Gas Prices

[fbarker]

Soooooooo is the rising cost of gas changing anyones plans. Whether you are driving or flying it's going to cost more. What are your thoughts

 

[PinkLemonade7503]

We're planning our next visit so far in advance it is much cheaper to fly than drive. But, if we had more kids that would not be the case. Which is fine with me, bc I prefer driving a tiny bit more... It is stressful to fly with littles, and you can't bring as much of their stuff.... Or worry about things being broken.

 

[chartle]

Why is everyone so concerned about the cost of gas? I've read a few threads about gas prices and whether or not to fly or drive. Yes gas costing more overall is a problem for some budgets and will be a hardship fro some but has anyone run the numbers on how it might effect a WDW vacation.

A round trip for me is 2,000 miles. My car gets 30 mpg(measured last trip to WDW) so uses about 67 gallons of gas.

50 cents more for gas $4.00 is going to cost me about $33. A dollar more to $4.50, 67 dollars more. Split 4 ways that's $8.50 to $17 per person.

For my WDW that's a 1 to 2 percent increase in the cost of my vacation.

I would just keep my wife from buying more pins.

 

[MommyPoppins]

It's not the first time gas has been this high....and I'm sure it won't be the last. Seems to be a pattern at this time of year. We drive a 12 passenger van, which sucks. But thankfully DH's work car gets 47 MPG and on a daily basis I go no where. So if we want to use gas, we can. lol.

 

[TandLMommy28]

Last time we drove. We thought it would save so much money. Gas was probably around $3.50? I can't remember (September 2010). We stayed at two hotels on the way down and one one the way back. On the way down, we ended up leaving 12 hours earlier than expected and arrived in Orlando a day before our package started, so we stayed offsite for a night. Plus, we stopped for 6 meals between our four driving days (free breakfasts at hotels, at least!). All in all it cost us so much to drive that I started thinking that we could've flown cheaper.

So this time around, I figured out what it would cost if gas is $4 (and it could be more, who knows) with two hotels, arriving late on check in day and leaving EARLY on check out day, plus all those meals on the road. I came out with an estimate of around $700 (we live 1100 miles away).

I scored airline tickets for the four of us for $880. No brainer! For $180 more, we arrive at 11:30 am on check in day and don't have to leave until 6pm on check out day! And we don't have 2200 miles of driving.

I always assume driving will be cheaper, and I actually prefer to drive, but sometimes... it's just really not the better deal.

 

[Coach81]

It is what it is...,

 

[disprincessatheart]

We don't worry about it in terms of it cutting into our budget for the trip, but it does affect our choice of transportation to Disney. For 7 years, and probably 12 trips, we drove every single time, even with our ds at 4 mo, 9 mo, 12 mo, 16 and 18 mo. This January with the cost of gas, combined with the full day it takes us each way, ds no longer cooperating with the long time in the car, etc, we decided to fly instead. It cost us more to fly, but since the difference in cost was a lot smaller than on trips past and we found direct flights saving us a ton of time each way, it tipped the scales to make flying worth it to us.

 

[pigletto]

Well it wasn't. Until the company that I had booked the flights for our next TWO trips with left all their passengers stranded and cancelled future flights yesterday.
So now we're out 1600, we are leaving in six weeks, and need to make other plans.
The fly vs. drive debate is going strong in this house.
We're already out the money, so booking another set of flights wasn't exactly in the budget.
Then again, if it's going to cost us an extra work day or two, at least 3 nights of hotels on the drive and high gas prices, then maybe it's not worth the 20 hour drive.
Just don't know what to do right now and need to make a decision.

 

[alicia080979]

I hate the rising gas prices but it is still cheaper for us to drive than fly. The cheapest I have found direct flights for us is ~$350 and we have 3 adults. That doesn't include any baggage fees either. It is a 14-15 hour drive but gas there and back will only cost us around $600 total including driving while we are down there. We also drive through the night so don't have to pay for hotels which is nice.

 

[alicia080979]

Well it wasn't. Until the company that I had booked the flights for our next TWO trips with left all their passengers stranded and cancelled future flights yesterday.
So now we're out 1600, we are leaving in six weeks, and need to make other plans.
The fly vs. drive debate is going strong in this house.
We're already out the money, so booking another set of flights wasn't exactly in the budget.
Then again, if it's going to cost us an extra work day or two, at least 3 nights of hotels on the drive and high gas prices, then maybe it's not worth the 20 hour drive.
Just don't know what to do right now and need to make a decision.

I just wanted to say I'm so sorry that this happened to you

 

[kaligal]

I cut back on trips. It was a combination of the increased cost of driving and the fact that Disney cut all the Christmas stuff I liked best.

Once I cut the Christmas trip, it became easier to cut one other, taking me down to one short and one long trip a year. The other short trips got done places closer to home.

There are good and bad sides to cutting back on WDW trips.

 

[EsmeCullen]

No worries here! I bought my plane ticket when it was still fairly cheap, so about a couple of weeks ago

 

[seus-mouse]

We really enjoy the trip down. The first scent of new foliage, the first palm trees, and with our chihuahua it's nice to take rest stops and snack. So I guess even if it's a bit more it still feels worthwhile.
Though as the kids got older and we traded a college kid for the puppy our car got smaller and with better gas mileage. Though I miss the room in a mini-van.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

We use about 20 gallons to get to WDW. Add 20 to get back and that's about 40 gallons. So even if it rose say a dollar per gallon, that's still only 40 bucks. That's really not a trip breaker considering how much we're shelling out to Disney.

 

[tzolkin]

The day we left for our first Disney trip (in 2008) was the day our local gas went over $4 a gallon (which is what it is here now).

Every trip I estimate $5 a gallon when planning "just in case", so I'm not really factoring rising gas prices as a significant extra expense. Our round trip is almost 2500 miles, but we drive straight through and don't spend too much for our meals on the road so our only real travel expense is the gas. There are 5 people in our family, so regardless of the price of gas it's significantly cheaper to drive.


The difference gas prices would make for our vacation planning is not the cost for the trip, but the daily cost throughout the rest of the year. For example, I returned to work (after being a SAHM for a few years) and this year we have two teenagers who are involved in after school activities. Me driving a second car to work every day plus driving 40+ miles every day for practices is drastically increasing our gas consumption. As prices rise our gas spending will likely take a chunck out of our budget that we could normally set aside for a vacation.

 

[summermac]

Well it wasn't. Until the company that I had booked the flights for our next TWO trips with left all their passengers stranded and cancelled future flights yesterday.
So now we're out 1600, we are leaving in six weeks, and need to make other plans.
The fly vs. drive debate is going strong in this house.
We're already out the money, so booking another set of flights wasn't exactly in the budget.
Then again, if it's going to cost us an extra work day or two, at least 3 nights of hotels on the drive and high gas prices, then maybe it's not worth the 20 hour drive.
Just don't know what to do right now and need to make a decision.

What company?

Can't you dispute the charge with your credit card to at least get your $1600 back?


Re: OP
I have a price I'm willing to pay for airfare before we'll drive. It USED to be $200, now it's $225. I lucked out BIG TIME and scored a flight for $180 pp for this trip. Yeah baby!

 

[disnut8]

For us, it's not really a decision at all. Except to say we wouldn't be going at all. We live about 500 miles away so it takes maybe 3 tanks of gas for a round trip. Even at $50/tank, that's $150-$200 for the trip (if we need a fourth tank on the way back so I don't have to stop the next day on the way to work). Even if we could get airline fare from Atlanta to Orlando, here's what we would face on flying -

- We would be limited to our baggage if we just did carry on and if we checked a bag, we would have to pay $25 unless we flew Southwest and that service is not available until August
- We would have to pay for parking at the airport
- We would have to stay onsite each time since we wouldn't have a car unless we rented one
- We would have to leave our house, which is an hour north of the airport, about three hours before our flight time
- Flight time is about an hour and a half
- Time to get to resort on Magical Express, about an hour
- So about 5-1/2 hours in travel time on the way down when it would take us 7-1/2 hours to drive with more freedom and less hassles
- Reverse that on the way back but only about 4 hours
- Flying would save us about 5-1/2 hours
- Flying would cost us more than the price of the gas

Definitely not worth it just in the hassles of flying from where we live, let alone the money. Although we are always asked if we are flying or driving.

 

[TXteacher]

What company?

Can't you dispute the charge with your credit card to at least get your $1600 back?


Re: OP
I have a price I'm willing to pay for airfare before we'll drive. It USED to be $200, now it's $225. I lucked out BIG TIME and scored a flight for $180 pp for this trip. Yeah baby!

I agree, seems like you should be able to get some of your money back (maybe not in time for this trip, but something...)
I can't believe how much airline tickets have increased in the last few weeks. I bought our tickets in January (4 RT from Austin to Orlando, non stop..total $890...SAME flights now? $2120)

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Why is everyone so concerned about the cost of gas? I've read a few threads about gas prices and whether or not to fly or drive. Yes gas costing more overall is a problem for some budgets and will be a hardship fro some but has anyone run the numbers on how it might effect a WDW vacation.

A round trip for me is 2,000 miles. My car gets 30 mpg(measured last trip to WDW) so uses about 67 gallons of gas.

50 cents more for gas $4.00 is going to cost me about $33. A dollar more to $4.50, 67 dollars more. Split 4 ways that's $8.50 to $17 per person.

For my WDW that's a 1 to 2 percent increase in the cost of my vacation.

I would just keep my wife from buying more pins.

The problem is less about the extra cost of the vacation. Rather, it's the extra $200, $300, $400 or MORE you're paying every single month of the year for gas and all the other things that have become more expensive since gas has reached this price.

Based on the miles we put on our two vehicles last year, our household used ~1,675 gallons of gas last year (not counting the tractor, the mowers, the weed eaters, the chain saw, & the tiller). I filled up for $1.23(9) in January of '09. Today, it's $3.89(9). Based on that price swing over the past 38 months, my annual gasoline bill could be as low as $2,075 or as high as $6,530. That's a difference of $4,455. And that's all money I'm having to spend AFTER taxes, so figure more like $5,800 worth of salary.

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but for me a $5,800 swing in salary could have a pretty significant impact on whether or not I can afford a vacation at all, and certainly it could impact whether or not I take a "nice" vacation or something budget oriented closer to home. And again, that's not even factoring in the cost of everything else that's more expensive now that gas is higher.

So, no the few extra bucks added to the cost of the trip is not a problem. The ability to save a little every month to pay for the trip is though. We're going either way. Next year's trip to CO may or may not happen

 

[chartle]

The problem is less about the extra cost of the vacation. Rather, it's the extra $200, $300, $400 or MORE you're paying every single month of the year for gas and all the other things that have become more expensive since gas has reached this price.

Yes I agree, overall the price of gas is going to effect a lot of people. But the impact on driving to WDW is not really that big a deal when you do the math.

I think some people think that a dollar extra for gas is going to add hundreds of dollars to their trip budget. Maybe if they drive from the west coast but not for most people that drive.

I'm very lucky that I work just a few miles from home.

I went from 22,000 a year to 5,000 miles I year when I switched jobs. Thats an extra $2,500 a year.