I loved Max Pass at DLR, but this is a terrible manifestation IMO.
Yup. I say this all the time.
Two was my undoing. Then I just stayed undone.
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Yes. This is true. Not just the tickets, but the cost of food multiplies as well! However, the cost of the stay itself doesn’t really increase dramatically (at least for off-site stays).
Tickets are the hardest part to swallow. Entrance fees. The food has ups and downs. We balance it by some eating in.
(Sometimes we get a group discount if my mom and sister are with us.)
We drive through the night on our way to Florida from New York. It’s about a 21 Hour drive in all. We learned the hard way that we do not have the enthusiasm to drive through the night on the way home. We know stop in North Carolina for our trips back home.
On our trip home from Miami a few years ago, we got off the ship at 8 AM, and were into our van by 815 to start our long journey home. 7+ hours later as we were just crossing over into the Georgia border, my husband looked at me and asked if we wanted to just pull over and start over again.
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We fly Southwest and buy early bird. My DH and I have never been separated from our kids on the plane.
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What is early bird?
NVM. Sometimes I forget the device in my hand can also be used to look things up myself.
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Lol, you pay a little extra to have southwest check you in at 36 hours, instead of doing it yourself at 24. It gives you a higher boarding number, so you are more likely to get seats together.
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Oh. I hate driving through Georgia. For us, day two is almost entirely Georgia.
“Look, kids! Georgia. Home of pecans, peaches, and carpet!”
Five hours later
“Look, kids! We’re still in Georgia!”
Another hour later
“Look, kids! A sign for Florida!”
That state needs to be federally mandated to cut itself in half just for people driving through it.
Anyhow, I do 100% of the driving, so driving straight through is not something I could handle. My wife hates driving.
Well then , why didn’t they just do that from the start? Aren’t they the ones that made the announcement back in 2015/2016 that anyone could get additional FPs on their mobile device after they use the first 3? It used to be you had to go to a kiosk to extras. I remember it being a huge deal when it switched to mobile before my 2016 trip.
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My DH and I both hate driving. Driving from PA to NC was bad enough the 2 times we did it. I won’t go into detail, but on both those trips we’ve had some bodily fluids in the back seat. Not fun. Florida would be a no way. Airline prices would have to be pretty steep. 
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Not only is it the airfare x 8, but then renting a van to hold 8 is astronomical. It is hugely cheaper for a large family to drive.
For us, it is generally $300 in gas total (covering there and back) and another $280 in hotels. With 5 kids, there is no way we could fly even close to that.
Now, with our family shrinking as our kids “age out”, we’ll eventually cross over into where it might be cheaper to fly. We’re not there yet. My DS and DIL, however, plan to fly down to join us next May. They don’t like driving either. 
Oh I get it with the number of people in your family. I think we paid a little over $2000 for the 5 of us to fly last year (round trip). But with the nightmare long road trips we’ve had, we suck it up. 
We have entire family vacations for less than that! (Well, not to Disney, but still.)
Yeah, we are planning a vacation now that I am saving $2000 for. (Will probably need less). My DH is funny though. He figures out of it’s worth it. He just doesn’t include cost of gas and hotels in his estimates. He counts the extra days off we would have to take to drive, the hourly rate of the 2 of us sitting in a car (he uses our pay rates from work) and the cost of wear and tear on our vehicle. And now also including the parking fees. He figured out the breaking point is $150 one way for each ticket. I’ve been under that.
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Well, I get the vacation days whether I drive them or not, so it isn’t really fair to include that in the cost of things. As it is, we’re trying to figure out how to “spend” another 11 vacation days that I’ll be given over the next two years AFTER we’ve accounted for all our planned and “maybe planned” time off. Trouble is, while we can borrow and bank vacation days, we can only bank a maximum of 4 weeks before we just lose the vacation time. Since we are putting off a major vacation this year because we’ll have two vacations next year (one requiring me to take 11 days off, and the other 10 days off), I’m going to end up hitting that 4 weeks banking sometime this summer. Which means I’ll just have to take time off for who knows what! Nice problem to have.
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I personally get a lot more vacation time then my DH. I can bank mine as well. But he does count it because it takes away from other things I can be using it for. I have a pretty flexible job, so I can take off for almost anything for my kids. For him, it’s a little tougher.
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At DH’s old job we had his “problem”. He had 5 weeks vacation plus 18 holidays. He’s take all kinds of random days off all fall to use them up.
As far as driving goes, I normally grab an afternoon nap on travel day. DH drives from 6p-9p, then I drive 9p til roughly 3a. Then he drives the entire balance of the trip. Saving hotel money that firsts night was our original incentive. Turns out the kids beg to do it now. For some reason it officially feels like vacation to them that way. I know the younger ones get a kick out of falling asleep and waking up states and states away. It’s also the only time we eat out for breakfast. We stop at 7 AM at Bob Evans or such.
Southwest doesn’t have assigned seats, but you do have a better chance of picking your seats and finding seats together or close together if you check in early. However, with a kid as young as 6 you should call and ask how family boarding would work - can the other kids come with you? I know Southwest limits the adults that can do family boarding with a kid to two, but I don’t know how they handle other kids under 18 with one adult. Might be worth calling to ask, that might alleviate your concerns right there. Family boarding happens after A group (boarding numbers 1-60) before B and C - as far as I remember, can anyone confirm?
Since no one pays for their seat in southwest (other than early boarding - and those folks probably wouldn’t move (I’m imagining exit rows, front row, etc.)) I would guess most of the time you would be okay finding 3 seats and 2 seats together. I’ve seen Southwest flight attendants asking people to move so two adults can sit together, I think they would be willing to help your family too.
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