I consider driving every now and then. It’s 24 hrs drive from here without much stopping. It seems doable.
But then I think of the ride back all Disney tired and depressed the trip is over.
And I book my flights.
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But if distance wasn’t an issue, would you prefer driving?
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We’ve always had way more vacation TIME than vacation FUNDS.
DH has always had jobs with a ton of time off. We regularly just burn it off in November/December.
From NY it was a 21 hour drive that we budgeted 24 hours for and we’d start at 5PM and arrive by 5PM the next day. We had a 12-pax van that allowed DH to sleep from 9PM til whenever I couldn’t drive anymore (2-3AM). We did it three times to FL. My kids have all been excellent travelers*.
We’d then visit FL 10-14 days.
The one trip we took to FL without DH - I went with my 4 girls, my mom & my sister - we flew. There was no way I could do it solo. But then we had to rent a car. The costs just multiply. (And we struggled to get all of our luggage into that minivan. We had it on everyone’s laps.)
*go figure - kid 6 is showing signs of car sickness on the regular now.
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While I actually think I would prefer to fly I actually have only every driven to WDW. We did it 3 times from middle TN and then 3 times from central IN. We have 5-6 people and I think cost ends up winning out over flying for me. Like @Jeff_AZ i think our limit is 14 hours. Once it gets to that point the flying option gets more attractive. We will frequently split the trip into 2 days on the way there and then drive straight through on the way home.
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As frequent road trippers - I try to max out at a 14 hour day. And then not two days in a row. With a few stops it can balloon to 15.5-16.
We once did a 16 hour day, driving west from WY to OR coast. We moved times zones so we could pull it off. But it was ugly.
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This is pretty much our limit as well. Unless it’s a road trip where driving from destination to destination is part of the trip. Like driving the PCH 
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Ok, one way or another you’ve arrived!
How do you spend your first hours in the bubble?
- Resort time! Settle in, explore, maybe hang at the pool.
- Hit a park! What are we here for anyway?!
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voters
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This is fun!
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By “explore” I assume that means head to Disney Springs!
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I feel like I’m not really who these questions are meant for but I’m playing along anyway 
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Ahem ….
May I remind you ? 
We check in (we do online check in but have luggage to drop off etc).
If we arrive in the morning / afternoon, we’ll have a little look around and stuff. But then head to a park.
But if we arrive in the evening it would depend where we’re staying. If we can walk to a park then we head there. If not we get something to eat and head for a lounge.
Which do I vote for? Usually we arrive in the evening, once we arrived in the morning.,
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You mean you don’t consider flying when you go to Disney World? Weird.
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Last trip was the first time we were going to go to a park on arrival day, and then because our luggage didn’t arrive we spent the evening shopping instead.
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I feel this would be very dependent on when you get there and what type of tickets you have. We don’t have AP’s so doesn’t make sense for us to go to a park.
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Suppose you bought tickets that match your preference
You don’t need an AP you just need more days.
Then what would it look like
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Budget wise it doesn’t make sense for us paying for an additional park day where we don’t spend a whole day. If money is no object and I could come and go to the parks as I wanted, then likely I would go to a park.
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This definitely changes the dynamic of the question.
Normally, we don’t have APs, and we would be arriving late enough that I would hate to waste a day of tickets on just a short evening visit. But, this September we have APs, so we are arriving, settling, and then going into Epcot for dinner and to watch fireworks. If we had bought tickets, we wouldn’t do that.
If we aren’t taking into account added costs, then sure…add a day and head in on arrival day! Why not. Apparently money is no object! (Except, in practice it is.)
But our M.O. is to arrive and then head to Disney Springs after settling in because it gets the Disney vibe going without the added cost of another day’s ticket.
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We’ve always arrived around lunchtime or later, so we just get settled in, maybe hit the pool and go for dinner. But we’re rope drop people so starting midday has never been our thing.
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I only meant it as a “what if” to @cmwinkel
Didn’t mean to confuse things
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If we are at an Epcot resort— we love to pop in for dinner and a few quick rides. We are a first flight in the morning family— so plenty of time!
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