Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The flights to Orlando are cheap. Not worth it to drive.

Define cheap.

Frontier has $29 1 way Dulles to Orlando. Fly back for $49 or stay for 4 days and come back for 29. Also for cheapness and depending on where you live try BWI, Hagerstown to Sandford. Sandford is north of Orlando and is an airport that cheaply serves smaller markets for Disney.

It is Sanford, not Sandford.
Secondly, Frontier Airlines, you have to watch which days those fares are offered AND you have to pay for every single piece of luggage (carry on or not) you bring on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The flights to Orlando are cheap. Not worth it to drive.

Define cheap.

Frontier has $29 1 way dulles to orlando. Fly back for $49 or stay for 4 days and come back for 29. Also for cheapness and depending on where you live try BWI, Hagerstown to Sandford. Sandford is north of Orlando and is an airport that cheaply serves smaller markets for disney.

13ish hours from our house in NOVA. Stopped overnight in Florence, SC on way down. No extra touring just a Holiday Inn Express. Went straight through on way back. Left WDW at 9:30 am got to drive way at 11:00pm. Stopped for late lunch, early dinner at 3:30pm in SC.

It takes 13.5 hrs to go to Kissimmee (which is about 20 mi. south of WDW -- at least where we go in Kissimmee). IF we have some slow downs on 95, it may be 14 hrs. It is the max we can do in one day -- and it's what we do. Saves us a lot of $$. My parents live in Kissimmee (close to Poinciana). We stop at every rest stop for about 15 min, and for gas once, but other than that, we keep moving. We usually leave at 6:00 or 6:30 and get there about 8:00 p.m.

I like to pack our lunch and we eat at one of the rest stops. Then we eat at a McDs or Burger King for dinner. Options are very limited in southern Goeorgia or even South Carolina.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We drove and broke the drive up. Really wasn't so bad. And then you can go to less expensive restaurants when you are there without paying for a rental car. We stopped in Savannah. Take the free ferry across the river and back.

That's what I was thinking---break up the trip, have a car so we wouldn't have to stay on property.

There are 3 major perks for staying at a disney resort though - the proxmity to the parks (driving around orlando is awful and parking is like $20), the benefit of extended magic hours, and advanced booking of fast passes.
Just something to think about. Everything is a tradeoff snd it depends on how well you plan your trip to take full advantage of the options.

1. There are plenty of nice places 1 mile from Disney off property that save you wasaaaay more than $20/day. And the busses are awful!!
2. Magic Hours are are horrible time to visit any park
3. You do get advanced booking of FP's - but other than Mine Train and Anna & Elsa, you can still get any FP you want with regular FP booking.

What are the nice places 1 mile from Disney? Thank you!

All are on VRBO. Oakwater, Windsor Hills, Blue Heron, Lake Buena Vista Resort, etc. Just go to VRBO and search "Close to Disney" - we've stayed at several of these. I much prefer a nicely finished/furnished condo to cramming my family in one room at the Poly. And the money I save MORE than pays for our plane tickets. Its a win-win for me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We drove and broke the drive up. Really wasn't so bad. And then you can go to less expensive restaurants when you are there without paying for a rental car. We stopped in Savannah. Take the free ferry across the river and back.

That's what I was thinking---break up the trip, have a car so we wouldn't have to stay on property.

There are 3 major perks for staying at a disney resort though - the proxmity to the parks (driving around orlando is awful and parking is like $20), the benefit of extended magic hours, and advanced booking of fast passes.
Just something to think about. Everything is a tradeoff snd it depends on how well you plan your trip to take full advantage of the options.

1. There are plenty of nice places 1 mile from Disney off property that save you wasaaaay more than $20/day. And the busses are awful!!
2. Magic Hours are are horrible time to visit any park
3. You do get advanced booking of FP's - but other than Mine Train and Anna & Elsa, you can still get any FP you want with regular FP booking.

What are the nice places 1 mile from Disney? Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We drove and broke the drive up. Really wasn't so bad. And then you can go to less expensive restaurants when you are there without paying for a rental car. We stopped in Savannah. Take the free ferry across the river and back.

That's what I was thinking---break up the trip, have a car so we wouldn't have to stay on property.

There are 3 major perks for staying at a disney resort though - the proxmity to the parks (driving around orlando is awful and parking is like $20), the benefit of extended magic hours, and advanced booking of fast passes.
Just something to think about. Everything is a tradeoff snd it depends on how well you plan your trip to take full advantage of the options.

1. There are plenty of nice places 1 mile from Disney off property that save you wasaaaay more than $20/day. And the busses are awful!!
2. Magic Hours are are horrible time to visit any park
3. You do get advanced booking of FP's - but other than Mine Train and Anna & Elsa, you can still get any FP you want with regular FP booking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The flights to Orlando are cheap. Not worth it to drive.

Define cheap.

Exactly. I'm a pp with 4 kids. We drive down when we go as a family...but I go by myself a few times a year because I like to run the races. About the cheapest flights I've been able to find are around $200 round trip---which is "worth it" for one person. But x 6---that's $1200. It only costs us about $200 in gas to drive down. $1000 is huge savings.

Anonymous wrote:The flights to Orlando are cheap. Not worth it to drive.

Define cheap.