Driving vs. flying

[Courtney1188]

I am planning a trip to Walt Disney World/Universal with my boyfriend in either early March or late April (those are the 2 times my college class schedule will allow me to go, leaning towards March basically because it's sooner and a slower time for him at work). He went to Disney a bunch of times as a kid, but has not been in the last 7 years or so. I go about every other year and have done the CP and am generally obsessed with Disney, haha.

Anyways, the issue we're having is deciding whether we will be flying or driving - we live in southern Michigan and it's about a 20 hour drive. I've drove for about 90% of the trips I've taken to Disney, so for me it's practically part of the experience - driving all day/night, listening to Disney music, taking turns sleeping, and just being super excited the whole way down. The couple times that my family has flown down, we always rent a car so we don't have to wait around for Disney transportation to get to the parks/hotel. Plus it's pretty expensive to fly and rent a car, and he wants to try to keep the price down a bit.

He's drove down there once (on a bus for a HS marching band trip), and says he'd end up sore and very tired. Also, he's always used the Disney transportation, but doesn't remember how long it took, and I don't have any personal experience but have heard some horror stories about it, but maybe it's gotten better.


Of course I don't want to start vacation with him sore and tired, but Im pretty hesitant on spending all that money on plane tickets (especially when we're trying to not spend too much), and then either spending more money on a rental car or having to use Disney transportation. Any opinions/experiences? He wanted to think about it for a few days, and I told him I'd post this to see if anyone had any opinions/experiences that could be helpful.

 

[kirinan]

My husband and I live in the Detroit area. The first two times we went to WDW, we flew down and rented a car, but every time since (four more times) we've driven, and now we wouldn't do it any other way. However, we're quite a bit older than you and your boyfriend (we're 51 and 54), so what we do is we break it up by staying in Chattanooga, TN overnight. My husband is not the best traveler (he can be as whiny as a little kid when he's uncomfortable), but by breaking the trip into two days instead of one long drive, he's never complained about being overtired from the trip. Like your family, we love the drive down--playing our CDs, talking, seeing different places. Of course, the drive back home is never as much fun, but at least it cushions the move back to reality a bit.

We always stay on property, but we like to have a car down there so we can go where we want, when we want (plus parking's free at the parks when you're a resort guest, so it doesn't cost us anything to have the car, in effect). We like to go to Downtown Disney, or take a drive to Celebration, and sometimes we do non-Disney things on one or two days like go to Kennedy Space Center.

We've never tried Disney transportation, but like everyone else, I've heard stories good and bad about using Disney transportation to get around. I just know I'd prefer not to have to wait for a bus, and I detest crowded buses, so I doubt we'll ever use their system on future trips.

On the flip side, you have my brother and his family (two daughters, now in their early 20s), who live in this area, too, and always fly down and use Disney transportation. They wouldn't do it any other way--they make long drives on other vacations, but to them, they want every minute of Disney they can squeeze out of their WDW vacations, so Magical Express, Disney transportation, etc. are part of what makes the trip so special to them.

Hopefully those pros and cons help a little--whatever you decide, though, have a wonderful time. We probably won't be going back for a couple more years, so I'll live through everyone else who posts here till then!

 

[Courtney1188]

My husband and I live in the Detroit area. The first two times we went to WDW, we flew down and rented a car, but every time since (four more times) we've driven, and now we wouldn't do it any other way. However, we're quite a bit older than you and your boyfriend (we're 51 and 54), so what we do is we break it up by staying in Chattanooga, TN overnight. My husband is not the best traveler (he can be as whiny as a little kid when he's uncomfortable), but by breaking the trip into two days instead of one long drive, he's never complained about being overtired from the trip. Like your family, we love the drive down--playing our CDs, talking, seeing different places. Of course, the drive back home is never as much fun, but at least it cushions the move back to reality a bit.

We always stay on property, but we like to have a car down there so we can go where we want, when we want (plus parking's free at the parks when you're a resort guest, so it doesn't cost us anything to have the car, in effect). We like to go to Downtown Disney, or take a drive to Celebration, and sometimes we do non-Disney things on one or two days like go to Kennedy Space Center.

We've never tried Disney transportation, but like everyone else, I've heard stories good and bad about using Disney transportation to get around. I just know I'd prefer not to have to wait for a bus, and I detest crowded buses, so I doubt we'll ever use their system on future trips.

On the flip side, you have my brother and his family (two daughters, now in their early 20s), who live in this area, too, and always fly down and use Disney transportation. They wouldn't do it any other way--they make long drives on other vacations, but to them, they want every minute of Disney they can squeeze out of their WDW vacations, so Magical Express, Disney transportation, etc. are part of what makes the trip so special to them.

Hopefully those pros and cons help a little--whatever you decide, though, have a wonderful time. We probably won't be going back for a couple more years, so I'll live through everyone else who posts here till then!

Thanks for the advice. We aren't planning on leaving the parks much, I pretty much like to stay within Disney the whole time we're there. We could stop on the way down, it's just an issue of that meaning we have to leave earlier, get home later, take more time off work, etc. He's pretty much given me control of the planning since I'm the one who's very passionate about Disney (he likes it, but isn't obsessive about the message boards and reading guidebooks like me). This is the only thing he's had a very clear opinion on so it seems like it might be best for me to go along with it and fly down...

...I'm just having so mch trouble picturing using the Disney transportation or handing over more money for a rental car! Argh. I think I'm just going to have to get over it, though.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

As I see it there are two issues - cost and tiredness.

If you're pretty much set on staying on Disney property then I don't see an issue with using their transportation - its free, convenient and allows you to get around stress free and relaxed. If you must venture out of WDW consider a bus or taxi

Total up fllghts and airport taxes and compare that against car fuel costs. Also consider 20 hours driving (and arriving tired and sore) against 2 hours (????) in a comfortable plane. I know how I'd be getting there.

 

[natalia1681]

I have to agree with Captain Hook. We live in East TN and it's about a 10 hour drive for us, which my husband has said that he will never do again. We always fly and use the Disney transportation. We take DME in and then we just use the buses, etc on site to get around. It works well for us.

I understand wanting to keep costs down. Perhaps their is a value airline (buyer beware:lookaroun) nearby which will help you cut costs on flying. My thought is that I like to get to the park asap and start enjoying. Taking 20 hours to drive, is at least 1-2 days down and 1-2 days back. That's 2-4 days that could be spent in the parks. Those are just my 2 cents! I hope that you have a great trip!:wave:

 

[Courtney1188]

Thanks for the advice guys...I think we will probably end up flying. It makes me feel better to hear from people who have used Disney transportation and have been happy with it.

 

[mickey7879]

If you're limited on time, just fly. We were planning on driving next week but decided to fly instead. We live in Maine and like to take 4 or 5 days to get there. I'm pregnant (29 wks when we leave and 32 wks when we get back) and have a 2 yr old. We drove in Dec when he was 15 months and did great. But dh really likes to fly (I get motion sickness so not so much fun for me). I gave in under the condition we take a direct flight on Jetblue so we'd also have the entertainment to keep us occupied. We had been planning on having our own minivan while we were there, so the thought of not having a car was really bugging us. We decided to rent one and started looking at prices. Started out at over $700 for the 3 wks we'll be in Florida (2 wks in Disney, 1 wk between U/IOA and Daytona Beach). I didn't book at that high price, but did at $530, then prices dropped to $492, $452, $409, $376 and finally $328. I rebooked each time so had a million ressies at once. So, you may be able to find a car rental in your price range. Just keep checking back several times a day and rebook if the price goes down. You could also always cancel the entire thing if you decide you don't want a car. Dollar had been the cheapest until it got to $376, then found one at Alamo for $352. Booked Alamo but then price dropped to $328. Alamo has a cancellation fee of $5 so we found it worth rebooking and just paying the $5.

We like to do mostly Disney, but the past few trips we've rented a car to stay offsite or offsite/onsite with our own car. Since then, we just feel like we "need" a car so we don't feel so trapped. We like to do a few outside things while were there and the freedom to go to Wal-Mart if we've forgotten something.

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[Monty]

I've driven and flown, I've only rented a car if we were going to stay off-site.

I will drive down next August, but we're planning two weeks instead of our usual one and will be going to USF/IOA, SW and possibly KSC in addition to WDW. While on-site I use Disney Transport and have never had any major issues doing so. It save some stress of driving tired at the end of a long day in the parks. I will drive if I have a vehicle when we're eating breakfast at a different resort, just because the resort-to-resort transport is a bit more trouble [not bad, just sometimes convoluted], but if we don't have a car we'll go by Disney Transport and we manage.

Flying down and depending on their transport is my preferred approach if we're staying on-site and staying within WDW while we're there. The August trip is expanded because Harry Potter is opening.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

We usually fly :ROFLOL:

 

[Courtney1188]

Thanks everyone...we ended up finding a very good price on plane tickets ($300 for both of us, round trip), and we would end up spending that much on gas anyways, so we got the plane tickets.