Help me decide...fly or drive...

[jsp2000]

Ok, here goes...I hope this doesn't get to long. This is a drive vs. fly question.

We'll be at POP from Sept 9-16. Approx 900 mile drive for me and DW from Memphis. Original plan was to leave after work on 9/8, drive as far as we could (8 or 9 hours) and crash at a hotel for a few hours, then get up and drive the rest of the way.

I figure round trip driving, including visiting the parks while on site, would be about 2200 miles. This was about our mileage last time. With gas at 3.00/gallon, in my SUV, that's going to ring up at about $264. Add in hotel, meals on the road, tolls, etc, and figure up about $350-$400 for the round trip drive to get there and back.

While airfare out of Memphis sucks, we have friends in Nashville (about a three hour drive). We can get roundtrip airfare from Nashville for about $430 on Delta. We would drive over to Nashville on the 8th, and fly out bright and early on the 9th, leaving our car at our friend's. We'd be at the parks by noon.

What would you do...drive or fly? We've ALWAYS driven. I've grown used to having a car at our disposal at the parks. Would we be happy with the buses? Disney's Magical Express? Would you be worried about bad weather (hurricanes, etc)? I must admit the thought of not making the long drive home is appealing.

Help!!!!

 

[Donald is #1]

If you have always had a car onsite, do you think that you would feel trapped without the car? Personnally, I have always had good luck with the buses. The only time that I have had long waits has been when a park closes. But I also understand the "trapped" feeling that you can get when you don't have a car. Disney is the only place in the USA that I travel to without renting a car. I even rent a car when I go to Las Vegas because I like the freedom that it gives me. That being said, I have only had a car at Disney when I was visiting non-Disney properties also. For my trip in 2000, I only used my rental car to/from the airport and Universal. Otherwise it sat in the parking lot at CBR. We used the buses all the time.
After all of this, my actual recommendation is:
1) As long as not having a car will not be a problem, then I would fly. It is much easier to be somewhere in a few hours than to spend 1+ days driving.

2) If you think that you will feel trapped without the car and not enjoy your trip as much, then drive.

Have a great trip!

 

[JoeCathyAngelina]

We'll be going to WDW in April '07. As of now, we're planning on driving down from Boston with no hotel stops. It's about 1300+ miles, 22 hours, each way; It's not as bad as it sounds.
What I've done the past 3 trips is check the airefares on a daily basis when I'm online. If I see a fare of $500 total or less for the 3 of us, we fly, otherwise we drive.
We drove down the first time with our 3 year old, because my wife hates to fly and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be to drive that far with a 3 year old.
The past couple of years we've been lucky with non-stop flight fares, so I talk my wife into flying. Hopefully we'll catch a break on airline tickets in the next 8 months, otherwise we drive.
It's not that bad a drive.
Good Luck All,
Joe