As many of you know, I am an airplane kind of gal. To me, flying is a vacation. Just going to the airport puts me instantly in relaxed mode. Heck, I get super excited when I just pass by our airport, so you can see, I'm a little crazy about the whole flying experience.
However, I've been doing some research for the BOGP Cruise in June...and guess what? Flying...well that may be an option that just isn't so feasible.
Looking at pricing right now across the board, even with my favorite airline, Southwest, flights are just ridiculously high! What normally costs me around $400 round trip is coming in around $1000! That's well over double what I'm used to paying!!!
Now I know that part of the issue is that we'll be traveling in the summer to a very popular vacation spot, but geez! That kind of jump is just a tad ridiculous!
And here's the thing...I even have about a hundred dollars as a credit that I can use with Southwest. But even with the credit, I can't see spending that kind of money on plane tickets, for only two people! Not when it's usually so much more reasonable for us to travel by plane.
Now, the saving grace, I guess you could say, and the thing that I'm hoping is the reasoning behind the higher prices, is that my flight window isn't in the "sale fare" price window for Southwest yet. So, maybe, just maybe, there's still hope for us in this whole deal.
So, with all this being said, I must look into something that I don't really want to do...but at this point in the game, is something I must look at with some sense of seriousness...
That is that there's a very real possibility that I may end up driving to Florida.
This is no walk in the park. It's 16 hours just to drive down, one way! Now, I'm sure we will look into breaking this up or leaving very early in the morning to make the drive a little more bearable, but still...that's a long trip. I know, I've done it before...and while I never swore I'd never do it again...it's not necessarily something that I would be looking forward to repeating.
The one plus to driving down is that we would have had to rented a car if we had flown in, because we are staying offsite for this trip.
But here's the deal...we still will probably rent a car...just here in St. Louis. Reason being is that my car doesn't get great gas mileage...so, we'd spend more on gas taking my car than we would just renting one. So, it's all kind of a wash, since we would have ended up renting one anyway. Plus, with the great discount codes you can find on Mousesavers and The Mouse For Less Travel, I'm not as concerned about this costing me a whole lot. (It'll still be a LOT cheaper than a plane ticket currently!)
So...this is where you all come in. What do you think? What would you do in this situation? Let me know in the comments section!
8 comments:
Yikes, that's a huge cost in airfare! I might be thinking about driving if I were you. Can you handle the days off work? That would be my main concern - you can download a bunch of podcasts and Disney music and that might be kind of fun, you know?
Rikki, I hate to say it but DRIVE! I live in W TX! I am DRIVING!
A. I hate commercial flying ~ Since Kevin had his heart attack he has not been flying. Our homebuilt airplane is under repair and Kev has not had time to go through all the red tape of the FAA to get his license back! Air fares are CRAZY! I was looking at them too. NO WAY.
B. For us, it is a 26 hour drive. It takes forever to get across TX, we do everything BIG! I'm driving to FL Spring Break and then again most likely in November for our Cruise! Ugh, 2X in 1 year, but I'm not paying those crazy rates. Even with gas at $3.00 a gallon, it is a no brainer!
3 of us are going Spring Break, 6 of us are going in November. Even if Kev can get his medical back and the plane up and running by November, our plane only holds 4. Someone still has to drive!
I know it is a long drive, but if you don't spend that money on air plane tickets you will have that money to spend at WDW! That's how I think!
Hope that helps!
Carrie
Good call on the car rental. Something to consider as well (that many people don't) is the cost per mile of the wear and tear on your car. The rental car eliminates all of that consideration with a fixed cost.
I'm not usually a fan of driving (I'm 1300 miles, roughly, so I'm looking at 24 hours), but in your case it just might be worth it.
Something else to consider, part of how I think, is that for anyone limited on vacation time, or who is fully or partly self-employed, the phrase "time is money" comes into the equation too. I could do a single day straight through drive (and sleep for a day upon arrival) or do a stay-over, but either way that's two days down and two more back, so four total days just for transportation. In most cases, those four days are more valuable than just the dollars and cents for the plane ticket.
I feel your pain I have the driving/ flying argument with myself every time. Whenever we drive (it's about the same drive time for me believe it or not) we leave really early like 5am and get to Florida around 8pm (ish) It's usually closer to 9 with all our stops. But it's not a bad all in one day. On the way back we always stop though. I also highly recommend books on CD! We listened to Harry Potter the last trip it went by pretty fast.
I know I don't have much choice in the matter ;) but if I were in your position, I'd probably drive. I'm all about keeping it cheap at the moment!
I think that it all depends on your vacation availability. We've considered driving down to my parents' place in Spain on occasion, but the idea of using up precious vacation time (Patrick's - I'm self-employed like you) in the car when it could be spent doing lovely relaxing things.
Hi Rikki,
We drive from Indianapolis most of the time. We usually take 2 days to drive the 18 hours, but we drove all the way through last year on the way home! I wouldn't suggest that! Love the show!
Theresa @delphinius18
Thanks everyone for weighing in on this! I'm still playing the waiting game...haven't fully decided what I'm doing...but I'm for sure gonna keep you posted!
If you still have comments, make sure to leave them! I'm still taking it all in!
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