My first trip to Walt Disney World was when I was 18. My family was on a budget so we drove and stayed off site. My dad drove the entire 19 hours straight through. We left in the middle of the night and actually had to call and book the hotel a night early because we got there so fast!
I had never really considered doing it again. My husband and I always fly, even when Kennedy was a baby we never considered driving. That is until this trip! I thought I'd share our thought process a bit to help you and your family decide!
There are three things that came into consideration when we decided to drive vs. fly
#1 Time
Ok so this seems like a no brainer right? The flight is typically about 2.5 hours vs the almost 24 that it will take to drive to Florida...but it's not so simple!
If we fly out of our local airport that's a half an hour away. Plus we have to show up 1.5-2 hours early so we are already at 2.5 hours. Add that to the 2.5 hour flight and we are at 5 hours and we've just landed! Now add on another 2 hours to get off the plane, collect our luggage and either grab our rental car or get on Magical Express. Now we are at 7 hours total. Ok so for time, flying definitely wins out!!
#2 Convenience
This will be our first trip with 2 kids...a toddler and a baby. Some aspects seem totally daunting...like making it through the airport with all our luggage, strollers, car seats...kids!! The conversation started with whether or not we were going to use Magical Express or rent a car. Once we decided to rent a car then we had to decide whether we'd bring car seats or rent them...same with the stroller. Our choices were either spend more money to rent or go through the hassle of dragging them through the airport.
We also typically place a grocery order from WeGoShop.com. We realized if we drive we could pack all the diapers, food and necessities we needed! Convenience wins out!
#3 Cost
I think this was the biggest factor for us...it's a number's game! Let's take a look!
Flying
Flights 3- $900
Car Rental-$225
Minimall we are at $1,125 without renting a stroller or car seats...which means dragging all our luggage, carry-ons, car seats and strollers through the airport with 2 kids.
Car Seat Rental-$90
Double Stroller Rental-$60
Total-$1,225
Driving
This one is tricky because you should consider wear/tear on the car as well as gas.
Gas-Roughly $400 give or take $50.
Hotel-Our plan is to drive straight through and get to Disney a night early. Right now the rate is $208. On the way home we'll spend far less and stop somewhere along the way. Hopefully for less than $100 per night.
Food- We'll pack most of our food but probably budget $50 each way for meals.
We won't be renting anything as we'll bring our own stroller and obviously have the car seats. So right now we are at roughly $800. Price wins out!!
Ultimately you have decide what works for your family. This time around we are going to give driving a try. It's not just about the price to us but the convenience of throwing everything in the car and just going. We'll have our own car to drive around. Plus we'll have more room to bring home souvenirs!!!
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I'm with you on flying being a time saver, anything over 3-4 hours, I'd prefer to fly. However, we're also driving for our trip in December, a 15 hour drive. Yikes! We're also staying off property (a friend has graciously offered for us to stay with her), so between driving and not paying for a hotel, this trip will be certainly cheaper and I'm all for that. Cause saving ON trips means more money for MORE trips!
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