How much for Gas?

[son3disfan]

We have done both, and I absolutely love to drive. When we flew out of Buffalo , we were delayed at the border over an hour, had to park and fly ( and with 3 small children and 6 pieces of luggage including a car seat... not fun! ) then it took hours to get through check in , security (shoes off ,open bags etc.) and finally to our gate, only to find that our plane was being de-iced... (It's Buffalo... It happens all the time!). Delayed again in the airport. Then to be shuttled to get our car.. very stressful.. .So it did take less time to fly but definately not less stressful. I think it really depends on each Family and what you can tolerate. My kids watch movies , play game boys, colour and draw and enjoy the ride. We do drive right through and my DH and I take 3 hour shifts through the night. The kids sleep so well in the car. We have picnic lunches and stop for breakfast. I think it great quality time with all of us together. Not for everyone but it woks for us.

 

[CharlesTD]

We have done both, and I absolutely love to drive. When we flew out of Buffalo , we were delayed at the border over an hour, had to park and fly ( and with 3 small children and 6 pieces of luggage including a car seat... not fun! ) then it took hours to get through check in , security (shoes off ,open bags etc.) and finally to our gate, only to find that our plane was being de-iced... (It's Buffalo... It happens all the time!). Delayed again in the airport. Then to be shuttled to get our car.. very stressful.. .So it did take less time to fly but definately not less stressful. I think it really depends on each Family and what you can tolerate. My kids watch movies , play game boys, colour and draw and enjoy the ride. We do drive right through and my DH and I take 3 hour shifts through the night. The kids sleep so well in the car. We have picnic lunches and stop for breakfast. I think it great quality time with all of us together. Not for everyone but it woks for us.

Sounds like our family minus the movies though. But I agree it is great mind you I do the entire night drive as DW doesn't like to drive at night especially in the US. We love the drive and so do the kids and just can't justify the price of flying when we have so much fun and save so much money by driving.

 

[son3disfan]

Do you have the Dave Hunter book...( I was a little nervous to drive through the states at night too )... It really helped to know where the cops like to hang out, where the coffee stops and "not so scary" gas stations are, and mile per mile pages to show what's next including constuction. It's a wealth of info... so much to actually go through ... .It's so much better then the Trip tic maps from CAA.I know if you don't want to buy one you can rent them from the Library. It's great to have! CAA sells them as well as any book store.

 

[digskat]

Sounds like our family minus the movies though. But I agree it is great mind you I do the entire night drive as DW doesn't like to drive at night especially in the US. We love the drive and so do the kids and just can't justify the price of flying when we have so much fun and save so much money by driving.

Totally agree Charles re cost of flying vs cost of driving. We find the drive half the fun. Dave does all the driving, I am nervous about driving on busier roads, and he doesn,t mind driving at all. I may try speling him off this year, through the quieter states. We don't drive all night though, we found this too tuff the first year. We found getting up real earlier and getting on the road worked out better. You can get at least 4 trips driving in what you'd pay for one trip flying.

 

[CharlesTD]

Totally agree Charles re cost of flying vs cost of driving. We find the drive half the fun. Dave does all the driving, I am nervous about driving on busier roads, and he doesn,t mind driving at all. I may try speling him off this year, through the quieter states. We don't drive all night though, we found this too tuff the first year. We found getting up real earlier and getting on the road worked out better. You can get at least 4 trips driving in what you'd pay for one trip flying.

So true on the driving over flying and the number of trips driving as per flying. If you fly from Canada driving down you can make about 8 trips in comparison to the flying. We like to leave after dinner on the Friday night and I drive straight through till the Georgia welcome centre the kids have slept all night and we wake them up for breakfast the electric cooler is priceless for things like milk and juiceboxes etc for the drive down and back. We love the drive and it makes the entire trip more enjoyable for our family.

 

[WDW1st-timers]

We went last September when they just finished having the hurricane and there was a shortage of gas in the States and everyone jumped up their prices big time. Anyways we drove from the Windsor area down to Disney and then left disney and drove to Tampa Bay and Treasure Island and then home. It cost us $290.00 US and that was driving a 2000 mini van with it fully loaded with stuff ( 3 cases of water, 5 suit cases, 2 cases of pop, etc...all that full stuff) and 4 people in it. I consider that to be an excellent pirce to pay rather than flying for $800.00 to a $1000.00 for the four of us.

 

[son3disfan]

We went last September when they just finished having the hurricane and there was a shortage of gas in the States and everyone jumped up their prices big time. Anyways we drove from the Windsor area down to Disney and then left disney and drove to Tampa Bay and Treasure Island and then home. It cost us $290.00 US and that was driving a 2000 mini van with it fully loaded with stuff ( 3 cases of water, 5 suit cases, 2 cases of pop, etc...all that full stuff) and 4 people in it. I consider that to be an excellent pirce to pay rather than flying for $800.00 to a $1000.00 for the four of us.

That sounds just like us... A week in Disney , a week in Tampa area.. about $400 Canadian -all driving included ( we are 3 hours from the Detroit border), What is that -about $325 American? We drove to Clearwater beach every day of our second week.

 

[digskat]

So true on the driving over flying and the number of trips driving as per flying. If you fly from Canada driving down you can make about 8 trips in comparison to the flying. We like to leave after dinner on the Friday night and I drive straight through till the Georgia welcome centre the kids have slept all night and we wake them up for breakfast the electric cooler is priceless for things like milk and juiceboxes etc for the drive down and back. We love the drive and it makes the entire trip more enjoyable for our family.

We have an electric cooler, but it takes up so much room in the SVU now to be beneficial, I wish though. We love te drive also. So if you leave after dinner on the Friday what time do you arrive in Orlando? We stopped in Dalton GA this past October, which I did not think was too bad.Take care Kathy

 

[pkitty]

We love to drive and incorporate the drive (down anyways) into our vacation, where else can I get a trip for three return for under 500.00 dollars, canadian, thats wear and tear, food and gas, and hotels there and back. WOW.

We love the drive down but as always the trip back in sobering, but I guess its great to know I didn't have to pay alot to fly the three of us down, My DW and I also are fortunate to have alot of vacation days each year to burn and still we end up carring some days over.
To fly down I would say in our case it takes 1.5 hours to the airport the flying still takes 3 hours sitting at the airport,the flight is 3 hours and one hour picking up and dropping off your rental and 1/2 hour to hour to your resort.

total = 8 hours each way. return 16 hours and about $ 2200.00 cnd. taxes and snacks included.

 

[CharlesTD]

We have an electric cooler, but it takes up so much room in the SVU now to be beneficial, I wish though. We love te drive also. So if you leave after dinner on the Friday what time do you arrive in Orlando? We stopped in Dalton GA this past October, which I did not think was too bad.Take care Kathy

The cooler goes in teh back of the van and we bought a rooftop cargo box for when DW takes the kids camping and when we drive to WDW that way we don't have the inside of the vehicle cluttered with luggage etc. What we usually do is drive it in 2 days we will stop at the bottom of Georgia we try to make it to Valdosta by 3 PM or so and we will stop down in that area. We are planning to drive into Florida this time around as it just makes it even closer for the second day LOL. We arrive teh next day around noon or so depending on how long we stop at the Florida welcome centre for. We used to wander around there for a good hour or more but now they have renovated it and it just isn't as interesting as it used to be. Don't get me wrong we love the new look but teh old one had so may memories and so much charm for our family. We used to get a family pic at the small Welcome to Florida sign that was around the back on the left side of the building now it is a huge sign out front. Oh well new memories to be made in the furute but yes to answer the question we try to arrive at WDW by lunch time or there abouts we always leave the hotel by 8:30 AM we always try to choose a hotel that has a free breaky in the AM just easier that way. We also go to roomsavers.com and print off a coupon for all the hotels in the area and have never paid more than 40 bucks for a room. We have also done the straight through drive on the way down and we arrive shortly after 4 or 5 PM usually that way we get checked in at teh resort go for a swim have a meal DVC is great we just cook it in the room then everyone gets a good night sleep and we are all ready to go the next day.