Flying vs Driving Advice

[Shanti]

I looked into the Uber Family which provides car seat and there is a $10 surcharge. That charge combined with the min fare puts the price at around $20 each way so about $100 total for our two resort ADRs. That's just the base charge and doesn't include a tip. I think it may be cheaper for us to do the rental.

It's considerably cheaper than that to take a regular taxi at WDW. They're plentiful and a good way to get from resort to resort. Cost me about $15 - 20 each way (including tip) for the various taxi rides around the World last time.

 

[LovesTimone]

I'm hoping you guys can help me out deciding if I should drive or fly to Disney World this September. Of course, driving the MUCH less expensive option, but is flying worth it to save time?? We are a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 small kids.

Option 1: Fly & use Disney Transportation
RT flights: $815.84 (4 people, 2 free checked bags each)
Concern: long wait times for buses (we will need to take a break about mid-day), not being able to leave exactly when we want; long transport times, price
Total: $815.84


Option 2: Fly & get a rental
RT flights: $815.84
Compact Rental car : $79.72 for 8 days
Gas: $40 estimated (We won't go around except to the parks & to the grocery store once)
Concern: Is the price worth it?
Total: $935.56

Option 3: Drive
Standard SUV rental : $362.17 for 10 days (We went with a SUV because we thought it would be more comfortable to have the extra room)
Gas : $180 estimated
Time: 16 hours each way; we plan on driving overnight and stopping every 2.5 hours that the kids are awake to give them a break and let them stretch and go potty. My husband and I will take turns driving, rotating every 2 hours because that's about the most amount of time I can last lol
Concern: Being exhausted upon arrival; wasting vacation hours from driving & sleeping
Total: $542.17

I guess I'm mainly hoping people who have done one or both to provide some insight. We have taken a road trip before. It was about 10.5 hours total, but it took us close to 12.5 as my youngest was just under 1, and he needed to be fed/changed/given a break quite often. We drove straight through and immediately passed out as soon as we arrived, taking about a 6 hour nap. My oldest was wide awake while my husband, the baby, and myself were all exhausted. We had my niece to keep him company while we napped; we won't have anyone at WDW.

This decision is stressing me out lol. Please help!

 

[LovesTimone]

I'm hoping you guys can help me out deciding if I should drive or fly to Disney World this September. Of course, driving the MUCH less expensive option, but is flying worth it to save time?? We are a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 small kids.

Option 1: Fly & use Disney Transportation
RT flights: $815.84 (4 people, 2 free checked bags each)
Concern: long wait times for buses (we will need to take a break about mid-day), not being able to leave exactly when we want; long transport times, price
Total: $815.84


Option 2: Fly & get a rental
RT flights: $815.84
Compact Rental car : $79.72 for 8 days
Gas: $40 estimated (We won't go around except to the parks & to the grocery store once)
Concern: Is the price worth it?
Total: $935.56

Option 3: Drive
Standard SUV rental : $362.17 for 10 days (We went with a SUV because we thought it would be more comfortable to have the extra room)
Gas : $180 estimated
Time: 16 hours each way; we plan on driving overnight and stopping every 2.5 hours that the kids are awake to give them a break and let them stretch and go potty. My husband and I will take turns driving, rotating every 2 hours because that's about the most amount of time I can last lol
Concern: Being exhausted upon arrival; wasting vacation hours from driving & sleeping
Total: $542.17

I guess I'm mainly hoping people who have done one or both to provide some insight. We have taken a road trip before. It was about 10.5 hours total, but it took us close to 12.5 as my youngest was just under 1, and he needed to be fed/changed/given a break quite often. We drove straight through and immediately passed out as soon as we arrived, taking about a 6 hour nap. My oldest was wide awake while my husband, the baby, and myself were all exhausted. We had my niece to keep him company while we napped; we won't have anyone at WDW.


This decision is stressing me out lol. Please help!

I would drive with 2 small children, it might be much easier on them and in turn you. What about stopping around 8 to 10 hours out spending the night, and then driving the rest of the way the next day. DH and I did this a couple times when kiddos were little, he would work a half day, I would have everything ready and we would head out. You can find a deal on hotels.com or another website. Basically all you would need is a clean place to sleep and shower or if you have hotel points somewhere you could use them. This way you don't take any chances on driving all night, for safety reasons, and everyone's sleeping in a bed, the next day will go a lot easier. With flying there is no pulling over to take a break if someone is having a melt down.

 

[tiggerluver12]

Everytime we go to WDW we fly and use the buses. We really enjoy not having to drive anywhere. It's vacation - let someone else do the driving for you. And it does not take 2 hours to get anywhere. That is ridiculous!

 

[dreiwhit]

I definitely think if we lived 7 hours away, I would drive 100%. Buying the flights took a huge chunk out of our budget.

We only checked into flying because I was worried about my being in pain on the long drive. I have early onset arthritis in my hips and for the past 5 years, drives longer than 2 hours without stopping caused me agony.

However, I borrowed a gel and memory foam cushion for the rental car and that kept the pain away! Long drives, here I come!

One thing that did help is the kids are older now. And, I used a 12 volt USB adapter to power their Android tablets. They watched movies or played games the whole way there. They were so quiet that many times I had to look in the rear view mirror to make sure we didn't leave them at the last bathroom stop!

 

[Cynt]

FLY!! We have learned that we would rather pay for convenience instead of use two days to drive. Our time is valuable. No arguments, no fights, 2 hr flight = PRICELESS!!! We fly SW and stick to $200/rt airfare pp. We're in the Dallas area so it's 17-18 hour drive and we usually stop in Jackson, MS on our way down there for an overnight stay. We usually leave Friday after work and arrive on Saturday in Orlando.

If money isn't an issue definitely FLY!!!! The drive home is the kicker. Keep that in mind when deciding.

 

[mcbutler23]

I ran the numbers for our family and we will be driving. I had a really hard time finding cheap flights from here or the airport 45 minutes north of us. And if I did find cheap flights, the times for the flights were terrible or the layovers were long or it cost me $35 PER BAG to check them or carry them on. Once I added it all up, I couldn't justify it. I'd rather save the money. We own an SUV so it will make it easier for us. DH had talked about renting so that we weren't putting the miles on the car, but we own it so who cares! We are lucky enough to be able to take enough time to leisurely get down and back without cutting into our vacation. We did a similar drive 2 years ago with DD and she did pretty well for a 2.5 yo.

 

[tami82]

I'm hoping you guys can help me out deciding if I should drive or fly to Disney World this September. Of course, driving the MUCH less expensive option, but is flying worth it to save time?? We are a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 small kids.

Option 1: Fly & use Disney Transportation
RT flights: $815.84 (4 people, 2 free checked bags each)
Concern: long wait times for buses (we will need to take a break about mid-day), not being able to leave exactly when we want; long transport times, price
Total: $815.84


Option 2: Fly & get a rental
RT flights: $815.84
Compact Rental car : $79.72 for 8 days
Gas: $40 estimated (We won't go around except to the parks & to the grocery store once)
Concern: Is the price worth it?
Total: $935.56

Option 3: Drive
Standard SUV rental : $362.17 for 10 days (We went with a SUV because we thought it would be more comfortable to have the extra room)
Gas : $180 estimated
Time: 16 hours each way; we plan on driving overnight and stopping every 2.5 hours that the kids are awake to give them a break and let them stretch and go potty. My husband and I will take turns driving, rotating every 2 hours because that's about the most amount of time I can last lol
Concern: Being exhausted upon arrival; wasting vacation hours from driving & sleeping
Total: $542.17

I guess I'm mainly hoping people who have done one or both to provide some insight. We have taken a road trip before. It was about 10.5 hours total, but it took us close to 12.5 as my youngest was just under 1, and he needed to be fed/changed/given a break quite often. We drove straight through and immediately passed out as soon as we arrived, taking about a 6 hour nap. My oldest was wide awake while my husband, the baby, and myself were all exhausted. We had my niece to keep him company while we napped; we won't have anyone at WDW.

This decision is stressing me out lol. Please help!

IN our case it was a little more to fly but our expenses would still be a lot. We just bought plane tickets and my husband is thrilled. Not only the money but he will now have 3+ extra vacation days of not driving, that alone was worth it to him. We always do road trips and this will be a first for us. I know what you mean by being stressed out about it. When we first bought the tickets on a whim my anxiety was through the roof as this is going to be totally different for me on so many levels. I was like what did we just do? My heart was racing and i was a wreck. Lol I love my road trips, now with flying I have a ton of worries but excited at the same time.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

Just catching up, but I have NEVER waited more than 2 minutes for a tram except when leaving MK after fireworks. In which case we would have been waiting probably equal time (8 minutes) for the bus and have to risk standing.

We prefer to drive, even if we stay onsite, even to Magic Kingdom.

However, if you are renting a car just for the purpose of driving to the parks then I would not recommend that. I would suck it up and use the busses. The benefits of driving to the park aren't worth $30 a day for us.

 

[kandb]

Fly and rent the $80 car rental. When your spending thousands at Disney, what's an extra $100? We always rent a car, so much easier, don't have to deal with tired, cranky, annoying adults/children when the parks close. I will take the tram and get into my nice quiet car.

 

[kandb]

IN our case it was a little more to fly but our expenses would still be a lot. We just bought plane tickets and my husband is thrilled. Not only the money but he will now have 3+ extra vacation days of not driving, that alone was worth it to him. We always do road trips and this will be a first for us. I know what you mean by being stressed out about it. When we first bought the tickets on a whim my anxiety was through the roof as this is going to be totally different for me on so many levels. I was like what did we just do? My heart was racing and i was a wreck. Lol I love my road trips, now with flying I have a ton of worries but excited at the same time.

I am not crazy about flying but once you do it, you will be like, why did I ever drive? We were going to drive after flying for years but thought about the 4 days total and the kids complaining they were "bored" and just decided to fly, it's so much quicker.

 

[kandb]

Yes, the busses there are not my favorite. The multiple stops definitely adds time to both ends of your trip. We love the Resort though! I might rent a car if midday breaks are a necessity. However, not driving is pretty nice if you can relax enough to not worry about the few extra minutes it might take. Magic Kindom takes a while to get back to the parking lot. I much prefer the busses there.

us.
We are staying at CBR as well and renting a car. We go to the water parks sometimes and it's just so easier when you don't have to wait for a bus. We go at the end of Aug/Beginning of Sept, so rentals are cheap, so its worth it for us.

 

[misstdiana]

Thanks for all of the advice. My family and I really appreciate it. We had a longgg talk last night and this morning, and we decided to fly. We are still indecisive in regards to the rental car, but we have one reserved that didn't require a deposit so we can cancel with no penalty if we decide not to get it. We went with a different fly that was nonstop. It was much more expensive, but it will save lots of time in regards to door to door travel.

I know this is a old post but I am curious, how did it go? We always drive and I am wanting to fly this time for the reasons that another poster posted, I have chronic pain and I am afraid the long long drive(we are coming from chicago) will wreak great havoc on my body. we have AP's so are staying on property but they expire this year in july so I am wanting to definitely squeeze another trip in before they expire. Going in june. Nervous since like I say we have always driven, and have been going in 2010 or so.

 

[ktate82]

I know this is a old post but I am curious, how did it go? We always drive and I am wanting to fly this time for the reasons that another poster posted, I have chronic pain and I am afraid the long long drive(we are coming from chicago) will wreak great havoc on my body. we have AP's so are staying on property but they expire this year in july so I am wanting to definitely squeeze another trip in before they expire. Going in june. Nervous since like I say we have always driven, and have been going in 2010 or so.

We were planning to drive this year (we live in Southern Indiana so about 13 hours away). Then we decided to invite my mother in law and sister in law to join us. My MIL has had a hip replacement and needs her other hip as well as a knee replaced. When we talked about driving after inviting them, we knew we would have to at least split it into two days and then she would probably need a day to recover when we got there. With all of that, we decided it was worth it to spend a bit more and just fly down. If you have issues with chronic pain or problems riding in a car for a long time (I don't and I still am stiff after riding in the car!), then do your body a favor and fly down. Who wants to start their trip off sore and needing a break?

 

[tarak]

This was a interesting thread to read. We've always flown and I was considering driving for our next trip. Half the family wants to drive and the other wants to fly. There are six of us, so the price difference can be hefty. If we can get a decent price on plane tickets, I'm willing to fly and rent a car for the Universal part of the trip. My husband thinks it's worth it, anyway,so we're not facing that long drive home at the end of a long and tiring vacation.

 

[brockash]

I'm hoping you guys can help me out deciding if I should drive or fly to Disney World this September. Of course, driving the MUCH less expensive option, but is flying worth it to save time?? We are a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 small kids.

Option 1: Fly & use Disney Transportation
RT flights: $815.84 (4 people, 2 free checked bags each)
Concern: long wait times for buses (we will need to take a break about mid-day), not being able to leave exactly when we want; long transport times, price
Total: $815.84


Option 2: Fly & get a rental
RT flights: $815.84
Compact Rental car : $79.72 for 8 days
Gas: $40 estimated (We won't go around except to the parks & to the grocery store once)
Concern: Is the price worth it?
Total: $935.56

Option 3: Drive
Standard SUV rental : $362.17 for 10 days (We went with a SUV because we thought it would be more comfortable to have the extra room)
Gas : $180 estimated
Time: 16 hours each way; we plan on driving overnight and stopping every 2.5 hours that the kids are awake to give them a break and let them stretch and go potty. My husband and I will take turns driving, rotating every 2 hours because that's about the most amount of time I can last lol
Concern: Being exhausted upon arrival; wasting vacation hours from driving & sleeping
Total: $542.17

I guess I'm mainly hoping people who have done one or both to provide some insight. We have taken a road trip before. It was about 10.5 hours total, but it took us close to 12.5 as my youngest was just under 1, and he needed to be fed/changed/given a break quite often. We drove straight through and immediately passed out as soon as we arrived, taking about a 6 hour nap. My oldest was wide awake while my husband, the baby, and myself were all exhausted. We had my niece to keep him company while we napped; we won't have anyone at WDW.

This decision is stressing me out lol. Please help!

We'd do option 1. We've done option 1 every year for over a decade with infants as young as 7 weeks up through 15. Would you lose vacation days due to driving travel? If not, would you have to take more time off work due to driving time? We are just not fans of car trips, so unless there was no possible way for us to go to Disney without driving, we wouldn't. The bussing issue is not horrible, although we did stop taking midday breaks years ago just because it was too exhausting/time consuming etc. How old are your kids? We found just doing something slower paced, or doing long shows, or just taking a break and sitting down with a snack or something midday worked better for our group then going back to the resort. Sometimes the kids would fall asleep in the stroller, sometimes they didn't, but just having a slower paced couple of hours worked out really well. Where are you staying?

 

[angierae]

Not having to drive is part of my vacation. The only time I've had a long wait for a bus was at park closing, but as others have said, getting to your car will have long waits, too - the tram fills up at MK, etc etc.

 

[Disneyaddict1973]

This was a interesting thread to read. We've always flown and I was considering driving for our next trip. Half the family wants to drive and the other wants to fly. There are six of us, so the price difference can be hefty. If we can get a decent price on plane tickets, I'm willing to fly and rent a car for the Universal part of the trip. My husband thinks it's worth it, anyway,so we're not facing that long drive home at the end of a long and tiring vacation.

We just encountered the same dilemma on our February trip this year! 3 of us wanted to fly but 2 of us wanted to drive. Coming from Boston, it's just so long. I won the argument and we drove (for the last time) My husband also felt the ride home was a nightmare after the trip. We just booked for the first week in August this year and we are flying...It takes more planning but, I too think flying is the way to go (even though I hate it).

 

[tarak]

We just encountered the same dilemma on our February trip this year! 3 of us wanted to fly but 2 of us wanted to drive. Coming from Boston, it's just so long. I won the argument and we drove (for the last time) My husband also felt the ride home was a nightmare after the trip. We just booked for the first week in August this year and we are flying...It takes more planning but, I too think flying is the way to go (even though I hate it).

My husband grew up driving to WDW every summer and he said the drive home is always the killer. We ended up driving home two years ago because our area was hit with a huge storm and all flights in and out of BWI were canceled for a few days. We rented a van and drove home and I didn't think it was that bad. My office was closed, though, so I didn't lose any time because of the extra days we used to drive back (we stopped in Charlotte for the night). This next trip will be during the summer and I don't know that I'll have the luxury of those extra days off. And, to his way of thinking, do I want to use a day of leave sitting in a car? Probably not. I just hate flying so much.

 

[Disneyaddict1973]

My husband grew up driving to WDW every summer and he said the drive home is always the killer. We ended up driving home two years ago because our area was hit with a huge storm and all flights in and out of BWI were canceled for a few days. We rented a van and drove home and I didn't think it was that bad. My office was closed, though, so I didn't lose any time because of the extra days we used to drive back (we stopped in Charlotte for the night). This next trip will be during the summer and I don't know that I'll have the luxury of those extra days off. And, to his way of thinking, do I want to use a day of leave sitting in a car? Probably not. I just hate flying so much.

Too funny, I grew up driving to WDW too! He and I probably have some kind of bad flashbacks from it lol. I totally agree on flying....I never really minded it until I had kids. Now that I'm a parent, I just get so worried as to how I can help all three of them in an emergency. I think if I were further down the coast, I'd definitely drive every time. Are you headed down this summer? Just think, no matter the mode of transportation, you'll make it safe and sound both ways and you'll have a wonderful vacation!