Who drives?

[Tim]

Our family always drives from NJ to WDW. I think the two days of driving helps us to clear our heads of all the other stressful stuff and gives us a buffer of time between work and vacation. Especially on our last trip, I really needed to relax so I was able to forget about work and other nonsense on the way. I wouldn't have enjoyed my first view of the castle half as much if I still had the stress on my mind.

Plus, since we prefer to drive while in the parks, it's more convenient to have our own wheels. :-)

That's how I feel. The drive builds up the anticipation and it allows you to slow down and decompress. We're always going a mile a minute every day of the year. The drive allows for family bonding and down time.

[Tim]

We drive from Jersey to Disney. I have two children, ages 4 & 2. My son's first trip was when he was 8 months old. My daughter's first trip was when she was 6 months and my son was 2 1/2. Aside from all the stuff we had to bring, it wasn't bad. I realize as they get older, there's less stuff we have to pack.
I prefer to fly, just because you get there faster. I didn't start driving until I met my husband. Actually, I don't do the driving. He does.

Do you drive through or do you stop?

[Blackjack Joe]

I won't drive anything that takes more than 10 hours, and even when I do that much, quite often I break it up staying somewhere overnight on the way. If I was doing Chicago to WDW, I'd fly. I'm flying to Las Vegas next Sunday, and that's about 541 miles away.

[edwardsfire]

We drive from Ohio, its a 2 day trip (one if you drive straight through, which i get too restless to do) but its far cheaper than flying (4 of us) and we like having our vehicle there. That also saves on rental cars.

[joanna71985]

My family has always driven to WDW (since it's too expensive for us to fly). The drive takes around 19 hours, split over 2 days.

[fanboy1217]

We drive from Chicago to WDW every year and sometimes twice. I have flown once and hated it. I suggested to my daughters maybe we'd fly again to save time and they vehemently opposed the idea. They'd rather make the 1200 mile journey in a mini van. It's become a major part of our trip. Anyone else prefer to drive? I could save two days and quite a bit of gas, but what fun would that be?

Hey! I live in the south suburbs! GO SOX!

Seriously though... i think the only time i flew was when my parents won tickets to orlando. Any other time we drove. my dad would drive straight through the night and then just sleep when we got to our hotel. It's not cheap to fly 6 people (My dad, mom, 2 sisters, myself, and my aunt).

Now that i am older i was contemplating flying vs driving last year, but it was so expensive to fly. I will be going back for the 1/2 marathon in 2011 and I have decided to drive. I actually like driving long distances, very theraputic. Just me some beverage, snacks, and the open road. It's nice to see the country and stop off at different places when needed to.

[GIOny]

We drive from NY, I don't like to fly. We make it fun by stopping at back road restaurants (we have found some really good places) and sometimes some of the local sites (depends how much time we have). We stop for the night because when we get to Disney I like to be ready for the challange, if we were to drive through the night I would just want to sleep all day.

[Tim]

We drive from Ohio, its a 2 day trip (one if you drive straight through, which i get too restless to do) but its far cheaper than flying (4 of us) and we like having our vehicle there. That also saves on rental cars.

We do the same exact thing. I could drive through but why? It's too hard on the kids. We stop in Perry Georgia. Besides, we like to have our own car and go at our own pace.

[Blackjack Joe]

Driving from California would take at least 3 or 4 days each way. That's a lot of time not to be at Disney. When you add in the cost of a room each night, it really is cheaper to fly from here. Plus I usually have at least one if not two roundtrip vouchers from Southwest from my SWA Visa Rewards card.

[ImaMouser]

My flight story from January, 2008:

We leave home about 4:00 am for the airport. We get to Nashville airport about 4:45am for our 6:00 flight. No problems checking in so we are sitting waiting an hour for our flight to leave. We fly out on time to our connection in Atlanta. Have a flight out of Atlanta about 9:00am so we have about 1 1/2 hours layover. BUT....our flight out of Atlanta has been cancelled because it it stuck in the north because of weather. So I struggle to find the information counter for our airline to see what our options are. She says we have been bumped to the next flight to Orlando which leaves at 11:00 am. So we wait for 3 1/2 hours in Atlanta. The flight leaves on time and we land in Orlando about 1:30pm. After the DME bus ride we get to our resort about 2:30ish.

Bottom line; It's about a 10 hour drive from my house to WDW. If we left our house at 4:00am CST and drove we would have arrived at WDW about 3:00pm EST. It took us about 9 1/2 hours to fly and cost us about $800 more than it would have to drive. We saved about 30 minutes.

[Blackjack Joe]

ImAMouser,

But that's (hopefully) atypical. Yes there can always be delays when flying. For me, even on a drive to Disneyland, around 6.5 hours, I feel more refreshed arriving when I fly, which is not very often,

My trip to Vegas on Sunday would be close to a ten hour drive, it'll take around an hour and thirty-five minutes to fly there. Fortunately, we have non-stop flights from San Jose to Vegas on Southwest.

[Tim]

Hey! I live in the south suburbs! GO SOX!

Seriously though... i think the only time i flew was when my parents won tickets to orlando. Any other time we drove. my dad would drive straight through the night and then just sleep when we got to our hotel. It's not cheap to fly 6 people (My dad, mom, 2 sisters, myself, and my aunt).

Now that i am older i was contemplating flying vs driving last year, but it was so expensive to fly. My fiance and i made a stop in South Carolina to see her aunt and uncle and then from there we went to WDW. I will be going back for the 1/2 marathon in 2011 and I have decided to drive. I actually like driving long distances, very theraputic. Just me some beverage, snacks, and the open road. It's nice to see the country and stop off at different places when needed to. Driving also gave me a chance to just talk and bond more with my fiance.

Go Bears!!!!!

[disneydreamer98]

We do and we are leaving tomorrow!!!

We used to fly, but we haven't since our youngest was born in 2004. To be honest, we decided it was much easier to take our own vehicle with our own carseats and lots of space for all the extras you need with two young kids.

We drive from Michigan and it takes us about 20 hours of driving time, give or take and hour or two depending on traffic, construction, weather, accidents and of course...potty breaks!

We love having our own vehicle at the parks as well. Makes it so much easier to go to the parking lot and get in your car rather than wait for a bus at the end of a long day.

[NC_WDW_Daddy]

We drive from NC every year. We split the drive into two days so we do not have more than 6 hours in the car. Part of the fun is making the trip and letting the excitement build. We also rent a vacation home offsite and need our car.

[DopeyDancer87]

My family and I have done the drive from Long Island, NY to Disney 7 times, and my parents refuse to do it anymore, which is sad because I enjoyed the 2 day road trip and seeing all the different things along I-95, and there is nothing like celebrating every time you pass over a state line. It's also a good experience for younger kids so they could learn geography and fun facts about the state and see how people in other parts of the country live.


I miss driving, maybe one day I get do the trip with my friends or something just for old time's sake :-)