fly or drive

[WDWstu]

We are from NJ and have driven down 7 times. We flew once. My kids are 10 and 4 now and will drive down again this year. We have an SUV and it costs around 350 dollars for gas round trip. This year I expect it will probably be around 400. When we flew it was out of Atlantic city and cost 1000 dollars. We drive straight through and arrive in Disney in about 17.5 hours.

One thing to consider is actual travel time and not just flight time. With an 8am flight you have to be at the airport by 6am. Which means, for me anyway, I have to leave my house by 4:30 am. It is a 3 hour flight so we arrive in Orlando at 11am. Then figure and hour and half or 2 so to get your luggage and catch the bus and ride to Disney. So you probably arrive at the park around 1. That is 10 hours of travel time. You aren't actually driving that whole time obviously, but with young kids, on the move for 10 hours is pretty tiring and stressful.

So I always looked at it for me that it was a comparison or 17.5 hours travel time to 10 hours travel time. Though in one instance you are driving that whole time so that has to be considered. It is also less than 1/2 the cost for me to drive.

And finally, my family loves to do it. It has become a part of our trip. My kids love the drive. They have done it so many times now that they remember landmarks and get excited to see them. To me, the drive down is part of the vacation fun. The build up to getting this is very exciting.

It really is a personnel preference. If I didn't have kids, to be honest, I would probably fly. The bottomline is that driving (from where I am coming from anyway) is definitely much cheaper. The total travel time for me is 7 hours longer though. However, I do most of it at night while everyone sleeps. Also, I get the peace of mind of having my car there with me. 5 years ago we had to drive the hospital in the middle of the night. Was glad to have my car. Though you can rent one if you want but that's another expense.

Again, its all personal preference really. I love to drive and my family enjoys it so we will always do it. My kids get along and have fun with it. So to me, it will always be the way to go. Not too mention, 600 bucks saved is 600 bucks saved.

 

[stich1fan]

We are from NJ too. DD is 5 now, she has been going since 2 and we drive every time.

The airport to me is a head ache and I can;t deal with security and all the airport delays. When we drive we are incharge of our time. DD has a bag and she packs it herself of things she wants in the car. We have never had an issue with her in the car and we have done this trip 9 round trip times.

I think it is a bit cheaper too.

Pm me if you like.

 

[sarahlovesmickey]

And finally, my family loves to do it. It has become a part of our trip. My kids love the drive. They have done it so many times now that they remember landmarks and get excited to see them. To me, the drive down is part of the vacation fun. The build up to getting this is very exciting.

Again, its all personal preference really. I love to drive and my family enjoys it so we will always do it. My kids get along and have fun with it. So to me, it will always be the way to go.

This is our family too. We've never flown there and probably never will. We enjoy the ride and honestly, the kids sleep through a lot of the trip because we leave at 4pm and they usually fall asleep around 8 or 8:30 and sleep through the night.

Every time we go down, we HAVE TO stop at South of the Border. It's a tradition at this point for us. Last time we went, my oldest son pointed out "the hobo" at the end of the exit to visit South of the Border. Yet, when we were talking about our next trip down there, he is adament that he wants to stop there again!

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

This is an ongoing discussion in our house. With flights going up up up, we are considering it more than ever.
It almost always ends up with no good answer though. We're bringing dd's friend on our August trip. So that's 5 people. Flights for 5 are going to run us about 1400.
However if we drive, we need to consider gas, at least one night at a hotel on the way there and back, food for the trip each way and the biggest issue.. lost time.
The drive is 20-24 hours of just drive time. So it will take 2 days on each end at a minimum.
Suddenly, the 1400 for flights looks a lot better.

If it ends up being over 1500 for flights we'll drive, but I'd prefer to fly and spend those extra days in the parks. If it was a matter of drive or not go.. I would happily drive.

This is what we are going back and forth about in our house too. Flying is the ideal option, but the cost of airline tickets for the six of us is a bit much for us to commit to two years in a row. I agree that I would rather drive the 17 hours than not go to WDW at all this year.

 

[carolhether]

We are going next month for 2 weeks and my dh and I are driving (about 23 hours) and our kids are flying. Ages 20 to 27 just incase you think we are dropping off infants
We have done the drive with them a few times and they were not interested in doing it again but we love the drive. Reminds me of my childhood when we spent summers driving all over the States......it really is a beautiful country.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Reminds me of my childhood when we spent summers driving all over the States......it really is a beautiful country.

I'm always amazed at the # of people who've apparently never experienced this. Kind of a shame, really.

 

[Eeyore98]

what is better to help save money? Flying (2-3 hours) or driving over 2 days with gas, tolls, stops, etc? I also have an almost 4 year old.

For straight-out money spent, it is almost always cheaper to drive. If you factor in the value of the extra time spent, it gets a little murkier. But honestly, in most people's cases, they are going to take the same number of vacation days no matter what, and the extra time spent on the road is taken from more expensive time spent in the parks instead of money-generating time spent at work.

We always drive, sometimes overnight and sometimes over 2 days, and even with a cheap hotel night thrown in on the way there and back, it still comes out much cheaper for us to drive. Granted, our cars get relatively good MPG, but gas, wear and tear on the car, hotel, tolls, and even food on the road is about half the price of 2 round-trip airline tickets for us. And honestly, I don't feel it's fair to count in food on the road, because we'd be eating *something* for those meals anyway even if we flew, and probably in an airport or in the parks.

Flying is far safer than driving.

Actually, that is not true. The commonly quoted statistic for this does not take into account the fact that the average person takes far more car trips than plane trips. For any individual instance of getting in a car or stepping onto a plane, your risk of injury/death occurring on that particular trip is higher in the plane.

 

[Yoshiandi]

We drove from NJ last year with a 3yo and a 13 yo. Without beating around the bush, it was horrible and I won't do it again (we are flying this year).

Some lowlights -

DS3's car seat kept him in just enough of an upright position that every time he fell asleep, he would jerk upright 20 minutes later - for almost 21 straight hours!

I thought a Ford Explorer with three rows of seats would be big enough for everyone to feel comfortable. I was wrong- the seatbelt buckles are mounted on these 8 inch hard plastic stalks that completely prevented me and DS13 from getting comfortable in any position.

I can't forget to mention South of the Border and its ubiquitous billboards. When we finally reached that point at about 3am, it was a very surreal sight.

On the way home, I wanted to try a Waffle House "for the experience." I was so out of myself by that point that when a ROACH crawled out from under the napkin dispenser and across the table in front of the waitress, I didn't get up and walk out because I was worried she would think there was something wrong with ME!

DH became crazed and obsessed with his drive time. On the way home (a day after Irene hit) he stopped only three times the whole trip and I'm pretty sure he willfully drove on a road that had been barricaded due to flooding!

A few minor positives -

It WAS cheap - I barely recall any tolls and gas, even in the Explorer, was not that bad.

Gas station attendants in all states below Maryland are very polite and call you "ma'am" even when you stagger in at 4am looking like a speed freak and carrying a urine soaked 3yo!

Jane

When I read that, I nearly choked with laughter.. I am also doing the fly vs drive debate and this is exactly how I could picture our trip going!!!

~~Melissa~~

 

[2princesses1pea]

We always decide based on how much time off we have..period..if we only have a week off we fly because to drive it takes a day and a half..(we have to stop due to kids early bedtimes and them not being able to sleep in a car!!) and if we have 2 weeks off we drive.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Flying is far safer than driving.

Totally agree with you.

 

[wallawallakids]

IMO, I would....Fly. We drove from Portland OR to Disneyland last year. Ugh. It was fine, it was less $ than flying, but I wouldn't really call it enjoyable. The kids did better than me though. I just felt it was more stressful. We had to think about more and be more on top of stuff than if we just flew. Plus traffic was bad a few times and we hit rush hour in LA which was AWFUL!! I thought we were going to die the way people drive down there. There are 6 of us in our family and I would be hard pressed to do it again. We are going down to WDW in May (we now live in Maine). We are flying. Yes, it is costing more than if we drove, but it is worth it for the convince alone. For us, it is less to worry about. Less time the kids are stuck sitting, more time for us to enjoy the parks. It feels more like a vacation to me. Plus I am always nervous about something going wrong with the car, or getting stuck somewhere. We have a newer car (2007 Suburban). We bought it right after our twins were born (4 carseats didn't fit in our Ford F 150). My husband has driven it everywhere...with no problem. Then out of nowhere last week, our transmission went....while he was driving to work! Luckily he is strong and managed to pull over. (Also we were still covered under warrantee...which was great because the entire transmission needed replacement.) But if that had happened while we were driving down to WDW with 4 kids in the car! I don't even want to think about it. Good luck with your decision.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

It depends how much your airfare is going to cost. On all our previous trips we have been able to get fairly reasonable pricing on Southwest and decided against driving. I have an ALMOST 4 year old and I can tell you that taking her in the car for 2 days would almost certainly not be a good start to our vacation I pick flying

 

[PA Princess]

We have done the 16 hour drive from PA to FL in the past, but for years we have opted to fly. This year we have been debating the drive for several reasons.

First, the cost to fly is high and we have a family of 6. We are doing a 7 day Disney cruise (whoohoo!), so we will also have port transportation to add to the flight costs and airport parking. All total the bill will be almost the cost of another vacation!

Second, flight times for our return leg are terrible and almost no non-stop available. I really do not want to pay outrageous prices for an 8 hour flight home (why do the airlines think Chicago is on the way to Philadelphia????)

We are opting to drive to FL (excitement always helps with the drive down), staying for 5 nights with a Sea World hotel package, 7 day cruise, and taking the autotrain for the trip home.

For us it boiled down to the fact that we could pay to fly or we could drive a leg, get an extra 5 day vacation, and take the train home - same costs for both.

 

[chipdale74]

Wow...so much to think about. Thanks everyone for your input. I have debated the drive vs fly so many times, I needed to fellow disney people's help. We discussed renting a car (small suv) and driving through the night. I am just worried that everyone will be cranky as anything once we arrive. I used to drive with my parents as a kid but I always fly when it was myself and a friend or my husband. I even fly down soon after 9/11.

Trip to either Newark or philly isn't a problem since we have relatives near both that can drive us (about 20 minutes each). I am just stressed about my daughter in the car for that long. I am also worried what if something goes wrong with the car on the way down or we get in an accident? I hope airfare goes down (especially the pay for your bags to fly which I think it bs). At least I have over a year to think about the best way to get there. Maybe I will win the lottery.

 

[rockundergirl]

I don't know why people from the NJ area always say " two days to drive". You are doing it wrong.. ha.
The way to do it is leave 8 pm the night before you want to check in. Adult one takes the first 7 hours while adult 2 sleeps, adult 2 takes the second shift while adult 1 sleeps. Kid/kids sleep about 9-10 hours over night and miss most of the drive... you hit 0 traffic. We have made it in a little shy of 15.5 hours on two occasions. And that includes gas and pee stops. However I have never done it in a car that gets less then around 35 mpg highway so I'm only stopping for gas twice on the way. I also maintain a cool 10mph over the speed limit.

 

[canopynut66]

IMO fly and take things your child can do in her seat on the plane and most of all get a direct flight if at all possible

 

[stacie_d]

For us, driving is cheaper..with a family of four from WV.

For the record... we seem to alternate between driving and flying. I hate the long drive...kids seem to do fine (13 and 6 now). We usually do the drive down straight though the night, and then break up the drive home.

It takes about 15 hours to get there from here. But with travel to the closest airport, and to DW, that takes about 8 hours. Both are exhausting.