Driving or flying????

[criddopher]

I flew once, and I drove once from PA. With driving to the airport, and all that airport stuff both ways take nearly the same time. 12 hours flying from house to disney, 14 driving. I prefer driving, planes freak me out a lot. Plus the hassle of TSA treating us like inmates isn't cool. It's also cheaper to drive, even with staying at a hotel over night. As far as getting over the anxiety, either fly every time, you'll get used to it I imagine, or see if a doctor will give you something for the trip if you don't mind that kind of thing...

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

One flight I had a couple next to me that seriously white-knuckled it the entire way. Literally squeezed the armrests-starting straight ahead the entire flight. Didn't even acknowledge the attendant when cabin service came around.

Yikes!
On DH and my first flight together, he was just like that. His complexion turned grey and he was close to vomiting the entire flight. When the flight attendant came over to ask him for his drink preference, he continued staring at the floor and didn't acknowledge her. She looked at me with a wide-eyed nervous look and I said "two waters please!" She walked away with the same expression

 

[allgiggles]

My husband hates to fly. He'll do it for business, but there's no reason to put him through that stress and anxiety for a family vacation. He starts stressing about the flight about 2 days ahead of time so that would definitely put a damper on our vacations. He gets 25 days of vacation and 3 personal days (along with 10 company holidays) that have to be taken by 12/31 each year or they are lost. Like a PP mentioned, making sure he takes those 28 days off every year can be a challenge. So he takes at least 7 or 8 when we make a trip to Disney. We usually leave on a Saturday (I do all of the packing -- including the car) and return home on a Monday. He always takes off on that Tuesday as well just so he can get caught up on things at home (like lawn mowing). It's about a 1,000 mile trip (one way) to Disney for us and we do that over a day and a half. We drive about 14 hours the first day (including gas and bathroom stops and a nice leisurely lunch at a Cracker Barrel or somewhere similar. We stay overnight in Savannah, GA and get a good night's sleep. We're on the road by 8:00 a.m. the next morning and typically arrive at our resort around noon. Since we don't need to "rush" our drive, we arrive at Disney fresh and ready to go. We have lunch at the resort; unload the car; and we've been at Epcot as early as 3:00 without rushing.

We enjoy the drive and our kids travel well in the car. We have landmarks we watch for along the drive and always do the license plate game. While the ride down is much more exciting, the drive home really isn't that bad for us. It gives us a day and a half of "limbo" before we have to return to reality. Cost wise, it's definitely less expensive for us to drive as we have 5 kids. Hotels and gas usually run us about $500-650 depending on the trip. We don't add the cost of meals to our expenses because we have to eat whether we're driving or sitting at home -- and even if it was a staycation, we'd be going out to eat. Same with the wear and tear on the car -- we keep our cars until they need to be hauled to a junk yard, so it's an insignificant cost for us -- it really just means we'll need a "new" car a few weeks earlier than if we didn't drive. We'll put the same number of total miles on the car whether we make a 2,000 mile drive to Disney or just drive 2,000 miles around home. Not to mention, long distance miles are easier on a car than all the stop-and-go of my everyday driving.

 

[Figgy1]

I flew once, and I drove once from PA. With driving to the airport, and all that airport stuff both ways take nearly the same time. 12 hours flying from house to disney, 14 driving. I prefer driving, planes freak me out a lot. Plus the hassle of TSA treating us like inmates isn't cool. It's also cheaper to drive, even with staying at a hotel over night. As far as getting over the anxiety, either fly every time, you'll get used to it I imagine, or see if a doctor will give you something for the trip if you don't mind that kind of thing...

Welcome aboard

 

[slappy magoo]

Do your weeks/days not roll over from year to year? If I leave my company with available vacation days, I get a payout for them. Meaning every day I use is a day I don't get paid for when I leave.

Everyone's job is different when it comes to vacation. Many jobs it's strictly "use or lose." I get 4 weeks paid vacation and anywhere from 3-10 floating paid days depending on our profits the previous year. But those floating days when I get them are use or lose. The 4 weeks guaranteed paid vacation, I can carry over up to 2 weeks a year max, and those carryover days must be used by end of June.

 

[slappy magoo]

We have mostly driven. Our very first trip, 2 years before getting married, we flew down. We got there in-between hurricanes, but the hurricane coming was threatening to be huge. They even told us that Friday that the parks would not open on Saturday and perhaps on Sunday (Sunday being our official checkout/fly home day). We got permission from our rental car company to drive the car out of state and drop it off at the Philly airport (didn't even charge us for not filling up the tank). We've driven mostly ever since. Did the Auto Train one year, I liked it, wife didn't so much. Now that we have two kids, we're talking about flying but it's more than twice as much driving as it would be to fly, and that includes a night stayover each way. Also considering Auto Train down, driving back, which is my preference. Coming home, I don't mind all that driving. Going there, even if we don't sleep all that much on the train, we have more freedom of movement, and will only drive for an hour after that, and be on site sooner compared to driving. But it's 200-300 bucks more.

 

[Weather_Lady]

You can drive (if you actually enjoy driving), or look into the cost of bus/train travel from your area. OR fly with a trusted friend and any anti-anxiety medication your doctor might prescribe, and sign up for a course to help you with your flight-related anxiety. It's such a common fear to have that many airports offer classes to help it, and online assistance is available as well. (e.g., http://www.fearofflying.com/)

If my family lived 12 hours or less away from WDW, we'd drive, but as it would take us 21+ hours to get there from our home (not including stops for meals, breaks and sleep), flying is the most practical option for us.

 

[daisyduckie]

I fly. But then it is over 20 hours from where I live to WDW. And I can only take one week of vacation at a time, so no way am I wasting 4 days of the driving. I'm not the best flyer in the world either, but as long as I am distracted I'm good. I load up my Nook with books I know I am looking forward to reading. Sometimes I pay for wi-fi too. I also have some meds from my Dr, but I don't always take them. Knowing I have them is sometimes enough, kwim?

 

[Stellajack]

My DH and I always fly down from NC even though the drive is not nearly as long for us as it is for some of you. However, in Feb. I was with 5 other ladies driving down for a runDisney event. I do not want to make this drive if it is not absolutely necessary! We definitely enjoyed being with each other but we were all very tired on arrival.

 

[Uncle Lupe]

Fly direct if possible. Costs more but time is money. I want to maximize my vacation time.

 

[Seanual757]

We drive but then again I am 20 minutes from WDW , If I was out of state I would travel by air.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

We definitely prefer flying unless we're stopping in Hilton Head or someplace on the way. It's 16 hours by car, but only 2 1/2 hours in the plane, plus about 3 hours travel to the airport and in the airport and 1-2 hours to the resort, so about 9-10 hours less of travel time. So worth it to wake up at home and be in DHS by the afternoon. We also don't really need the car. We stay most of our time in BCV or BWV, so we can walk to Epcot and DHS, and we don't like driving to MK and dealing with parking, so even when we've had a car, we've mostly just taken the bus, except basically to AK and Disney Springs. Basically, just feel flying is quicker and easier and don't really need a car down there.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

We drive but then again I am 20 minutes from WDW , If I was out of state I would travel by air.

Lucky duck

 

[donaldtoo]

Fly, fly, fly, fly, flyyyyy...!!!!!
We're a 20-22 hr. drive away, or, about a 3 hr. flight, and the most time we can get off work, at a stretch, is usually only about a week...y'all do the math.
Plus, we don't have a prob with any of the airport stuff...to us, it's all just part of the excitement of the trip!
And, although flying isn't one of DWifeys favorite things, the kiddos all like it, and I'm a bona fide flying nut...!!!!!
Helicopters, vintage WWII aircraft, commercial aircraft, etc. I'll take it all...!
I just kick back, have a coupla' beers (when we've flown out in the afternoon/evenin' ), read, surf the net on my phone, maybe snooze a little. Next thing I know the wheels are hittin' the runway.
I love it...!

 

[YozhikRoth]

This came up on another thread, a friend goes 2x a year, and to save costs he drives his whole crew overnight from Long Island. He usually leaves at 9-10 at night, getting at WDW about 2pm the next day. That lets the kids sleep through most of the trip, and he and his wife split the driving. Between gas and tolls, it's about $150 each way.

 

[Stellajack]

This past Feb. I traveled down to Disney with 5 other ladies for the Run Disney Princess event. Our route was I-95 and I-4. We approached Orlando around 4:00 pm. Because of traffic and highway construction it took us well over an hour to get through Orlando. Is this because of the time of day, stop and go traffic, construction or all of the above? When I read the responses of those of you who usually drive, no one seems to mention any problems with driving through Orlando. Do you take alternate routes or just add that time into your timetable for arrival?

 

[allgiggles]

This past Feb. I traveled down to Disney with 5 other ladies for the Run Disney Princess event. Our route was I-95 and I-4. We approached Orlando around 4:00 pm. Because of traffic and highway construction it took us well over an hour to get through Orlando. Is this because of the time of day, stop and go traffic, construction or all of the above? When I read the responses of those of you who usually drive, no one seems to mention any problems with driving through Orlando. Do you take alternate routes or just add that time into your timetable for arrival?

I can't speak for the others, but we typically travel through Orlando around 10:00-11:00 on a Sunday morning and haven't ever had any serious traffic issues. The I-4 project was already underway when we drove through last June and while we had a few slow downs because of it, it wasn't anything major. However, about 45 minutes *before* we got to Orlando (just shortly after we exited I-95 for I-4, we were stopped for an hour because of an accident that happened less than a 1/4 of a mile in front of us. That was miserable. We have a 1,000 mile drive and to be >that close< and not be able to move an inch was torture. Fortunately, while the accident stopped traffic for quite a while, it didn't appear as though anyone was seriously hurt -- no one left by ambulance. And to add insult to injury, while we were sitting there I got the text that our room was ready and we could go straight to it when we arrived. <sigh>.

I know that many I-95 to I-4 travelers are actually heading over to 417 to avoid the Orlando traffic. It's a longer route and has tolls but depending on the time of day, it's probably as fast or faster than staying on I-4 (based on what I've read). When we head down in June this year, we'll actually be arriving on a Monday so I suspect we will hit a lot more traffic through Orlando. I'm considering taking the 417 route this time.

 

[jonabyte]

This past Feb. I traveled down to Disney with 5 other ladies for the Run Disney Princess event. Our route was I-95 and I-4. We approached Orlando around 4:00 pm. Because of traffic and highway construction it took us well over an hour to get through Orlando. Is this because of the time of day, stop and go traffic, construction or all of the above? When I read the responses of those of you who usually drive, no one seems to mention any problems with driving through Orlando. Do you take alternate routes or just add that time into your timetable for arrival?

We normally come down I-75 take the turnpike, then 429. We have used I-4 but found it too busy coming in during the day.

 

[jonabyte]

Anyone here driving from Canada? We usually do it in two days due to the border crossing, and you can't plan your time around that.

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

In the past we have driven and flown. I personally prefer to fly because it takes less time. We come from NJ so it's quite a haul. Like other posters have said the drive down is totall fine, but the drive back can seem like forever.

With that said, we are going next August and we are planning to drive, BUT if airfare is cheap enough we will definitely fly. The prices of flying lately are through the roof for a growing family of 5!! It just doesn't make sense to fly if it's more than $200 per person (with luggage included-which is hard to find). I'm secretly hoping that airfare is cheap, bc I prefer to fly... Also, we are open to driving a rental car/van down and flying back, just because that drive home really does stink... Nothing is fun when you're coming HOME from Disney... Lol