Flying into Miami or from Manchester

[Twilight Terror]

Has anyone done this for a Disney-exclusive stay (i.e not going anywhere else at the beginning or end of the holiday).

Due to work restrictions, I can only have 2 full weeks off at a time, and therefore we can only have a 11/12 night holiday. The flight prices for September direct to MCO have sky-rocketed the past two weeks, and there doesn't seem to be any indications things will go the other way. PE has gone up by £200pp, and economy is not much better, with those seats costing just over £100 less than what I paid of PE this coming May! It's crazy!

I begrudge paying such an extortionate amount of money for our PE seats, especially when they will no doubt be downstairs and little better than economy seats anyway.

So, I've been looking into alternatives. I will only look at Virgin alternatives because I am not the world's most relaxed traveler, and going on BA planes scares the poop out of me for no apparent reason. Went to Poland last year, so it was only a couple of hours, but I have never been so happy to get off a plane. I am completely sworn off charter airlines too, so that leaves Virgin!

Currently, it's £200pp cheaper to fly into Miami. We usually get a car these days, so we would have transport to/from Orlando if we went this way. My concern is that we are going to lose too much of what is fast becoming precious time. My 3-week vacations are gone :*( and worse, they are reduce to less that a standard 14-night vacation!!!

I just want some advice/opinions from those that have done this trip before. Is the long drive to Orlando, and the fact you can't use DTD check-in and therefore have to leave for the airport earlier worth it?

Alternatively, it is just as cheap to fly Manchester to Orlando, as London/Miami. What about this option? Anyone done both Man/Orl and Lon/Miami and could give me an idea of what the differences were that you found? I do live in London, so Gatwick/Heathrow are easy to reach, but I'm more concerned with the time we will have over there! Out of interest, is the plane configuration the same on this route as the Gatwick ones?

 

[tigger137]

We haven't flown into Miami. However, this last Christmas/New Year we did drive from WDW to Fort Lauderdale and back. I think it took us just over 3 hours each way. We used the Florida Turnpike which is the fastest way but it did cost about $20 in tolls each way. Obviously Miami is further than Fort Lauderdale so that would take longer.

Wherever possible we fly out of Manchester rather than London and have often flown Manchester-Orlando with Virgin (and will be again in September). It's the same 747 fleet for Manchester and Gatwick, they rotate between the 2 routes. I believe the London-Miami route is usually an A340 with vPort, the better entertainment system.

I can see it's a tricky decision. Manchester to Orlando will save time that side of the pond, but cost you time this side. London to Miami is vice versa. Also the difference in cost between getting to Manchester or London needs to be factored in. From Manchester you may need a hotel overnight and perhaps parking, which maybe you wouldn't need from London? Is there any difference in car hire costs between renting in Miami and Orlando? It may be that overall the extra £200pp for direct Gatwick-Orlando isn't that bad when extra costs for the other routes are factored in. And then there is always the consideration of whether the extra time you gain in Orlando is worth that additional cost.

 

[Clare D]

We usually go from Manchester but when playing around with dates it was cheaper for us to go from Gatwick.
Would you consider an indirect flight? I know WayneG tends to go that way so would be able to give you advice.

 

[jjk]

we only had a 10 day holiday last year and flew into Miami, it is a boring Journey took about 3.5 hrs to get to Orlando. Very easy route we were very tired but it wasnt really a problem. We are flying into Miami again this year in August as there was a big price difference but are staying in Miami for the night and driving the next Morning. However if I needed to we would drive straight to orlando again.

 

[janiebubble]

I have flown into Miami with Virgin, but it was 17 years ago. we too spent the night in Miami before driving up, and it was a waste of a vacation day in my opinion (but I was only 23 and with my parents and had to do what they wanted - after all they were paying!!) - the queues at immigration seemed much worse in Miami too but as I said that was a long time ago, I'm sure they've smartened up their act by now!

We live in Merseyside, so it was the opposite dilemma for us .. and all I would caution you is if you decided to fly from Manchester (which is what we usually do) think about how you're getting home when you land back in the UK. We found the drive back north after landing at Gatwick a nightmare ... I know how tired I was this week just driving back one hour ... so if you have alternative transport or the ability to share the driving back home you may be ok - but that 4 hours up the M1/M6 was too much (my friend did the same when she couldn't get a flight from Manchester to MCO and went from Heathrow and she said she'd never do it again!). If you're prepared to drive up from Miami could you not get a connecting flight - I know changing planes is a pain but it'll not take any longer than driving to/from Miami to change somewhere like Newark - having flown Virgin my last two flights but Continental the two before I'd take Continental any day!!

 

[Babyboo]

We have done the Miami flights for our last 3 visits to Orlando, I much prefer the planes they are much cleaner and have the newer seats. Although I prefer Orlando airport to Miami. We also live at least an 1hr closer to Heathrow than Gatwick so coming home is much easier as we haven't got such a long drive back with the dreaded jet lag.

We usually stay the first night in Palm Beach and as we're up at the crack of dawn on the first day we are usually in Orlando before lunch time. Yes the drive is boring but staying in Palm Beach breaks it up a little as it's almost an 1 hr closer to Orlando . Coming back we drive down on the day of our flight home check in go for some lunch on South Beach then head back to the airport.

Works well for us but won't suit everybody, this summer we're going to do a couple of nights in Palm Beach before heading up to Orlando.