Fly from Bangor or Drive all the Way?

[schoonersky]

Help! Need some experienced opinions!

Travelling from Nova Scotia, and pondering the options available. Myself, DH, DS(9) and DD(7). Flights for 4 from Halifax are $2400 CDN - for August. Could drive to Bangor (7 hours + stops), and fly for about $1200CDN. Or, might it be worth it to drive the whole way?

Have driven to Bangor before with the kids for shopping and it was fine. Great on the way there, a little painful on the way back. Which is kind of what worries me about flying out of Bangor. Everything will be wonderful on the way there, we are on our way to Disney after all. But the way back will be a bunch of tired and cranky passengers. Maybe.

And if we drove all the way, maybe we'd save enough $$ to spend more days where we really want to be...WDW of course.

I'd love to hear your experiences before I make my decision!

Thanks!

 

[cantwaitforwdw]

Someone suggested we fly Allegiant Air out of Bangor. So we booked our flights with them for April 26th...it was $671 USD for 3 of us...may be worth checking it out...

 

[schoonersky]

Allegiant was the best price I could find out of Bangor for our dates, although not too much less than Delta which flies into MCO, so we could use ME and save $$ that way. Are you renting a car?

 

[cantwaitforwdw]

Yes we are renting a minivan and staying offsite.

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

Personally, for me, I would not be able to drive down.....1) too much time wasted driving there and back (6 days) ...2) too much stress driving.....for both me and my family.

Factor in the days used up for the additional time driving there and back, the fuel, meals and accomodations....not to mention the incidentals such as stress, crankiness, etc.....and the cost savings do not come close to the convenience of getting their with 3-5 hours and enjoying ourseves right away.

Flying out of Bangor or Portland?....perhaps that might work for us....but still have to use up 1 day to get there and 1 day to get home, meals, gas and accomodations for 2 nights + factoring us US exchange rate.....I figured out for our upcoming trip, the savings would be approx $500......not worth it for me....but perhaps for others?

 

[schoonersky]

Yeah, I hear ya on all of your points. I found a deal tonight out of Bangor for $800US for return tickets, so I figure we couldn't drive for any less and as much as I would love to fly from Halifax, I find it hard to justify the approximately $1400 CDN it will cost. That's an extra 3-4 days at WDW, even with the travel to and from Bangor.

 

[fan1080]

Something to keep in mind about flying from Bangor. I don't believe you can fly into Orlando International Airport (Allegiant), you will fly into another airport further north, about an hour's drive, so you'll need transportation when you get there. And, you will not be able to use Magical Express either.

Flying from Portland you will be able to fly into Orlando International Airport and take advantage of ME.

We just did our first trip to WDW by driving to Portland from Nova Scotia (we live in Mount Uniacke area, between Windsor and Lower Sackville). It was a long drive home after a busy, tiring, week, but it wasn't too bad. I would do it again, but only if the savings was $1000 min. Anything less just isn't worth it in my opinion once you factor in room for one night, extra meals for two days, and all the driving.

Good luck and have a great trip.

 

[hockeymom3]

We thought of doing that for our trip too, but when I looked at flying out of Bangor, I couldn't find any direct flights. So it was going to take anywhere from 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 hours to actually get from Bangor to Florida. So with that, I ended up getting direct flights from Halifax because my husband said if we're going to drive to Maine, we may as well drive all the way - because of course once you get out of Canada practically half your battle is over (we're in NS too).

I did notice that if you fly out of Portland you can get a direct flight. But then of course thats going to add 2 hrs of driving.

We're flying this time, but I know a lot of people who drive, so I think we'll try that next. That being said, we're not exactly "slow" drivers so we usually get to Sturbridge Mass the 1st night (when we go to NJ) thats the furthest we have gone in a vehicle with the 3 beasts.

Good lucK!!

 

[schoonersky]

Thank you fan and hockeymom. You both live near me, I'm in Enfield. The $800USD flights were Delta with 2 stopover. Compared to $2400, with a teacher husband who's going to be off anyway, and me who doesn't really care about another day off or two, I feel like it's a bargain but worry about the dreaded drive back. I don't think we could save enough driving all the way compared to that $800 airfare.

I didn't know you could get direct flights out of Portland - thanks for that. I wouldn't mind the extra drive to get a direct flight, it's only 2 hours and I could do a bit of shopping along the way. LOL. I'm going to check Portland today! Too bad Baltimore wasn't closer- it's $100 return each out of Baltimore.

I've become a northeastern US airfare specialist.

 

[Bea]

We are done both - driven all the way to Orlando, and flown out of Portland (we live in Dartmouth). The last time we drove our girls were 4 and 7 and it was great. We love driving and at the time (6 years ago) we did it for around $700.00us, which doesn't include the savings on the rental we would have paid when we arrived. We did priceline for hotels and ate breakfast at the rest stops. I95 is so well equipped with rest stops and "easy on easy off" ammenities.

Having said that, we have since flown from Portland and that is our preference. Driving one day to get there is nothing when compared to driving 3 days. We do the park and fly and lots of hotels have free shuttle and breakfast.

This summer we are considering flying out of Manchester,Boston,Bangor or Portland, whatever is cheaper. I noticed the cheap flights from Bangor but the $15.00/bag fee (one way) on Delta and Continental just urks me so waiting to see what opens up on Southwest out of Manchester.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[willise]

From Moncton, we always look at prices from here and Halifax, but Bangor just keeps coming in consistently lower.

For our august trip, YQM and YHZ were both in the $2400+ range for the four of us. From BGR, we got it for $803. That is more than significant. Our flight leaves at 6am, so we will need to overnight, but we arrive in MCO at 11:30.

All in all, I would drive if I had more than 2 weeks for the entire trip, preferably 3. I'm thinking with hotels, gas, food, and 6 days of driving, you would easily surpass the $1200 that the airfare costs from BGR.

 

[SplashMom]

We have driven (from Cape Breton) once and we really enjoyed it but you need time. We had almost a month so it was fine. We were on the road by 8:30 or 9 in the morning and stopped by 6 or 7 daily (and made frequent stops and side trips) and it took us five days down and four days back. The journey was part of the trip so we didn't mind but it was long coming home. With hotels, gas, and meals, it still cost around $1600 to drive but I'm sure you could go much cheaper if you drove through without stopping so much. Our kids were older but I would think you would still have frequent stops with younger kids.

I know lots of people who fly out of Bangor and Portland for a much cheaper alternative. If you watch the seat sales, you can sometimes get a decent deal out of Halifax but it usually isn't much less than $500/person. Driving to the US in August is an easy drive so I would definitely consider it. Have fun!

 

[schoonersky]

How long a drive is it to Manchester? I might have to check out that possibility. I wouldn't want to drive any further than I thought we could do in a day if we were still flying. I kind of think the 10 hours to Portland is my limit, but if I could get direct and a better rate I might consider further south.

 

[fan1080]

How long a drive is it to Manchester? I might have to check out that possibility. I wouldn't want to drive any further than I thought we could do in a day if we were still flying. I kind of think the 10 hours to Portland is my limit, but if I could get direct and a better rate I might consider further south.

Not sure from your post if you know you can get direct out of Portland. We did for our trip earlier this month, and only paid $89USD per person, each way. They do charge for checked baggage though, $15 per bag, and seat selection, about $6 per seat each way. We only checked one bag, with all the items we couldn't carry on. We each took two carry on bags, one standard rolling luggage and one shoulder bag. They have a much more liberal carry on allowance compared to other airlines we've taken. It came to about $1300CAD total by the time we added checked bag, seat selection and converted it to CAD.

 

[schoonersky]

I found that out last night, so now I am watching Bangor, Portland, maybe Manchester when I find out how far that is, and of course, Halifax. I see you've donw both POP, ASMovies and POR. How were the values? Livable?

 

[schoonersky]

Bea - do you know much about flying Southwest out of Manchester? I see the schedule doesn't open up until April 14th. Are the flights usually about $99 to Orlando?

 

[Bea]

We have never flown SWA out of Manchester but we are attracted to flying with them this time because of free baggage and the fact that there is no cancellation fee (our daughter is flying to Ecuador in August and there is always that chance she will return with some ailment).

Their schedule opens August 14 (we are flying after that) but I did notice that there are numerous flights for $79.00 one way between now and August 14. That equates to $168.00 (including taxes). The cheapest I found out of Bangor was $207.00 and Portland was $238.00. There are 5 of us, so this price difference adds up.

I *think* it is about 2 hours past Portland, but we would drive to Boston our first night when we used to drive all the way to Florida, so don't mind the drive. I have been looking into hotels in Manchester that offer free breakfast, shuttle and park and ride package.

Regardless, from Halifax we have to spend a night in a hotel, and a day in the car so weather we fly out of Bangor,Portland,Manchester or Boston, doesn't really make a difference. We actually like the drive.

 

[pooksma]

We've driven to Bangor from Fredericton area for the last 3 trips and intend to do so again in August. Two teachers here but our vacation time is limited due to other summer commitments. We've always found it cheaper to fly from Bangor. Can't touch the Westjet or AC prices. I don't think we'll drive for a long time. DH is in too much of a hurry to get there

 

[schoonersky]

I'm going to try to find out tonight how far Manchester is. You mentioned hotels offering breakfast, shuttle and park and fly. Have you found any good deals?

 

[fan1080]

I found that out last night, so now I am watching Bangor, Portland, maybe Manchester when I find out how far that is, and of course, Halifax. I see you've donw both POP, ASMovies and POR. How were the values? Livable?

For us, yes, the values are livable. However, it depends on your own expectations, wants and needs. Some prefer nicer accommodations, with more space and amenities. In our opinion, we are not there for the resort, we are there for the parks and spend very little time at the resort, mostly just to sleep. The times we stayed at the values we travelled with friends who had 3 in their party and we were able to book one of our daughters in their room. Saves a few bucks that way.

We stayed at POR only because we are a family of 5. None of the values allow 5, except the family suite at the all-stars, which is more expensive than POR for 5. POR is beautiful, we've stayed there twice and would/will stay there again.