How do you get to Disney?

[pr surfer]

Morning flight out, afternoon flight back... unless I'm already in the states for business, then whatever works best to try and sneak in a quick trip.

 

[spurk5532]

I fly and we always leave early morning. Being that I live in WA state it takes all day to fly to Disney and so we arrive late at night ready to sleep.

 

[AlexDurrani]

Driving for me is out of the question. With my health I have to stop every hour and a half just to stretch or just to wake up. I looked up the Train option and found that to get to Orlando from houston you basically take a bus to somewhere outside of dallas, then take an overnight train to chicago. Another overnight to Baltimore and finally a possible overnight to Orlando (not sure). The whole trip basically would be 5 to 6 days of traveling alone and cost double the flying.

So I fly always. This december I will be renting a car for the first time at MCO, usually it is DME and DT.

 

[OKW Lover]

We're from MA and we fly.

We either go early in the morning so that we have nearly a full day at WDW or we fly down late the night before, stay off-site and then go to WDW early the next morning.

Going home, we usually opt for a late-day flight so we have time to go to the parks.

 

[Stephen121795]

I have driven, flown and taken the Amtrak train. Flying is usually the cheapest and simplest. Amtrak is the funest and car travel is the hardest.

 

[JerseyDad]

.....we've always driven.....and it's no big deal. First...I drive...ALL the way. Second...we leave at 6:00am on a Friday morning from NJ.....stop in Brunswick, Ga. at 6:30pm (usually about 13 hrs....but I did it in 12 this last trip). Next morning....breakfast...and on the road...and in WDW by 10am.

....having the car (wife's Ford Freestar) is great...since we always do at least one off-site day...and we don't need to worry about shipping or paying extra to transport anything we buy at WDW. And there are usually 3 of us...and sometimes as many as 6.

....round trip gas for 1150 miles = $220
....one night in a Hampton Inn = $99
....tolls (round trip) mostly in NJ = $30


....no matter how we worked it out...driving...is way cheaper than flying.....and WAY cheaper than Auto-Train (and...takes less time)

 

[Ron from Michigan]

We always fly. We try to leave early in the morning so we have most of the day at WDW. This last time we flew non-stop from Grand Rapids to Orlando and arrived at 2:30. We have driven once and that was once too many times. Why spend 2 days driving when I can be there in 3 to 5 hours.

 

[Princess Mags]

We usually fly to my grandparents in Delray Beach and then drive up with my grandma to WDW. It is way too far to drive all the way from where we live in Central New York. This time though we are flying straight to disney which should be awesome because it eliminates the three hour car ride!!! As to what time we like to fly out: whatever is cheapest

 

[NancyIL]

If I'm only going to WDW, I will fly. I prefer the morning non-stop on AirTran from an airport an hour from my house. The return non-stop is pretty early in the morning, so I chose a later connecting flight for my trip home yesterday.

I have also driven with my kids and stopped along to way to visit my in-laws in SC, my mom (now deceased) in FL, WDW, and my sister in AL.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

.....we've always driven.....and it's no big deal. First...I drive...ALL the way. Second...we leave at 6:00am on a Friday morning from NJ.....stop in Brunswick, Ga. at 6:30pm (usually about 13 hrs....but I did it in 12 this last trip). Next morning....breakfast...and on the road...and in WDW by 10am.

....having the car (wife's Ford Freestar) is great...since we always do at least one off-site day...and we don't need to worry about shipping or paying extra to transport anything we buy at WDW. And there are usually 3 of us...and sometimes as many as 6.

....round trip gas for 1150 miles = $220
....one night in a Hampton Inn = $99
....tolls (round trip) mostly in NJ = $30


....no matter how we worked it out...driving...is way cheaper than flying.....and WAY cheaper than Auto-Train (and...takes less time)

I agree that driving is cheaper but that doesn't make it better. My time and sanity are worth more than a few hundred $, even with paying for airfare for 4. We just returned today and wasn't even in the air long enough to finish watching a movie on my ipod.

 

[bdoyledimou]

I have driven to the World from Toronto 8 times now.
I drive straight through. Leave TO at noon, arrive at the world at 1 pm.
Stop in Erie PA for early Dinner, and GA for breakfast.
Its the drive back that drains me though..

We generally go for 15 days though.. leave Thursday, get back on Sat, and have a day to recover before back to work.

 

[daraddg]

We are definately a road trip family and always drive from NJ, the kids enjoys it .We take 2 days to do it since I am the only driver.They like singing in the car, eating at waffle houses and cracker barrels and staying in hotels,it makes the trip a little longer and my little sis lives in DC so we get to visit family too.Can't imagine Florida any other way!

 

[Hoopfamily]

We fly because of distance. As far as what time we leave. We usually get a flight out as early as possible going to Disney and as late as possible coming home. This way we maximize our Disney time. I have to say on our first trip when I was 28 we stayed at my mothers house the night before as we were being picked up by airport shuttle service for a 7am flight and to this day they all think it's funny that our pickup time was 5:30 am and I had the bags for everyone on the curb at 4:15 and was looking up and down the street in anticipation.

 

[Native NYer]

We always fly from NYC. It's quick and easy for us.

 

[GingerJay]

Since we live in NC and have a family of five, it normally works out better for us to drive We like to drive overnight, stop once we get to FL and rest and hit the parks the next day!

 

[2girls4me]

We always fly from NYC. It's quick and easy for us.

same for us. I prefer 2 hours on a plane vs. 16+ hours in a car with my kids.

 

[Ed J]

We fly, we usually get a flight late enough for us to work that day and get in late. I'd rather wake up in a hotel than leave here early.

 

[Ksquared]

We used to fly. Then last year we decided to save money and drive down. After surviving that first driving experience and realizing it wasn't so bad, we're driving again for our next trip. Last year we left at 3:00 a.m. on the way down and about 1:30 a.m. on the return. This next trip we plan on leaving in the morning (maybe around 8 or 9) and then stopping in GA or top of FL and driving straight through on the way home....we'll see how it goes. We'd like to experiment leaving a few different times/driving straight through or stopping and see which works out best for us. As the kids get older I'm sure different things will end up working.

 

[buzz5985]

Variety is the spice of life!!! I am from MA and we have flown, driven, and may take the auto train next year, just for the experience!!! If we have a short trip planned - less than 7 days - we fly. Next summer we will be gone for 3 1/2 weeks - so we will drive to VA and take the auto train down to FL. We will visit Vero Beach for a week, WDW for a week and Hilton Head SC for a week, than meander our way north back to MA. I also want to stop at T.I.G.E.R.S. Preservation Station in Myrtle Beach. We recently saw a 900 pound Ligor at King Richards Fair in MA and would love to see more. Plus we would like to stop and visit with some cousins in Washington, DC and NYC. So, if we flew all the time - we would miss out on a lot of interesting people and attractions on the way!!! We always do something new.

When we drive we leave Boston between 2 am and 4 am. Our first stop is in NJ for gas. When we fly we leave on the cheapest flight - normally 6 am. When we drive home - doesn't really matter what time we leave WDW. When we fly - we will leave in the afternoon - so it's not so late for someone to pick us up at Logan.

 

[clkelley]

We pull a camper, so we mostly drive. However, we also like to do weekend warrior trips at the resorts. We used to fly quite often WHEN our airport and/or Nashville had a late flight on Friday night and a late flight on Sunday night.

All of those options are now gone. The ONLY direct flight out of our airport is around noon, and the latest flight out of nashville is 6something pm. Can't use that without taking off work early.

We always leave after work around 5pm. (Sometimes I can finagle a 2pm). Regardless we get South of Atlanta that evening, sometimes driving straight through to Orlando.