HELP, 22 hrs straight for $2100?

[disneychic33]

E have figured it all out. Disney is going tom cost us a grand total of $6310.87. That of course is with a flight for five people. However if we drive, it should only cost around 450 dollars for the round trip. If we drive it will have to be a straight shot from Southern Vermont to WDW, the trip is roughly 21.47 hrs. I'm on the fence about luxury of travel by plane, $2584, roughly 3 hrs. (I don't know about you guys, but my vacation starts as soon as I am seated on the plane) Or I could drive taking turns with DH and save about 2100, of our hard earned money. He is no help he just says it's up to me. HELP!!

 

[anc876]

How does everybody do on car trips? How old are the kids? What else would you use the extra money on if you drive? How important is the extra time you'd have if you fly?

 

[danygirl]

we drive it from Maryland. A few years ago when the kids where young we drove through the night, but my husband was absolutely dead the first day and I was pretty tired too, so we basically lost a day. Going home we had to stop over night.

the last trip we started in the morning and drove all day, getting there around 11pm. We were tired the first day but able to function.

If you drive straight through 21 hours you will lose the first day to exhaustion. If you can deal with that, it is a big cost savings. Going home you will absolutely have to

 

[kristenrice]

Don't forget...it might be 22 hours of driving time, but you'll also need to add at least 3 hours of "stop" time. You'll need gas, potty breaks, and food. When we do a "quick", in and out stop a a rest area for a potty break, it adds a minimum of 8 minutes to our time. That is one person running in and running out. If MapQuest or GPS says 22 hours, I'd plan on at least 25. BTW, what kind of car are you driving? We drive from Michigan and gas alone is over $500. In order to save $2100, I'd drive, but would not plan on doing anything for the first 24 hours at the World. It would take me that long to recover from the drive.


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[disneychic33]

I'm sorry my children are DD11, DD7, and DS10. We drove it a few years ago and they loved the drive. The only problem is we stopped that time for a night and split it into a two day trip. This time my DH can bot get the time off to split it, so it would have tomb a straight through. Personally I work third and am so used to having very little sleep that I think I could probably drive the majority of it by myself.

The extra money would probably be put into a fund for another WDW trip in the future. We love WDW.

I am leaning towards driving myself I just can't bring myself to spend the extra $ even if it does make us give up a little park time and relaxation. However I think my DH is hoping I will choose to fly so that he can get on the Plane, go straight to DME and start his relaxation with no driving for a week. it is a nice perk but worth 2100 dollars?

 

[pigletto]

Totally depends on how long you have for vacation IMO. We've considered it from here (which is about 18-19 hours.. my neighbours do the drive twice a year). I wouldn't go straight through or I would lose my mind. Therefore it would be basically 2 days there and another 2 on the way home. I would want a week at Disney so I would need 11 days.
Those flights seem really high even for flight prices these days. I am not familiar with prices in your neck of the woods but we can go from Buffalo for about 1200 these days for four of us.
So you might be able to get cheaper flights (especially if willing to fly at odd times) and/or you could drive to cheaper flights. If your willing to drive to Disney and back maybe you'd consider a 4 or 5 hour drive to another airport if it could save you a lot of money?

 

[disneychic33]

Don't forget...it might be 22 hours of driving time, but you'll also need to add at least 3 hours of "stop" time. You'll need gas, potty breaks, and food. When we do a "quick", in and out stop a a rest area for a potty break, it adds a minimum of 8 minutes to our time. That is one person running in and running out. If MapQuest or GPS says 22 hours, I'd plan on at least 25. BTW, what kind of car are you driving? We drive from Michigan and gas alone is over $500. In order to save $2100, I'd drive, but would not plan on doing anything for the first 24 hours at the World. It would take me that long to recover from the drive.

Posted from DISboards.com App for Android

We are driving a relatively new Honda Odyssey. I was working on figures from an average between AAA gas trip planner and the gas buddy trip planning site.

 

[designermv]

Have you priced flights for all airports within a 3-hour driving distance? I'm willing to drive further and spend the night at a hotel near a cheaper-fare airport if it means saving a good chunk of money. I personally couldn't drive that far. I get road-weary quickly and my kids are terrible road-trippers. If your family does well on road trips, I see no reason not to go for it.

 

[HappyHaunts999]

We drive from nyc non stop. We started when the the kids were little, now they are 22 and almost 17. We start around 3 am, my dh is a morning person,then I drive for awhile and he finishes the trip. Kids never had a problem. They would read, play game, listen to music and watch movies. We would stop for a quick breakfast, lunch at cracker barrel, and then quick dinner. Everyone would get out and stretch at gas stops. On the way home is another story. We always stop over night on the way back. We also enjoy having our car at Disney. I think it makes things more relaxing, but that's me.

 

[disneychic33]

Have you priced flights for all airports within a 3-hour driving distance? I'm willing to drive further and spend the night at a hotel near a cheaper-fare airport if it means saving a good chunk of money. I personally couldn't drive that far. I get road-weary quickly and my kids are terrible road-trippers. If your family does well on road trips, I see no reason not to go for it.

I just checked Albany NY is are closest, after that it is Buffalo, La Guardia, and Boston, they are all saying cheapest 2500. It looks like driving is going to win.

 

[disneychic33]

We drive from nyc non stop. We started when the the kids were little, now they are 22 and almost 17. We start around 3 am, my dh is a morning person,then I drive for awhile and he finishes the trip. Kids never had a problem. They would read, play game, listen to music and watch movies. We would stop for a quick breakfast, lunch at cracker barrel, and then quick dinner. Everyone would get out and stretch at gas stops. On the way home is another story. We always stop over night on the way back. We also enjoy having our car at Disney. I think it makes things more relaxing, but that's me.

Yes when we drove a few years ago, my kids enjoyed it. My oldest was 8 at the time, she enjoyed trying to follow the map (I use the GPS). the others enjoyed playing driving games and using our Disney trivia DVD. It's fun to bring the one from Disney trivial Pursuit.

 

[monarchsfan16]

Did you check Manchester, NH? If you're in Vermont that would be closer than Boston.

Also what time of year are you trying to go? Don't forget to factor in storms if you're driving in the winter.

 

[HappyHaunts999]

Yes when we drove a few years ago, my kids enjoyed it. My oldest was 8 at the time, she enjoyed trying to follow the map (I use the GPS). the others enjoyed playing driving games and using our Disney trivia DVD. It's fun to bring the one from Disney trivial Pursuit.

They like the disney 20Q and war. I hope you have a great time no matter what you choose.

 

[WellingtonR]

I know what you're going through. We live in CT and decided to drive after seeing the cost of airfare. We drive a 08 Odyssey and I've looked at trip gas calculators too.....somewhere between $400-$500. Thank goodness prices are dropping. We are heading out the day after Thanksgiving and I'm really paranoid about holiday traffic on I 95 sooooo we might go to PA down through Virginia north Carolina. Good luck on your trip!!!

 

[Pigeon]

Check Newburgh-Stewart airport too.

I would rather just stay home than spend that much time driving.

 

[Mom23Disneybelievers]

I completely understand! We toy with the idea of driving every year. In the end we always end up flying. (We are from upstate NY...so it is quite a distance for us as well.)

We are a family of 5 and the cost of flights can be a huge chunk of $$. One of these days we are going to go for it...I think.

 

[pigletto]

I just checked Albany NY is are closest, after that it is Buffalo, La Guardia, and Boston, they are all saying cheapest 2500. It looks like driving is going to win.

What are your dates? I have never had to pay those prices out of Buffalo. Syracuse and Rochester are also options for you as well. If you are travelling for Christmas or Spring Break you might be stuck with those prices but for other times keep looking. There are sales all the time, and prices fluctuate every few days.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Have you thought about the Auto Train. You would drive to Lorton, VA (just outside the Capital Beltway) You would need to be there by about 1:00 pm. They will load your car and your family would get on the train. Arrival in Sanford, FL (about an hour from WDW) is about 9:00am.

Return is the same. Check out www.amtrak.com/auto-train or the wikipedia article.

 

[englishteacha]

We're in Maine, so a drive for us is at least 24 hours with minimal stops. We haven't done it as adults. My parents drove for all our vacations as a kid. Dad wouldn't drive more than 8 hours, so we took THREE days to get to Florida. Gah. If driving were the only way for me to get to WDW, then I'd do it, but we'd much rather fly.

Try the airports in Manchester, NH, Portland, ME, and Bangor, ME. They're likely a farther drive from you, but could be a lot cheaper. We're about equidistant from Bangor and Portland, so we'll go from whatever airport has the cheaper flights. Allegiant flies out of Bangor and often has some good deals, but they fly into Sanford Airport rather than MCO. We've gotten good deals from Portland on Airtran. We actually base our trips on when we can get the cheapest airfare. We don't book anything else till we have the flights booked.

 

[disneychic33]