the BR at different times. You can do it but you have to be flexible and count on things taking longer and being more expensive.

oh yeah...i deffinately plan on a couple longer stops...considering i have a 5 month old who will need to nurse and eat and be changed...although i can possible cut that time by pumping in the car (while dh is driving of corse!) and then the kids can bottle him...they'll love that. i won't have to entertain them much..i'd be more worried about dh taking a wrong turn while i nap that the kid...lol...when we drive to PA i usually try to take an exit that looks like a cute little town and find a park/playground for a picnic lunch..they can eat and play and we can relax....we'll prob do the same. i did think about starting at night too.....i have to think about that more timewise though..i would have plenty of sleep time prior with it being a holiday and dh will be home..plus i tend to sleep alot better during the day than at night but it would throw the timing off since i don't want to stay over anywhere. we would be forced i think to make a couple much longer stops which might not be that bad in the long run....something more to think about!