Please help, would you fly or drive?

[StephMK]

We have 3 kids - 10, 4 & 2 - the younger ones are not good travelers, ok but not great. Going 10/30-11/6.

If we drive, we'd leave Friday early afternoon, pulling DD out 1 hr early & get to Disney mid afternoon Saturday w/an overnight hotel stay. We would also stay over on the way home - Sat. night getting home Sunday late afternoon. If we drive, we can pack more snacks & have 1/2 days in FL on both Saturdays.

If we fly, we'd be leaving from an airport 3 hours away from home to get cheaper flights - $676 total right now, may go down if SW has a sale. We need a rental car since we're offsite - estimating $50 for airport parking, $200 for car if we can fit in a full size w/2 car seats. Total to fly - $926. The flights would put us there bedtime on Sat & leaving early the following Saturday.

For the difference in price, would you save the money & spend time traveling or pay more & get there faster but lose the 1/2 days on either end of the trip.

Hope that made sense, thanks!

 

[crzy4dsny]

From my driving experiences it has taken me 10 and 11 hours from the Virginia/North Carolina border to get to Disney. You mentioned it will be a three hour drive to get to the airport alone. I think I would just drive the additional 8 or 9 hours and save some money.

Instead of leaving Friday and staying overnight, consider leaving early Saturday morning. If you leave at around 2:00 am you could drive straight thru and arrive around 1:00 or 2:00 pm. If you leave early in the morning your kids may sleep a good part of the way.

I would choose driving, saving money, and having more time at Disney

 

[Luckymommyx2]

I agree with crzy4dsny. If it's going to take you that long to drive to the airport you may as well drive. Leave late at night and drive straight through if your kids can sleep most of the way.

 

[garettdoyle]

Driving vs. Flying

Always a debate, here are a couple of items to keep in mind:

-When I fly, I don't rent cars. I like car services for ground transfers. Curbside service, no carrying around luggage and loading/unloading a million times. This makes me feel like I am on vacation.

-When driving, it seems like every person in the family brings twice as much luggage.

-Most people don't take into an account the depreciation cost of driving. You will "pay" this sooner or later with increased maintenance, repair or replacement costs.

-Nothing worse than maintenance problem on vacation. If your car breaks during your trip, this could cost you a lot of time and money (non refundable reservations, etc). Then again, I have had delays at airports for maintenace as well. At least I didn't have to pay to fix the plane!!

-For me, starting out a vacation with a long drive wears me out. Hard to put a "cost" down but worth considering.

-Most people have a finite amount of vacation, so if you have to take additional days off to drive, there is a cost associated with them. Theoritically, you should be able to take your salary and divde it out and see what each day off is worth. Here is a simple example:

Annual Salary of $52,000
52 weeks a year
1,000 per week or $200 per day.

So, if it took 2 extra days of driving, that would "cost" you about $400. I realize this is "paper money" and not hard cash, but it at least gives you a gauge of what your time is worth.

To be fair, here are some advantages to driving

-Control of schedule. In my upcoming trip, I had to fly out on really early flights because that was all that is available. If driving I would have left later. Hard to quantify a value on this one.

-Flexibility. Once you book airline tickets, you are somewhat stuck these days with all the fees for changing. Driving, you can change your plans a little easier (i.e. leave early or stay late).

-Airport check in and security. I travel frequently for work and am very familiar with the lines at airports. Realize that air traffic has increased significantly in the past year. Be prepared to stand in lines.

-Luggage. You can bring all the luggage you want (or can fit) when driving.

-Off site access. Flexibility to eat off site, buy groceries or visit non-WDW places. Much easier to do with your own car.


I am not much of a fan of driving vacations if the destination is over 600 or 700 miles. I live in Denver, so that really limits things, as most places are further (vacationing in Omaha or Kansas City is not that appealing!!). So, I am often forced to fly. On the flipside, flying with a family is a pain.

Good luck.

 

[FOTM_Ring_Bearer]

My suggestion is to drive.

We are also a family of five and we have always found it to be cheaper to drive than fly. We usually drive straight through, but even if we spend the night somewhere, it's still cheaper.

If you have to drive 3 hours to the airport, be there 1 to 2 hours before the flight and add in the flight time, how much time are you really saving by flying.

 

[murph103]

We like road trips and our DD and DS are used to them since we drive to Myrtle Beach, SC from Maryland every year. We have an Expedition and if we can leave the 3rd seat in, each kid has a seat and there isn't as much bickering.

We drove from Baltimore to Jacksonville, FL in 13 hours (that's with several stops along the way). Stayed overnight in Jacksonville; left at 7:30 the next morning and pulled into WDW at 9:40. We were rested and ready to spend a full day in the park.

It would have cost over $700 for 4 of us to fly plus the cost to leave our car at the airport plus a rental or whatever to get us to WDW from the airport.

Even with gas prices as high as they are and staying overnight, we still didn't spend anywhere near $700+ to fly.

 

[Carrie772]

We fly. I know we only live 14 hours from WDW, but I just can't stand the drive from Huntsville through RURAL Alabama. It is just too boring. Too many pine tree canyons for my taste. I have been flying to WDW from Huntsville, AL since I was 10...1980. I am sure though that if you are going to travel through many states and the scenery will actually change, it might be worth it. Also, going through Georgia must be better.

 

[simzac]

No doubt for us, we fly. SW nonstop from Indy to Orlando in 2 hours vs a 2 day car trip, pretty easy decision for us, but for you, the fact that the airport is 3 hours away is not good.

 

[allshookup]

We drive from MA so a drive from VA would be a piece of cake to us. We leave here at 5am & stop in NC at 7pm. Up and on the road by 7am and we hit Florida by 3pm. It is true that we are all exausted by the time we get to where we are going first (depends on which family member we are dropping in on) but one good night of sleep takes care of that. If we were driving from VA straight to the World, we would probably leave about 4am and get to Disney for a late dinner. While driving we just put DVD's on in the car and the kids are entertained for hours. I hate to fly but we will be flying this coming Nov. due to time constraints.

 

[Esmerelda]

Definitely fly......I had actually thought one time about driving earlier this year from Ohio....but it was actually cheaper to fly from here than to drive...not to mention that your chances of a serious accident on an interstate are quadruple what they are in the air! (there are a lot of nuts on the roads..)

Plus you have that "car lag" that you get from sitting in a car waay too long....plus not to mention the extra time/vacation time it takes to get there and back...and OHH that drive home...my how it becomes long....

I want to just pack...get on a plane...and get there in about 2-3 hours total....(we are driving to Indy..about 1.75 hrs but the savings was outstanding with SW). My boys love to fly...have been flying since age 3....(now 9 and 13).

I would just dread having to drive that far...would rather work extra...and just fly...more Disney time for us!

happy planning,
Esmerelda

 

[Kristi1357]

Another vote for driving!

We drive when we have more time - like having our own vehicle, can bring snacks for WDW, etc. And we drive all the way from NH. I come from a family of "drivers" though.

 

[ducklite]

Keep one thing in mind...

We drove the last time. Had no problems on teh way down. On teh way back was a different story. It was absolutely brutal. It took us 17 hours from the Fayetteville area to central NJ, normally an under 9 hour trip. And due to the weather part of it was a harrowing 17 hours.

If you are going to drive, don't make our mistake. Leave Saturday morning, get a good start on the trip. That way if you do run into a problem, you'll not be totally stressed about getting home after midnight like we were.

Anne