What would you do - Baltimore/DC area to WDW

[Broncobilly83]

OK, this will be the first trip my wife and I are taking to WDW without the luxury of having family taking us/picking us up at the airport. For the last three trips, my father, who lives close by, has been willing to take us and pick us up from any of the three airports in the DC area, National, BWI, and/or Dulles. He gets up that early and works in that area, so it is not out of the way for him, but lately he has been a tad flaky and unreliable, so I am not betting the farm on him with the trip.

That being said, my wife and I are torn on what to do. Our rule of thumb is we fly direct, as we should not have to endure layovers or multiple stops from the DC to Orlando and back. That being said, we both like JetBlue (me more so) and Southwest, but they are unique as to what they offer locally.

JetBlue only offers direct flights to/from Reagan National
Southwest only offers direct flights to/from BWI

We already know we will have to drive ourselves to the airport and leave the vehicle, but everyone says do not try and park at National, as it is very limited and very expensive, so we have two options as far as I can see, especially if JetBlue is the better flight price:

1) Do BWI and park there
2) Find a hotel near either airport that offers people to leave their car there, stay there the night before, and just use the Airport shuttle to and from the terminals

What would you do and is there another option.

 

[ziggystardust]

I have only flown out of BWI so that's all I can really comment on.

BWI's onsite parking is really easy. There's a few lots to choose from. We've done the long term, which is the cheapest. I have never waited more than 5 min for a shuttle to the airport. Way home, for some reason is always more like 10 min to the lot. And the price is pretty cheap, but I'm also from NY originally - flying out of JFK, where parking is crazy.

I do prefer jetblue as well. Southwest has just been a little more convenient lately.

 

[dholmes1950]

Parking at DCA (close to the terminal) is $22.00 per day.

You could use the Supershuttle or the Washington Flyer to provide transportation to either airport, or if you are convenient to Metro you could take that to DCA.

VRE works well from some Virginia locations and then you can pick up the Metro in Springfield.

 

[dawnhaze]

I used to fly JetBlue out of DCA and make use of the Holiday Inn National Airport's park-and-fly package. I don't know current prices but they were pretty reasonable a couple of years ago.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

everyone says do not try and park at National, as it is very limited and very expensive

Economy parking at BWI is $8 a day, and is $14 a day at DCA. So does very expensive = $6 a day for you? How much is it worth it to you to not fly on Southwest (I'm glad Southwest exists, but I'll pay a little extra for assigned seats).

Note that you can reserve economy parking at DCA here.

And there looks to be cheaper nearby hotel parking options here. Or here for $6.99 a day.

 

[Sugardimples]

We always fly from BWI and park at Fast Park, an off site parking lot. It is safe, the shuttle picks you up right at your car and the driver loads your bags on and off the shuttle, If it snows while you are away, they clean off your car. You never wait more than a minute or two for a shuttle. There are free newspapers in the morning and free water when you leave. I think they are the best!

 

[maciec]

BWI is just so easy. We have either done one of the offsite parking lots or stayed at the Embassy Suites the night before. At the Embassy Suites you can leave your car there all week for free.

 

[Broncobilly83]

Expensive might not have been the best word to use. It is more costly than BWI, plus more of a headache to park at National compared to the others. I am about the same distance from either airport (60 miles) and I would be driving out at 4 AM or so, since either one is a 7AMish flight, so we would want to be there by 5-5:30 AM for enough time at check in.

 

[DaretoDis]

OK, this will be the first trip my wife and I are taking to WDW without the luxury of having family taking us/picking us up at the airport. For the last three trips, my father, who lives close by, has been willing to take us and pick us up from any of the three airports in the DC area, National, BWI, and/or Dulles. He gets up that early and works in that area, so it is not out of the way for him, but lately he has been a tad flaky and unreliable, so I am not betting the farm on him with the trip.

That being said, my wife and I are torn on what to do. Our rule of thumb is we fly direct, as we should not have to endure layovers or multiple stops from the DC to Orlando and back. That being said, we both like JetBlue (me more so) and Southwest, but they are unique as to what they offer locally.

JetBlue only offers direct flights to/from Reagan National
Southwest only offers direct flights to/from BWI

We already know we will have to drive ourselves to the airport and leave the vehicle, but everyone says do not try and park at National, as it is very limited and very expensive, so we have two options as far as I can see, especially if JetBlue is the better flight price:

1) Do BWI and park there
2) Find a hotel near either airport that offers people to leave their car there, stay there the night before, and just use the Airport shuttle to and from the terminals

What would you do and is there another option.

I'm assuming you mean non-stop. Direct and non-stop are not the same thing.

 

[andigomeep]

We've only been able to find cheap airfare from dca the past few years, we pay the premium the park at the daily lot vs economy. On our quick six day trip it was about $135. We paid about $155 for 7.5 days (probably maxed out more like 8 days)

That's still cheaper than paying for a flight from Dulles which is much closer to us.

 

[thisismyusername]

We are also flying JetBlue out of DCA this summer. There are a number of airport parking sites that offer cheap parking rates for DCA, such as cheapairportparking.com. Prices range from $6-12ish a day, so check around to all of the different sites. A Google search for DCA parking will get you plenty of results.

There are also a number of hotels who do sleep/park/fly packages, which include a week of self-parking. The rate for that is usually only $20 more than the regular hotel rate.

 

[gumbo1009]

And there looks to be cheaper nearby hotel parking options here. Or here for $6.99 a day.

I had never thought about parking offsite for DCA. I usually pay for a cab/shuttle both ways, which ends up to be a lot more $ than paying just $7 per day. Thanks for the info!!! (Now I just need to "jump into the deep end" and purchase some airfare... I keep waiting for it to dip down, but it's just not happening... ah well.)

 

[lovin'fl]

OK, this will be the first trip my wife and I are taking to WDW without the luxury of having family taking us/picking us up at the airport. For the last three trips, my father, who lives close by, has been willing to take us and pick us up from any of the three airports in the DC area, National, BWI, and/or Dulles. He gets up that early and works in that area, so it is not out of the way for him, but lately he has been a tad flaky and unreliable, so I am not betting the farm on him with the trip.

That being said, my wife and I are torn on what to do. Our rule of thumb is we fly direct, as we should not have to endure layovers or multiple stops from the DC to Orlando and back. That being said, we both like JetBlue (me more so) and Southwest, but they are unique as to what they offer locally.

JetBlue only offers direct flights to/from Reagan National
Southwest only offers direct flights to/from BWI

We already know we will have to drive ourselves to the airport and leave the vehicle, but everyone says do not try and park at National, as it is very limited and very expensive, so we have two options as far as I can see, especially if JetBlue is the better flight price:

1) Do BWI and park there
2) Find a hotel near either airport that offers people to leave their car there, stay there the night before, and just use the Airport shuttle to and from the terminals

What would you do and is there another option.

Live in mid Anne Arundel County. We have done both, flown Jetblue from Reagan and flown Southwest from BWI. We park there since we don't want to have to rely on family/friends to drop us and pick us up (schedules don't always mesh up for that and a lot of the time DH's family is also going to WDW with us). It is super expensive at Reagan so we did that once and now stick with BWI. Though we LOVED Jetblue way more than we like Southwest. We usually park in the daily garage ($12/day) too and just eat the cost...once we parked in the next one down (express for $10/day) but we like to be a bit closer as we are usually rushing. They also have that long term lot ($8/day) if you allow extra time. There is a coupon sometimes in Valpak that makes it like $6/day (or something like that).

 

[mikehn]

Economy parking at BWI is $8 a day, and is $14 a day at DCA. A difference of $6/day. In the grand scheme of things, a negligible difference. I would pick which ever flight itinerary works best for you. I wouldn't ever worry about the difference in parking rates. I doubt you will find any park and fly hotels near Reagan cheaper than $14/day parking.

 

[thisismyusername]

Economy parking at BWI is $8 a day, and is $14 a day at DCA. A difference of $6/day. In the grand scheme of things, a negligible difference. I would pick which ever flight itinerary works best for you. I wouldn't ever worry about the difference in parking rates. I doubt you will find any park and fly hotels near Reagan cheaper than $14/day parking.

Sorry, but that's inaccurate. We are paying $6 a day through easyparkfly.com for $5.99 a day at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, which is right across the street from the airport and has a metro stop that goes directly into the terminal and complimentary airport shuttle.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

Can you get to a Metro stop? That's an easy way to National. Or take the Metro to Union Station and then a train to BWI.

How long will you be at WDW? Sometimes it's cheaper than parking at the airport to do a 24 hr car rental, drop the car at the airport, then pick up a new 24 hr rental when you return.