We had planned to rent a van and drive down for October trip (when oldest DD was old enough to have her own car and I wasn't hauling three kids with me all the time, I stopped driving a van and got a Jeep - which won't work for long trips), but had to change trip to the week of Christmas. The van rental that was going to be around $300 in October will be over $1000 the week of Christmas!!!
So...I checked flights. $1300 for five of us to fly. If I had been smart enough to book it earlier, it would have been a lot less (more like $900).
When you figure in $1000 for van rental (unless they come out with a code but I doubt it since it's the week of Christmas), plus gas, plus a night in a hotel on the way down and a night in a hotel on the way back, plus food for five on the road for two days down and two days back, plus the exhaustion of driving such a long distance...it just doesn't make sense to drive.
I think we will probably get a rental car at MCO, just a compact car (we would need a van for driving that distance with five of us, but just running around Orlando and DW we can live with a compact for six days, I think), and that will be about $300. So yes, we'd still come out ahead if we drove but not that much ahead, plus when you figure the aggravation of driving for two days with three grouchy kids, a few hundred dollars doesn't seem like that much!
So...I checked flights. $1300 for five of us to fly. If I had been smart enough to book it earlier, it would have been a lot less (more like $900).
When you figure in $1000 for van rental (unless they come out with a code but I doubt it since it's the week of Christmas), plus gas, plus a night in a hotel on the way down and a night in a hotel on the way back, plus food for five on the road for two days down and two days back, plus the exhaustion of driving such a long distance...it just doesn't make sense to drive.
I think we will probably get a rental car at MCO, just a compact car (we would need a van for driving that distance with five of us, but just running around Orlando and DW we can live with a compact for six days, I think), and that will be about $300. So yes, we'd still come out ahead if we drove but not that much ahead, plus when you figure the aggravation of driving for two days with three grouchy kids, a few hundred dollars doesn't seem like that much!
