Flying vs Driving

[Mom2B&Z]

I was unaware not needing carseat for hotel transportation. That was a concern having to lug something around we did not need.

 

That is not quite correct. If the hotel shuttle is a bus or other means of transportation that does not have seatbelts, then no car seat is needed. However, it has been our experience that many of these "buses" indeed do have tablets, requiring the use of the car seat. There are laws excepting people from using car seats on a temporary basis, I believe Fl still has this law but many areas are repealing them, as they result in children being transported in an unsafe manner. Plus depending on what you plan on doing in port, a car seat may be useful. (I'm a Canadian car seat tech.)

Personally, we fly with young ones. I have lugged 2 car seats, stroller etc through more airports than I car to remember. I hate ending a vacation dreading the two day car ride back home. Fwiw most people don't recommend infants fly as "lap babies" due to the risk of injury during turbulence. You cannot physically hold a child if turbulence is moderate to severe, effectively turning your child into a projectile. YouTube videos exist showing the crash test dummies in this situation if you want to know more.

[martikus]

With kids I find anything over 8 hours by car pure and utter torture. I vote FLY or find a vacation much closer to home. Agree to try pricing out other airports as it might help.

 

We don't do any port adventures that would require a carseat so all we take is the stroller.

[Warm Breezes]

We are booked on Breeze February 9. Now when the wife and I cruised last year for our honeymoon it was just us and Southwest had 200 roundtrip. Now there is 4 of us well 3 that need seats and airfare from Chicago to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale is just rediculous upwards over 400 roundtrip. We have a baby and that means car seats strollers to check and bring on the ship with us and take up room not to mention extra checked items. If we drive we can leave most stuff in the car and just bring the umbrella stroller. Any one prefer one over the other on a trip like this for a family.

 

Our kids are now 16 and 19, but I can tell you they have been doing both road trips and flying from the time they were 6 months old. I prefer flying. DH prefers driving. Our kids are great whether we fly or drive since we have done both since we they were young, including the MI to FLL trip. If I can find a good deal we fly. If I can't we drive. It's been that way our whole marriage of 25 years. In this situation we would have driven. My only suggestion is do not try to drive straight through. Plan at least one stop in the TN/GA area for the night. Bring some new small toys from the dollar store and movies to keep them occupied and some car snacks if they get hungry between meals. If anything this will tell you if you have a good rider for future trips :).

[bus man]

Personally, I would fly. A two-day drive both before and after your cruise, with 3 kids -- and all the "I GOTTA GO POTTY RIGHT NOW!!! stops that this entails -- is hardly what I would call a relaxing vacation. Plus, February weather can be iffy, and if a big snowstorm should hit, I would rather get stranded in an airport than on a highway. And even if you luck out and get clear roads the whole way, there's still the fact that it gets dark so early, so you'll be doing some driving at night, when you're tired.

 

When the kids are older and able to control their bladders better, you may find that driving is the better option, especially if you go during the summer. But for this trip, I would bite the bullet and fly.

[ETDub]

My Step Son is used to long trips, not this long though. His grandma lives just south of Memphis. There are obviously pros and cons to each. I remember going to Seattle from here when we moved out there and it was cool seeing new things that I never saw but it was a long drive. Of course we didnt have dvd players and Ipads and Ipods. We had magazines and walkmans in 1993 :)

[flhokie]

Personally I would fly. We live in FL so we drive if we sail from there, but if we were to sail from, MD, NJ or NY I would not even consider driving. We have a 2 year old and the one long roadtrip (7 hours) with her was miserable for all of us.

 

Check other days/airports. Also, you only mention Southwest but make sure to check other airlines (often Southwest is not the cheapest--even with baggage fees added in on major carriers). I would stay clear of Allegiant & Spirit though. Neither one works with other carriers so if anything happens (delays, cancellations) you have no option but to wait with them (sometimes "regular" carriers can put you on other flights or airlines depending on the situation or at least have more options). Allegiant often only flies routes every few days which makes it even worse if something happens. I know Southwest doesn't work with other carriers either, but they are a big enough operation that thy can usually get you where you're going easier than Spitit or Alliegant in case of irregular operations.

[Tatka]

We drove three times from Boston to FLL & Miami non-stop 21-24 hours with mostly one driver, although second could help at any time. With a baby I would definitely make one overnite stop. I would also plan around traffic times which can add time to your trip.

[Prinycesa07]

No way in heck would I drive from Chicago to Florida. Especially not with 2 small kids. This is actually the reason why we only cruise out of NYC or Baltimore. I'd LOVE to sail from Florida but I'm not driving 24 hrs with a 2 & 3 yr old & plane tickets for 4 of us costs more than the cruise!

[A2Mich]

We were VERY BRIEFLY considering a drive from Colorado to Florida but quickly decided against it once we determined that it would be a 30 hour drive with 7,9, and a 1 year old in tow. NO THANKS. That would come out to 6 days of driving roundtrip (we can't do the 19 hours straight anymore). My money would be better spent on airfare and a rental car, in my case. I wouldn't drive from Chicagoland to Florida either....

[Onessa]

At least from Rockford you could skirt around the bottom and avoid much of Chicago. Then if you could avoid Atlanta it might not be so bad. (I'm in WI and to get pretty much anywhere need to go through Chicago. But it is the February weather that would get me nervous. Snow in the north, ice in the mid section -- rather risky

 

Check Truax in Madison -- not a bad trip and sometimes the prices will fool you. Some airports have specialized airlines (GRB has "MetJet" that specializes in GRB to Orlando or Ft Myeers). MidwestExpress (before it got bought out) had seasonal non-stops from ATW to Phoenix. Think creatively! :)

[kchiumento]

We are a family of 5 with kids 12, 10 and 6. We have both flown and driven. I work for United in ORD- now we are in St. Louis. If you fly, don't fly the day of your cruise. You have about 50/50 shot of making your cruise. Fly the day/night before stay in a hotel and get to the pier early so you can be on the ship as soon as they allow.

 

We are driving, but we choose ports that we can easily drive to when we take our kids. This trip we are leaving out of New Orleans. From STL it is only about 10-11 hour drive, which for us to totally do-able in one day. Next time we are taking one out of Miami and we are trying to decide if we drive or fly. We might just drive that one too. With DVD's in cars now, a 2 day drive isn't as painful as it was when we were kids. With driving, you have more control - arrival/departure, potty breaks, food breaks. And my little trick is to start driving at night, so then the kids fall asleep during the ride.

 

We leave 10/12 for our 10/13 cruise. We are leaving at 0400. We just put the kids in the car in the jammies, load up the DVD and away we go.

 

Good luck on your decision.