fly or drive?

[jimmieglen2006]

my question is which do you think i s more affordabel. i am looking at going in august. i live in arkansas. trying to decide if it is worth driving and saveing a little money or flying. i know if i drive then i can take my time and site see and stuff. also i know that i can get around. but is the time worth the freedom. casue i am looking at a 17 hour drive. to a two hour plane ride. so what do you guys think?

 

[sbkline]

I don't know how much it costs to fly, so I really can't tell you which is cheaper. However, here are a few expenses to consider if you road trip:

1) gas, obviously. We're about 18 hours away and I think we fill up 3 or 4 times there and 3 or 4 times back. Roughly 28 bucks a tank, which would put you at around 170 bucks if 3 times (there as well as back) or 225 bucks if 4 times there and 4 times back, plus however much driving you do while you are there.

2) stopping for food. Can be cheap or expensive depending on if you stop at fast food places or sit down places, or bring your own food. Of course, if you bring your own food, you still have had to pay for that, and you probably bought it specifically for the trip, so you should probably figure that cost into the total as well.

3) lodging, if you opt not to drive straight through.

Again, I don't know how much flying costs, so adding those three up, I'm not sure which would be more expensive.

Myself, I've never flown, although I may be open to it in the future (if my wife were as well, which she isn't). However, I enjoy the road trip. I have about an 18 hour drive, myself, and I love the feel of packing up the car and hitting the road and seeing all the familiar sites along the way and thinking of previous trips, stopping for dinner, having good road trip conversation, etc. So if you asked which one I'd recommend, I'd say road trip, definitely. Especially since you have your own wheels and don't have to fiddle with renting a car or whatever.

 

[doop]

We drive for financial reasons basically. We have a family of 6 and simply don't have the cash to be able to fly down. We are also 18 hours away, and the drive really isn't that terrible. We tend to book a hotel and stay overnight to split the drive in half, because driving straight there is pretty brutal. For food we usually just hit up fast food at every meal which is unhealthy but saves the dollars for Disney! Overall driving really isn't as bad as some people make it out to be, but really it's all about your personal preference and how much money you are willing to spend on airfare. Also I would recommend a portable dvd player for the kids if you have any, it really prevents them from becoming annoying on the way there.

 

[sbkline]

We tend to book a hotel and stay overnight to split the drive in half, because driving straight there is pretty brutal.

Oh, I love driving straight through! :wave: To me, there's nothing better than hitting the road at about 3 PM, and watching the sun set as you drive down the interstate, and then go by the big cities (in my case, Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta) as they are all lit up, and then driving into the wee hours of the morning, and then pulling into your destination before noon.

Alas, my wife doesn't feel the same way and she has since laid down the law that there are to be no more straight through trips. We now have to stop somewhere and sleep and pick up the trip the next morning.

 

[3fordisney]

We usually drive. We are about 9 hours away and it isn't too bad a drive. For us, it is cheaper to drive than fly. It would cost the 3 of us about $600 and the gas doesn't come anywhere near the cost of plane tickets. We also enjoy the drive. We like to pack up the car and hit the road. We have only flown once to Orlando and it was before we had our son. We only did that because it was $250 for both of us round trip out of Montgomery, which is unheard of. The $600 figure for us is driving to Birmingham or Atlanta to get a direct flight to Orlando. We drive and plan to do so in April.

 

[doop]

Oh, I love driving straight through! :wave: To me, there's nothing better than hitting the road at about 3 PM, and watching the sun set as you drive down the interstate, and then go by the big cities (in my case, Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta) as they are all lit up, and then driving into the wee hours of the morning, and then pulling into your destination before noon.

Alas, my wife doesn't feel the same way and she has since laid down the law that there are to be no more straight through trips. We now have to stop somewhere and sleep and pick up the trip the next morning.

We did it once and everyone was ridiculously tired the next day at the parks so we haven't done it since, but hey if you like it, why not! Plus I find the drive down I-95 from Pennsylvania to Florida pretty boring except for South Of The Border. :lol:

 

[sbkline]

We did it once and everyone was ridiculously tired the next day at the parks so we haven't done it since, but hey if you like it, why not!

Well, it's worth mentioning that those were the times that we stayed off property at the Kissimmee Super 8 motel on Vine street. Check in day was our day to relax and do one of our other activities (such as Medeival times and a horseback ride one year and the beach another year) and then hit the theme parks the next day. Of course, we only had 4 day parkhopper passes, so we were doing other theme parks those trips as well and weren't about to waste any park admissions on half days. Of course, we're staying on property this time and doing the trip in two days but we still don't plan to enter the parks on check in day. That's still going to be a more leisurly day of enjoying the resort and playing mini-golf before diving into the parks the following day.

 

[GoofyFan1]

Depending on how close you are, flying is the way to go. Way up here, it would take us two days down and two days back. Add in gas and lodging and it would be cheaper to fly. Especially since we use JetBlue.

 

[gjpjtj]

It all depends on how many people are going. If you are solo, or a couple probably flying is cheapest. (If you have a major airport nearby). If you are more people, it really is cheaper to drive.

 

[Moustronaut]

my question is which do you think i s more affordabel. i am looking at going in august. i live in arkansas. trying to decide if it is worth driving and saveing a little money or flying. i know if i drive then i can take my time and site see and stuff. also i know that i can get around. but is the time worth the freedom. casue i am looking at a 17 hour drive. to a two hour plane ride. so what do you guys think?

It's 2000 miles round trip from Little Rock to Orlando. If you get about 30 mpg and figure gas is something like $2.00/gal then gas would be about $133. $70/night for the hotel for 2 nights (one night down, one night back), $25 a day in food for 4 days (2 days down, 2 days back). So for two people, you're looking at a little less than $400. We'll ignore the wear and tear on your car. This trip almost qualifies you for an oil change let alone the 2000 miles on the belts, tires, brakes, etc.

Flying would be more expensive. Southwest Airlines has advance booking fares from Little Rock to Orlando for about $400 round trip. So for two people it's roughly twice as much to fly. Even if you have an SUV that get 15 mpg and gas goes back to $3 a gal, you're still spending the price of only one plane ticket in gas.

I guess the other question is how much vacation time do you have? Do you want to spend 4 days driving. Would your rather spend those 4 days at your destination... or even doing fun things at home instead of sitting behind the wheel for that long. We've always made the decision to drive because of time. From Atlanta it's almost faster to drive than to fly if you consider the time spent waiting for the subway to the airport, checking in, going through security, flying, getting bags, and then waiting for the shuttle bus. But if I lived where you live, I'd never consider anything but flying.

 

[Firewolfe51]

hey 1st of all how many will be flying? That is the biggie, if we are talking two or three......flying is the way......now if we have more than three how many CAN drive at least a little to give the main driver a break here and there. My wife and I fly from BHM (birmingham) Alabama, whhich is a non-stop flight of about 1 hour to 1hr20 minutes depending on weather and air traffic. I look at plane ticket prices all the time and our next trip was booking for 250 to 300 bucks round trip per person. Long story short I just kept looking each day after day and caught tickets at 158 per person. So without saying I snagged a couple. If you think you want to fly just keep checking all the travel sites then if you find a price you like check with the airline direct. Its possible to get the same ticket without paying the fee through the travel site.


GOOD LUCK
SEE YOU GUYS IN MARCH
PORT ORLEANS FQ

THE WOLFE'S

 

[eroyee]

:wave: We drive. we make it a 2 day trip from Michigan. we love to stop along the way and do things. I have to admit, we are kinda tired when we hit Disney, but we always check in early in the morning anyway and head to the parks. the ride home is kinda long sometimes, after all the excitement and you are way tired. I would still drive, though. Its all up to what your family likes to do. like someone said, depends too, on how many days vacation you have. have a magical trip either way.:sohappy:

 

[Robfasto]

One important thing to remember....

It is not just a 2 hr flight anymore, you need to add at least 5 hrs to that total to allow for getting to the Airport early, checking in, getting luggage in Orlando and getting to Disney.

Of course if you have to drive to the Airport and have a layover anyplace then the 5 could become 7 or 8 easy.

The last 2 times someone from our family has flown down it is taken nearly 9 hours... they can drive in 10.

 

[Spring Breeze]

my question is which do you think i s more affordabel. i am looking at going in august. i live in arkansas. trying to decide if it is worth driving and saveing a little money or flying. i know if i drive then i can take my time and site see and stuff. also i know that i can get around. but is the time worth the freedom. casue i am looking at a 17 hour drive. to a two hour plane ride. so what do you guys think?

Depending on the Distance. if you like in a place like california it may be good to fly because chances are the motels and gas prices will rank higher then a plane back to back

 

[DisneyMarg]

I want to second Robfasto's comment. Flying takes a LONG time these days, and delays are very common. I travel with my job every week and it is not unusual for a flight to get delayed until the wee hours of the morning or to be cancelled all together.

And I haven't read all the posts entirely so someone else might have mentioned this, but how important is it to you to have transportation when you get there. Renting a car adds a whole additional layer of expense. If you don't mind taking only the Disney transportation and not going anywhere else, then it won't be a problem. But we like to go to the grocery store and sometimes the outlets (there are jillions of them) and we feel trapped without a car. Plus, my husband doesn't like waiting for the Disney busses - it is nice to just hop in your car when you are ready to go.

Last time we went we flew, but there were just two of us, we stumbled onto a cheap (and direct) flight, and we were meeting up with some other folks who were already there and we didn't want to spend a day driving when we could be with them in the parks. Plus it was just for a long weekend. But we normally drive and that's part of the adventure.

 

[Dwarful]

Ok I am currently watching for cheap airfare for august as well. Currently we could go in May roundtrip non stop from stl to orlando for $111 per person. If we can get that price in august we will fly.
We drove in Dec. 3 vehicles, 13 people. Took us 17 hours total drive time. we did stop after atlanta and then got up early and started up again.
We usually drive though. I agree that now airports add on several hours esp. on your return trip home. As others have said, our last few fly downs have been quite long..we hit bad weather and ended up in Cincinnati - we could have rented a car and driven from Cin. to home in less time than we spent at the Cin. airport! (trust me w/6 kids that was not fun).

One bonus on your departure day, if you drive you set your departure time. In Dec. we didn't end up leaving Disney til 5pm, but it was great. Everyone had a full tummy and it made for a quiet trip home!

 

[Disneyfanman]

We have done both, but usually end up driving. We would rent a car anyway.