To Drive or Fly

[kemmerlinj2]

Hello!

Just had a quick question to get some feedback and opinions on whether to fly or drive from the Raleigh, NC area to WDW for my grad trip in 2019. I won't be getting out of my graduation until noon and our plan is to leave for WDW immediately after. My college is an hour away from RDU airport and 8.5 hours from WDW without stops. I can get a nonstop through Southwest for December for around $320 roundtrip. Of course we don't plan on going to the parks that first night. My only real concern is getting to the Disney resort too late and going to the parks early the next morning. Any suggestions or opinions one way or another would be great! Thanks guys!

 

[PSUGuy]

It looks like a drive of a little over 8 hrs and if so, I'd drive. When you figure in airport security and getting to WDW from MCO to me a flight wouldn't be worth the cost and time. Spend the money saved on yourself. I imagine you should be in bed by 10:30 or so and even a guy like myself with an AARP card, that would be enough sleep.

Bill From PA

 

[rwdavis2]

I too would drive if it was about 8 hours and I had enough vacation where the driving days didn't bleed into vacation time.

 

[Snowy_pvb]

we drive from Michigan... its a 17 hour drive (without breaks) we usually leave around 7am and stop in Macon, GA... then its a quick 6 hours drive on arrival day.

 

[Euby]

Save the money and drive. The only time that I fly is if the cost of the flight round-trip would be less than what it would cost in gas and hotel over-nights.

 

[sam_gordon]

$320RT is too high for me. I'd drive, and we're 12 hours away. Keep stalking airfares because if you find a sale, you may find it worth it. IMO, you can't just compare the cost between driving & flying, but the time savings too. If you're an hour away from RDU + 2 hours preflight + 2 hour flight + 90 minutes to resort, that's still 6 1/2 hours. So you'd save 2 hours by flying. If the flight tickets were sub $200, I'd fly.

 

[mco65]

For me, the sweet spot between driving vs flying is 6 to 7 hours.. if the drive is more then i prefer to fly but that does not take into account the cost of the flight... I fly free (standby) because my wife works at Delta... Still, i prefer to drive to WDW because we are about 7 hours away. We do fly often but many times, i drive with the kids and she flys... Our last trip, my wife and daughter flew and me and the boys drove... (we all drove back) depends on the standby list to be honest.

So at 8 to 8.5 hours of drive time, I would opt to fly as long as the cost was not a concern. Even at that distance your still only saving a few hours by flying but sometimes those precious few hours are well worth it.

 

[monorailsilver]

I would drive. You are an hour from the airport, you have to be there at least an hour before, then an hour on the plane?-not sure how long the flight is. And then DME could take an hour.

That is easily half the drive. I am a bit jealous, I would drive if we were only 8 hours. Sure it’s a long time in the car but we drive from CT to Ft. Myers and it ended up being 23-24 hours with an overnight stop...with our 3 kids and my mother.

 

[loves to dive]

We are 7 1/2 hours away and always drive. We would have to fly out of Atlanta, which is a good 90 min. drive away from our house. So by the time we drive to Atlanta, park go through security, fly down, wait for the bus, etc. we can drive down. We find the drive easy. If you get out by noon and it's a 8 hour drive, you are going to be there by 8 or 9, easy enough to get a good nights sleep and still get to the park early the next morning. We do split stays with the first night in a value or moderate then moving over to our permanent resort. It doesn't make sense to me to pay for a moderate or deluxe for that first night.

 

[AngiTN]

I'm going to buck the trend. We are about 8.5, 9 hours away. We never drive, we always fly.
We have 2 choices,
Fly from here, and change planes, typical trip is 5 hours (with the 1 hour lay over)
Or
Drive 2 hours to Atlanta, take 1 hour flight.
Which I do depends on what prices I find.
Couple years ago, I got Southwest for $49 each way, so we flew from Atlanta. Then prices went up last year, and when I checked prices from here it was less than $100 less to just fly from here so we did that for several trips.
Now, flights here are back up and flights from Atlanta are at $52 so we are back doing Southwest again.
Sorry, I'm not driving 8-9 hours when I can fly, with a total of 3, 3.5 hours, for $110.
I'd love to get back to flights from here quite honestly but if not, I'll stick with Southwest. We don't go if it's driving. I can't/won't sit in the car for that long. My bones can't handle it.

 

[sponica]

Are you sure about that time you'd be getting out of the graduation? If I've learned anything from the one diploma ceremony I went to (and the one I opted to skip), they never run on time. I say fly but make sure you're choosing an itinerary late enough that you won't miss the flight (or save your sanity and fly the next day).

 

[kemmerlinj2]

Are you sure about that time you'd be getting out of the graduation? If I've learned anything from the one diploma ceremony I went to (and the one I opted to skip), they never run on time. I say fly but make sure you're choosing an itinerary late enough that you won't miss the flight (or save your sanity and fly the next day).

I've actually watched the last two winter graduations online and both times they ended earlier than they were "scheduled for." We aren't a big school (about 8000 students) so our winter graduations are always smaller. And I've already told my mom she better get graduation pics before and the graduation dinner will be the night before lol. She's more than ok with it!

 

[Shanti]

We live too far away to drive in one day, so it's a non-issue for us, but when traveling in general, I would always fly rather than drive.