To Drive or Fly...THAT is the question:)

[prettyNpinkpumps]

Okay, so I had posted about this the other day- and I received great feedback! To sum it up... my husband and I have free flyer points through Southwest and wanted to use those to fly out of Raleigh/Durham to Ft. Lauderdale. Our cruise leaves October 20 and we were considering flying in that morning (we cannot fly out the day before because my husband cannot miss work... the earliest we could do would be late evening, but that flight isn't available.) Having said that- the itinerary would be flying out early morning 7:00 and arriving in Orlando at 8:55 and then leaving at 9:40 and landing in Ft. Lauderdale at 10:30.

 

What I didn't even consider that many mentioned... is that I will only be in Orlando for 45 minutes- now I'm worried that even if we made the flight, our luggage may not. We pack too heavy to just do a carry-on.... so here is my question- The options we are looking at is:

 

1. Fly into Orlando and then rent a car from there to Ft. Lauderdale.. (This should work, if our flight to Orlando isn't delayed, etc.... still, a risk).

or

2. We rent a car one-way and drive down Friday evening and drive straight through all night (it's about 14 hours).

 

Let me hear thoughts/suggestions or even other options. I'm so thankful for such a wonderful community of expert cruisers :)

[time4u2go]

I'd vote fly to Orlando then rent a car. Then you only have to be concerned with one flight, which leaves in the morning during a time of year with little weather problems.

[cb at sea]

We've had short layovers and our bags have made it....that's a pretty long drive from Orlando to Ft. Laud!

[kc320]

I'd choose a 4 hour drive from Orlando over a 14 hour drive any day....

 

 

Did you look into any of the other flights for the night before that were mentioned & not using points?

[Red-Sol]

Okay, so I had posted about this the other day- and I received great feedback! To sum it up... my husband and I have free flyer points through Southwest and wanted to use those to fly out of Raleigh/Durham to Ft. Lauderdale. Our cruise leaves October 20 and we were considering flying in that morning (we cannot fly out the day before because my husband cannot miss work... the earliest we could do would be late evening, but that flight isn't available.) Having said that- the itinerary would be flying out early morning 7:00 and arriving in Orlando at 8:55 and then leaving at 9:40 and landing in Ft. Lauderdale at 10:30.

 

What I didn't even consider that many mentioned... is that I will only be in Orlando for 45 minutes- now I'm worried that even if we made the flight, our luggage may not. We pack too heavy to just do a carry-on.... so here is my question- The options we are looking at is:

 

1. Fly into Orlando and then rent a car from there to Ft. Lauderdale.. (This should work, if our flight to Orlando isn't delayed, etc.... still, a risk).

or

2. We rent a car one-way and drive down Friday evening and drive straight through all night (it's about 14 hours).

 

Let me hear thoughts/suggestions or even other options. I'm so thankful for such a wonderful community of expert cruisers :)

 

Just wondering if you might have other flight options from somewhere else? Maybe Charlotte? Have you checked what flights from there might be..and then possibly drive there?

 

The way you would have the most control is by driving..but I think you would be pretty tired doing a 14 hour drive and then boarding.

[cello56]

Check and see if the evening flight is available the day before your cruise if you only need to get as far as Orlando. That way you could rent a car the next morning and make the four hour drive to the port. Or you could rent the car when your flight arrives and drive to the port that night and grab a cheap hotel.

[gigglesgee]

Okay, so I had posted about this the other day- and I received great feedback! To sum it up... my husband and I have free flyer points through Southwest and wanted to use those to fly out of Raleigh/Durham to Ft. Lauderdale. Our cruise leaves October 20 and we were considering flying in that morning (we cannot fly out the day before because my husband cannot miss work... the earliest we could do would be late evening, but that flight isn't available.) Having said that- the itinerary would be flying out early morning 7:00 and arriving in Orlando at 8:55 and then leaving at 9:40 and landing in Ft. Lauderdale at 10:30.

 

What I didn't even consider that many mentioned... is that I will only be in Orlando for 45 minutes- now I'm worried that even if we made the flight, our luggage may not. We pack too heavy to just do a carry-on.... so here is my question- The options we are looking at is:

 

1. Fly into Orlando and then rent a car from there to Ft. Lauderdale.. (This should work, if our flight to Orlando isn't delayed, etc.... still, a risk).

or

2. We rent a car one-way and drive down Friday evening and drive straight through all night (it's about 14 hours).

 

Let me hear thoughts/suggestions or even other options. I'm so thankful for such a wonderful community of expert cruisers :)

 

We just made the 14 hour drive, literally! It has completely removed any chance of us ever doing that again. We travel by car, A LOT! But this was the longest, most miserable drive ever! Orlando is now our limit, otherwise we'll fly. :)

I suggest you do anything but make that drive. LOL! :D

[FreshOffTheBoat]

I would fly all the way to fort lauderdale. The odds are that things will work out. Life always has some risks.

[Starry Eyes]

I would either fly all the way or drive all the way. No way I'd risk flying part way day or cruise then getting a car and driving the rest of the way...chance the flight will go badly, chance the car rental location will be slow or temp out of cars, chance of bad FL traffic...

 

I would watch for a early nonstop flight of a late flight day before.

 

if you absolutely cannot fly a day ahead ot get an early nonstop, I would buy travel insurance (private, good policy with missed connection coverage for air to ship), pack carryons wisely with enough essentials to survive, and check the rest of the luggage. Odds are everything will be fine. if not, call the travel insurance company.

[reallyitsmema]

Okay, so I had posted about this the other day- and I received great feedback! To sum it up... my husband and I have free flyer points through Southwest and wanted to use those to fly out of Raleigh/Durham to Ft. Lauderdale. Our cruise leaves October 20 and we were considering flying in that morning (we cannot fly out the day before because my husband cannot miss work... the earliest we could do would be late evening, but that flight isn't available.) Having said that- the itinerary would be flying out early morning 7:00 and arriving in Orlando at 8:55 and then leaving at 9:40 and landing in Ft. Lauderdale at 10:30.

 

What I didn't even consider that many mentioned... is that I will only be in Orlando for 45 minutes- now I'm worried that even if we made the flight, our luggage may not. We pack too heavy to just do a carry-on.... so here is my question- The options we are looking at is:

 

1. Fly into Orlando and then rent a car from there to Ft. Lauderdale.. (This should work, if our flight to Orlando isn't delayed, etc.... still, a risk).

or

2. We rent a car one-way and drive down Friday evening and drive straight through all night (it's about 14 hours).

 

Let me hear thoughts/suggestions or even other options. I'm so thankful for such a wonderful community of expert cruisers :)

Since you have limited options due to your husbands job, I would book the flights you had originally considered. If you get to Orlando and miss your connection, you can go rent a car and drive to Fort Lauderdale.

 

See if you can make it with only carryon luggage so you won't have anything checked that you have to worry about if you do miss your connection.

 

Good luck.

[time4u2go]

Since you have limited options due to your husbands job, I would book the flights you had originally considered. If you get to Orlando and miss your connection, you can go rent a car and drive to Fort Lauderdale.

 

See if you can make it with only carryon luggage so you won't have anything checked that you have to worry about if you do miss your connection.

 

Good luck.

 

Be careful if you do this. The airline can and might cancel your return tickets since you didn't complete the outbound travel. Even if you missed the connection and it was the airline's fault, they would then put you on the next available flight.

[reallyitsmema]

Be careful if you do this. The airline can and might cancel your return tickets since you didn't complete the outbound travel. Even if you missed the connection and it was the airline's fault, they would then put you on the next available flight.

True, but does Southwest even have another flight to get them there? I would rather lose my return flight and not my cruise fare.

[dz9yvr]

What's the earliest that you could leave RDU? I wouldn't even think about driving, even from Orlando. There are probably more ways you could be delayed driving.

[Granny DI]

My husband and I drive from Texas to VA. twice a yr. It's a 23 hour drive. We always drive straight through. We are not "spring chickens". If your plane leaves at 7 that means a 5:30 or earlier airport arrival. Does that mean getting up at 3:30???? How much sleep would you actually get? I'd drive to Ft Lauderdale and fly back. In fact we're sailing on the Oasis out of Ft Lauderdale next spring and we're driving.

[prettyNpinkpumps]

My husband and I drive from Texas to VA. twice a yr. It's a 23 hour drive. We always drive straight through. We are not "spring chickens". If your plane leaves at 7 that means a 5:30 or earlier airport arrival. Does that mean getting up at 3:30???? How much sleep would you actually get? I'd drive to Ft Lauderdale and fly back. In fact we're sailing on the Oasis out of Ft Lauderdale next spring and we're driving.

 

 

This is what we were thinking of doing... We are actually in VA, but would choose RDU airport because of Southwest. We would actually have to leave our house at like 3:00 a.m..... so, getting up at 2:00 a.m. Yikes- writing it out makes it look so miserable.. ha! I know that 14 hours is a long way... but my husband and I drove to Florida last year, about a 12 hour drive, and it wasn't too bad- we switched off and one napped while the other drove...

 

As for the questions about flying out on a different airline, I've been looking... I just don't really see a whole lot that is really doable..

[geocruiser]

Okay, so I had posted about this the other day- and I received great feedback! To sum it up... my husband and I have free flyer points through Southwest and wanted to use those to fly out of Raleigh/Durham to Ft. Lauderdale. Our cruise leaves October 20 and we were considering flying in that morning (we cannot fly out the day before because my husband cannot miss work... the earliest we could do would be late evening, but that flight isn't available.) Having said that- the itinerary would be flying out early morning 7:00 and arriving in Orlando at 8:55 and then leaving at 9:40 and landing in Ft. Lauderdale at 10:30.

 

What I didn't even consider that many mentioned... is that I will only be in Orlando for 45 minutes- now I'm worried that even if we made the flight, our luggage may not. We pack too heavy to just do a carry-on.... so here is my question- The options we are looking at is:

 

1. Fly into Orlando and then rent a car from there to Ft. Lauderdale.. (This should work, if our flight to Orlando isn't delayed, etc.... still, a risk).

or

2. We rent a car one-way and drive down Friday evening and drive straight through all night (it's about 14 hours).

 

Let me hear thoughts/suggestions or even other options. I'm so thankful for such a wonderful community of expert cruisers :)

 

Heer is another option (its a little far out). You could take a cruise out of Port C. It is about one hour from Orlando. I know everything would be different, but you might have less stress about getting there.

[cruisin4kicks]

This is what we were thinking of doing... We are actually in VA, but would choose RDU airport because of Southwest. We would actually have to leave our house at like 3:00 a.m..... so, getting up at 2:00 a.m. Yikes- writing it out makes it look so miserable.. ha! I know that 14 hours is a long way... but my husband and I drove to Florida last year, about a 12 hour drive, and it wasn't too bad- we switched off and one napped while the other drove...

 

As for the questions about flying out on a different airline, I've been looking... I just don't really see a whole lot that is really doable..

For what it's worth... we live in the Atlanta area and always drive to Port Canaveral... about a 7 hour drive. We have just recently started driving to the Port of Miami/Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale... about a 10 to 11 hour drive. We'll leave the evening before the cruise and spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express type hotel right off the interstate usually around 3 or 4 hours north of Miami or Fort Lauderdale. If you did that, your 14 hour drive is now broken up to around a 9 hour drive and then however long it takes to get to the port the next day. Get up and leave the hotel around 8:00am and get to the port around 11:00am to noon. If we have to leave home a little late the night before, we'll let the hotel know we'll be checking in late. Never had a problem. Just another option.

 

Tim

[Granny DI]

There is no way I could get up at 2:00 AM.....I always have problems sleeping the night before a trip...thousand things running through my mind. My vote is drive and if you both get tired check into a motel and sleep a few hours.

[Comet Cruiser]

Hello,

 

We live in about an hour east of Toronto and are considering driving down to Fort Lauderdale for our first Oasis cruise next February. I know the weather might be a bit tricky, but I've never flown and must say I'm a bit leery of flying:eek:. It would be a 3 day drive( hubby won't drive more than 8-10 hrs at a time) or a 3 hr flight, but the cost of the flight is almost as much as the cruise !

 

Decisions, decisions!!

 

Thank heavens I still have a bit of time to decide.

 

Gail

Comet Cruiser

[mondello]

Okay, so I had posted about this the other day- and I received great feedback! To sum it up... my husband and I have free flyer points through Southwest and wanted to use those to fly out of Raleigh/Durham to Ft. Lauderdale. Our cruise leaves October 20 and we were considering flying in that morning (we cannot fly out the day before because my husband cannot miss work... the earliest we could do would be late evening, but that flight isn't available.) Having said that- the itinerary would be flying out early morning 7:00 and arriving in Orlando at 8:55 and then leaving at 9:40 and landing in Ft. Lauderdale at 10:30.

 

What I didn't even consider that many mentioned... is that I will only be in Orlando for 45 minutes- now I'm worried that even if we made the flight, our luggage may not. We pack too heavy to just do a carry-on.... so here is my question- The options we are looking at is:

 

1. Fly into Orlando and then rent a car from there to Ft. Lauderdale.. (This should work, if our flight to Orlando isn't delayed, etc.... still, a risk).

or

2. We rent a car one-way and drive down Friday evening and drive straight through all night (it's about 14 hours).

 

Let me hear thoughts/suggestions or even other options. I'm so thankful for such a wonderful community of expert cruisers :)

I often fly on the cheapest flight to Florida and use a rental car to get to my real destination. Can you guys catch a 7:15pm flight out of RDU? There is a non-stop flifght from RDU to TPA (7:15pm to 9:05pm) on 10/19. You can drive from TPA to FLL. There is a non-stop flight on 10/20 from TPA to FLL (10.55am to 11:55am) to eliminate any driving and sticking with non-stop flights which are hard to come by in some markets. This is on SouthWest if you have enough miles for both flights.

[mondello]

Hello,

 

We live in about an hour east of Toronto and are considering driving down to Fort Lauderdale for our first Oasis cruise next February. I know the weather might be a bit tricky, but I've never flown and must say I'm a bit leery of flying:eek:. It would be a 3 day drive( hubby won't drive more than 8-10 hrs at a time) or a 3 hr flight, but the cost of the flight is almost as much as the cruise !

 

Decisions, decisions!!

 

Thank heavens I still have a bit of time to decide.

 

Gail

Comet Cruiser

Drive 1 day to Columbus and fly from CMH/Columbus to FLL. Bet you'd save a few hundred dollars and you wouldn't have to drive through the mountains in Winter.

[prettyNpinkpumps]

I really appreciate the advice everyone is giving. I am looking at the flights mentioned, as well.

 

As far as renting the car is concerned... if we were to rent one here in Virginia and then drive it down to Ft. Lauderdale, where would I drop it off? Would I drop it off at the airport and then taxi over to the port or do I drive to port? Or to the rental place? Not really sure how this all works...

[rlkubi]

I would always pick flying over driving that long of a distance. You don't want to be exhausted when you get on the cruise!

[JohninDC]

I really appreciate the advice everyone is giving. I am looking at the flights mentioned, as well.

 

As far as renting the car is concerned... if we were to rent one here in Virginia and then drive it down to Ft. Lauderdale, where would I drop it off? Would I drop it off at the airport and then taxi over to the port or do I drive to port? Or to the rental place? Not really sure how this all works...

 

It depends upon which agency you rent from, but between the airport rental locaitons and a few out in town most shuttle to the port -- if you are really stuck taxis are cheap (from FLL to Port Everglades is only $15). Getting from the rental turn-in to the port is not a big issue. Good luck! :)

[jennmaybe]

I have done the drive from here in NC all the way down to Miami. Would I ever do it again? Not a snowballs chance....if you get the drift.;) It was miserable and then by the time we got there, I was so dang tired that I didn't want to do anything.

 

Also, keep in mind, that if you drive, you will be going down I-95. Pray that there are no traffic jams or accidents. I have sat in traffic on I-95 many times just because of congestion. It will not take much at all to turn a 14 hour drive into a 20 hour nightmare.:)

 

I would also go ahead and book a flight to FLL. If something was to happen, just have a backup plan. I just would not want my plan to be driving all the way to FLL. It is a very long drive!