Has anyone flown into Tampa and drove to Disney?

[maxiesmom]

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......

I checked Tampa too, and flying there instead of MCO would save us $70 a person.

 

[kyomagi]

lol i'v started a trend!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Yes and once you have flown into TPA you will never want to flight into/out of MCO. IT is such a quieter airport and not a bad drive. Once outside of the city of TPA its 90% country ride.

Here is the thread you need
I would also read through the Jan car rental thread to see if there are any codes or discounts mentioned that could help you
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3309919&highlight=february

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

We have done it multiple times. I am more than happy to drive an additional 45 minutes to TPA rather than have to deal with MCO.

 

[maxiesmom]

We have done it multiple times. I am more than happy to drive an additional 45 minutes to TPA rather than have to deal with MCO.

How does the security check point compare?

 

[WDWFan06]

How does the security check point compare?

Flew out of tampa yesterday and security line took me 5 min. Never have I been through security that fast at MCO.

 

[goobylal]

All things being equal, I'd still rather fly into MCO. But TPA isn't a hassle. I don't mind driving a bit if it means a significantly cheaper fare, like I'm getting flying out of Providence versus Hartford.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Security has always been a breeze

 

[puffkin]

We are leaving Saturday for a week coming back Thanksgiving Saturday. For the first time in 25+ trips we were planning to drive. But I was finally able to find flights into/out of Tampa for $220/person RT which was almost $300 CHEAPER a person than MCO. For 5 people that is a HUGE savings. I tried every possible combination with PHL-BWI-DCA-MCO-TPA.

Just today I was able to snag a minivan rental on Alamo for the week for $197 all in Its hard to factor rentals in when buying airfare because usually the best rates are within 2 weeks of the travel dates.

In June, we had come down and did 3 days in Clearwater before heading over to Disney. That trip we did a BWI to Tampa then MCO to BWI. We saved a few dollars flying into Tampa but the rental was a few dollars more than MCO so it basically netted out. But it just was more convenient to do it this way for us and TPA is very quiet airport!

The drive really isn't that bad at all....we hardly ever travel at rush hours so I check the prices there regularly.

 

[kristenrice]

Our flight lands at 9am on a Thursday. Our rental car pickup is for 9:30am. I am assuming that we will not be hitting a rush hour, correct?

Also, are there any tolls? If so, are they the "cashless" ones that will show up on my rental car bill? I've only driven in FL once and that was in our personal vehicle. I remember we went through an unmanned toll-booth that had no way to actually pay. We were so confused...it was an exit that was SunPass only and there was no way for me to pay the toll. I expected a ticket to show up in the mail, but it never did. I'm sure that would not be the case with a rental car which probably has a SunPass box in it.

 

[bookgirl]

Did it in July.

The drive was pretty straight forward with two exceptions.

The exit from airport to Highway and the exit from highway to airport were both confusing. Both times I missed it (with a GPS). Mainly it's one of those that you take and there's an exit within a curve/exit to someplace else sort of thing.

Driving back to the airport there was crazy stand still down to one lane with no on/off ramp merge lane construction in outskirts of Tampa. Figure that's not permanent but still a big pain.

It was about $75 dollars cheaper each (x3) for airfare and since we were going to have to have a car the whole time (offsite for National AAU Tournament) it didn't really matter WHERE we rented the car. (actually Tampa had higher fees but the price difference over Orlando was still less then $50 dollars).

For 40 more minutes it was totally worth the money.

However if I did not need a car for the whole time I doubt I would go this route as I wouldn't really save a ton of money and DME would be more convenient.