Also, dont know about where u are but Southwest usually has cheap “early morning” flights and cheap “late night” flights. Disney will hold ur luggage.
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This. Air travel would use a day in each end of the trip probably.
For our family of 8:
We leave WNY at ~ 5PM and drive straight through arriving maybe 4PM with a few stops (leisurely breakfast and quick service lunch). Gas round trip with all our FL driving came in at $620. On the way home we do two 11 hour days with one hotel night ($200).
($820 plus 1 breakfast, three lunches, one dinner. I budget about $60 for breakfast, $30 for each lunch and $100 for dinner, though can often do better. $250). So $1070.
Airfare with best case scenario would have been $1600. Rental vehicle big enough for 8 people and luggage for 10 days is anywhere from $700-1100. I’d still likely need two airport lunches… maybe one. (I’d still need gas for rental van around FL.) $2500 average.
And - it still only costs us one more day of vacation time. My husband does not make $1430 a day.
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Lol, we hopped ONCE, ive gotten park hoppers on 2 different trips. Never again. Only for 3-4 day visits.
Hmmm, leave around Dinner, have a couple drivers, 1 hotel on way, drive at night, make it in early a.m. for a park day!
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My flight to Orlando, time from house door to destination, was 13 hours total. To drive straight through is 17 hours if we did it in a single day. So yeah. Flying wasn’t all I had hoped it would be in that regard.
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It’s so variable. Of course driving is too.
But flying isn’t always fast. Ans I always feel like I’m being herded.
Moooooo. 
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Check www.momondo.com or google flights for cheap flights/days to travel. THEN go directly to the airlines website n check their price.
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Were about 10 hours away. Weve left around 11 pm, 2 drivers, less stops at night, get there around lunch. Use the half day for MK. Then 1 park per day after that for 4 days.
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Even better.
I couldn’t ever imagine flying somewhere I could get to in 24 hours with my husband and I both available.
That said I am flying in November with my mom and four DD because I don’t want to drive solo from WNY to Kissimmee.
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Ive never done a solo drive😳. Prob would never if it wasnt my DH driving. Hes the only one I can drive with and sleep, lol.
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Our flight is only 3 hrs direct. Not bad but it can be costly…
We were able to get Southwest for $198 each, but we also had to do Monday to the following Thursday to get that. Flexibility was key. If we’d just gone with our favored dates, it’d been more than $300 each.
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Can they start collecting points or miles to help with cost?
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Rooms are usually cheaper those days too!
Yaaaaas. Put everything u can on points cards!
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If flying out of Chicago, they can get a great deal on Frontier airlines depending on when they fly. Sometimes they even have a “kids fly free” offer which can really cut the cost. Schedule doesn’t go out that far yet, but watch for it. Just don’t be like me and wait to book a great deal, price went up before I booked.
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Thanks for everyone trying to help! I finally got a reply back this morning. She liked what I had researched and thinks they’ll probably be able to up the budget. It feels like the 7.5-8k budget I gave will be obtainable for them. So, yay! I think it will be a few months before they confirm the budget and have me actually plan though. It’s still almost a year away, which for them probably seems like forever from now. Anyway, thank you to everyone for all the advice!
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So nice of you to do this. Unless you are using the Expedia combined hotel and flight, I would price and plan without flight so that transportation is up to them. Sounds like they will have a great trip!
That will make this SOOO much easier for u and more magical for them!
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