Decisions, decisions [driving vs flying; opinions?]
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Shawnam1868 · 10-30-2014, 11:43 AM

So, after having to postpone my last 2 Disney trips, I'm finally back to planning. This trip serves a few purposes, but the most important is it's my daughters graduation gift. The one glitch? Since we can't really go in the summer, we have to go over April school vacation. Bonus: We will be there for dh's birthday and the grad's 18th birthday

My issue: Since it is April vacation, airfare is through the roof. As of right now, it's going to be me, dh, ds, and dd. However, my other dd (she is 14, going to be 15) may decide to join us. The lowest price I'm getting for airfare for 4 of us is something like $1600, before baggage fees. Just out of curiosity, I checked rental car prices and for a small SUV, with taxes and fees, it's $700. I know I have to factor in gas and tolls, and we would definitely have to stop somewhere (we're coming from Boston) overnight. Thoughts and opinions on driving, or should I just bite the bullet and fly?

GingerJ · 10-30-2014, 12:02 PM

Flying is certainly more fun and much easier, but if it's a choice between driving and not going....then drive!

I regularly make 11-hour drives, alone or with teens, when my husband is working, so it's not a huge deal for me to make the 14-hour drive to Orlando from here.

You have a much longer drive, though! IF all three of you can switch off the driving, and IF you are all able to sleep in the car when not driving, OR if you plan to stop at a hotel along the way, driving sounds like the key for you.

However, I would still want to make sure that driving is a significant savings for you. I've noticed that MapQuest now will give you an estimated cost to drive; it even allows you to input the mpg you expect to get, so you can have an idea of the gas prices. And then, don't forget to count food on the road, tolls, and maybe 2 nights in hotels if you go that route. Adding all that to a $700 rental fee might come in close to the airfare.

I just input a notional round trip from Boston to WDW with an SUV getting 20mp highway, and it came back with a gas price of $483, and about 20 hours driving time each way. So, $490 for gas, $700 for the SUV, say $180 for hotels comes to $1370. A difference of $230 might not make driving worthwhile, especially when you consider that driving will pretty much eat up 4 days of your short vacation. The hotel might even cost more than that if you have to get 2 rooms for that size of a party.

After running some rough numbers, flying doesn't seem that much more expensive. Did you check kayak.com and Southwest? SW may not open up their fares for that far in the future yet. The price may yet go down, so keep looking and you may find something better. Some of the other cheapo airfare sites might even work for you, too.

! Ginger

mamasann · 10-30-2014, 12:10 PM

I don't know if they still have it or not.....but U.S. Air used to have a charge card. If you used their card, you would pay full price for one ticket and only $98 each for up to 2 companion tickets. If that's still in effect, you could fly for roughly $1000 instead of $1600. We used to use it. Outrageous interest on the card, but we would pay the bill in full when it came in so that wasn't as issue for us. It might be worth checking into??

HollyH · 11-09-2014, 07:20 AM

Depending on when your break is, you might still have an opportunity for cheaper airfare. Southwest has only opened dates until April 6 (I believe). And they don't charge luggage fees

Ginger makes some really good points about the cost of driving vs. flying. Will you really save enough to make 4 days on the road worth it to you?

I would also suggest checking other airports. Can I assume you've looked at flights out of Logan? Maybe try Providence, Hartford/Springfield or another airport that's a short drive away and see if the price is better. I often assume that the bigger airports will have the lower prices but that isn't always the case. For example, for our AK cruise we checked a variety of airports including Logan, Providence, Hartford/Springfield, JFK to fly to Vancouver. Hartford/Springfield had the lowest price in that case-not by a lot, but lower.

Also, what days are you flying on? If you move from a Sunday to a Monday, for example, prices will probably be cheaper. SW has a low fare calendar that lets you look at prices for a variety of dates. I have found that Sunday travel to/from Orlando is the most expensive by far. You might lose a day somewhere to save money, but IMO that is better than losing 4 days and having to deal with driving down.

Good luck!

HollyH · 11-09-2014, 08:15 AM

I did a quick search on SW for March dates (most of April isn't open yet) and this is what I found. These general numbers might help you in your search.

From Logan to MCO, and MCO back to Logan, changing flights from Sundays to Mondays on most dates in March will save $50 per person each way, $100 per person total. Taking into consideration the total flight cost, it's about a 30% savings. The Saturday fares are similar to Sunday fares, Friday fares similar to Monday fares.

I also looked at Manchester, NH and Providence, RI. On some dates Logan is cheaper, on others it's not. And it might be cheaper on one leg, but not the other. It's worth checking other airports for your specific dates to see what would be best for you but the savings in March generally aren't enough overall to switch airports if Logan is more convenient for you.

Edited to add: I did my searching on SW, but I believe that other airlines also charge more for weekends, at least to/from Orlando. Try moving days on the airline of your choice and see what happens.

HollyH · 11-09-2014, 08:46 AM

Sorry, here is post number 3 from me. I realize that you have to fit your trip into a vacation week and you might not be able to take days before/after the vacation week off. Keep in mind that you don't have to fly on Friday or Monday on both ends of the trip. If you were flying Sat to Sat, try Sat to Fri. If you were going Sun. to Sun., try Mon. to Sun. If you drive, chances are you would have to use both weekends to do so, down and back, so flying Mon. -Fri. trip will give you the same length of time at WDW and be less than the cost of driving. Things to consider, and again.....good luck!

roaminggnome · 11-09-2014, 08:52 AM

If you can fly during the week it is better than weekend due to pricing. Also possibly looking at a different time frame. I see you wanted to go during your April vacation time but if it would make the trip more affordable you might want to try March or even February. (I will probably get flayed for even suggesting taking your kids out of school but sometimes it just has to be done.)
We drove down once and vowed to never do it again. It takes time off the vacation and a couple days in the car seems to take the energy out of everyone. We started off the vacation tired. Good luck w/ your decisions.

HollyH · 11-09-2014, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roaminggnome

If you can fly during the week it is better than weekend due to pricing. Also possibly looking at a different time frame. I see you wanted to go during your April vacation time but if it would make the trip more affordable you might want to try March or even February. (I will probably get flayed for even suggesting taking your kids out of school but sometimes it just has to be done.)
We drove down once and vowed to never do it again. It takes time off the vacation and a couple days in the car seems to take the energy out of everyone. We started off the vacation tired. Good luck w/ your decisions.

I have taken my DS out of school for vacation and in general I don't have a big problem with it, but once kids get older (middle school and high school) it is harder for them to make up the work so I can see how one might want to avoid it. However, I work in a school and taking a week off for vacation that isn't a school break is a BIG problem, and in general can't be done. The only possibility would be to take unpaid time and probably get a disciplinary letter in my file too. Not worth it unless it was saving me BIG -i.e. a free trip. I just mention it because perhaps the OP has other reasons besides the kids missing school to choose those time frames.

And I agree with you wholeheartedly on the drive. Spending a huge amount of time in a car is exhausting and to be avoided at all costs in my book.

roaminggnome · 11-09-2014, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HollyH

I have taken my DS out of school for vacation and in general I don't have a big problem with it, but once kids get older (middle school and high school) it is harder for them to make up the work so I can see how one might want to avoid it. However, I work in a school and taking a week off for vacation that isn't a school break is a BIG problem, and in general can't be done. The only possibility would be to take unpaid time and probably get a disciplinary letter in my file too. Not worth it unless it was saving me BIG -i.e. a free trip. I just mention it because perhaps the OP has other reasons besides the kids missing school to choose those time frames.

And I agree with you wholeheartedly on the drive. Spending a huge amount of time in a car is exhausting and to be avoided at all costs in my book.

We live in a tourist town and getting time off from any employer is almost impossible from Memorial day to Labor day. We have had to schedule weddings and family parties around busy weekends in town. But I get flack from teachers on/off due to our previous vacations. But my children have always made up the work so I do not sweat it.

HollyH · 11-09-2014, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roaminggnome

We live in a tourist town and getting time off from any employer is almost impossible from Memorial day to Labor day. We have had to schedule weddings and family parties around busy weekends in town. But I get flack from teachers on/off due to our previous vacations. But my children have always made up the work so I do not sweat it.

It really does come down to the employers. The one time I took my DS out of school for vacation was because his break didn't coincide with mine. He can make up the work, but I can't make up the pay I would lose and the disciplinary letter isn't so great to have.

Shawnam1868 · 11-09-2014, 09:29 AM

I would love to just take the kids out of school, but since this is my daughters senior year, we're kind of stuck with April vacation. I figure a day or two on either side of the week won't make a huge difference. I am looking at leaving the Thursday before vacation and coming home the Thursday or Friday of vacation. I know with SW, it's almost always cheaper flying to Orlando from providence than it is from Boston.

HollyH · 11-09-2014, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shawnam1868

I would love to just take the kids out of school, but since this is my daughters senior year, we're kind of stuck with April vacation. I figure a day or two on either side of the week won't make a huge difference. I am looking at leaving the Thursday before vacation and coming home the Thursday or Friday of vacation. I know with SW, it's almost always cheaper flying to Orlando from providence than it is from Boston.

Mondays and Tuesdays are cheaper to fly than Thursdays and Fridays (using March dates, PVD to/from MCO as a gauge). And those Friday flights to MCO went up since I checked this morning, and the Tuesday flights went down so it goes to show that you have to keep checking. If you're looking for the best deal on airfare, I would try Mondays and Tuesdays first if you are flexible in your dates.

Her Dotness · 11-10-2014, 07:20 AM

I wouldn't drive it when you have only a week. Not from Boston.

We drove down in two days last year (a 16-hr. drive), could only afford four WDW nights, and then the drive home. We packed far too much into those four Disney days and were thankful that DH had the following week off as we needed every bit of it to recover. It was dumb, dumber, dumbest.

We're staying a full week this year, and I've told DH we cannot go commando like we did last year when we're then going up to Jersey for Thanksgiving with his family.

Nope, in your situation, I'd definitely fly. It's just too easy to arrive overtired and then never get very rested before that depressing drive home.

HollyH · 11-11-2014, 07:13 AM

Southwest opened flights for all of April yesterday. Hope you had some luck.

Huntermom · 11-15-2014, 12:02 PM

Also consider flying out of MHT. We have spring break a week later so you may get better fares. I also have done lots of short trips to Disney becuase I am able to get a lower fare. If you get a direct flight and are there in three hours, you can easily do both flights on a weekday.

Also, when you fly out of MHT, you are fine getting there barely an hour ahead (if not less). It is a small airport, there are seldom lines and easy to navigate around.