Drive vs flying

We have always flown to our Florida ports but our next cruise we have not been able to book reasonable flights. As a result we are contemplating driving to ffort lauderdale. Not sure if this will ultimately be a money saver or if we will be exhausted by the time we arrive. Thoughts.....opinions?

We have always flown to our Florida ports but our next cruise we have not been able to book reasonable flights. As a result we are contemplating driving to ffort lauderdale. Not sure if this will ultimately be a money saver or if we will be exhausted by the time we arrive. Thoughts.....opinions?

You'll probably be exhausted. It will take few days to recover.

This is Kamloops wife replying now. I prefer a drive. You can stop, stretch legs, take breaks. Seats are roomy unlike the plane. Airport security isn't stripping you down then nuking you in an x-ray machine or giving a pat down. When we fly west coast of Canada down to Florida i feel I've been thru a wringer. First 3 or 4 days I'm still recovering.

Florida is so lovely, the times I've enjoyed the most were those where we stayed a bit, went to NASA, cocoa beach, the aviation museum.

Why not book a spare day or two in Florida on arrival to decompress after the drive & explore beforehand. That way if you run into a delay on the drive, you aren't frantic.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Forums mobile app

We have always flown to our Florida ports but our next cruise we have not been able to book reasonable flights. As a result we are contemplating driving to ffort lauderdale. Not sure if this will ultimately be a money saver or if we will be exhausted by the time we arrive. Thoughts.....opinions?

How many people are involved (i.e. how much are you saving on plane tickets)? If you've got some people to share driving, I would drive -- not only for cost reasons, but to save the time and hassle of traveling through airports. I'm getting to hate air travel and will try to drive instead if I reasonably can.

You will need to factor in the cost of gasoline. Fill up in South Carolina. Our gas is now under $2.80.

Figure hotels.

Figure meals.

etc.

What airports can you use? And what are the dates. Those are the factors that can make or break your cost factor. Also if you drive you might consider a rental car -- then get another for coming back -- no parking. Have you tried looking at Southwest and Jet Blue -- they only sell tickets themselves.

Myself -- I would fly. We used to drive when we had 4 and took 2 days at least. Even when you get to Florida border you have a whole day's drive to the port in South Florida.

New York to Ft Lauderdale is quite a drive. We're driving to NOLA for our February cruise, and it's just a little over 11 hours. With the wife and I splitting the driving, not a bad drive and saving a lot over flying down. The other advantage is we can pack as heavy or light as we want and not have to worry about the airline limitations.

Your drive is much longer. I would have to be saving mucho dinero to be worth that long a drive. Depending on what your vehicle is and who you have to split the driving with, it could be a nice little adventure in itself.

Spending some time this lazy Sunday morning trying to calculate the costs and advantages here. Answering some of you questions.....we do have a choice of various airports and have experience with all of them and do check each airline etc. but of course certain ones we can bum rides to others we need to pay for parking etc so we are figuring that into the deal.

We just started to explore a rental car to drive and this is not cost efficient as there are extra costs....for example a drop cost for driving the car from ny and dropping in Florida at the cost of 500! This is not a cost efficient option.....parking is not that much!

We have always factored driving costs and flying. There are five of us so for this trip, driving was the most cost efficient. At the least, we would be paying $239 or each ticket, plus parking at the airport. We would still fly in a day early, so we would need transportation from Orlando to Port Canaveral and hotel rooms. Driving would take us only 8 hours so this became a no brainer. We will be driving.

What is the train like? Is there a reasonable option. We are from Canada & I've been wondering if that might be a nicer way to get to ports than the endurance marathon also known as flying.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Forums mobile app

Kamloops50 nailed it! Amtrak has a very nice run down the coast and into Ft Lauderdale. Price is reasonable. You can get up and walk around whenever you choose. There is no stress of traffic, bad weather, having to make a certain timeline, detours, stopping to eat, hotel reservations, etc., etc.

The Silver Star (NYC Penn Station to Ft Lauderdale) takes about 30 hours and fares run between $184 and $312 including two checked bags. You can also reserve a roomette (Sleeper compartment which includes meals). If you have the time, I would suggest you arrive the day before your cruise. Just like flying in, you never want to travel on departure day.

http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak

I'm driving from Minnesota to Tampa Bay with wife, and two boys age 5 and 8. 24 hour drive, without stops. I have factored everything from extra hotel rooms, food, and gas if we drive compared to air, with extra money for taxi, parking at airport, and luggage fees. I figure it will cost me about $950 more to fly than drive.

Only thing I'm not counting is car wear and tear and extra time off from work. We decided to drive based on this amount of savings and also that I enjoy driving. Plus we can take as much luggage as we want in our minivan.

The drive TO the cruise is always more exciting than the LOOOONG trip home....not my "kettle of fish"...

If I could drive less than 4 hours, I'd drive....otherwise, it's the plane, for me!

We live 5 hours from the airport in Minneapolis/St. Paul, every cruise starts with a 5 hour drive to the flight. UGhhh

Not so sure that it's really less expensive to drive than fly (depending on the number of people involved).

For us being able to DRIVE is a true luxury. So nice to have our own car and not to have to deal with airlines. :)

LuLu

I think it depends on many factors. For us from Richmond to Orlando, its 12 hours, we usually drive, and DH does all the driving. We have two small ones as well 4 & 6 yr olds. Our next cruise in 2016 I am thinking of flying since we won't be able to leave till Friday after school (2:00) so it would get us into Orlando at 2 in the morning with the ship leaving Saturday. So flying Friday evening is what I am deciding and staying at the Airport Hyatt and taking Disney transfers to port. Yes I don't like the extra cost but for the plan we have its most likely the only option.

I'm driving from Minnesota to Tampa Bay with wife, and two boys age 5 and 8. 24 hour drive, without stops. I have factored everything from extra hotel rooms, food, and gas if we drive compared to air, with extra money for taxi, parking at airport, and luggage fees. I figure it will cost me about $950 more to fly than drive.

 

Only thing I'm not counting is car wear and tear and extra time off from work. We decided to drive based on this amount of savings and also that I enjoy driving. Plus we can take as much luggage as we want in our minivan.

Hear You! It almost always cost more to drive than fly! :)

Right now, flights from ND to Orlando are over $800. There are 9 of us going that's $7200 just in flights. It's 2 families, we both homeschool so the husbands are going to fly down, and the wives and kids are going to drive. We have family all along the way and will only need a hotel room for 1 night of our drive. It's worth it to us to save so much money!

Right now, flights from ND to Orlando are over $800. There are 9 of us going that's $7200 just in flights. It's 2 families, we both homeschool so the husbands are going to fly down, and the wives and kids are going to drive. We have family all along the way and will only need a hotel room for 1 night of our drive. It's worth it to us to save so much money!

Looks like you will have a good savings. Drive carefully

We are going thru the same decision as to whether we should fly or drive. I so hate airports! We are going to Alaska out of Seattle in June. A 3 to 4 day drive each way. But it is an opportunity to see our great country and that is what is leaning me to drive. Really spoiled as I am only a few hours from Galveston so that is convenient but have also gone out of NO and Mobile.

We are going thru the same decision as to whether we should fly or drive. I so hate airports! We are going to Alaska out of Seattle in June. A 3 to 4 day drive each way. But it is an opportunity to see our great country and that is what is leaning me to drive. Really spoiled as I am only a few hours from Galveston so that is convenient but have also gone out of NO and Mobile.

The opportunity to do some sightseeing along the way is certainly a plus, but one without a measurable value.

I would love to drive, rather than fly, but the time constraints are too much. I can only take a week's vacation at at time, so a 7 day cruise is a stretch, but can usually make it work. If I were to tack on an extra 2 days on either end, I would not be able to cruise at all. Maybe when I am retired.

We are also in the process of trying to decide if we should book a cruise that we can drive to (NYC or Baltimore) or to cruise out of Florida and fly. There are 5 of us and we're looking at late April. We can fly for about $1500, arriving a day early, but then we have to consider hotel (two rooms), transfers, eating out, etc.

Today I plan on putting it all on paper to weigh our options and see what will be most cost effective. I don't think I would ever drive to Florida from NH to cruise. The ride down might be okay but coming home would be torture.

We are seriously thinking of driving to Fort Lauderdale from Toronto in April. We are retired so we have the time, and have done the drive a couple of times before so are familiar with the route. It is a long drive, even with two drivers. Between gas, hotels and food I doubt if we will come out cheaper than flying, but it will be nice to have the car to spend some time in Florida before coming home to the cold.

But...if we find a cheap flight where we can use our points we may just save ourselves the driving and fly. It's a hard decision as I actually enjoy the drive.

We are north of Atlanta, about 10.5 hours drive time from MIA.

We are a family of 4 and for us, it's a pretty easy financial decision...

Drive:

1400 miles round trip @ 10 cents per mile: $140

- we have a CR-V that gets about 27 mpg on the road. Gas is currently slightly lower here, but on the road I don't know.

Add 5 cents/mile for wear and tear: $70

- a bit of a SWAG, but I think reasonable for tires + oil + routine maintenance. Doesn't include insurance or registration since I'd pay those regardless.

2 nights hotel, one in each direction: $200

Parking: $70

Tolls: $10

Incremental food costs: $75

--> $575

Flying:

Airfare: $1000

1 night hotel, pre-cruise: $100

Shuttle to pier: $30

Shuttle to airport: $30

Incremental food costs: $50 (less meals, but now we're eating lunch at the airport.)

Airport parking: $75

--> $1285

I'd quite likely use points for hotel, but that still needs to be accrued as a cost since I'll run out of points someday and have to pay real money. The same would apply to airfare, but at $250/pp it's not likely that I'd use points. Either way, I'm accounting for the cash value rather that out-of-pocket.

Of course, airfare could be somewhat cheaper and other costs could change. We do like having our own vehicle though, so that has some value. For our family of four it's a no-brainer. For a family of 2, the difference of cost almost immediately becomes negligible... and we'd probably fly.

However, I don't think we'd choose to drive much further than this for a cruise. Fortunately, all the Florida ports, plus NOLA, are within this distance.