Flying verses driving to port

[SL6827]

I just jotted down pricing with us flying verses driving from North Georgia to Cape Canaveral for three people, and driving will be like half the price of flying on Delta. That's a no brainer!

 

[dreamer17555]

Make sure when calculating costs you include wear and tear on your vehicle, gas, parking. If flying calculate in cost to park at airport (if you dont have a ride) and cost to and from port. I don't mind driving if it is less than 10 hours but more than that I am flying.

 

[OKW Lover]

If I had that choice I'd go ahead and drive. Yes, it will be a fairly long drive. Probably 8+ hours but you'll go straight from your house to the port in that time. No need to drive to the airport for the flight and then get from MCO to the port which might turn out to be almost the same amount of time.

Which ever you chose, it's strongly suggested that you arrive a day early.

 

[CamColt]

Since we occasionally drive from MA to FL (even as far as Miami and Ft Lauderdale), I would definitely drive from GA and enjoy the savings.

 

[DCLMP]

If I lived that close I would drive. You never know what's going to happen with flights.

 

[hardcorestitch]

I just jotted down pricing with us flying verses driving from North Georgia to Cape Canaveral for three people, and driving will be like half the price of flying on Delta. That's a no brainer!

Absolutely drive if it’s better for da wallet! You’ll get to check out some cool stuff along the way to your Disney cruise.

 

[SL6827]

If I had that choice I'd go ahead and drive. Yes, it will be a fairly long drive. Probably 8+ hours but you'll go straight from your house to the port in that time. No need to drive to the airport for the flight and then get from MCO to the port which might turn out to be almost the same amount of time.

Which ever you chose, it's strongly suggested that you arrive a day early.

We split it up in Valdosta.

 

[FastPasser.]

We’re also in north Georgia and I will never, never ever drive to Central Florida again. For us, we will only fly. I don’t care about the cost.

 

[Skippyboo]

I live in north suburbs of Atlanta. I am getting on the Treasure this Saturday. Driving down Friday morning, staying at Drury at DS Friday night. Only bad thing is having to get up super early to get through Downtown Atlanta. If flying I still would have to go through downtown, pay at airport for parking, pay for checked baggage, worry about liquids in carry on, pay for transportation to port.

Next year going to Alaska on Wonder, definitely will have to fly for that one.

 

[SL6827]

We flew back from Vegas a couple weeks ago, and I'm so glad we missed the chaos at the airports now. Got by, but barely.

 

[DCLMP]

We flew back from Vegas a couple weeks ago, and I'm so glad we missed the chaos at the airports now. Got by, but barely.

It took two extra days to get home from mco in July due to weather related mass cancellations. I could have driven across the country and been home earlier.

 

[SL6827]

It took two extra days to get home from mco in July due to weather related mass cancellations. I could have driven across the country and been home earlier.

Wow!!

 

[DCLMP]

Wow!!

I had the same experience in Jan 2024 and a few other times. I seem to time my departures from Florida with big national weather events. I always fly in two days early for a cruise because I'm paranoid, but I've never has an issue getting to Florida.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I will drive anything less than about 12 hours. We have had terrible luck with air travel delays and cancellations the last couple of years.

 

[Mango7100]

We live in East TN and always drive to Orlando (650 miles) or Miami for cruises/Disney. Flights are crazy prices for 3, and even the cheap ones like Allegiant add up with seat fees and bag fees. Air travel is a mess and we would want to fly in 2 days before a cruise just to be sure so there’s another hotel night. Anything 12 hours or less we drive. Though I detest Atlanta traffic and then there is always terrible traffic randomly south of Atlanta (I think around exit 220 usually). But those express lanes with EZ Pass make a huge difference (if they are open).

 

[brandtb]

(A little long, but I hope it gives y'all a smile...)

More often than not, we drive from Central NC two nights before. We like to break it up into two stages, spending a night in Savannah (a halfway point for us) and then continuing to the port to arrive the day before boarding. I particularly like the Radisson Resort at the Port as it gets things started with a nice "resort feel" to it.

When we drive we will park the car at the port and usually start our drive home immediately after the end of the cruise, often breaking it up with another night in Savannah, although we have made the ten-plus hour drive home in one day a time or two.

Last Spring after a four-night cruise we added to our plan to head over to Coronado Springs for two days of theme parks 'cuz we couldn't get enough of The Mouse and then drove home.

For our next cruise (next month, always exciting) we will fly for a change, spend a few more days in the theme parks beforehand (we agreed that two nights was not enough last time) before getting some Official Transportation to the port on arrival day, and then that same transportation back to the airport for the journey home on the flip side.

We usually prefer to drive, but as we are treating ourselves to a second cruise this calendar year (for the wife's birthday this time) we decided that we didn't want to make That Drive for a second time this year.

Stories Of Cruises Past (Alternate Title: The Perils of Cruising At The Height of Hurricane Season)

The only other time we planned on flying in for a cruise was when Hurricane Ian decided to make an untimely visit to Florida in late 2022. Ian, in his infinite rudeness forced the situation such that the airline announced the cancellation of our flight the next day which in turn canceled our reservation at the MCO Hyatt, and subsequently our Official Transportation to the port. We called the cruise line and made sure that the cruise itself wasn't canceled before heading south. It was to be our first seven-night on the Fantasy, leaving Saturday morning and we didn't want to miss it.

Not to be denied, we drove to our airport and rented an SUV, driving overnight on that Thursday night/Friday morning. Since we couldn't use I-95 because of flooding in the after-effects of Ian, we drove through Atlanta arriving there 6am-ish just before MORNING rush hour (yes, driving ALL night).

We stopped at a cheap motel and slept for several hours before making the soul-crushing, interminable ride down I-75*. On the way, we managed to get a hotel near MCO where we turned in the rental car and with some luck managed to get private transportation (at a premium) the next morning to the port. Fortunately our plane ride home didn't get canceled automatically and we were able to fly home on schedule, getting a Disney Bus and spending a night on The Property and then an Uber the next day to MCO.


* There is a sign just south of Atlanta on I-75 that tells you that there is 295 miles to (I think?) Gainesville, FL -- after driving all night you gotta admit that it's kind of "soul crushing" to realize it still is four-plus hours just to get into Florida and that you still have a couple hours after that to get to Orlando.

If you got this far, thanks for reading!

 

[DCL58]

We drove down last week from atlanta. 7 or so hours to Disney. Son flew from ATL to MCO. Adding up all the time it took driving to the airport, parking, taking the shuttle, getting thru security, having his flight delayed, getting to MCO, waiting for an uber, and driving to boardwalk, he could have driven in the same time period. No time savings.

 

[DCL58]

Oh, and son flew southwest. $59 ticket. More than that for the uber to the boardwalk.

 

[SL6827]

Oh, and son flew southwest. $59 ticket. More than that for the uber to the boardwalk.

Man thats cheap!!!

 

[DCLMP]

We are a 5 hour drive from San Diego if we don't hit traffic. We still fly in because the airport is a 5 minute taxi ride to the ship and there are numerous hotels within walking distance of port. If I lived within 7 hours of PC I'd drive because once you get to MCO you still have to figure out a way to get to PC and back to MCO by transfers, renting a car, Uber etc and non of them are cheap options.