Driving vs. flying

[Courtney88]

I am planning a trip to Walt Disney World/Universal with my boyfriend in either early March or late April (those are the 2 times my college class schedule will allow me to go, leaning towards March basically because it's sooner and a slower time for him at work). He went to Disney a bunch of times as a kid, but has not been in the last 7 years or so. I go about every other year and have done the CP and am generally obsessed with Disney, haha.

Anyways, the issue we're having is deciding whether we will be flying or driving - we live in southern Michigan and it's about a 20 hour drive. I've drove for about 90% of the trips I've taken to Disney, so for me it's practically part of the experience - driving all day/night, listening to Disney music, taking turns sleeping, and just being super excited the whole way down. The couple times that my family has flown down, we always rent a car so we don't have to wait around for Disney transportation to get to the parks/hotel. Plus it's pretty expensive to fly and rent a car, and he wants to try to keep the price down a bit.

He's drove down there once (on a bus for a HS marching band trip), and says he'd end up sore and very tired. Also, he's always used the Disney transportation, but doesn't remember how long it took, and I don't have any personal experience but have heard some horror stories about it, but maybe it's gotten better.


Of course I don't want to start vacation with him sore and tired, but Im pretty hesitant on spending all that money on plane tickets (especially when we're trying to not spend too much), and then either spending more money on a rental car or having to use Disney transportation. Any opinions/experiences? He wanted to think about it for a few days, and I told him I'd post this to see if anyone had any opinions/experiences that could be helpful.

 

[Pirate-Jeff]

We drive every time now it's part of the adventure. I don't have to worry about my flights being cancelled again or left stranded some where by the airlines that treat you so bad.

 

[patsfan101]

We've done it both ways in the last several years with a family of four.

Advantages of driving: You have your car with your for convienence, you can pack groceries and a cooler and save money by eating breakfast in your room (and a beer on your balcony!), save on airfare, you can get to mini-golf easily, you can get to other resorts for dining easily

Advantages of flying: You don't have to drive home!

Really, for us the drive home is really hard. We're about the same distance (20 hours). The ride down isn't bad. I've been to Daytona on a bus for Spring Break in college (many many moons ago) and taking your own car is a much more comfortable experience in my opinion.

Disney transport varies from resort to resort - is there only a bus, or do you ahve other options (water launch, monorail, walking paths) to the parks you want to visit. We tend to lean towards driving and spend the money on meals or staying at AKL!