Flying or Driving from Atlanta.....

[catjammies]

Suggestions for Flying or Driving from, say Atlanta?

How many hours drive would Port Canaveral from Atlanta?

Is it just best to Fly?

 

[PeterPanTwinFans]

Hello Fellow Atlantan!

We're taking the 7 day Western during Thanksgiving Week and are flying down Friday night before Saturday sail. We fly in to Orlando but couldn't get our preferred seats flying back home so we're flying out of Melbourne The Saturday evening the ship returns and we were able to get much better flights. Melbourne is about 45 minutes south of Canaveral. We'll rent a car and drive to Kennedy Space Center the Saturaday we return and then get to Melbourne for a 6:00 pm flight.

The friends we are cruising with are driving down Friday night. My guesstimate on driving time to Canaveral is 9-10 hours depending on the number of stops you make.

The longest trip we drive is about 6 hours. I have twin boys 8 years and we have a built in DVD with wireless headphones for movies and to pass the time but 9-10 hours is just too much for all of us!!

Hope this helps.

 

[SweetSpot]

We are from NJ a bit up the road from you and we drive. Not only is it a rather large savings in money to drive I find it much more convenient to load the car and just go. I can pack all I want, not have to unload until the port and not worry that one of my bags might get lost in transit.

We did the drive last year, around 16 hours straight through. The last couple hours were tough but I still prefer it to flying.

 

[Cruise]

According to mapquest, it's 492.21 miles from Atlanta to Port Canaveral and should take 8 hours, 26 minutes. We're usually able to shave an hour off mapquest times for whatever reasons (downtown driving, etc).

Julie

 

[kml2000]

I live on the east side of Atlanta in Gwinnett County. We cruised in July and drove it. We had combined it (not with a land/sea package - just our own planning) with a trip to Disney World. When we got off the ship, it was very easy to walk out to our car, put our stuff in and leave. We stopped for lunch (at a REAL restaurant - not fast food), made a couple of gas and potty stops and made it home around 6:00 to 7:00.

Driving was much more convenient for us because of the combined trip, we took food for the Disney trip and didn't have to worry about packing, etc. I will tell you that I was exhausted after our week and the trip home was hard. I am a single mom and had to do all the driving. My daughter was occupied with the little TV we travel with but I was exhausted. There was a couple of times I had to tell my group to stop at a gas station so I could walk around and get some candy (sugar rush). You stay SO busy while you are cruising....and combined with our trip to Disney......that was a tough drive.

If I had my choice, with no monetary concerns, etc, I would fly. My last memory of our wonderful trip was the exhausting haul home, not a great memory.

I think you have to taylor this sort of thing to how you like to travel in general. I agree with DAve - 6 hours is okay....you start getting over that and it is a chore.

 

[Chropistopy]

I live in Covington...about 45 miles southeast of ATL. We've made it in 5 hr. 45 mins. I think it's possible for you to make it in 7 hours. It all depends on how fast you drive.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

When my DW and I were DINK's, we would fly anywhere if the distance was over 300 miles. We've pushed up to 600 miles now that we have an additional fare to buy and one less income to do that with. It's a pretty easy drive. I-75 to I-10 (bypassing Macon on I-475). I-10 to I-95 to Jax, and I-95 to SR-528. You can leave mid-afternoon and get there in time for bed. The benefits of driving have been mentioned above. Less stress is one of the big benefits. Plus, by leaving before, it's kind of a "dry run" for figuring out what you forgot to pack. You can run out to Publix or Target once you arrive and pick up what you forgot.

Especially now, post-9/11/01, it's almost too much of a hassle to fly if the distance is less than 500 miles.

 

[Diva of Dragons]

Hi!
In 18 days we'll be taking our 6th road trip to WDW, from So. CA!!! We've found that no matter where we go, regardless of weather , traffic etc.., we average 3 hours for every 200 miles. Our 2nd day, we go from Tucson, AZ to San Antonio, TX (boring drive ). It's 860 miles and about 13 hours (14 when you include the time change). Atlanta to the port sounds like a breeze!! Go for it!!