Help me, I'm Decision Impaired (How to Get to Disney)

[NCRedskins]

I've been debating the following decision for the past week:

- We are coming from Raleigh, NC in mid-September for our Orlando trip. My kids are 5, 3 and 1 and are hit or miss when it comes to long drives.

- Driving looks like it will be 9 hours without stops. We would likely leave in the wee hours in order to maximize time the kiddos are sleeping, but all told it would probably be a 12 hour ordeal. My wife thinks we need to grab some portable DVD players, etc and with gas and all it would probably be a couple hundred bucks.

- Flying Southwest, it looks like it's $123 per leg, or $1230 for the 5 of us. We'd have to rent a van on the other end which is another 300 bones

Generally speaking I'm against spending extra money in any way, but I also know my kids can be pretty iffy in the car. I feel like it might make the trip a lot easier if we just bite the bullet and fly.

Any tips? I know you all don't know my kids, but has anyone else driven with kids of similar ages? Is this a decent deal through Southwest?

 

[HRHPrincessAriel]

I hate driving so I'd fly.

 

[DaisyDoesDisney]

We did a 12 hour straight road trip one time when our kids were 8, 10, 12, and 14 (so older than yours and a lot more crowded in our vehicle). We left in the evening drove through the night and arrived at our resort around 8 AM. I had assumed that because the kids slept part of the way and my husband and I took turns driving versus napping that we'd somehow arrive ready to go just from shear excitement. I was wrong...... very wrong. We were all out of sorts for the first two days of our vacation. Ever since then we fly for any trip over five hours. Any savings just isn't worth it to us because the drive takes so much away from the trip overall. Every family is different but we are definitely not car people.

 

[Mukta]

I can see why you are so indecisive! Traveling with a baby is so hard.

Ok, let's say you got to bed right after work, wake up at 2 am or so and start driving. Wife takes over at some point and you get some shut eye. You still have to stop for diaper charges and feedings for the baby.
You'll arrive at 1 pm. Rest for the day, kids play at the pool and you hit the parks the next day.

Let's say you fly. You'll probably check luggage with so many people, so you arrive 2 hours before your flight. You arrive a few hours later. Why would you have to rent a van? Are you staying offsite?

 

[4disneylovers]

Tough one but make sure you count the hours on the flying too. For us we are at airport 2 hours prior, we have a 2 1/2 flight, then we have probably 40 minutes at airport and hour bus ride to hotel.

We come from Ohio so flying is no brainer for us. I think airfare is decent price.

 

[NCRedskins]

Thanks for the tips. Certainly leaning towards flying - even with the early arrival times and all of that it's still faster. We live about 7 minutes from the airport here.

We are staying offsite - had a timeshare through my family which made it essentially free, hence the rental car.

 

[sjv]

We drive down every year from NY with 5 kids ages 2 -16 and a dvd player ,coloring books , cd's with Disney songs and bathroom breaks about every 3 hours are all musts, if I wasn't so cheap I would fly but I cant talk myself into spending thousands on flying over hundreds to drive .

 

[brb1006]

I hate driving so I'd fly.

I prefer flying to the Orlando Airport since it's much faster compared to driving which took an entire day to get there. We reached Orlando the next morning since we drove back in 2004. I like taking the airport since it really makes you excited and not as boring when on the road.

 

[jackson2005]

Most airlines don't charge for under 2. We use to drive 14 hours when our kids were young always drove at night, they slept most of trip. Only problem is they will be well rested, you won't! Good luck

 

[ColoradoEquestrian]

Fly and save yourself the stress and time. You're on vacation too!

 

[SAV]

We drove down from Chicago about 12 years ago when my daughter was 2. We had the idea to leave very early in the morning so the first several hours of the trip would be her sleeping. That didn't work out as planned. She stayed up and then took a little longer nap later that day as we drove. For us it is a 2 day drive down, so she just caught up on her sleep that night. The thing that saved us was the Portable VCR we had in the car(Yep, it was that long ago that we had a VCR).

We have flown since, but will be driving down once again later this month because of the cost savings. And looking at your trip, you will be saving quite a bit by driving and not flying.

As was mentioned, take into account the total timings of flying: 2 hours early, 2 hour flight at least another hour to get luggage/rental and to the resort. So you'd be saving about 7 hours and at least $1000.

I'd just bite the bullet and drive down for the grand.

 

[stevehousse]

Have you looked at other air carriers besides southwest? You might be able to find some really good deals! Check Frontier or Spirit.

 

[sfeinst]

Drove once from CT. We stopped in NC as the 1/2 way point - pretty close to SC border though (so past 1/2 way). My kids were 10 and 12. The first day was tough, though the kids were fine. The second day did not go bad (which is what you would be driving). My kids were older so a lot easier for me and we stopped in Savannah GA for a couple of hours as a break. It was nice having our own van and it meant as much luggage as we wanted. The first day at Orlando was tough so we planned nothing for it but to rest. All went well.

The real killer was the drive back. Nothing to look forward to for the kids (or adults) so it was just one very long drive. By the time we got to NC, we were all tired from a week at the parks and the drive, and the last couple of miles was a real killer looking for a hotel. You'll be home as opposed to hotel, but it is a tough drive back.

My family said never again, though I was willing to do it.

 

[wdwfan757]

We drove from DC last year. If your kids can stomach it... I pulled an allnighter, took a halfday at work, took some Zzzzquill and slept from about 3pm to 11pm. We headed out at midnight, everyone slept in the car and I just pushed on through the night. One top at south of the border for gas and a breakfast biscuit. Everyone woke up by the time we got to jacksonville for gas. We headed over to DTD for a while, then went to the hotel. Everyone hit the pool and I took a much needed nap. Spent a nice long evening at MK. If your party can sleep in a car and you can handle driving in near silence for 8 straight hours, I don't think there's any better way to do it. Everyone was so exhausted that they slept the whole way home in broad daylight

 

[LAKid53]

I hate driving so I'd fly.

I hate flying, so I'd drive. But not 12 hours straight. Luckily I only live a 4 hour drive away.

They really need to perfect the teleport thing. "Beam me to Disney, Scotty".

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I would absolutely drive, and I wouldn't mess with leaving in the middle of the night either. 7a to 7p, super easy. That's a remarkably easy drive, especially to save yourselves $1,500 (or enough to fund food and souvenirs for the entire trip). Then everyone is in bed early and ready for rope drop the next day. When you start messing with traveling in strange hours, you run the risk of messing up your sleep cycle for the entire vacation.

 

[MickeyMomV]

With us its a 24+ hour drive so we always fly. With it only being 9 hours or so for you I would say drive and save the couple of hundred $'s and some time. It seems like flying would only save 3 or 4 hours but I could be wrong. I would also leave super early. Travel as much as you can with the kids sleeping. If they are sleeping they are not complaining, needing to go potty, hitting or touching each other, or hungry.

 

[blana]

I'm from near that area. We've always flown except our last trip, when our kids were 8, 5, & 1. Instead of doing the wee hours thing, we left about 4 in the afternoon, so we had a defined break for supper coming up & then were able to go pretty much with just a bathroom break or two from that point on. Littlest one slept after it got dark. Older kids played their DS's until we told them they needed to try to rest. And we made it a little after midnight, so not long after DH normally goes to bed. That worked pretty well for us. (And yes, we had the DVD player going as well as the DS's.) The way back was a different story, mainly because leaving when we did got us stuck in Orlando traffic, which, well, wasn't pleasant. And that way we had the car for side trips to UO & Legoland.

Growing up, we were about 12 hours away, and always drove, but once again, always started in the evening, so we'd fall asleep in the car. I'd worry about leaving early in the morning because then the kids get woken up to get in the car & may be hyped up enough to not sleep.

 

[sheriffwoody]

My husband and I don't have kids, but we hate flying, so we drive. Coming from West TN was about 12 hours last time. We took our time and left mid-morning, stopping along the way to eat and stretch our legs. We got to Orlando and checked into a cheap hotel nearby. Slept through the night and got up the next morning and went to the parks well-rested. We left the parks when our room was ready, so we could unload the car.

It does add and extra day (or two if you could the drive day home) to the trip, but it's just part of the experience for us. I'm sure it would be an entirely different experience with kids, so it's hard to really say what's best! I just happen to love road trips. Some of my favorite childhood memories are road trips. They are what you make of them!

 

[smk]

We drove from IN to Oregon twice when our kids were young! First trip was when they were 5, 7 , 9. (ALL BEFORE CELL PHONES AND TV'S IN THE CAR!) Next was 11 13 and 15....that was miserable. We always drive to Orlando now, but when they were younger for some reason we took a flight twice. It was ridiculous the amount of money went spent on airfare!! I like driving, so I vote drive, However we never drive in the wee hours, too risky that the driver will fall asleep, scares me to death!