Fly -vs- Drive, Pros and Cons

[TazFan]

We always drive.. We flew once and from the time we left the house until we arrived at WDW it took 7.5 hours and last time we drove it took us 17 hours, hard to justify spending an extra $900 for that..

That is a big consideration...The actual travel time.

In theory, that would be 6 hours each way by flight:
1hr drive to IND
2hr pre-flight
3hr flight
>1hr drive to WDW

Whereas driving each way is 17 hours...non-stop.

For me, the drive down is always exciting... It's the drive home that kills me


TazFan

 

[DisneyDadof3]

No question - would prefer to drive. We can then pack whatever and we have our own transportation when we arrive. It's hard to justify flying (and spending the extra $1000 or so) and it taking 2 hours to get to the airport, 2 more to wait, 2 or more to fly and an hour or more after arriving to get to the hotel (as well as not packing everything we want or need) when we can drive it in 16 - 17.

Don't get me wrong, I love to fly and if time is the consideration, I will fly. However, given the choice, I will generally drive.

 

[powellrj]

we also come from Indy and always fly. DH and I both drive for our jobs and when we go on vacation, we really don't want to have to drive anymore than we have to.

Its cheaper for us to fly because when we fly, we don't have the extra 4 days of expenses to pay for. It takes us 2 days to drive down and 2 days to drive back. We are both too old to drive straight through anymore, so we have to break it up into 2 days.

When we drive we leave early sat drive until sat night, stay in a hotel, drive the next day and will arrive in the early afternoon on sunday. We are usually beat after the drive and spend the rest of the day recovering.

When we fly, we leave early monday morning get to MCO in 2 hours, have lunch at the park. We will leave on Friday evening and get home late friday night.

On one of our trips when we were landing the captain came on and as he was thanking us said, you realize if you were driving, you would just be hitting Louisville right about now. That really hit home!!

 

[Esmerelda]

its about 17 hrs for us in a car....will I drive..no way in heck...!

kids fight..
gotta use the bathroom every 5 minutes cause we're drinking coffee or water trying to stay awake..
road rage (I've seen it at its worst)..
uses lots of gas (still about $2.90+ here a gallon)
wear and tear on our vehicles...
more time spent getting there than enjoying it...
stiffness from car...
car lag....
traffic jams...
car problems....(had this once...WHAT a disaster!)
uses more vacation days that either one of us want to waste
cost...

most important (and I'm familiar with this only because I work in the ER)
in 2004; 42,636 people died in traffic related accidents
:634 died in airline related accidents from the NTSB (2005 was higher but I couldn't find my paperwork)

I see a lot of traffic deaths so I know first hand...I feel much safer flying anyday....(off soap box now)

Esmerelda

 

[MrsNick]

We FLY!

It's a 20 - 24 hour drive (from the estimates I've heard others give from my neck of the woods). That means that round trip at least 3-4 days would be spent traveling (because you end up having to stop for bathroom breaks, some people stop in a hotel overnight on the way, etc.)

If it's just DH and I, I know that it won't cost us more than $400 RT total to fly. If DSD is with us, it isn't more than $600 total.

Time is money: I have paid vacation, and 3-4 days of paid vacation lost if we drove (the wage equivalent) is much much more money than $400-600. DH does not get paid vacation. His 3-4 days of lost wages if we drove would cost us much much more money than $400 - 600.

Before even considering the costs of gasoline, wear and tear on our vehicle, the money spent on food on the road, or possibly even a hotel room (if we had to stop overnight during the drive down or up), driving costs us several times more than flying!

Then, consider the wear and tear on our bodies from a drive like that. Vacation is getting a respite from driving (we both drive to commute, and anyone who lives in metro NYC area knows that commuting here is a PIA). If we need a car on vacation, we rent one. On vacation, we are supposed to be re-charging our bodies and minds, not taxing them.

To us, it is a very clear decision. We fly.

 

[tabrizia]

We fly.

It actually would cost us more to drive (there are just two of us at the moment) then to fly. Since I don't drive highways we always stop halfway when we are driving long distances which means we have to factor in hotel stays on the way down and back, plus the cost of gas and wear and tear on the car, it ends up that the 80$ one way each for flying is cheaper for us.

Plus we save time I would much rather spend 2 hours on a plane then drive for 14+ hours to get there. Yes on the plane we have to get to the airport an hour and a half to 2 hours early but that still makes the trip 4 -5 hours rather then 14. When we have 2 kids we may reconsider the driving thing, but even then I doubt it, I did too many long car trips as a child to really enjoy them now I would rather spend the extra money and fly.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Add me to the driving crowd. We like the freedom of our own vehicle, the space, and we can even take nail clippers along!!

The cost is less, time involved is not too much more considering security checks and such. The drive down is exciting, but as stated above, the drive home is flat out depressing.

 

[loveswdw]

WE FLY! We come from Louisville so here's a trip for us:
Flight was at 11:35 AM. Got to the airport at 10:30. 1 hr. ahead. Got through security in plenty of time. Boarded the plane. 2 hrs. to MCO. Deplane--get car rental. In WDW by 3 PM. How can that compare to a 16 hour drive in the car? It can't!

My DH is a deputy sheriff so he's in his car pretty much all the time. He doesn't wish to drive anywhere over 5 hours. That's his max. Plus we figure in our vacation time. An extra 2 days off for driving. We take both our hourly salaries and figure that in. And wear and tear on your vehicle (probably would rent one anyway to save miles on our car). Flying is always the way to go for us. But we only have 1 child right now. When we have more we may change our minds (but I really don't think we will).

I asked my DH the other day about our December trip. I said if we have to cough up $300 each for rt trip tickets ($900 total) would he still fly or would he consider driving? His answer: we'll cough up the $900.