RV road trip or FLY?

[turnerx6]

Hello everyone!

This will be our FIRST family trip to DW. We are so excited. My dh and I have 3 dd's ages at the time of the trip will be 5, 2 and 1. We will be going for my birthday and our other daughters angel day anniversary the last week of Oct.

We cannot decide if we should rent a motor home and drive there (from Tx) or if we should fly!?! Any suggestions?

We originally planned on flying - but I HATE to fly (fear of flying itself as well as flying with three little ones...lol) Plus I have a problem with over packing - and with having to take costumes for trick or treating, diapers for two, life jackets, clothes, etc - im worried we will end up taking 30 suitcases! SO that kind of make me chicken out...any idea how long of a flight it would be from Dallas to DW???

So then as a joke I mention to dh that we should rent and RV and drive there. He laughed it off - but then I guess someone at work said that their family does this and it has worked out great - so that got us thinking...u know how it goes!

What would u recommend??? Thanks for you advice! Can't wait to hear back from ya

 

[Dizney_Luver]

Which ever you decide to do have a Great time, and take plenty of pics for sharing!

 

[OK GRUMPY]

Have you thought about renting from one of the disser who set up there camper at FW. I really like this because it saves on gas and there is no head ache.. such as backing it up set up breaking campsite down... well you might have to pick up your stuff lol! But one has a pop up and then the other has a 5th wheel and trailer. From what I understand they are very reasonable. This way I would drive bring all my stuff and them camp. You might want to inquire about this. That is a great time to be at FW!

 

[Shan-man]

If the flight is cheaper than the gas and taxi from the airport to the RV rental place, why drive? Just rent in Orlando... or better yet, rent from CampAtTheFort.com and have a huge 5th-wheel RV delivered to your campsite and hooked up for you! You could even take advantage of Magical Express in that case.

 

[disneylovin24]

RV Road Trip

Road trips to disney are so much fun

 

[Disney Bunny]

My recommendation would be to drive your own vehicle and rent one of the cabins or follow another posters advice and have one already set up on site for you. Renting an RV and driving from Texas is not going to be cheap. There is usually the basic rental cost that only gives you a certain number of miles with any mileage exceeding that costing extra. Then there is the gas itself. A lot of those units get 10 to 11 miles to the gallon or less.

 

[indimom3]

Philosophically speaking, when you drive it is about the journey, not just the destination. With 3 small kids, a long journey by car can be a serious nightmare. We've decided to wait until our kids are older to drive from Indy to the Fort. My 2yo son would scream from Kentucky to Georgia, I expect. Maybe it would be different in an RV, but the cost of renting an RV and driving it down to FL is about the same for us as flying.
My advice would be to fly and rent an RV in Orlando unless you think your kids would enjoy the drive down there.

 

[motherwild]

According to mapquest it is about a 17 hour drive from Dallas to WDW. Add a few hours to that for stopping for gas food and bathroom breaks. I would check out renting an RV or a cabin at the fort.

 

[5stljayhawks]

on your next night to rent a DVD rent RV with robin williams.

BTW - going by air so bland and the TSA. How will ever get through with all your camping stuff.

If you have an extra day to two, drive on over, spend the night on the beach there and back or you can pull an all nighter leave at 3 pm and get there before noon.

 

[SandrA9810]

I have driven to Dallas from Orlando. It's a 2 day drive, pretty hard two day drive. We didn't stop until Shrieveport and it was pretty late at night. Then we made it into Dallas around 5pm the second day.
My grandmother refuses to fly, so my aunt makes a yearly trip to florida to see the family.

Flying direct is under 2hrs of flight time. And air tran usually has an early morning and an evening flight directly. It averages about 74-94$ each way. And there's usually some sort of promo code floating around. I got one recently for 15$ off each way. Last summer, they did a 25$ off promo if you were flying in or out of florida.

 

[SandrA9810]

If you're going to fly, I would stay at the cabins. Camp if your going to drive, doing either the trailer rental from some one who will set it up, or rent an RV. I've seen several rental RVs at the fort, so they must not be that bad.

 

[AuburnJen92]

there is another site you can check for rentals

www.makecampingeasy.com

 

[mdoc]

We travel to WDW by motorhome a couple times a year. It's a 20+ hour drive each way for us, and we do it over two days (10+10, 15+5, or 5+15, depending on what time we leave). I much prefer this to flying, so it's fortunate that my DH enjoys driving and can drive very long days without a problem. If we couldn't do it in two days, we wouldn't drive because we don't have enough vacation time to spend more than 4 travel days. With a motorhome, you don't have to worry about coordinating bathroom schedules, you can keep the kids entertained and fed, and my kids tend to sleep a lot on the journey. I'm not afraid of flying, but I hate it nonetheless - everything about it is such a hassle these days. And of course, at the end of the journey we get to stay at Fort Wilderness in our motorhome, and Fort Wilderness is my favorite Disney resort, bar none. If you and/or your husband are comfortable driving a motorhome and you either have a lot of time to get there and back or you're willing to push hard to do it in a couple days, renting a motorhome might work out well for you. Make sure to thoroughly familiarize yourself with the motorhome you rent before you leave, though.

 

[Shan-man]

mdoc, for you and me driving makes good sense, we own our own motorhomes. For someone to RENT a moho and drive, paying for the rental and the gas to be on the road, IMO, makes no sense unless you really want to experience the drive.

 

[Disney Bunny]

on your next night to rent a DVD rent RV with robin williams.

BTW - going by air so bland and the TSA. How will ever get through with all your camping stuff.

If you have an extra day to two, drive on over, spend the night on the beach there and back or you can pull an all nighter leave at 3 pm and get there before noon.

I think renting this movie is a great idea for people who are not used to camping or RVing.

OP....I don't know what your level of camping experience is. A lot of people think you can just jump in one of these RVs and take off. There is a lot to driving, setting up, and packing up one of these vehicles. You will need to stop over somewhere on the way (whether you drive your own car or an RV). These little ones should not be strapped into car seats for 17 hours plus.

We towed a 5th wheel to the Fort last year. It's 795 miles from our home. It took us 10 hours the first day and 5 the second day and we were mostly doing the max speed limits.

 

[stacktester]

There are quite a few people who are renting their moho's on craigslist to help pay for them, etc. Most give an allowable of miles larger than that of the big rental co.'s and the fees aren't as steep. You may want to look in your area. Personally with kids the age of yours I would hate to be in that car/van that long lol. I would either fly or rent an rv so you can be comfortable. Flying and having an rv set up with no stress makes the most sense especially if you don't have rv experience.

 

[NLPRacing]

We have a similar situation. We have 3 kids (currently ages 10, 7 & 2) and we also live in North Texas (Arlington to be exact). We've been to FW 4 times since 2005 and each trip was made in our motorhome. We've been on many trips, some we've flown, some we've driven in the family car and others were done in the motorhome. If I had my choice, we would ONLY travel by motorhome. I find it to be a lot less hassle. Plus, while on the road, we don't have to stop for potty breaks or meals. We pretty much only stop about every 400 miles or so for fuel. When we travel from Texas to WDW, we usually leave after work (around 4pm) and drive until around 10pm. We used to stay at campgrounds for a few hours and get back on the road early. On the last couple trips to WDW, we just pulled over at a Wal-Mart near Lafayette and slept for a few hours. That has worked out very well.

I say rent the RV and enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

 

[mdoc]

mdoc, for you and me driving makes good sense, we own our own motorhomes. For someone to RENT a moho and drive, paying for the rental and the gas to be on the road, IMO, makes no sense unless you really want to experience the drive.

I totally agree that it makes no economic sense, but I think the experience is like no other. Frankly, it doesn't even make sense economically for us to take the motorhome down - with the deals Disney has had lately we could fly and stay at a value resort for less than the cost of gas, tolls and a premium site at the Fort - but we absolutely cannot beat the experience.