What would you do?

[peemagg]

We have a choice to make for our trip in January 2011. We (9 of us, 6 adults and 3 kids under age 6) are trying to decide whether to drive or fly. The decision is really fly and rent cars and car seats once there at approximately $2000+ for both or drive our own 2 vans down there. We are talking a 1200 mile drive one way that we could probably make for around $1200 round trip including a night in a hotel both ways.

Which way would you go?

Also another issue with everything is that one of the adults is handicapped and traveling with their own ECV.

 

[woodkins]

If you are staying on property you can use Disney Magical express as your airport trans. and then disney transportation to navigate to and from the parks which would eliminate the cost of a rental vehicle. If you choose to fly and rent a car you can check your carseats with luggage and save on the cost of renting them. Even if you have to pay luggage fees it may be cheaper than the approx $9 per day a rental car co charges.

I personally would not drive but I live in NY so I would be looking at a 21 hour drive. If you don't mind the added time to your vaca then do what you feel is most comfortable for your family. We only have 5-6 days total for our trip so to wast 2-3 of them driving is not an option for me when I can take a 2.5 hour flight instead.
I hope you have a great trip!

 

[jenseib]

I live near Toledo in OH. I have driven and flown. It saves so much time by flying. We are limited on how many days we can be away from our home (dairy farm) so driving would knock 4 off right away.
If staying on property, then fly. There will be no need for a car. Not sure how old the kids are, but they may get jumpy being in a car that long as well. We took a ten hour drive to TENN. last summer, my DD was 3 1/2 and she had a hard time with the way back. On the way there she slept from about midnight or so on. When we got to the hotel, it was early morning and luckily she went down for a bit more so we could get some sleep. We were tired alot of the trip, and I just dread drving anwhere that far again!

 

[brockash]

For me, I can't imagine doing that drive If you're staying on property and only doing Disney, you really don't need to rent cars or car seats. We have 2 kiddos, and we never rent a car or take a car seat when going to Disney. If you are going to rent a car, then you can always check the car seats, and there shouldn't be a fee (car seats and strollers are not counted as checked baggage.)

 

[peemagg]

One of the reasons that we were wanting a car for was to explore around the area and to make it a bit easier for us with a group that size and having a ECV to boot. I know that I wouldn't have any problems with buses with the scooter, but it is a lot less of a headache if we just load it up into a car and go. It is also easier to get between resorts if we have one.

We are staying on property because we are DVC members.

 

[singnring]

I live just west of Toledo, so our trip is just under the 1200 miles.

We have done the trips both ways: flying and driving.

If we get an awesome deal on plane tickets, we fly.
Otherwise, we drive.

We leave around 4 am and it puts us in Orlando around 10pm.
It's such an easy way to make the trip.

We get to bed early, so when we get up, we're fresh and ready to go.
We have only a few night hours at the start of the trip (which are the hardest to drive and most dangerous), then we have daylight most of the way, and a few more night hours at the end.

I hate driving through the night because it is dangerous. Even if YOU can stay alert, other drivers can't.

It works great for us to drive this way.

Since you have an ECV and want to see other stuff, I would definitely recommend driving.
Besides, when you figure the total time you spend from start to finish with a flight, it really closes the gap between the two travel options in relation to time it takes.

Only thing I don't understand is your estimate of the cost for driving.

We just made the trip in Sep and it was nowhere near that much!
Round trip was about $250 for gas, we took food and snacks for 2 meals, and ate one meal OTR.

I know you mentioned a hotel stay, but even so, that isn't going to make that much difference.
I think it'll be a lot cheaper than you are estimating, unless you are driving motor home!

We always prefer to have our own vehicle with us. I don't like depending on the buses. When bus lines are long, I like being able to just hop in my car and go where I need to go.

HTH!!

BTW - jenseib, Hi neighbor!

 

[jenseib]

Hey hi! I wonder how close we live to each other! I live North of Swanton.

 

[singnring]

Hey hi! I wonder how close we live to each other! I live North of Swanton.

LOL!! I am in Wauseon, right in the center of town!

Always fun to run into someone close to home when on the DIS!!

 

[jenseib]

How cool! My Cousin own Smiths Restaurant!

 

[singnring]

How cool! My Cousin own Smiths Restaurant!

MIKE?
(Don't want to mention full names on here)

 

[amyj1024]

Just FYI, I would NEVER rent carseats for kids. We did this once, and the thing was so old I was nervous to puy my 8 month old in it. Ever since we travel with and check our carseats if we are going to need them.

When we go to disney we use ME so we don't need carseats...but I have had a bad experience with using car seats from car rental place.

 

[ltzol]

right now for our travel dates (January) flights are a great deal (under $200!) we usually fly, but we also stay off property and rent a car. I say if you can get a good deal on the flights - more time at Disney and less travel time is a winning combination.

 

[singnring]

PLEASE, if you ever rent a car seat (and PP mentioned theirs looking old), check the car seat's mfr date.

Many people don't realize that car seats EXPIRE. They all have a MFR date stamped on them.
I believe they exp 6 yrs from that date.
ALWAYS check that date before accepting a rental seat.

Personally, I would never rent because of sanitary reasons and also because you have no way of knowing if the seat has been involved in an accident, which also "expires" it.

 

[peemagg]

The reason we estimated that much for gas was because we will be driving 2 vans. 1 of them is a mini-van that gets decent mileage and the other is full size conversion van that gets 17mpg if we are lucky. We also estimated the gas at $3.00.

I live only about 2-3 hours north of you. I live between Detroit and Lansing.

 

[peemagg]

duplicate post

 

[wdwfan16]

We have a choice to make for our trip in January 2011. We (9 of us, 6 adults and 3 kids under age 6) are trying to decide whether to drive or fly. The decision is really fly and rent cars and car seats once there at approximately $2000+ for both or drive our own 2 vans down there. We are talking a 1200 mile drive one way that we could probably make for around $1200 round trip including a night in a hotel both ways.

Which way would you go?

Also another issue with everything is that one of the adults is handicapped and traveling with their own ECV.

Since you are going in January from MI I would fly. I would be concerned about winter storms and driving. Winter storms do cause flight delays but IMHO they are easier to deal with.

If it was a warmer time of the year I would say drive.

 

[Erica09M]

I'd fly, and take your own car seats. I'd never in a million years risk renting a car seat. If you're staying on property you could use ME instead of renting a vehicle, and if the children are all over 40 pounds you could leave their car seats at home (I'd use car seats on the plane for children under 40 pounds, or under 4 years old).

 

[jenseib]

MIKE?
(Don't want to mention full names on here)

Yep!

 

[singnring]

Yep!

Too funny!

Dh bowled in a league with him eons ago.

More recently, we used to attend the same church (Crossroads) until we left there a few years back.

Do I dare say it?..."It's a Small World after all..."!!!

 

[My_3_Mi_Princesses]

We wrestled with the same issue for our June 2010 trip. Including all fees, parking etc the differece was about $700 more to fly. Since I am able to take the time off we decided to drive down. However, if we were going in Jan I would lean towards flying. It is such a tricky time weather wise, if there is a storm or something driving could be near impossible.

I think it comes down to how much time can you take off, how much risk you can accept and if it is possible to have back up plans if you do get delayed.

There is also a great thread in the Transportaion forum that is title 'For 2000 miles driver only' or something like that. There is some great advice for the trip itself in there.

BTW Lyon Township here!