How much would you have to save to drive instead of fly?

[dvczerfs]

im sorry, I was just kidding.............. carry on.

 

[kaytieeldr]

geez, meals, aaa, all these calculations, times, flights, interstates.

Most of the things you list need to be calculated into the cost of driving to and from (but not during, that's an additional separate matter) a Walt Disney World vacation. AAA isn't one of those costs, it's a source of information. Most people simply aren't realistic about the cost of driving.

Please take your other, superfluous, non-transportation hot topics to the appropriate forums.

 

[dvczerfs]

Most of the things you list need to be calculated into the cost of driving to and from (but not during, that's an additional separate matter) a Walt Disney World vacation. AAA isn't one of those costs, it's a source of information. Most people simply aren't realistic about the cost of driving.

Please take your other, superfluous, non-transportation hot topics to the appropriate forums.

Lol

 

[Yellowstonetim]

geez, meals, aaa, all these calculations, times, flights, interstates.

how many of you take your kids out of school for these vacation?

do you use a stoller?

how bout them new drink cups coming!!!! now what????

is your son still using the womens room at 10 years old?


what else can we argue about?????

Your list is all wrong. You've overused the laughing man, you're off topic, and you ask WHAT ELSE CAN WE ARGUE ABOUT? We aren't arguing. You're wrong. No matter what you say, I'll never agree that we are arguing. I can prove with geometric logic that we are not arguing. So there.



BTW there is lots of info on routes and driving over at the 2,000+ miles only thread. Including an intrepid 2,900 mile one way driver.

 

[henry72]

I have to slightly disagree with this logic as well, despite loving flying over driving personally.

Time to get to airport may be up to an hour, depending on one's location (some people could be even further from the airport, though I would consider them to be outliers)

Getting at airport sufficient time before flight takes off: TSA recommends 90+ minutes for most domestic flights, depending on the airport.

Time to get off plane and collect luggage: 30 minutes maybe?

Time to get from MCO to WDW: about 30 minutes.

In other words, in addition the the duration of the flight, add another 3.5 hours. For myself (Boston area), that's a 3 hour flight, so door to door I'm looking at about 6-7 hours or so. In my case, this is still WAY better than driving in my opinion, but in the interest of trying to make fair and accurate comparisons...

The point I was making is that I can spend maybe 1/2 a day flying (this would include going to the airport and taking ME in FL) verses 16 hours in the car not to mention stopping for meals, bathroom breaks and a night at the hotel. So instead of 2 days worth of driving, I would rather be AT WDW enjoying the rides rather than fielding questions of "when are we going to be there?"

I am not only looking at the actual cost but what my time and that of my husband's time is worth. Look at what you could do with your time INSTEAD of driving. If I had my way, more time at WDW. If DH has his way, more time billing clients.

 

[nono]

I am not only looking at the actual cost but what my time and that of my husband's time is worth. Look at what you could do with your time INSTEAD of driving. If I had my way, more time at WDW. If DH has his way, more time billing clients.

I see what you mean. We're lucky that when one isn't driving, that individual can be billing while riding along! The privacy of the car is great for us in being able to work on items or talk with our clients...something I've never been comfortable doing in public places. So two of us always get billable hours in both coming and going in the car. Some of my best work's been done on I-95 in North Carolina. Love that state!

 

[nugov2]

I agree that if you are crunched for time I would fly. In our case I don't really work(just a few hours a week that I can easily get off) and dh gets 6 weeks of personal time off. By the end of the year we are usually coming up with things to do so he can be off even with the 2 weeks he always takes off at Christmas.

I agree if you have kids who are difficult to travel with I would probably force myself onto an airplane. Like I said if it is something you are considering I would give it a try and see. For us the kids were all great and it was a fun experience. We got a couple of days in Clearwater we probably wouldn't have done flying. Now when we try it next time, if it is awful, my dh would probably want to go back to flying.


I also want to add that I don't think saying I'd rather spend that time in WDW than driving is a valid point unless you are cutting into your actual WDW portion because of the driving. I would assume most would add the drive and extend the vacation. We were gone 11 days and planned 7 days in WDW and that is what we did. If we flew down we would have still only planned it so we were in WDW for 7 days not 11. The driving was just added fun so we could stop off in Clearwater and hit the beach extending our vacation for a couple of days.

Also we left at 7pm got into Clearwater at 3pm the next afternoon...ate, swam and zonked out by 8. We were up the next day at 8 and ready to go. We weren't too tried to do anything. If we flew and got in at 3pm we wouldn't have done the park or anything different anyway. Now I know not many will drive through from Chicago to Florida without stopping, but if you can you really aren't loosing much.

 

[Sydnoahmom]

It was a no-brainier for our family: we fly of course. Well, until 2 weeks ago when I lost my job. We are under no circumstances canceling our June 2014 trip, but are looking at costs right now. We have a Bliegreen Timeshare so we have to pay for lodging anyway, so we will stay at The Fountains(this was plan anyway). Right now I have abt $1800 on Disney Rewards so that will cover 6 day Hopper tix, with some left towards food.

The only cost we can play with really is transportation. I have no way to predict airfare for next June, so am just averaging flights right now. Out of Moline they are around $425pp/round trip and there are 4 of us. We will also need to rent a car. We figure how many gallons we need for roughly 3000 miles (we also go to Fort Myers for w/e to see family.) We add in oil change, extra food for trip and hotel stay. We figure abt a $500 savings to drive, but you also have to add extra travel days and I have no idea how many vacation days(if any) I will have at a new job (and I will have one

so my plan is to save $500 between now and June. I have cooked for 12 days in a row, no eating out that is a total record for our house! I am confident we will be flying, but if at all else fails, we will drive. Remember the destination

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I factor convenience into the total cost. Taking what I want, when I want, and how I want it in the back of my SUV is much different that loading mini liquids in see thru bags to be scanned while strangers grope me. The only place I want to take my shoes off is in the sand, not on pad at an airport where 5,000 others have stepped in bare feet the same morning.
It would have to save a TON of money for me to fly to Florida. We went in April and spent $153 total on fuel. Taking luggage costs that much just in fees to fly.

I guess it depends HOW you fly. Southwest allows 2 free bags pp. I could pack jumbo size shampoo bottles from BJ's if I felt I needed that much. No once forces me to carry on my toiletries. Our family of 4 usually takes 2-4 bags depending on if it's just a WDW trip or if there's a formal night/cruise too. That means we'd still have 4 more bags available for food, clothes, whatever we felt like, that we opt not to take.

FWIW, KY seems like halfway there from where we are. I could totally understand why anyone from southern states would find it easier to drive. For those of us in the NE, getting past DC is a huge waste of time unless I planned to drive at a time that I should be sleeping which will never happen.

I also want to add that I don't think saying I'd rather spend that time in WDW than driving is a valid point unless you are cutting into your actual WDW portion because of the driving. I would assume most would add the drive and extend the vacation. We were gone 11 days and planned 7 days in WDW and that is what we did. If we flew down we would have still only planned it so we were in WDW for 7 days not 11. The driving was just added fun so we could stop off in Clearwater and hit the beach extending our vacation for a couple of days.

From a flying perspective, the # of days we spend at WDW is the # of days we need off. To keep the same length of time at WDW, a driver would need to leave an additional day prior and would get home an additional day later. That's 2 additional days of vacation time taken but not spent at WDW. That's worth a LOT to me. Or if you want to compare total vacation time spent, a flyer would use the same # of days as a driver but end up with 2 additional days spent at WDW.

We don't have a set # of days in mind when we plan a trip. We simply see how long we can be off work/school (which is the limiting factor for us) and cram as much WDW into that time as possible. 40-50 hrs in the car would greatly reduce that amount of time.

Using your example, if we could get 11 days off, we'd have 11 days in WDW. If that was more than we wanted to spend and we really only wanted 7 days in WDW, we wouldn't be taking 11 days off. We would only take 7. There are never wasted days not spent in WDW.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

It was a no-brainier for our family: we fly of course. Well, until 2 weeks ago when I lost my job. We are under no circumstances canceling our June 2014 trip, but are looking at costs right now. We have a Bliegreen Timeshare so we have to pay for lodging anyway, so we will stay at The Fountains(this was plan anyway). Right now I have abt $1800 on Disney Rewards so that will cover 6 day Hopper tix, with some left towards food.

The only cost we can play with really is transportation. I have no way to predict airfare for next June, so am just averaging flights right now. Out of Moline they are around $425pp/round trip and there are 4 of us. We will also need to rent a car. We figure how many gallons we need for roughly 3000 miles (we also go to Fort Myers for w/e to see family.) We add in oil change, extra food for trip and hotel stay. We figure abt a $500 savings to drive, but you also have to add extra travel days and I have no idea how many vacation days(if any) I will have at a new job (and I will have one

so my plan is to save $500 between now and June. I have cooked for 12 days in a row, no eating out that is a total record for our house! I am confident we will be flying, but if at all else fails, we will drive. Remember the destination

You can do it!! Except for a few pizzas each month, we almost never go out to dinner. We cruise 2-3x per year so I consider dinner on the ship my dinners out. I also pack my lunch every day while watching my coworkers spend close to $10/day for lunch.
It's all a matter of priorities.

 

[joedplumber]

Using your example, if we could get 11 days off, we'd have 11 days in WDW. If that was more than we wanted to spend and we really only wanted 7 days in WDW, we wouldn't be taking 11 days off. We would only take 7. There are never wasted days not spent in WDW.

I think the days used is a family by family thing. For example, if you have 2 parents that are school teachers than driving days make no difference in terms of vacation days used.

Also, some people view the driving portion as a waste of time while others view it as part of the family vacation.

For us, me and my DW get 4 weeks off each year and usually end up carrying a few unused days to the next year so taking extra days off for the drive is no big deal. Are motto is a day on the road with the family is better than a day in the office!

Now I know we could spend those extra 2 days of driving in Disney but 9 days of Disney is what our budget allows so we tack on 2 days of driving to the 9 days.

However, if flying was cheaper then flying we would do.

 

[rt2dz]

We've been waiting for flights to drop below $330 pp from northern Ohio to Orlando and it just hasn't happened yet. With our trip in three months we are considering driving down with our two kids on our first Family road trip. It should save us close to $600-700. Would that be enough for you to endure a 17 hour drive each way?

I haven't read all the replies, so I may be repeating. We almost always drive. We are a family of 6, I have one on the spectrum, and most of the time flights are $300-$400 per person--and that is before I also add on airport parking costs. Even though (without stops) its 15-16 hours, it is soooo worth it. You should check out www.travelmath.com. It will factor in costs and time to see if it is worth it. Really cool site.

My kids are all great riders. We road trip other paces too. We have a 22 hour trip coming up elsewhere in just a couple of hours. Most the luggage goes up top. We keep a bag for overnight and/or emergencies in the car, each passenger has a travel pillow and blanket, each kid packs a bag for activities (iPads, books, headphones, etc), we switch off driving and we stop to stretch every 3-4 hours. That last part is the most important. Sometimes we stop overnight, sometimes not. It depends on what time we leave. One big rule I stick to is to make the car ride a good time and not just make good time. The road trip is part of the trip.

ETA: our trips are usually 10 days I. Disney. If going for a long weekend, it would be flying, but we don't go for a long weekend as a family. It would be a Mom/Dad and me trip or a grown ups getaway. Which, of course, changes the savings dramatically.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[sam_gordon]

To me, the bottom line isn't cost, it's time (as most of those who prefer to fly say). No, maybe you don't use the 'extra' time at Disney, but for us, that's less vacation time to take.

If we fly to Disney...
45 minute drive to airport
1:15 at departure airport
1:15 flight to ATL (usually)
1:30 layover
1:15 flight to MCO
1:30 to get to Disney

So that's 7.5 hours (roughly) door to door, compared to a 14 hour drive.

 

[nugov2]

I think the days used is a family by family thing. For example, if you have 2 parents that are school teachers than driving days make no difference in terms of vacation days used.

Also, some people view the driving portion as a waste of time while others view it as part of the family vacation.

For us, me and my DW get 4 weeks off each year and usually end up carrying a few unused days to the next year so taking extra days off for the drive is no big deal. Are motto is a day on the road with the family is better than a day in the office!

Now I know we could spend those extra 2 days of driving in Disney but 9 days of Disney is what our budget allows so we tack on 2 days of driving to the 9 days.

However, if flying was cheaper then flying we would do.

Exactly my point. That theory wouldn't apply to my family. It isn't how many days we can take, but how many we wanted to spend there. My dh gets 30 days off a year...we won't spend 30 days in WDW. So we picked how many days we wanted to actually be in WDW...added a couple of days for Clearwater and then a couple of days to drive. Giving us our total vacation days. Now I know my dh is lucky. most people in the business world do not get that many days off, but his company provides really good benefits. If he only had 15 or 20 days we would maybe be more frugal with using them.

I like many others considered the driving part of the vacation. It was fun. Everybody was happy. So for us our time was used in a valuable way. Again, that is something that will vary by family. If you kids don't travel well and are miserable than the time wasn't spent wisely.

 

[NotUrsula]

I think the days used is a family by family thing. For example, if you have 2 parents that are school teachers than driving days make no difference in terms of vacation days used.

Also, some people view the driving portion as a waste of time while others view it as part of the family vacation.

For us, me and my DW get 4 weeks off each year and usually end up carrying a few unused days to the next year so taking extra days off for the drive is no big deal. Are motto is a day on the road with the family is better than a day in the office!

Now I know we could spend those extra 2 days of driving in Disney but 9 days of Disney is what our budget allows so we tack on 2 days of driving to the 9 days.

However, if flying was cheaper then flying we would do.

We never look at how many days we can spend in the parks when we look at our budget limits; we look at how many days DH can afford to be away, and count from there, because a day at WDW doesn't come close to costing as much as the two of us would lose in income in a day not working.

DH also is not really fond of driving, but has to do it quite often for work-related reasons, so he doesn't want to deal with drives much over an hour on vacations. His limit for road trips replacing air trips is around 4 hours o/w -- and in our case, Orlando would require 15 hours o/w. Toss away at least 25 hours of useable billing time to save maybe $700 dollars in airfare, all the while doing something he hates? Never worth it to him.

 

[cluvsdisney]

I would basically need to be paid to drive to WDW. I don't really enjoy road trips and after about 5-6 hours in the car, I am miserable and by extension, miserable to be with so a 16 hour drive for a vacation is out.

 

[nugov2]

I notice people using there time as a factor...like I could be making x amount of dollars. Do you not get paid for your days off? If you do then I don't see why it would matter.

 

[Allison]

I notice people using there time as a factor...like I could be making x amount of dollars. Do you not get paid for your days off? If you do then I don't see why it would matter.

Well, no, my spouse doesn't and my days off paid aren't unlimited so it matters a lot.

 

[sam_gordon]

I notice people using there time as a factor...like I could be making x amount of dollars. Do you not get paid for your days off? If you do then I don't see why it would matter.

As Allison mentioned, I have a limited number of vacation days. I'd rather not use two of them simply driving.

 

[joedplumber]

If you don't get paid for your days off or you use all your vacations days in a given year then I would factor in the days needed to drive.

If you get paid for vacation days and whether you drive or not doesn't impact all of your vacation days in a year then I say don't factor it.

Just my thought on it.