What is the furthest you have driven to board a cruise ship?

[ovccruiser]

Drove 110miles to London Heathrow, flew to Sydney, Australia and cruised to Bangkok, flew home to London Heathrow and drove 110miles miles back to Bristol. Driving and flying 18k miles for a cruise. Was it worth it, you bet.

[baadbee]

Someone else mentioned a non-cruise trip so I can't resist doing the same. About 25 years ago I needed to travel from Vancouver BC to Collingwood Ontario (think of it as near Toronto) to testify in a court case. A friend, one of those friends that leads you to do dumb things, convinced me that rather than fly we should rent a car and go together.

 

We got our free unlimited mileage rental car courtesy of the defendant in the court case and had it for three weeks. In that time we drove from Vancouver to near Toronto, then New Orleans, San Diego and back to Vancouver. 8000+ miles in three weeks including 5 days visiting in Ontario and a 3 day stop in New Orleans. The rest was a blur with short conversations with some local police in Wyoming and a Texas ranger who took pity and recommended we not speed anymore in Texas. We didn't.

 

For our European friends that's about the same distance as London to Vladivostok. Long road trips are a tradition for Americans and Canadians.

 

Chris

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

4 hours..

[Tralynn]

When flights were too expensive, we've driven 12 1/2 hours (863 miles) to the port......It was so worth it!

[Mrtwo]

Is certainly not worth it if your time is worth $40 to $50 an hour.

 

Each.

 

So how much is it worth in Doctor bills when the other passengers pass on their sickness to you? On a flight home from Ft Lauderdale last November there was a couple in front of us that coughed, hacked and sneezed all the way to Houston; luckily we were behind them and not in front of them.

 

How much is it worth listening to a baby scream for hours because they can't equalize their ears?

 

How much is it worth listening to unruly children throwing tantrums?

 

How much is it worth sitting next to a very large person that takes up their seat and half of yours?

 

My time is very valuable to me as well but I chose to drive when we have the opportunity. Time is what you make of it; if you're only driving from point "A" to point "B" just to get there, you're missing all the fun along the way.

[susieatsea]

1,400 miles from west central Illinois. Have done this many, many times. Love the drive as there is always something new to see. :)

[i5trucker]

I'm a trucker and I drive all year so I can take my vacation on a cruise ship. I drive about 130,000 miles a year.

[RN4Nsy]

We just got home at 0100 yesterday. 13 hrs from Galveston to Kansas City with stops. Met a large family from Denver who drove 18 hrs. Another family drove for 5 days from Canada. For us it was because we booked 3 weeks before the trip and airfair was impossible due to cost. I say to take your time and enjoy the drive! Much easier than all that time at the Airports and no luggage to worry about the weight!

[varoo]

Whatever floats your boat (er, make that cruise ship).

 

To me, such long drives would be misery, not my idea of a vacation at all.

If that was the only way I could get to a cruise port, I would choose a vacation closer to home.

[newport dave]

13hrs driving or a couple of hours in an airport!!!!!

 

Flying in the US must be an absolute nightmare, if people are making these choices. I could understand it on a cost basis, but not because you've got to spend a couple of hours in an airport.

 

We've flown into and out of Boston, New York, Chicago, Denver, LA, San Francisco, Miami and Las Vegas. These were a mix of internal and international flights, and nothing at these airports would ever make me consider driving instead.

[Seago2]

13hrs driving or a couple of hours in an airport!!!!!

 

Flying in the US must be an absolute nightmare, if people are making these choices. I could understand it on a cost basis, but not because you've got to spend a couple of hours in an airport.

 

We've flown into and out of Boston, New York, Chicago, Denver, LA, San Francisco, Miami and Las Vegas. These were a mix of internal and international flights, and nothing at these airports would ever make me consider driving instead.

 

Yes. You hit the nail on the head. You can leave for a destination a 20 hour drive away a few hours early to allow for a flat tire, etc. if you are flying you need to allow a day on either end. Plenty of people don't, but.... It's very possible to be stuck for days in an airport while others are put on regularly scheduled aircraft ahead of you- that's the way it works, they try to get back on schedule ASAP. So anyone grounded by a severe winter storm can wait days. That's just the beginning of the complaints!

[printingchick]

I always fly. Longest would be about 2 hours to Boston airport. It's not the closest airport to me, but it's the largest and generally the least expensive option.

[navybankerteacher]

4 hours..

 

Virtually any flight will take more than four hours when you include: home to airport, check-in, security, destination airport to destination, a little "just-in-case-of-delay" margin with actual flight time. 6 hours is a more realistic threshold. This, of course, just compares time expenditures. You also need to compare costs - but allow for meals on the road, mileage depreciation, etc. as well as just gas costs.

 

Finally, once you start thinking of 8 hour or longer drives, you should come up with a valuation of your (and your family's) time. This becomes increasingly important once you cross the 10 hour mark.

[Warmer Climes]

We like a good road trip and have driven from NH Florida lots of time for cruises. I guess it's about 25 hours if you were to drive it straight but we take a couple of days. We look at it as part of our vacation, plus it gives us more flexibility to avoid bad weather in New England in February. Unfortunately our daughter is now in high school and we have to fly andi hate it.

[Econom405]

We drove Pittsburgh to Seattle 2 years ago. Was graduation trip for one of the girls. On the way home we went to Banff, then across Canada to Toronto.

DH and I enjoyed the trip, lol 2 teenage girls, not so much.

[WisconsinFan]

Madison WI to FFL (once), Port Canaveral once and will be next spring, Tampa twice and Galveston twice. For all cases usually two nights down as we leave mid-day or after school is out and one night back. All part of the adventure. Only port we have flown to was Seattle for the Alaska cruise. Honestly I am almost more tired when I fly....too much stress and waiting around.

 

We have learned now when we drive to Florida (we have two Disney trips in there as well) we will never drive through Atlanta. We now go a little out of our way through Alabama. Longer miles but actually less drive time.

[LuvSushi]

My brothers both drove from Minneapolis to New Orleans for our January 2012 cruise. My parents drove from Phoenix to New Orleans. My family flew.

 

My parents drove from Minneapolis to Seattle for a cruise once and are likely to do it again if we do an Alaska cruise summer of 2014. My brothers will probably make that drive too.

 

My DH places a high value on his time, so we always fly.

 

DH could probably tolerate a drive to Duluth, but I haven't found a cruise ship yet that comes to Lake Superior. ;)

[astrotrain]

About 1 hour Baton Rouge to New Orleans two times, I spent more time in the terminal than in the car:D

[Sinppu]

I find your answers so much fun!

In my country driving for over 6 hours ANYWHERE is crazy and very tiring.

For you guys, it's not even that far :D

[DDMau]

About 20 miles, here in the Pacific NW we are limited to Alaska for driving. All others we fly to, we would rather have the extra time as per cruise in port than driving time. Seattle to Long Beach is just over a 2 hour flight.

[spunkyhungry]

The furthest I've driven is 25 minutes. We usually have to fly to all our vacations.

[Tiggertastic]

Our country isn't big enough to drive 20 hours. We do 5 hours to Southampton.

 

We did have a back up though for a cruise out of Rome when there were flight issues and DH worked out, with using the channel tunnel we could drive to Rome in 2.5 days if we had to and got the route ready.

 

Luckily the flights were sorted