Is Driving worth the trip?

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Also factor in the wear and tear on your car. How tired the driver will be and what if you get caught in a snow storm or heavy rains that slow you down. And the cost of a hotel both going down and coming home if you plan to stop. That's a lot of vacation time spent in a car. If I could not find good fares at my home airport then I would search for one along the way. Is Baltimore too far for you? They often have good fares to MCO or try flying into Tampa. The drive from MCO to WDW is 35 minutes. THe drive from Tampa to WDW is 1hr 20 minutes.. So it would only be an extra 40 minute drive to Tampa. And the Tampa airport is SO much calmer than MCO. We can turn in our rental car, check our bags and be throught security all with in 20-25 minutes!

 

[North of Mouse]

I realize that I am asking a crowd that will likely say yes to Disney being worth it no matter if we had to walk, but I am asking anyway, and hoping for some folks to chime in who have done it. We live in Maine and have flown the last 3 years for Presidents Week. Flights are prohibitively expensive this year. We are a family of five, so it really adds up quickly. We are entertaining the thought of driving, but are limited by our school vacation time, so it would need to happen between a Friday evening, and returning at a reasonable hour the following Sunday in order to be prepared for real life again. When I do the math, I am torn about it being worth it. I really want to go to Disney this year (my last chance with a 2 year old, and 9 year old), but I don't want to feel it was torture to get there for 5 packed park days. (Our favorite day last year was a day we took very slow. Not so sure I will slow down if we only have 5 days). Our kids are good car travelers, but the longest trip we have ever taken is to Philly. Thanks for advice!

Yes, we would drive that far - BUT not in that time frame! No way! Two days minimum down, same back - you would definitely need another vacation to get over it! To drive it straight - madness, IMO, so even worse. Don't chance being a 'statistic' like some that do it!

 

[richmo]

There's a lot of ways of looking at this and $$$ is only part of it.

Maine is a long way from Disney and as I'm sure you're aware, you have to time your trip carefully to avoid hitting the large east coast cities at rush hour.

To me what you have to consider is time. Realistically, you're looking at two days each way, minimum. If you have plenty of vacation time, that may not be an issue. But, if you have a fixed amount of vacation time (like I do) the four days of travel would either shorten my Disney time by 2+ days or require me to take at least two more vacation days. Vacation days are a valuable commodity that can be difficult to quantify in dollars.

Personally, I've almost always chosen to fly so that I can maximize my Disney time and minimize the number of vacation days required. I totally understand that airfares can be rough, especially once you start multiplying by several people. It's always a tough call...

 

[PlutoPony]

It is a 22 hour drive without weather being an issue, and there is always weather somewhere at that time of year! (Part of the stress of flying is always seeing if we will make it out. We have been lucky so far!) Back to dreaming!

If you are stressed about weather with flying, you will probably be even more so driving. It's not just the airport but the whole east coast that you will have to be concerned with. Think seriously about how stressed that would make you in February......it's something that would seriously bother me driving from Maine but certainly YMMV.

 

[tigerbelly]

We are also from Maine and run into the same issues. It is definitely a FULL day of travel to fly. By the time you get up drive to Portland/Boston and wait and then take 1 or 2 flights it totally eats up a whole day. If I lived within 10 hours of Disney I would probably consider driving. But 24 hours of driving is SO LONG! Even broken up between 2 days.

Have you crunched the numbers yet? Gas both ways, extra food for 4 days of travel plus 2 extra hotel stays. And wear and tear on the vehicle too...... It doesn't seem worth it to me. I know that your trip dates aren't very flexible with school vacation......but we like to go either at the end of summer or October and have flown our family of 4 for under $1000 total twice in those time periods. I don't think we could drive for that, especially with the cost of our time (husby is self employed so no paid vacation)

It's a tough decision and one of the downsides to living so far north!

 

[JessM]

Not sure where in Maine you are from but did you check all of the surrounding airports? If you're in Southern Maine the trip down to Providence isn't too bad so you could check prices there too. Did you try Manchester? NH is off the week after President's week so maybe that would help. Or try Allegiant out of Portsmouth? They fly to Sanford 2 days a week.

I wouldn't do the drive in Feb, you'll be exhausted and that's so much time wasted. 10-16 hour drives are one thing but 22-24 is a whole different animal.

 

[hsmamato2]

I will say there's a huge difference between a 12 hour trip and a longer trip...those posters who drive 9, 10, 12 hours with no problem might think differently with a 20+ hour drive.

In your case, personally the drive would not be worth it to me for just 5 days in Disneyworld.

This. there is a world of difference when you get up past 20+ hours with young kids.... it will take you 2 full days basically,since you will need an overnight each way.... I would wait and try for another date when you can either drive and stay longer, or fly. Another option might be to rent a car and drive down, then maybe get a flight home to ease the timing? I personally wouldn't do it with your situation.

 

[msb578]

If you're going in August, I think flying would be a better alternative. It will give you 2 extra days actually in Florida and trust me you will need it. Crowd volume in the Parks is high/extreme so days at the parks tend to be long and not nearly as productive as when you go in the quieter seasons.

A note the the OP: similar is true about park crowds during spring break periods (very/extremely busy). Spending the extra money on the airfare may seem like a lot, but will 2 extra days in Florida and a more leisurely pace on your vacation balance out that equation somewhat. As I get older, I find that sometimes my time is more valuable than the money.
Here's a small scale example: have you ever just popped down to the corner store to buy a gallon of milk because it wasn't worth the time and effort to drive the 15 minutes down to the supermarket to save 50 cents on the milk??
Same idea with the vacation, just the numbers are much larger.
Is it worth spending the extra $$$ to have 2 whole extra days of vacation time?
Will 50-60 hours of driving (round trip) sour the enjoyment of 5 rushed days of vacation?
just my $0.02

Regarding August- crowds at the beginning of the month are much higher than the end of the month. Late August is not a peak time.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Since you enjoyed your leisure day so much why not plan two relaxing days? I personally would not do it as we are not good long distance drivers. But if you can handle the drive just relax for two days and do the parks 3 days. Or go to the parks 5 shorter days. With fast pass + it's easy to do.

 

[canadiankim]

If you're going in August, I think flying would be a better alternative. It will give you 2 extra days actually in Florida and trust me you will need it. Crowd volume in the Parks is high/extreme so days at the parks tend to be long and not nearly as productive as when you go in the quieter seasons.

A note the the OP: similar is true about park crowds during spring break periods (very/extremely busy). Spending the extra money on the airfare may seem like a lot, but will 2 extra days in Florida and a more leisurely pace on your vacation balance out that equation somewhat. As I get older, I find that sometimes my time is more valuable than the money.
Here's a small scale example: have you ever just popped down to the corner store to buy a gallon of milk because it wasn't worth the time and effort to drive the 15 minutes down to the supermarket to save 50 cents on the milk??
Same idea with the vacation, just the numbers are much larger.
Is it worth spending the extra $$$ to have 2 whole extra days of vacation time?
Will 50-60 hours of driving (round trip) sour the enjoyment of 5 rushed days of vacation?
just my $0.02

Totally agree, we have been to WDW & US on numerous occasions and next year we are having more of a vacation than a WDW tour. We live in Canada and our very good friends from England are travelling over and we are meeting them there. We are going for 11 days of relaxing with the only thing we have booked is Discovery Cove, which also gives us the days at SeaWorld. I think we have decided to fly, I have no problem doing the drive there but really can't face the idea of 22-24 hours driving home.

 

[wannaheadsouth]

We're only 11 hours away, but due to some health issues we fly. This time I used points for one ticket, bought one, and a companion pass for the other. Flying for less than $400.00. So i can spend 8 hours total and $400.00 or 22 hours and at least $300.00. Flying wins every time regardless of the other issues.

 

[maxiesmom]

I think that is too much driving for such a short time in the parks. I would have a 20+ hour drive from my house, and as much as I love Disney World, the idea of 4 days in the car to get 5 days in the parks makes me shudder.

The drive home would be torture. You would be exhausted to begin with.

Have you checked flying into Tampa or Sanford? It can be much cheaper. I would do that, or maybe rent a car one way and fly the other, before I would drive both ways. I'd even stay off site and eat most of my meals outside of the parks (or pack in a lunch) to save money on the trip to make flying more affordable.

 

[PSUGuy]

We've flown from Pa to MCO for Disney trips 15 times since 1999. This March we planned to go to Myrtle Beach for golf and Savannah for sight seeing but a week out the extended forecast showed Winter like temps in both places so we booked a quick 5 day WDW vacation. We had already paid for a room in Fayetteville NC and airfare was out of sight so we drove. We lost 2 days each, going and coming, with a flight we'd have done 7 days. Disney saved our March excursion, we refuse to travel 700+ miles in late winter only to wear hats and mittens, but we'll never drive form Pa to Fl unless we become Snow Birds some day. We've decided to drop March vacations altogether since similar weather plagued our plans the year before. Any drive of over 10 hrs, we're flying.

Bill From PA

 

[bafleyanne]

We are in DE. We've flown a few times and driven twice now (the past 2 years). I find that I vastly prefer driving. No baggage restrictions, stop when you want, easier on the kids because they can get out and run around, etc. we had a 13 and a 3 year old this year. Now that said, I'm not sure I would want to drive for a shorter trip. This last time we took two days to come down, parks for 8 days, cruise for 4, and 2 days back. It didn't feel rushed at all. We tried driving straight through last year and we were miserable by the time we got to Orlando. This year we left around 3 am, missed all the major cities rush times, drove all the way to Savannah the first day and then had an easy 4 hour drive or so the second day. It was very nice.

 

[Mainemama]

And the decision is ... Fly! Thanks to all... We have no flexibility with dates, as DH and I are both educators. We can't contractually miss days abutting vacations. Sure, we could go in summer (and this year we did , but we really love the warm break from winter. To a pp... There is nowhere warm within about 20 hours of driving to where we live in February! The input that 4 days drive versus 5 days vacation led us to find a creative flight combo that fit our budget! It was tricky to book, but we ended up doing 4 separate legs. February flights have always been one stop for us, so it works. We go through DCA, overnighting near the airport. We end up arriving early, leaving late, giving us 7 disney days, and still have a day and a half to recover at the end! The cost of adding the hotel stay was not much when you think of it divided by 5 tickets (and compare to other flights costing 100 more per person). We used points on two legs, too, so that helped. Thanks again for all your advice. We may try driving someday, as part of a longer vacation.

 

[kirstenb1]

You didn't say exactly where in Maine you are coming from but anywhere in the state is going to give you a 1500+ mile trip, a full 22-24 hours of driving (posible longer depending on the number of meal and potty stops that are needed). That's a couple of grueling days driving on the way down and the same back and 5 days at the parks in between.
YOU ARE GOING TO NEED A VACATION FROM THE VACATION!

If everything goes perfectly for you ie: no roadwork delays, no storms, no rainy Park days, no one gets ill or just has a cranky day, then it's definitely do-able.
Will it be an enjoyable experience for all, this could be an altogether different story.

The DW and I did something similar in our younger (and more foolish days) before kids. Drove down from Minneapolis straight through to WDW (1550 miles), left Friday after work and arrived Saturday just after midnight. Slept away most of Sunday and then spent 5 days park hopping. Paced our driving a little better on the way back and took 2 days to get home.
Took the whole next week at work to get over the vacation!
I can only imagine the fun this would have been with young children along.
Our first trip to the World with the kids involved flying and lots of leisure time between park visits.

Totally agree with this. I'd wait and drive down in the summer when the kids are out of school. Then you can stay as long as your budget permits.

 

[Pembo]

And the decision is ... Fly! Thanks to all... We have no flexibility with dates, as DH and I are both educators. We can't contractually miss days abutting vacations. Sure, we could go in summer (and this year we did , but we really love the warm break from winter. To a pp... There is nowhere warm within about 20 hours of driving to where we live in February! The input that 4 days drive versus 5 days vacation led us to find a creative flight combo that fit our budget! It was tricky to book, but we ended up doing 4 separate legs. February flights have always been one stop for us, so it works. We go through DCA, overnighting near the airport. We end up arriving early, leaving late, giving us 7 disney days, and still have a day and a half to recover at the end! The cost of adding the hotel stay was not much when you think of it divided by 5 tickets (and compare to other flights costing 100 more per person). We used points on two legs, too, so that helped. Thanks again for all your advice. We may try driving someday, as part of a longer vacation.

I just found your thread! And I am glad to see this post! We are in Ohio, 17 hours. We have driven and flown. For us, if we don't have at least 10 days, we don't drive. Enjoy your trip.