Driving to Disney... to drive or not to drive, that is the question!?!

T

thomas998

Well-Known Member
alissafalco said:
How far is too far to drive to WDW? How far have you driven from? Is it really worth saving the air fare? I'm from the northeast and Google says it would take me about 17 hours to drive. Unless you're an RV family and into the journey as part of your vacation, I don't see that as practical. "Save up and fly right", that's my motto! What's your opinion?
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For us it depends on the amount of time I can take-off... If I can get more than a week I would rather drive, if I can only get a week or less then I am stuck with flying because I don't have the time to drive.... For me the drive is 18 hours and because my wife doesn't like it when I drive straight through it take two days each way.

But then I like to drive and used to drive from Boston to Tulsa straight through when I was in college on all the time... I'm also cheap and know that if I do drive I don't just save the airfare I save the rental car expense too... On a typical trip I can easily save $2,000-3,000 by driving.
 
J

jim1051

Active Member
We have done both. We actually prefer to drive from SE PA. 16 hours, 1000 miles. We leave early(3 AM) and do it in one day. We stay at DVC Villas, take breakfast foods and snacks for the week, have our own vehicle all week, can buy whatever we want and haul it back with us. This goes back to the second time we flew. Flight was delayed 5 hours. We had been awake for 8 hours by the time we got on our plane. We paid all that money and if I was driving I would be halfway there. We tried driving and liked it.
 
Tiggerish

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
We're only two people, and can usually get airline tix from NYC for around $200, so I think it would wind up being more expensive for us to drive. It would be interesting to see the country on the way down, and maybe some year after we've retired and have plenty of time on our hands, but for now, when we're only able to get away for a week or a long weekend, the speed and convenience of flying maximizes our vacation time and can't be beat.
 
habe20

habe20

Member
I do the 17 hour drive basically every year. It's not bad I guess I'm used to it after doing it for so many years. It seems to be getting quicker and quicker each year. It's fun to see how different the states are. Coming from NJ it's totally different in the southern states, just the atmosphere and surroundings. A good experience.
 
Tink0102

Tink0102

Well-Known Member
We will have a 10 hour drive. While I wish we could fly so that we could get there faster, from a financial stand point it just makes more sense to drive it. We can probably drive for about $300. less than flying and since we are on a tight budget if I have to choose between the convenience of flying or having more spending money then I have to go with more spending money.
 
Tink0102

Tink0102

Well-Known Member
and also driving is going to allow us a stop for a visit with some dear friends of ours who moved to Palm Coast last year. We will leave Eastern NC around 6am on a Saturday morning, drive to their house and visit the rest of the day, spend the night and then we will leave their house early Sunday morning for our Disney check in.
 
Tiggerish

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
figmentfan423 said:
One of the things I like about driving is when we do stop for gas is how many people I have met that are going to the world and then seeing them there! We always manage to meet at least one person who we see later in the trip!
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That sounds like fun--almost the inverse of some of the games people play in the car to ward off boredom. Instead of keeping an eye out for a particular type of thing while on the road, you can make a game out of keeping an eye out at WDW for people you saw on the road! :D
 
foreverbelle

foreverbelle

Well-Known Member
We have done both...usually it depends on a few things.

1. Who is going.
2. How long we are staying-shorter trips=fly longer=drive.

Coming from outside the DC area, its about a 14 hour drive I believe. We find we enjoy driving from time to time, it gives us the longer vacation feel. But it helps that we have family in NC and Florida so the stops to see them are worth it as well...
 
JillC LI

JillC LI

Well-Known Member
Forget the kids - if I personally have to spend more than 8 hours in a car going somewhere, it is no longer a vacation to me! I hate driving. We live on Long Island, and even if it means visiting less often, I would NEVER consider driving to WDW. More power to those of you who enjoy it. Putting aside the drive itself, we rarely have more than 5 days to spend there, so that would mean about 1 day if we had to set aside 2 days to drive each way.
 
aleyva

aleyva

Member
It's only about a 3 hour drive from SW Florida. It isn't bad at all. It gets easier each trip we take. We have it easy! :rolleyes: When we lived in North Carolina, we did make that 18ish hour trip to WDW..That was fun with a family of 5. I prefer the quick 3 hour trip! :)
 
Disnee4Me

Disnee4Me

Well-Known Member
We've driven 4 times. The first (we left CT at 10 p.m.) and someone hit us at 3:00 a.m. just north of Washington, DC. We left our car in Virginia (a lot of damage) and rented (insuranced paid) and drove down. We had left CT on a Wednesday night (as I said at 10 p.m.) and didn't get to WDW until Friday night at 9 p.m. ... a total disaster. This was in '98 and we got caught in Hurricane Bonnie on our drive back home. We didn't attempt to drive again until 2007, it seemed like it took forever to get there, then in 2008, a bad snow storm the day before we left (and my son had a bad car accident, although not hurt), took forever again. Then in 2009 there was a bad snow storm in Virginia ... took forever again. We just don't have any luck. However, if we do go this year (Christmastime), both my DS will be driving so with 4 drivers, it hopefully should take forever to get there.
 

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