Never thought I'd be debating drive vs fly

[mickeyluv'r]

Driving is not an option from the west coast to WDW (especially the Northwest). But having done the drive down the coast to LA (DL)... it works alright for larger groups BUT....

It is about 18-20 hours of driving each way.
You need to pay for gas, which assuming 30mpg, 1200 miles, which is 40 gallons each way. Budget for $3.75/gallon, so $150 each way in gas.
Add a hotel room for a night (unless you have multiple drivers), call it $150
Then add food for 2 days for X people. Call it $40/day/person (on a budget)

So for taking up 4 days of vacation time (both ways), costing $300 in GAS, $150 for a hotel, and $160/person for food....
Round trip flight from Seattle to LAX is 2 hours, and costs about $200.

It takes a lot of people, and driving non-stop (avoiding hotel and some food costs), to make it cost effective to drive (unless you have other stops to make along the way).


For reference purposes, Columbus, OH to Disney World is just under 1000 miles.

Technically, driving is an option from the west coast, just not a speedy one.

Second, I tend to factor food costs differently than you do. We eat food every day no matter where we are. Food at WDW prices costs more than at home, but road trip food can be fairly close to what we spend at home.

On my last long road trip, we actually brought a cooler bag, with lunch, some fruit, and a few snacks. We ate before we left, and only bought a few small snack items along the way. (not essential, we just felt like buying them.) Normally, we don't bother, but we were faced with a choice of tossing perfectly good food, freezing it, or bringing it with us. Made sense to bring it, especially the fresh fruit.

IMO, travel food costs are only the difference between home $ and not-home $.

Driving especially offers an easy opportunity to eat an arrival and/or departure day meal offsite for less than the cost of eating at WDW.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I remember one time travelling for work, we were going from St Pete to San Antonio. We had two cars and left at the same time. I was in car #1. We did the "minimal" stops, got into San Antonio with a day and half to spare. We had time to get our laundry done and go play a round of golf. Car #2 decided to stop for sit down meals, and wanted to stop to see whatever award show happened to be on that night. They got in hours before needing to go to work. Needless to say, the guy riding with me and myself were relaxed and ready to take on another week of work, the others were stressing about jumping right into work.

Has really nothing to do with traveling for vacation, just a little anecdote.

We have run the same experiment at WDW. Picking up a rental car beat taking Disney Express by - get this - two full hours!

Similarly, driving back to a WDW hotel from Epcot was MUCH faster than taking the bus if leaving Epcot around 8:45pm-9:15pm, though that was pre-pandemic, and some years ago. We have tried a few other transportation splits. Sometimes it is a toss-up, and depends how long one waits for the bus/boat to arrive. For us, walking the Epcot lagoon is almost always faster than the boats, but walking all the way from Epcot to HS is a bit of a hike.

 

[5kidsmommy]

Technically, driving is an option from the west coast, just not a speedy one.

Second, I tend to factor food costs differently than you do. We eat food every day no matter where we are. Food at WDW prices costs more than at home, but road trip food can be fairly close to what we spend at home.

On my last long road trip, we actually brought a cooler bag, with lunch, some fruit, and a few snacks. We ate before we left, and only bought a few small snack items along the way. (not essential, we just felt like buying them.) Normally, we don't bother, but we were faced with a choice of tossing perfectly good food, freezing it, or bringing it with us. Made sense to bring it, especially the fresh fruit.

IMO, travel food costs are only the difference between home $ and not-home $.

Driving especially offers an easy opportunity to eat an arrival and/or departure day meal offsite for less than the cost of eating at WDW.

We are similar to you in our food. We have a good sized cooler that we use on our boat. It keeps lots of food cool. I actually plan out meals for road trips and vacation. We like to have food in the rooms for breakfast and snack, and always sandwich stuff for my husband. I hate grocery shopping on vacation so I always stock up at home. Then we have food for the road trip and for vacation. It's not really an extra expense because I'd be buying groceries at home anyhow.

 

[Keeblerelf928]

So I plan on taking everyone's advice for our NEXT trip. For this one, even though we have the time, we are going to fly. We are going to drive to a smaller, closer to disney airport (where airfare was half the cost) and the flight is 35 minutes shorter and the nervous flyer is going to discuss options with her doctor. My anxiety was through the roof, and we were going to have a lot to do before we left in 2.5 weeks. We are sticking to our plan of road tripping for 2 weeks this June with just our kids Thank you all!!!!

 

[buzzrelly]

We are similar to you in our food. We have a good sized cooler that we use on our boat. It keeps lots of food cool. I actually plan out meals for road trips and vacation. We like to have food in the rooms for breakfast and snack, and always sandwich stuff for my husband. I hate grocery shopping on vacation so I always stock up at home. Then we have food for the road trip and for vacation. It's not really an extra expense because I'd be buying groceries at home anyhow.

We do pretty much the same thing, pack sandwiches and snacks for that first long day and some fruit and snacks for the next morning. By then we are in WDW and excited for yummier food. But we also stop at Publix and buy some yogurts/cheese/drinks, etc...for the room for the week.

So I plan on taking everyone's advice for our NEXT trip. For this one, even though we have the time, we are going to fly. We are going to drive to a smaller, closer to disney airport (where airfare was half the cost) and the flight is 35 minutes shorter and the nervous flyer is going to discuss options with her doctor. My anxiety was through the roof, and we were going to have a lot to do before we left in 2.5 weeks. We are sticking to our plan of road tripping for 2 weeks this June with just our kids Thank you all!!!!

Good luck! You'll have to come back after and let us all know how it works out

 

[kerry34]

So we leave in 18 days. We have refundable airline tickets for all 6. Between flights, car transfers, hotel the night before at the airport (cheaper than paying for parking to have a hotel with 10 days of parking the night before go figure) we are looking at about 3400 round trip. We live an hour from the airport and need to be there at least 2 hours before our flight (nervous flyers).

We can technically make them time to give us two full days before arrival day to drive down and two full days to drive home. We check in on 2/10, but could leave the afternoon of the 8th. We check out 2/18 and could take until 2/20 to get home if needed. Factoring in hotels both directions, food, gas, tolls it would be around 1300. Thats not counting wear and tear on the car. Its around 2000 miles round trip which is typically what we put on the car over the course of about 6-8 months (we don't drive much at home.) The longest drive I've done in one shot was Boston and it took around 10 hours from where we are.

Am I crazy for considering this? It would be 6 people in a very comfy mini van with entertainment system. 2 people able to switch off driving though I get car sick and typically do 90% of the driving. No one else gets car sick. Is 2k worth saving? Is there anyway near 95 to stop that would be cool for kids to see between PA and FL?

When our kids were young we always drove because flying with 5 kids put us over our travel budget by quite a large sum. The positives: I will say the drive down was always fine…it was part of the trip. The kids loved the goody bags I would make for the ride, we had a dvd player with headphones in the van, and they always had special treats in the cooler that I didn’t really buy otherwise. So this made it fun. We would stop overnight and always stayed somewhere with a pool so they could expend energy. And we would go out to dinner. We have many years of great memories of the drive. The cons: anything can happen that can cause delays just the same as with flying, weather, mechanical issues, animals running across the highway, crazy drivers, getting stuck in traffic, and seeing accidents. All of it can impact your travel so you must plan for that always. Also for us the drive home was always less than enchanting lol…the trip was over so the kids would have post disney depression and the ride home was not like driving down lol. Patience would get short between the kids more on the way home than going down.
Overall if you do your research and plan your route and departure times accordingly so you avoid cities at busy times your ride should be okay.
In the past we have stayed in North Carolina/South Carolina, just off the highway which I don’t remember anything in particular that stood out there, we just kept to the hotel pools, but later trips we drove to Georgia and stayed in Savannah and jeckyl island. Those were nice stops with some nice sightseeing and a much shorter ride the day of check-in. The first day of driving was very long though.
Good luck in your decision!

 

[xipotec]

2 hours early to airport
1 hour boarding and waiting
2-3 hour flight non stop
1 hour to get car luggage etc.

7 hours right there..

 

[sam_gordon]

2 hours early to airport
1 hour boarding and waiting
2-3 hour flight non stop
1 hour to get car luggage etc.

7 hours right there..

Why in the world is there 2 hours "early to airport" AND "1 hour boarding and waiting"?

The airlines I fly don't have direct to MCO, so connecting. Here would be my timeline:
35 minute drive to airport
1:15 before departure (to allow for checked bags)
1:15 flight to Atlanta
1:30 (or less hopefully) layover.
1:15 flight to MCO
1:15 get luggage, transportation, drive to WDW.

So, yes, 7 hours door to door. Compared to 12 1/2 - 13 hours driving. Yes, more expensive, but if we get an early enough flight, could hit the parks in the afternoon/evening. Not going to happen with the drive.

 

[_19disnA]

If purchasing an EZ-pass transponder for the first time, make sure to obtain it from the state where you plan to do the MAJORITY of your travel. Moved from another state a couple of years ago and found out that every state does NOT offer the discounted toll rate in other EZ-pass states. Various state websites are vague on this issue and tend to imply you WILL get the discounted toll rate but have found that is NOT the case.

 

[brockash]

So we leave in 18 days. We have refundable airline tickets for all 6. Between flights, car transfers, hotel the night before at the airport (cheaper than paying for parking to have a hotel with 10 days of parking the night before go figure) we are looking at about 3400 round trip. We live an hour from the airport and need to be there at least 2 hours before our flight (nervous flyers).

We can technically make them time to give us two full days before arrival day to drive down and two full days to drive home. We check in on 2/10, but could leave the afternoon of the 8th. We check out 2/18 and could take until 2/20 to get home if needed. Factoring in hotels both directions, food, gas, tolls it would be around 1300. Thats not counting wear and tear on the car. Its around 2000 miles round trip which is typically what we put on the car over the course of about 6-8 months (we don't drive much at home.) The longest drive I've done in one shot was Boston and it took around 10 hours from where we are.

Am I crazy for considering this? It would be 6 people in a very comfy mini van with entertainment system. 2 people able to switch off driving though I get car sick and typically do 90% of the driving. No one else gets car sick. Is 2k worth saving? Is there anyway near 95 to stop that would be cool for kids to see between PA and FL?

What are your flights like? Do you have a layover and where? What are the times of your flights? What airline and what airport? For me, I'd want to weigh the likelihood and convenience of the flights v the hassle. It'd take a lot for me. to drive that far, however we had 2 terrible flights last yr. so I'd consider it.

 

[xipotec]

Why in the world is there 2 hours "early to airport" AND "1 hour boarding and waiting"?

The airlines I fly don't have direct to MCO, so connecting. Here would be my timeline:
35 minute drive to airport
1:15 before departure (to allow for checked bags)
1:15 flight to Atlanta
1:30 (or less hopefully) layover.
1:15 flight to MCO
1:15 get luggage, transportation, drive to WDW.

So, yes, 7 hours door to door. Compared to 12 1/2 - 13 hours driving. Yes, more expensive, but if we get an early enough flight, could hit the parks in the afternoon/evening. Not going to happen with the drive.

Yep, assuming no flight delays, And thats a huge IF…

(looking at you southwest.)

We do not live close to an airport. Ans traffic to get to it is horrible.

Any connecting flight from our regional AP are crazy expensive and make the flight at least 6 hours

 

[Tenkawa]

From Seattle, driving to wdw is 3-4 days best case.

I ponied up for direct flights on Alaska Airlines.

 

[jbharr1]

i've done two trips from Minneapolis. about 3000 miles round trip. one was with my twin girls when they were 1 and wife and her mom. the other when the twins were 8, youngest was 3 and my sister. i liked driving. i'd do it again. the thought of buying airfare for 5 gives me anxiety.
we drove mpls to NYC fall of 2021 with the girls, wife and MIL. and the dog. no issues. I guess i have kids that like road trips????

i see people talking about tolls. they aren't a thing here so I didn't see value in getting a pass. plus at least in NY and chicago, they just mail you a bill.

never thought i'd need a car in WDW but now that i've had one, i don't want to be there without one. I did not miss resort busses...

 

[Mikey15]

i see people talking about tolls. they aren't a thing here so I didn't see value in getting a pass. plus at least in NY and chicago, they just mail you a bill.

Tbh it’s not a big deal for a lot of routes to FL (like I-95, or 81-77-26-95, or I-75 except for the FL turnpike), but it can be handy to have a transponder for some quicker, less-trafficked routes within Central FL. If you’re just driving straight to Disney and not leaving the bubble, no big deal.

That being said I did my first I-90 trip with transponder back to Ohio last summer, and it’s so much nicer not having to stop and pay, and the transponder rate is discounted versus the bill NY sends in the mail these days. Chicago the year before was a giant PITB pulling off to pay and waiting in line, and that’s what I thought of in Central FL last fall sailing past the cash lanes.

It would be one thing if the transponder actually cost money, but with the NY E-Z Pass the amount you pay is basically just the startup balance of your account. No monthly fees, inactivity fees, etc. It cost me less to get a transponder that does nothing 95% of the year than it would have cost to let NY continue to send me tolls by mail.


P.S. OP, have fun on your trip! Driving can definitely work well, but I understand why you made the flight work!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

i see people talking about tolls. they aren't a thing here so I didn't see value in getting a pass. plus at least in NY and chicago, they just mail you a bill.

If OP is driving I-95 corridor, they may well hit the VA traffic bottleneck (between DC and Richmond) and I-4 traffic near Orlando.

The VA bottleneck can add 2 hours each way. Orlando traffic congestion can add an hour.

A transponder is effectively free and can easily shave 4-6 hours of stop-and-go traffic off one trip from PA to WDW.

That's why it is an option to consider.

 

[sdc10]

Im from Charlotte, and my fiancee and I always drive. Its only 8 hours so once of us will start driving in the morning, and then switch after a lunch break and stop.

Our first experience flying into Orlando was a bit rough, door to door, we saved no time flying in. Between having to wait for our luggage, waiting for an uber, and then the uber ride to the hotel.

For us its just much more convenient having our own car available, and also due to the amount of things we pack/bring with us.

If it was for a much shorter trip (just a couple of days) we would definitely fly. But anything closer to like a week, we drive ourselves.

 

[_19disnA]

i see people talking about tolls. they aren't a thing here so I didn't see value in getting a pass. plus at least in NY and chicago, they just mail you a bill.

If you have EZpass, you typically get a discount on the price others who pay cash are paying for their tolls. In a state like PA that can quickly add up to save you a lot of money in tolls. There is a monthly fee to have EZpass, but it is only a nominal amount.

 

[sdc10]

If you have EZpass, you typically get a discount on the price others who pay cash are paying for their tolls. In a state like PA that can quickly add up to save you a lot of money in tolls. There is a monthly fee to have EZpass, but it is only a nominal amount.

The monthly fee is also a case by case basis, not every state has a monthly fee associated with it.

 

[dez1978]

Its around 2000 miles round trip which is typically what we put on the car over the course of about 6-8 months (we don't drive much at home.)

I cannot fathom this. I drive that in a month! lol

I would never consider driving that. Minivan or not. One time we drove to gulf shores and back. In a minivan, with a entertainment system. But my kids were 4 and 7. 1/2 way there I vowed I would never ever spend that much time trapped in a car with my kids again If we can't fly, we can't go. Fortunately while my kids suck on long car rides, they are amazing in an airport and on a plane.

 

[JLTraveling]

I vastly prefer to drive. When I was a kid, my dad was a DoD engineer, and they sent him all over the country for business trips. He could fly or drive, his choice. But driving allowed him to take my mom and me with him on the government's dime (as long as the full cost of the trip was one dollar less than the cost of just him flying, it was automatically approved). So we road tripped around the country multiple times per year, and some of my best memories are from those trips. I still love road tripping today.

A friend of mine is the polar opposite. Her family traveled a lot, but ALWAYS by plane. And to this day, she becomes absolutely miserable if she's trapped in a car for more than two hours. Not car sick or anything, just restless and almost claustrophobic.

All of that to say, only you know your family and how they will react to long hours in the car. Dad used to have a strict "bathroom and food when we stop for gas" policy, but over the years the journey became part of the adventure. Even just 15 minutes at a roadside park can do wonders for everyone's mood.

I also love the auto train, which others have mentioned. It's a great way to split the difference--more room to move around and enjoy the journey, with enough driving tacked onto either end to get a sense of how everyone does in the car.