Flying or Driving?

[MiaSRN62]

Flying preferred.

Live in PA and it's about 17-18 hour drive to WDW if we drive straight through. We do not. Stop for bathroom breaks, stretch legs, meal, and overnight stay in SC usually.

Driving does save on rental car cost, but what we have to look at is also the two night stays in a hotel (we stop once going to and once on the way back). Also, dh and I need to use up more of our vacation days to allow for extra days driving. So that is also factored in as a monetary loss. There are times when I'm allowed no more than 1 week off the schedule at work. If we drove, 3-4 of those 7 days would be eaten up by driving and it wouldn't be worth it. Nothing like flying out of Philly at 7 am and being in the MK by 10:30-11 am ! Gotta love those direct flights with SW

I can usually get SW fares for pretty reasonable---so blessed SW flies out of our city (Philadelphia). We fly anywhere from $120--$150 per person. Years ago, it was less than that. I can recall back in 2003/2004 flying for as little as $85 ROUND TRIP per person ! One time I actually got $66 round trip per person (Oct 2006) ! We are a family of 5, but our oldest doesn't always choose to vacation with us.

I think if we lived 9-10 hours or less away from WDW we would drive more to save on rental car. But we'd rather use our vacation days to play in WDW vs being on I-95 in the long run


Maria

 

[MiaSRN62]

maidenfairy : We have done both in the past and I prefer driving. Airports can be such a Hassle. Getting through security at Orlando can be a nightmare

Honestly, we had very little trouble with Orlando security (or Philly either). We fly 2-4 times per year to FL on average. Always get through in 10-15 min with very little hassle.

Now...we have had BIG hassles on road driving. Delayed in construction in NC for 90 min ! Delayed in VA on I95 for an hour on a very hot summer day while they landed a medivac helicopter on the road. Our AC stopped working efficiently because we were idled for so long. We were ready to pass out. Other various delays on roads......a couple times when kids were younger they had to go to the bathroom BAD but we were stuck in a traffic jam on 95 ! Not a good situation One time we had car trouble (check engine light kept coming on and temp guage rising....again, not fun when you are in the middle of nowhere).

So I think there can be hassles either way really.....at least that has been our experience more than a few times.

Maria

 

[mermaid&cinderella]

I can ONLY fly, no way will I drive down. I think its like 1.5 days to drive down and if I fly I can see Mickey in less than 6 hours from leaving home, definately like that!

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

We have driven (20 hours each way) every one of our trips. Even if we got a deal and paid $100 each way it would still be $1000 for our family. (We could never get that good of a deal though because we have to go at Thanksgiving time, not too many deals on airfare then.) We pay about 1/4 that for gas. We drive straight tthrough, so no hotel stays. We make it part of the vacation and it isn't that bad. It's better then not going! I have to say though, we are blessed, our kids are awesome in the car.

 

[dragonflydoll2]

We have driven 3 times. It is a 14-15 hour drive and we usually break it into two days with an overnight stay in Atlanta.

This time we will be flying. With the cost of gas and the inherent costs associated with traveling by car, the airline tickets we found were not that much more than what we would have spent driving.

My husband is just tickled that he can relax for the trip down. Well as much as you can relax on any flight.

 

[ksmommyof4]

We drove when I was a kid because my mom is scared to get on a airplane the 2 times so far as a adult I have flown and May10 we are flying.We live in NW Ohio and thats too far to drive with 4 kids for me lol

 

[catne]

I didn't vote because none of your choices fit...we could easily afford to fly, so that's not our reason to drive. And we don't drive because we live close -- We do not live anywhere close to Disney - it's actually well over 1400 miles. But we drive because we do not like to fly and we love road trips. The drive is our "transition" into vacation, and we enjoy seeing America from the road.

 

[lyeag]

We drive only because dh hates to fly. He is in the army, so he can fly. He just prefers not to. It is hard to get any deals where we are anyway. The best we can do is out of Dallas, which is still a good 2.5 hours from here. With a family of 5, to get a non stop it would still be around 1500.00. Driving is cheaper, but personally, I would much rather fly. I just go along with the driving to be nice to my dh.

 

[disneysteve]

We drive, but not because we can't afford to fly (though driving is a lot cheaper). We actually prefer the convenience of driving. Yes, we think driving 1,000 miles each way is more convenient than flying. We are able to travel on our schedule. We are able to pack a lot of stuff that we couldn't pack if we were flying. We don't have to rent a car when we arrive. And we actually like to drive. We've done it enough times that we've got some favorite places that we stop along the way. We like getting pecan logs and free orange juice and some other favorites. The journey is part of the vacation. We have lots of memories and stories from our travels.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

We drive, but not because we can't afford to fly (though driving is a lot cheaper). We actually prefer the convenience of driving. Yes, we think driving 1,000 miles each way is more convenient than flying. We are able to travel on our schedule. We are able to pack a lot of stuff that we couldn't pack if we were flying. We don't have to rent a car when we arrive. And we actually like to drive. We've done it enough times that we've got some favorite places that we stop along the way. We like getting pecan logs and free orange juice and some other favorites. The journey is part of the vacation. We have lots of memories and stories from our travels.

For us it started because of money and still I like the $ we save, but we too like the time together. We play games, talk and on the ride home work on our memory books. We also like that we can bring what we want and buy what we want there (when we bought the Cinderella castle toy they were shocked we didn't want it shipped, I guess most people ship it home.)

We love to stop and get our free juice (I like the grapefruit), that's how we know we have almost made it.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

We flew the first few times , but have driven for the last 20+ trips.

Main reason - company vehicle and they pay for the gas. So our travel cost to WDW and back is $ 0 . I know, this is a really nice benefit !

I've also determined that flying would not save us a lot of time. Even though it is a 12 hour drive to Disney and a flight to Disney would only be "a few hours" the actual door-to-door time is comparable. Think airline checkin, connecting flight, luggage pickup and MYW bus service and you've burned through a fair number of hours.

We also find driving more comfortable and like the freedom to choose our own schedule. Vacationing is like the Black Pearl - it's all about freedom, mate !

 

[TinkerBellToo2]

We have driven 3 times. It is a 14-15 hour drive and we usually break it into two days with an overnight stay in Atlanta.

This time we will be flying. With the cost of gas and the inherent costs associated with traveling by car, the airline tickets we found were not that much more than what we would have spent driving.

My husband is just tickled that he can relax for the trip down. Well as much as you can relax on any flight.

Great Avatar TwilightMom

 

[Mysteria]

We drive most often though I'd prefer to fly. It mostly a cost saver for us. We do travel with my mil's dogs sometimes too.

 

[TheTazDev]

Flying much preferred. No way am I using up my hard earned vacation days driving in a car on a highway. When my vacation starts, I want to get on with it. Fifteen or 20 min security lines at the airport are nothing compared to traffic 18 hour on the road. Besides, the drive TO Wdw isn't horrible....but 18 hours back up to PA is plain old depressing !

 

[eldres]

I have driven several times fron NY,it is a two day drive.I finially decided to give flying a chance,three hours compared to two days,don't believe I will drive again.

 

[4kidsrme]

We drove 16 hours. Mainly because as a family of 6 driving was way cheaper than flying. Now that you have to pay for baggage on flights it would be even more expensive. We had our double stroller with us too. We loved having the car at WDW. It was very convenient. Fortunately, my husband travels for work so we used his hotel points to stay for free on the way down and back. It was not a bad drive at all. Will probably drive the next time too.

 

[HeatherC]

Ok guys...where's the free oj?

 

[Mysteria]

Ok guys...where's the free oj?

At the Florida welcome centre.

 

[MiaSRN62]

ScottOKW2K :We also find driving more comfortable and like the freedom to choose our own schedule. Vacationing is like the Black Pearl - it's all about freedom, mate !

And freedom can also be looked at from the perspective of being free from sitting behind the wheel for 18 hours....free to let someone else do the driving (aka the pilot)

and don't consider the free oj (while yummy), very free when it costs dh and I (each) 2 vacation days that were spent on the road and not having fun in WDW.
That's a total of 4 lost vacation days spent driving on a highway......

So I guess freedom means different things to different people

Maria

 

[dwelty]

Wish they had an option "Fly, can't afford to Drive" We live in Southern California, it would cost us more to Drive and pay for hotels along the way than to fly.