Has anyone flown into Tampa and drove to Disney?

[kyomagi]

I am thinking about flying from detroit to Tampa and driving to orlando because its about $150 cheaper to do so. has anyone flown in to tampa and drove to disney?

 

[davedmaine]

I am thinking about flying from detroit to Tampa and driving to orlando because its about $150 cheaper to do so. has anyone flown in to tampa and drove to disney?

How would you drive?? Rental car? And what's your time worth? Not worth it to me

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Yep do it all the time because of cheaper fares. It takes about 1 hr and 20 minutes to about 1 hr 30 minute if traffic is bad. And really it takes 35 minutes to drive from MCO to WDW so really you are only driving another 40 - 60 minutes from Tampa to WDW depending on traffic. So saving $150 is well worth the drive.

Love TPA it is a quieter airport and you can drop off the rental car and get through security in less than 20 minutes.

 

[Disney84]

Tampa is our new favorite as well. The heck with Orlando MCO. TPA has no lines, laid back, easy in-easy out, and cheaper fares. We live about 50 minutes from our home airport anyway, so driving from Tampa to WDW seems normal to us. Do it once, you'll hardly use Orlando unless the rates beat TPA.

 

[DOOM1001]

I hear people do it all the time,it's a 1 hour 10 minute drive without traffic so not that bad a drive.

 

[goobylal]

Done it many times. It's worth it if you're flying round trip out of there. If leaving from somewhere else (MCO), the car rental can be more expensive and mostly negate the savings.

 

[disneygrandma]

For us, flying in to TPA was quite a bit more expensive. We're doing some beach time 1st, before WDW, so had planned to fly in to TPA, and home from MCO. However, the prices this morning were nearly $100 more pp to fly in to TPA. So we'll now have to rent our car at MCO and drive in to the Tampa area, and then drive back to WDW.

 

[stitch'sgirl]

We have done Detroit to Tampa a few times. I always check Flint-Detroit-Tampa-Orlando combinations on Spirit and SWA. Once I have the best price, I use Hotwire for a rental car. Don't be afraid of booking different arrival/departure airports. I got a $1/day one-way rental in May when I flew into Tampa and then out of Orlando. Amazing

 

[Capt_BJ]

plan flights to avoid rush hours, morning and evening, in Tampa Mon - Fri

rush hour traffic on the expessways is BAD and often near gridlocked

otherwise it all comes down to the cost of the rental . . .

 

[LBIJim]

Yes, several times. But those vacations also included activities in the Tampa area as well as Orlando. For a strictly Orlando vacation, I probably wouldn't fly into Tampa unless the fare was significantly cheaper ($100 pp or more) than Orlando.

 

[kristenrice]

I'm looking into this option for our trip from April 30-May 5, 2015. Right now, I am looking st several options...

1) GRR-TPA then MCO-FNT for the return home...we'd rent a car ($45 currently) to get from FNT to home (about 1.5 hours away). With this option, I'm looking at a total airfare cost of $643.80 for our family of 4, not including ground transfers.

2) GRR-TPA round trip...this option would cost only $583.80 for the airfare...

Anything involving the GRR airport does not involve any parking fees since we have plenty of family in the area who are willing to drive us to/from as needed.

So, now it comes down to the cost of a car rental at TPA. Right now, the prices are ridiculous...like over $400 for a mid-size for all 5 days. I was considering just driving one-way from TPA to MCO and then catching the DME to our resort. It's time consuming, but no big deal since we would land at 9am and we are in no rush to get to the parks. Even the one-way fares for about 2 hours are almost $200. Is there ANYTHING cheaper??? We are probably only taking carryons (not to save money...we all pack light and don't need extra bags) so I'm thinking a mid-size would be big enough.

Are there any other one-way options from TPA to WDW/MCO that I am not thinking about? I like the "security" of taking DME on our departure day so I prefer to fly OUT of MCO. Right now, the cost is the variable that is making my decision difficult.

 

[kyomagi]

thanks for the replies. It saves roughly $40 a person

 

[mamamary]

Our friends have done it but I think they were also doing Tampa activities. I do like the Tampa airport but I've never seen enough of a $ difference to make it worthwhile for us - also we never use a rental car in disney.

 

[goobylal]

I'm looking into this option for our trip from April 30-May 5, 2015. Right now, I am looking st several options...

1) GRR-TPA then MCO-FNT for the return home...we'd rent a car ($45 currently) to get from FNT to home (about 1.5 hours away). With this option, I'm looking at a total airfare cost of $643.80 for our family of 4, not including ground transfers.

2) GRR-TPA round trip...this option would cost only $583.80 for the airfare...

Anything involving the GRR airport does not involve any parking fees since we have plenty of family in the area who are willing to drive us to/from as needed.

So, now it comes down to the cost of a car rental at TPA. Right now, the prices are ridiculous...like over $400 for a mid-size for all 5 days. I was considering just driving one-way from TPA to MCO and then catching the DME to our resort. It's time consuming, but no big deal since we would land at 9am and we are in no rush to get to the parks. Even the one-way fares for about 2 hours are almost $200. Is there ANYTHING cheaper??? We are probably only taking carryons (not to save money...we all pack light and don't need extra bags) so I'm thinking a mid-size would be big enough.

Are there any other one-way options from TPA to WDW/MCO that I am not thinking about? I like the "security" of taking DME on our departure day so I prefer to fly OUT of MCO. Right now, the cost is the variable that is making my decision difficult.

Unless I'm missing something, there's no way your total airfare for a round trip flight for a family of four is coming out to $146-161/person. Unless you have 2 infants you'll be putting in your laps.

thanks for the replies. It saves roughly $40 a person

For just $40/person, I probably would just fly into MCO. Again though, there could be a difference in car rental rates at each airport.

 

[kyomagi]

Unless I'm missing something, there's no way your total airfare for a round trip flight for a family of four is coming out to $146-161/person. Unless you have 2 infants you'll be putting in your laps.

For just $40/person, I probably would just fly into MCO. Again though, there could be a difference in car rental rates at each airport.

there is. And actually if i book the flight seperatly its over 220 in total savings in the flight alone. and the car rental is cheaper too.

Also, there was a thread with car rental deals. does anyone have a link to it?

 

[kristenrice]

Here's our plan...

We're going to be flying out GRR-TPA and renting a car from the airport and returning it to the CCC at Disney World. I was able to buy the extra SWA RR points that I needed ($55) and paid for all 4 tickets with those points. The flight departs at 6:35am and lands at 9:05am. I secured a full-size rental car from Alamo with a 9:30am pickup time and a 1:00pm drop off at the Car Care Center. I figure that way, we can grab some groceries and check in to the resort (AKV) before returning the car. As I understand it, the folks at the CCC will drop you off at your resort (or maybe a park?) so that makes it fairly easy.

Including the cost of the extra points, rental car and all taxes and fees, this is costing us $165.02.

Then, for the trip home, I hate the idea of a "long" (>30 minute) drive to the airport before a flight. The further you have to drive, the more chances that something can cause a delay. So, I prefer to fly out of MCO and use DME. Flying into GRR is out of the question because the only non-stop flight is at 10am and I will NOT get up at 5am to go home. We are therefore going to fly MCO to FNT on a 2pm non-stop flight. We will then rent a car one-way from FNT to GRR and return the car the next day. The total cost for airfare (including EBCI, which I only buy for the return) and the rental car comes to $614.80.

I'd originally budgeted $1000 for our airfare/transportation and this option brings us in at about $780.

 

[goobylal]

Here's our plan...

We're going to be flying out GRR-TPA and renting a car from the airport and returning it to the CCC at Disney World. I was able to buy the extra SWA RR points that I needed ($55) and paid for all 4 tickets with those points. The flight departs at 6:35am and lands at 9:05am. I secured a full-size rental car from Alamo with a 9:30am pickup time and a 1:00pm drop off at the Car Care Center. I figure that way, we can grab some groceries and check in to the resort (AKV) before returning the car. As I understand it, the folks at the CCC will drop you off at your resort (or maybe a park?) so that makes it fairly easy.

Including the cost of the extra points, rental car and all taxes and fees, this is costing us $165.02.

Then, for the trip home, I hate the idea of a "long" (>30 minute) drive to the airport before a flight. The further you have to drive, the more chances that something can cause a delay. So, I prefer to fly out of MCO and use DME. Flying into GRR is out of the question because the only non-stop flight is at 10am and I will NOT get up at 5am to go home. We are therefore going to fly MCO to FNT on a 2pm non-stop flight. We will then rent a car one-way from FNT to GRR and return the car the next day. The total cost for airfare (including EBCI, which I only buy for the return) and the rental car comes to $614.80.

I'd originally budgeted $1000 for our airfare/transportation and this option brings us in at about $780.

So you used previous RR points for the majority of the cost of the tix? That makes sense.

 

[kyomagi]

Here's our plan...

We're going to be flying out GRR-TPA and renting a car from the airport and returning it to the CCC at Disney World. I was able to buy the extra SWA RR points that I needed ($55) and paid for all 4 tickets with those points. The flight departs at 6:35am and lands at 9:05am. I secured a full-size rental car from Alamo with a 9:30am pickup time and a 1:00pm drop off at the Car Care Center. I figure that way, we can grab some groceries and check in to the resort (AKV) before returning the car. As I understand it, the folks at the CCC will drop you off at your resort (or maybe a park?) so that makes it fairly easy.

Including the cost of the extra points, rental car and all taxes and fees, this is costing us $165.02.

Then, for the trip home, I hate the idea of a "long" (>30 minute) drive to the airport before a flight. The further you have to drive, the more chances that something can cause a delay. So, I prefer to fly out of MCO and use DME. Flying into GRR is out of the question because the only non-stop flight is at 10am and I will NOT get up at 5am to go home. We are therefore going to fly MCO to FNT on a 2pm non-stop flight. We will then rent a car one-way from FNT to GRR and return the car the next day. The total cost for airfare (including EBCI, which I only buy for the return) and the rental car comes to $614.80.

I'd originally budgeted $1000 for our airfare/transportation and this option brings us in at about $780.

Good job!

Heres what i did. Det to Orlando in Feb was going to be $515 with spirit air (we have flown them 6 times and had 1 issue with them)

However, with a sale today, spirit was flying for $289 for 3 people to tampa in the same time frame! so thats a $226 savings on airfare alone.

Not to mention a rental car in MCO was $165 for 3 days total and its $99 in tampa


i also hope someone can point me to the car rental savings thread, i cant find it T_T

 

[kristenrice]

Good job!

i also hope someone can point me to the car rental savings thread, i cant find it T_T

If you have previously purchased park tickets (or plan to for this trip), you can book a rental car from Alamo from UnderCoverTourist.com. I have AP's for this trip so I didn't need tickets, but since I have bought from them in the past (highly recommend, BTW), I was able to book the same car through Alamo for only $63.80 instead of the $87.62 I paid through the Alamo site. You might want to check them out.

 

[soxyes]

Wow. I'm surprised by the price difference between TPA and MCO. For the four of us it's $808 vs. $1320 from O'Hare. I'd need to add in the price of the car rental to get us to and from WDW, but that still leaves over $300 in savings.

We're used to ME and the convenience of being driven around, but this is really something to think about. I can't recall the last time we got airfare for under $1000 for our family. Hmmmmmm......