Ok Maritimers, any last minute advice? We're driving to NH for our flt to MCO soon!

[coastgirl]

Like, in 5 days!! We're going to leave home on Tuesday evening and get as far as Moncton, then plan to go Moncton-Manchester on Wednesday, overnight at the Holiday Inn for the park and fly deal, then Thurs am we fly out. Were planning on going through Fredericton (is it Woodstock where you actually cross) instead of Saint John/Saint Stephen so we're on the I-whatever from the start. Coming back the same way in a couple of weeks, landing on Sat afternoon, will overnight somewhere along the way (hopefully this side of the border) to get home Sunday...

Good weather karma appreciated for sure!

 

[djpositivek]

Have fun ! We leave on the 29th. Flying AC on points to MCO. We're driving to Port Charlotte for a few days to visit my folks and then we all drive up to Orlando to do Disney. We have a Pool home rented.

Also hoping for good weather

Is it that much cheaper to drive and then fly from Manchester ? I'm not sure what tickets would have cost but it seems once you factor in your gas, wear and tear, hotel, meals, lost time, etc... that it adds up quickly. How many of you are going ? Are you staying on-site or off-site ?

 

[Eeyoreloverforever]

Oh my god!!! Could it be some other Haligonians who are Disney nuts too!!! We were beginning to think we were the only ones!!!! I do have friends who would like to be Disney nuts, but they just can't justify the cost right now.

Where abouts do you live?

What are the dynamics of your family?

How often do you go?

What types of souvenirs do you buy? and where do you put them?

Oh tell me everything. I am so excited!!

 

[mbb]

....Is it that much cheaper to drive and then fly from Manchester ? I'm not sure what tickets would have cost but it seems once you factor in your gas, wear and tear, hotel, meals, lost time, etc... that it adds up quickly. How many of you are going ? Are you staying on-site or off-site ?

Not quite Haligonians, but close

We drove to Portland for our Christmas trip...overnighted in Saint John, and skipped on through - sadly, arriving too late for the outlets - to catch JetBlue.

6 people, Dodge Caravan, gassed up in Calais (who doesn't??), to the tune of $40USD, then another $15 in Portland.

One night at the Super8Larabee Road, $70
free parking for 3 weeks,
2 cabs to the airport (one was a courtesy shuttle from Super8) $10
$99 one way fares to MCO= $1300 for the 6 of us, return!!!

We were happy with the savings
Weather driving to PWM was perfect on the way down, foggy drive home on the Airline(Rte 9).

Do it again tomorrow if we could!

Have fun, have fun, have fun!!!!

 

[starrzone]

We've done the drive twice- once in 2005 for our flight to MCO to go to Disney, and once in March of last year to FLL for a Royal Caribbean cruise (I know, I know...I REALLY want to try a DC some day!).

We did the Woodstock route in 2005, and it was a fine drive- good weather all the way. Our car had some troubles, but we took care of that at the Toyota dealership in Woodstock. Truth be told, I found the scenery a little dull, but almost anywhere in NB/ME/NH you drive that isn't near the water is like that! All woods!

In 2006 we went across through St. Stephen and Bangor as we usually do (by the way, we live in Saint John). Are you flying Southwest out of MHT? The best advice I can offer is print off your boarding passes at home or at the hotel business centre 24 hours before your flight. You'll (hopefully) get an "A" boarding pass and get to board first (there are usually lots of people with kids going to MCO, so they'll get to board first).

As for the OP who asked about flights being cheaper...YES! Even though it's a ~6 hour drive from Saint John to Manchester, if you add gas (maybe $100- we have a small SUV), a night in a hotel at each end of the trip (say $200, including free park and fly), and whatever wear and tear is (I have no idea!), you still come out ahead. If you got a deal like we did, 4 adult tickets from MHT-MCO came to $800 taxes, fees, etc., included. I was looking at the Westjet site, and the price PER PERSON for the same time period, Moncton to MCO, is $1200 ($600 each way). AC charges $1150 round-trip per person from Saint John to Orlando at the same time. So, you definitely come out ahead by driving to Manchester. Of course, it is a long drive, so it might add a bit of time onto your trip if you live farther away than SJ, have small kids, like to take frequent rest stops, don't like driving at night, etc.

Hope this helped! Feel free to ask any questions.

Starrzone

 

[coastgirl]

Yep, we got a deal. $750 Cdn for 4 on Continental. It got slightly cheaper on SWA after we booked, but I got really tired of waiting. I hope we can print our boarding passes at the hotel, glad to hear from someone who's done it, but we do have assigned seating on Continental. I figured about $630 extra over driving to Halifax (hotel, food, gas). (We are about 70 minutes east of the Hfx airport.) And I saw a "seat sale" before Christmas for this time period, but the cheapest it got on AC or Westjet was about $750 PER PERSON. (Last time we flew from Hfx but on points.) So, we're still about $1600 ahead. Dh is taking an extra day off to get us there, and I dithered about the road trip in January thing...but dh LOVES a road trip--I figure our next trip to Fl will be entirely in our own van if he gets his way! So...we'll see. I'm impatient that we leave home on Tues night and don't get to Disney until almost 48 hrs later, but eh, whatever. I'm going, I've got no room to complain. We went for the first time in May and dh got an AP, so we decided to use it again. We got CBR for $99 US a night.

Thanks for the well wishes and tips!

 

[Candid]

Not Halligonian now but I grew up there. Now I'm on the southshore. We have just started planning our WDW trip so give us all lots of info when you get back!

 

[djpositivek]

Oh my god!!! Could it be some other Haligonians who are Disney nuts too!!! We were beginning to think we were the only ones!!!! I do have friends who would like to be Disney nuts, but they just can't justify the cost right now.

Where abouts do you live?

What are the dynamics of your family?

How often do you go?

What types of souvenirs do you buy? and where do you put them?

Oh tell me everything. I am so excited!!

We live in White's Lake (on the road to Peggy's Cove).
Me and DW and 10 Month old DD
First trip as adults (we each went as kids with our parents)
Don't know about souvenirs, probably get some ears for my DD
Can't wait to go, countdown is on and I'm sure I'll be planning my next trip on our way home if not before.

We can't really afford it either but we're going anyway.

 

[RainbowsMist]

We driving from Nova Scotia to Boston and flying from Boston to Orlando.

Everyone we spoke to said to take the Houlton route. It's a little further in distance however it's all highway so it's actually shorter.

We had originally planned driving straight through but have since decided to leave another day early. Home to Bangor first day. Bangor to Boston day 2. We then fly the next morning at 11:00. I'm hoping Bangor takes about 7 hours.

We too were planning on going out of NH but flights were too expensive last April when we booked. Still we got 5 direct return for $1400 CAD that's a HUGE savings compared to AC & Westjet. Last April they were coming in over 3500+.

How much are you allowing for gas? I'm a little "iffy" on that part. We too are staying at a park, sleep & fly in Boston $167.00 USD for 14 days.

Let's pray for good weather for the drives!

 

[Applemomma]

Nice to see some folks from home!

We're in the Annapolis Valley and we're going to the World in September (hubby has a conference and we're doing the parks while he "works"). We are doing the drive....all the way.....34 road hours plus stops. But we're looking forward to the adventure and I'm killing the time between now and then creating activity boxes for the kids (2 dd's age 9&5) to keep them busy in the car.

This will be my first trip to Disney since I went 27 years ago as a kid, hubby has never been and of course the girls haven't either.

Suppose there's enough of us on here to create our own Maritime board?

 

[coastgirl]

Rainbowmist, I got the distance from Mapquest, at 2130 rtn to NH; it cost me $62 to fill my tank this week, and I got a mpg rating for my vehicle from--AAA website I think? Anyway, I came up with $220 return for gas, based on Cdn prices and an '03 Honda van. We drove to Boston from New Glasgow last summer--had booked tickets on AC but that was the w/e the Hfx airport imploded and everything was cancelled...so, instead of waiting indefinitely for the fog to lift we decided to drive. Only took one long day, and we even stopped in Saint John to buy a laptop. (Movies in the car for the then- 2 and 4 yo...)

Found the triple A website in my excel spreadsheet...

http://www.aaafuelcostcalculator.com/TripGasprice.aspx

Hope that helps.

 

[SplashMom]

Wow! Hi to all you fellow Maritimers! We are flying Westjet in April but we are using Airmiles this time. We did, however, drive the entire way down this past August. It was a long drive but we really enjoyed it. Of course, we didn't have to worry about winter driving and our kids are really young adults, so they weren't a problem. I can certainly see how it would be cheaper. The air deals out of Halifax are horrible! We still live 4 hours from Halifax so we usually have to overnight there anyway. The problem for us during the school year is having the time to drive anywhere. Any driving time takes away from Disney time, so we will fly if possible. Have a wonderful trip!!

mbb--Do you have a trip report yet? I haven't been checking the boards so often lately and I didn't realize you were gone and back already!! I need details to keep me going for another 96 days!!

 

[RainbowsMist]

Rainbowmist, I got the distance from Mapquest, at 2130 rtn to NH; it cost me $62 to fill my tank this week, and I got a mpg rating for my vehicle from--AAA website I think? Anyway, I came up with $220 return for gas, based on Cdn prices and an '03 Honda van. We drove to Boston from New Glasgow last summer--had booked tickets on AC but that was the w/e the Hfx airport imploded and everything was cancelled...so, instead of waiting indefinitely for the fog to lift we decided to drive. Only took one long day, and we even stopped in Saint John to buy a laptop. (Movies in the car for the then- 2 and 4 yo...)

Found the triple A website in my excel spreadsheet...

http://www.aaafuelcostcalculator.com/TripGasprice.aspx

Hope that helps.

Wow we are actually very close. I'm in Truro I too did Map Quest and mapped our route. I asked a bunch of different people and they all said Houlton. Hmmmm.

I'm going to check that site out now! We have an 02 Montana so I'm hoping gas won't be too much!

How long did Boston take you when you went and how much was your gas bill?

 

[RainbowsMist]

Wow! Hi to all you fellow Maritimers! We are flying Westjet in April but we are using Airmiles this time. We did, however, drive the entire way down this past August. It was a long drive but we really enjoyed it. Of course, we didn't have to worry about winter driving and our kids are really young adults, so they weren't a problem. I can certainly see how it would be cheaper. The air deals out of Halifax are horrible! We still live 4 hours from Halifax so we usually have to overnight there anyway. The problem for us during the school year is having the time to drive anywhere. Any driving time takes away from Disney time, so we will fly if possible. Have a wonderful trip!!

mbb--Do you have a trip report yet? I haven't been checking the boards so often lately and I didn't realize you were gone and back already!! I need details to keep me going for another 96 days!!

I'm 40 MINUTES from the Airport and we're still driving 10+ hours to catch a flight. It's ridiculous how much Halifax wants for airfare and there's nothing direct anymore out of Halifax. I hope it comes back to bite them in the !

 

[RainbowsMist]

Wow we are actually very close. I'm in Truro I too did Map Quest and mapped our route. I asked a bunch of different people and they all said Houlton. Hmmmm.

I'm going to check that site out now! We have an 02 Montana so I'm hoping gas won't be too much!

How long did Boston take you when you went and how much was your gas bill?

According to this it's only going to cost us $111.07 USD return for gas.
It says our van gets 26 miles to the gallon @ $2.25 p/gallon. Our total distance return according to MapQuest is 1283.48 miles. Basic math tells me 26 (our mileage use) divided into 1283.48 (total miles) = 49.36 (gallons used) x $2.25 p/gallon = $111.07 USD. That seem WAYYYYY too low and too good to be true..

 

[coastgirl]

Remember the gas is priced in USD on that calculator isn't it? It's MUCH cheaper than it is here. I got my calculation by figuring out how many litres it was and multiplying by current price per litre.

I have no idea how much it cost to drive to Boston--isn't that awful?? Usually we plan but this was a last-minute decision when our flight was indefinitely delayed. It was a LOT faster than we thought, though, 10-12 hrs total maybe? We were bootin' her by then, though, as we were meeting up with some friends and were already a day late.

 

[Charleyann]

If you book 331 days in advance, you can get a ticket from Delta for approx. 180 to 208.00 out of Bangor! That will save you a little travellling , There is also a cheap hotel for 40.00 Cn (Super8) that feeds you breakfast and shuttles you to the airport and keeps your car for free!

Delta bookihng into December now for 208.00. Great for someone going at Christmas this year!

Charleyann

Here's a rumor from Delta Rrep in Fredericton yesterday. He told us Delta was working on getting the fares closer to those from Bangor. They are losing lots of business in Fredericton due to people opting for $600.00 plus fair difference and travelling three hours to Bangor!

Charleyann

 

[djpositivek]

According to this it's only going to cost us $111.07 USD return for gas.
It says our van gets 26 miles to the gallon @ $2.25 p/gallon. Our total distance return according to MapQuest is 1283.48 miles. Basic math tells me 26 (our mileage use) divided into 1283.48 (total miles) = 49.36 (gallons used) x $2.25 p/gallon = $111.07 USD. That seem WAYYYYY too low and too good to be true..

I'm not sure how that website estimates the mpg of your vehicle but I know most of those are dependant on so many factors being perfect. ie: 1 person in vehicle, constant speed of 80km/h, tire pressure, etc, etc... the mpg that you will get could vary dramatically. Especially if you're loaded up and driving 120 km/h. Just estimate how much it costs you to fill up and how many km's you put on one tank. So if it costs you $70 to fill and you put 500 kms on one tank. Well if you're driving 2000 kms, then it would be approx $280

Of course that won't be accurate because price of gas fluctuates as well as other things but it should give you an estimate. I would also over budget a little and then if you're less on gas, then you have money left over for other stuff.

My parents drive their GMC Diesel truck every year hauling a fifth wheel trailer but I have no idea how much it costs them. I know they don't waste much time getting there. It's getting expensive and they are there for 5 or 6 months of the year now so they will be looking at buying a house there or at least leaving the trailer down there.