Our vacation started out with a great room only rate for a deluxe resort (Wilderness Lodge) and it has morphed into an expensive beast. Flying is expensive* and I’ve always maintained that by not flying we’ve saved a lot of money. Now I know that is true. Here is the example:
Driving
$400/gas - estimate of stopping 4x each way, not including gas onsite
$200/hotel – estimate for 2 hotels (one each way)
$100/food – estimate for 1 breakfast, 2 lunch, 2 dinner.
TOTAL: $600
Flying –
$1200 – 3 return airline tickets
$250 – 2 week rental car (not including gas)
$300 – 2 nights at airport hotel (we are arriving late at night and leaving early in the AM)
$160 – estimate for Airport Parking/Airport Limo if we can’t convince my mother to drop us off/pick us up.
$50 – estimate for 2 dinners
TOTAL - $1960
I’ve calculated we are paying $50 for every hour of driving we are saving. I can see why I’ve won this argument in the past.
The vacation itself went from 7 nights at a Deluxe resort to 12 at a value (twice the time for the same price), upgraded to include free dining that is actually only saving us $50 (entire vacation) because it meant we couldn’t use our cheap room only rate. Then there is the special event ticket for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party ($110), pre-purchasing our PhotoPass CD ($100), tickets to “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” ($185 for ONE day!!) and on and on and on…
Holy $%*& The mou$e really got us this time!!!
*Flying could have been cheaper if we had done the following (I refused all):
- Left from Buffalo, New York
- Considered Charter flights
- Purchased only 2 adult tickets
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We bought 4 plane tickets for $1500 from Toronto. Direct flights. You need to look for deals. We also arrived early so we could have the day there immediately and left during the day. No airport hotels. that would cut out $300 or more from your cost.
ReplyDeletePark and Fly was under $80 for a week of VIP parking. We had a coupon with our flight package. Look for coupons online. Also, you can join their membership if you have plenty of time. Limos are not $80 and you are in Oakville so I would think it would be cheaper...
Flying out of Buffalo is usually cheaper (except we found a better deal) and their park and fly is reasonable.
We found our car rental for 1 week (cheapest one I found online) to be A LOT more than what they originally quoted with everything added on. Also, you have toll highways and can opt for a transponder to take care of it on your bill. Up to you--we did it for convenience and it worked out okay because we drove the highways plenty of times. If you're at the resort, do you really need a car? If I was at the resort, and I have been in the past, I prefer just using the shuttle. Just cheaper.
P.S. For myself, I figure flying might be more expensive but there's the factor of getting there in a matter of hours rather than days, no driving forever with small children, more of the vacation time spent at the destination rather than in driving to it and no wear and tear on the car.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a great trip. Things do really add up. I know this is a big flight for you and i think having a seat for sadie and the extra space for all of you will be worth it. We just flew without and it was sqishy. Flying doesnt stress me (long car rides do!) so i was ok.
ReplyDeleteYou should totally fly out of Buffalo. You're not that far from there and it's so much cheaper (even with the additional drive), plus the parking is only $9 per day (probably less if you're gone a week.) I almost always fly out of Buffalo when I go anywhere now. I don't find it a hassle at all and the difference in cost is well worth the drive, IMO. But it would depend on things like flight times and whether you'd need to stay in a hotel there on top of the cost of the flight.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty resistant to other options with the airline like going to Buffalo, for my first flight. I think that overall we got a good deal at $400 pp/return. CompareD to $1500 for 4 people, it's only $100 difference. The only downside is the night flight on the way there. I think we get in at 10:30 pm.
ReplyDeleteWe don't *need* a car being on property but we're used to it and want the same freedom. Downtown Disney is a bitch to get to otherwise, plus we're going to Universal and have resort ADR's (easier to just drive).
I've caused a lot of the expense wanting things a certain way like preferring Air Canada, buying Sadie her own seat when she's free, getting Park Hopper plus water park, opting for special event tickets etc and not only getting a hotel near the airport but the one IN it. lol
Stacey - What were the unexpected fees for your car rental? I want to be on guard for what they're going to eabt to sell me. We're not going to get a transponder because we have no issue paying as we go.
ReplyDeleteI can't recall but we booked one of the cheapest car rental and it cost us a lot in the end. The only additional costs you won't have are the transponder (that wasn't a big fee for all of the tolls though) and 2 car seats since we didn't bring one.
ReplyDeleteWe flew Canjet. It was cheaper to fly from Toronto than from Buffalo with the deal but usually Buffalo is cheaper. I like JetBlue--used them for New York City one time.
Since you have 2 weeks, do you really want Park Hopper? With small ones...just a lot to switch parks. We were glad we didn't get it.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you get your passes? We found a good deal at undercovertourist.com and it was better than the park or the store...
The taxes and Service fees on our rental were A full $100 more on top of the quoted $9.95/day rate. we pre-paid so I'm hoping there are no surprises. :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the tickets, we packaged our vacation to get the free dining offer so our tickets are included. I agree that with LO's park hopper is needed but we want to go to Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach and a la carte price is only $60 different from upgrading the tickets to Park Hopper + Water Parks.
*hopper is NOT needed
ReplyDeleteWell, that's good. I know you're the expert on Disney parks anyway. I'm sure all of this money will be well worth it. I think our vacation was over $4000 and we got a steal on the resort for only $350/week. Jackson was free at Disney but we had to pay for Riley.
ReplyDelete