Jan and Feb Travellers by Air - What's your backup plan?

[Sunday]

Just got the cold sweats after seeing all of the news of airport closures (I'm up in Toronto) and was wondering if you have a backup plan if you can't get out on your booked flight?

Would you wait it out? Grab the car and just start driving?

ETA: I would just start driving. I estimate it would take about 24 hours of solid driving, so we'd miss our first half day at the park for sure. And likely be too tired to do anything but the pool the next day. Regardless, we'd get there!

 

[DisneyFirstTimer10]

Ugh- I have no clue- That's our biggest fear.

We leave Feb 2 from Cleveland Ohio where we are used to getting lots of snow- I am hoping and praying that we are snow storm free the day we leave!

 

[AL_Girl]

We leave out Jan 21...We are in AL so I don't have a back up plan. I don't think we will need one...but we had snow on Christmas and the day after too...? I have no idea what we would do.

 

[mimmi]

No back up plan here. Last week we had the greatest weather chaos in western Europe I can remember, some people even had to spend christmas at the affected airports. If this happens again, we will be stuck in Frankfurt , I'd take the train back to Vienna and be horribly sad...

 

[PSUGuy]

Here's a discussion on the Transportation board that, fortunately, I've never had to use.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1363416

Bill Fom PA

 

[ancestry]

We don't have a backup plan. Driving isn't an option as it would be well over a 24 hour drive for us in the best of weather. I could only imagine what it would be like in bad weather.

This January trip is a short trip. If we can't get out on the day we are scheduled to leave we most likely would postpone the entire trip.

The challenge that we face is that is that we are booked are two different airlines -- one on the way down and one on the way back.

 

[DisneyFirstTimer10]

Thanks Bill!

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

We live in the arctic so we can only fly out but we leave 2 days early to Ottawa and then fly direct to Orlando. We always want to leave a couple of days early to allow or weather delays. But you will hear me sobbing from Orlando if we don't get out of here on the 30th. : So hopefully we'll be alright.

 

[mkoerner]

Our back up plan is we will not be going to Disney during Jan, Feb, or March anymore. We had the airline mess last Presidents' weekend during a blizzard, and for me the stress was just too much. We never left home, luckily, and got a much better deal with our rebook. When Airtran cancelled our flight, we got our money back no problem. When I called Disney to tell them we weren't coming and why, they were wonderful. We ended up rebooking for August with 1 more person, 3 days longer, and upgraded our resort for less than we paid for the original holiday weekend! The gentleman gave us an awsome discount because he felt so sorry for us. And we got 4 tix on Jetblue for less than Airtran because it wasn't a holiday anymore. Everything worked out, but the stress was not worth trying winter again.

 

[hallie615]

No back up plan, and it is one of my fears that my flight gets cancelled. Only going for a long weekend, so driving is out of the question. If my flight got postponed till the next day I would still go (that was the day I was originally going) more than that I would end up cancelling

 

[MIGrandma]

As of right now we have no back-up plan. We always fly out a day early, so even if we were forced to wait until the next day we still wouldn't miss out, but any more than a day and it would be using up our Disney vacation time. We will also be going on a Royal Caribbean cruise a few days after our Disney vacation, so if Michigan were to get a terrible storm like the east coast is having right now with planes delayed for days, we would probably just drive. We are not "drive straight through" people, as it takes 24 hours. But we would do it in 2 days, so the Disney portion of our trip would be a bust. Thankfully, we did take out trip insurance.

But I'm keeping my fingers crossed we have no snow storms to deal with and everything goes off as planned.

 

[Karlzmom]

No backup option, as the drive from the left coast would be nearly 40 hours! So, we made sure to book a non-stop from LAX to MCO, figured as long as we can take off, we'll be ok. I was bummed to not be able to fly Jetblue, but there was no way I was going to try to change planes in NY or Boston in Feb! Way too much risk of weather issues...

 

[skater]

This happened to my DH and I last Feb. Our flight was cancelled 2 days before departure due to one storm and an even bigger one was forecast! My wonderful husband agreed to drive us down (16 hours) and we had a blast though it was cold in FL. At least there was no snow .

In order to go, we had to shovel our huge driveway by hand (my DH, me and my son and DD). It took all day. We also had to drive on roads I never would have tackled if it weren't for the lure of Disney . And on the way home, we drove though a southern snow storm .

This Feb. my DD are going down and I have no back-up plan. I'm just praying hard .

 

[JDietz40]

It's the magic of Disney you won't need a backup plan just some Pixie dust.

We leave from Chicago 1/7 and our backup plan is prayer and pixie dust.

DW and I had to cancel our November trip to Hawaii Due to a family illness and I think we both will be devastated if we can get to WDW. Getting stuck in Orlando somehow does not sound as bad though.

 

[LuvLDM]

We have a nonstop flight from Phoenix to Orlando, no back-up plan to speak of.

 

[UK Princess]

erm coming from the UK so no options really!

Our airports had a total crisis before Christmas but things are thawing out at the moment and the weather forecast for the week is rain so we should be ok to get our flight on Sunday.

Now if there is a problem with getting home I won't be in any rush to get a flight!!!

 

[AlixaLock]

No backup plan, per say, because, what can ya do? But, we will keep a close eye and if we need to try and get out early ahead of a storm, we'll do that.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

We would drive but are in a way different situation that you. For us its about 10-12 hours depending on traffic. We almost got grounded on our flight out to Orlando last year but some de-icing time and we ended up only being a little bit later in the evening. The return flight from Orlando had same issues, very rare for Florida. When we landed at home they practically shoved us off the plan and turned it right around and took off back to Orlando before more ice/snow hit. They cancelled the return flight that day. At the time our airport only offered 2 direct to MCO flights a week so those cancelled would have had to wait 4 more days for another flight.

 

[Nutty4Disney]

No back up plan. We have a direct flight so unless the plan doesn't arrive the night before or it is really bad in Ohio we should be ok. With my Mom in a wheelchair and my grandson's first time flying I don't even want to think about cancellations/delays. If I have to stay in Orlando an extra day oh well. Just find me a room somewhere and let me know when I have to leave.

 

[selina4disney]

Our back up plan is just that if a storm is coming we'll go to Minneapolis the night before we leave. We live 90 miles from the airport so a big storm could keep us from getting to the airport on time even if the flights are going out. Our flight out is at 6 am, which means we have to leave home in the very wee hours anyway so leaving the night before and getting some sleep before heading to the airport is OK with us anyway. If our flight can't leave at 6 am as scheduled, we'll be there when it does.