Anyone Else Prefer Road Tripping to Flying?

[helen haywood]

I'm not talking about people who are afraid to fly or people who have large families and it would be expensive to fly. We live two hours away from Atlanta but choose (happily!) to drive to Florida for our Caribbean cruises. Just wondered if I am crazy or do others enjoy driving. I guess I got in the habit of road tripping when I was in college in Virginia and my boyfriend was in grad school in Georgia and I drove down every chance I could.

 

We originally started driving when we were snorkeling and taking all our gear along. Then we sort of got in the habit. For me, driving to Atlanta (takes two hours but of course I'd have to allow extra time), parking the car in an off site lot, getting the shuttle to the airport, leaving time for security at Hartsfield, renting a car in Florida and then doing it all in reverse at the end of the cruise....would not be fun.

 

But packing the car and the cooler up and looking at my maps and enjoying the road is fun! We have restaurants we love along the way. It is an 11 hour drive but we drive 7 hours the first day and spend the night in Palm Coast or Daytona and then drive the rest of the way the day before the cruise. I love Ft. Lauderdale and enjoy spending the night there. Since I love driving when the cruise is over I have something else to look forward to....instead of rushing to the airport to get home.

 

Even if I lived really close to an airport, I still think I'd rather drive.

 

Does anyone else like to drive to their cruises?

Edited September 18, 2016 by helen haywood

[luvscruising2007]

We drove from Maryland to Fort Lauderdale for our last cruise. It seems to extend the vacation. We took 3 days to drive down, with a planned sightseeing day in St. Augustine which didn't work out as planned. It was long but enjoyable. We took 2 days to get home but it's different going home than checking in to hotel.

Anyway, yes we like road trips and would probably do it again if we sailed from an East Coast port.

[cb at sea]

Depends on the time you have! I wouldn't willingly drive more than 8 hours to go anywhere...I'm not a fan of riding in a car for long periods! The added nights in a hotel (unless the hotel has a laundry room for guests) means extra clothes....repacking, etc....big pain, IMO!

[helen haywood]

I'm retired. Have all the time in the world left me. Comfortable car. I can pack for a two week cruise easily without needing to wash anything...

[spookwife]

Hate both modes of transportation. Under 8 hours we usually drive.

 

 

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[Blondilu]

I have driven up to 12 hours to a port. I live just north of San Francisco and we have driven to Seattle twice. And another time we drove to the port at Long Beach.

 

This is usually with my sister and we usually have a good time. We try to make the road trip itself a fun thing. But, this last time we both decided next time we would fly. The traffic is horrible almost everywhere in California. And around Seattle it's just as bad.

 

Maybe we're just getting old or maybe we didn't allow for enough time to relax, but it was more of a chore this time than fun.

[CapeCodCruiser]

We love road tripping - especially to a port! I pack a separate bag for road nights - that way I do not have to unpack my cruise bag. If there is anything I need to add to the cruise bag from the road bag I do it the in the morning before we head to the port.

[Krazy Kruizers]

DH takes far too many medications to drive several days to get to any embarkation port. My eyes can't stand long driving times either.

We don't live near any cruise port and as much as we hate flying and the connections, there isn't a third choice.

We have to drive over an hour just to get to an airport hotel to be up bright and early for the first flight -- usually around 6 AM.

And we have do the same returning home, stay over in the disembarking port, fly home, stay a hotel and then drive home the following day.

It's not easy anymore and thus we cruise less than we did many years ago when we had direct flights.

[OCruisers]

We prefer to drive when possible! :)

[Shmoo here]

We prefer to drive when possible! :)

 

That's us, also.

 

Time was, flying was part of the vacation. Now it's just a way to get from point A to point B (and not very comfortably/easily).

 

However, it's difficult to road trip for a Mediterranean cruise. :rolleyes:

[navybankerteacher]

By the time you get to the airport, park your car, get your luggage into the terminal, check in, go through security, get to the gate at least 15 minutes before roll-back so they do not give away your seat, wait for take off, actually fly anywhere, shuffle off the plane, wait at the carousel for your luggage, gat to your ground transportation, and get to your motel (or cruise terminal if you are gutsy) you have come code to spending an absolute minimum of six hours for a half hour flight - or eight hours for a two hour flight -- so in many cases driving beats flying.

 

I will only start to consider flying when we are talking 600 miles or more - it does not make sense for shorter distances. Any flight takes a full day and tires me more than a full day of driving. When talking 1000 miles or more, we usually drive unless under real time pressure.

[helen haywood]

Well, yes, even I fly when cruising out of Europe! But I'm happy to see I'm not crazy. And traffic on the highways we take to Ft. Lauderdale isn't bad. Its only the FLL to MIA stretch that's crazy and that's why I go no further than FLL. Thanks for all the replies.

 

 

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Edited September 18, 2016 by helen haywood

[cruisemom42]

Not a big fan of road trips. Been there done that with my parents -- long drives from Atlanta area to Fort Lauderdale (12 hours) to visit the grandparents, and even longer drives to visit extended family in the Midwest in summer. Ugh.... I can entertain myself but I'd rather get where I'm going quicker.

 

Plus, if we were to road trip, I'd be doing most of the driving. Since I commute to work about 1.5 hours daily, you can just guess how much I enjoy that! :cool:

[maldenmusic]

We always drive to the ports, either NOLA or Mobile.

[GUT2407]

We are about 2 1/2 hours away, have never flown the trip.

 

Another factor is that by car I can take whatever I (or more correctly Mrs Gut) want to take.

[klfrodo]

If the "Roadtrip" is part of the adventure, then why not.

 

Otherwise, anything more than 5 hours drive, it's a loss of money to drive when one considers the cost to drive(to include insurance and wear/tear on the vehicle) and the fair market share of my time and my wife's time.

Edited September 18, 2016 by klfrodo

[SeagoingMom]

I love a road trip, too, but with extra costs for accommodations while on the road and then parking during the cruise, often it seems better to us to fly. The only time we've driven was to a cruise which departed Jacksonville, as my in-laws live there and we could leave our car at their house. (We live in Marietta, GA.)

 

Ultimately, I guess I like to keep my road vacations and my ocean-going vacations separate. They each have their charms; I am not inclined at this point to combine the two... I would rather fly than drive non-stop for a long way, and my husband also my husband might not want to take extra time off work for road travel plus cruise.

 

 

[Mcdonaldbam]

We try to drive whenever we can. Flew to the port in Seattle and I was stressed the majority of the day. Not a fun way to start my vacation! We plan stops so not to get over stressed about the drive and sometimes find something interesting to see at the stop. We are both retired military so we do get discounts at hotels but it is a fun addition to the vacation and I get to see some more interesting sights. I love the old maps too. We still bring the GPS though just in case lol.

[lenquixote66]

I'm not talking about people who are afraid to fly or people who have large families and it would be expensive to fly. We live two hours away from Atlanta but choose (happily!) to drive to Florida for our Caribbean cruises. Just wondered if I am crazy or do others enjoy driving. I guess I got in the habit of road tripping when I was in college in Virginia and my boyfriend was in grad school in Georgia and I drove down every chance I could.

 

We originally started driving when we were snorkeling and taking all our gear along. Then we sort of got in the habit. For me, driving to Atlanta (takes two hours but of course I'd have to allow extra time), parking the car in an off site lot, getting the shuttle to the airport, leaving time for security at Hartsfield, renting a car in Florida and then doing it all in reverse at the end of the cruise....would not be fun.

 

But packing the car and the cooler up and looking at my maps and enjoying the road is fun! We have restaurants we love along the way. It is an 11 hour drive but we drive 7 hours the first day and spend the night in Palm Coast or Daytona and then drive the rest of the way the day before the cruise. I love Ft. Lauderdale and enjoy spending the night there. Since I love driving when the cruise is over I have something else to look forward to....instead of rushing to the airport to get home.

 

Even if I lived really close to an airport, I still think I'd rather drive.

 

Does anyone else like to drive to their cruises?

 

 

We have driven from NY to Baltimore to cruise and are doing so again on our next cruise in 2 months .This is preferable to me than flying .

[margeecruiser]

We break down our trip into short segments. We drive to our local international airport which is 45-120 minutes away and stay at a hotel with parking privileges. We change planes domestically. We also stay in the DFW hotel after our trip home, so we can drive home in the middle of the day to avoid rush hour. My husband is almost 80 and we travel wherever we want, but break it down into segments and use shuttles and use porters wherever possible. This has extended our traveling years considerably.

 

We are keeping on.

 

Margee

 

 

 

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[navybankerteacher]

We have driven from NY to Baltimore to cruise and are doing so again on our next cruise in 2 months .This is preferable to me than flying .

 

If you are going from New York to Baltimore, it is virtually inconceivable that driving could take more time than flying home to port: check it out.

[AKAMum]

Our first cruise we flew to Queensland (one-hour drive to airport, two-hour flight), rented a car and spent three days doing the theme parks before our cruise. We booked an afternoon flight for our return so we didn't have to rush off the ship and ended up getting home around 5 pm after getting off the ship that morning. We had two car seats to lug around with us on top of our luggage.

 

For our cruise this year we initially planned to fly until we realised that with us coming back the day before Good Friday, return flights Melbourne to Sydney were going to be in the vicinity of AU$1200 - $1500 for the four of us. :eek:

 

So we drove instead. Credit card points paid for our fuel and a night in a hotel in Sydney, and we packed a picnic for the first day so it worked out very cheap. Driving was our means of transport rather than part of our holiday so we left early on the Saturday and went as far as Mittagong (800 km/500 miles), stopping for a quick break and to swap drivers every two hours or so. Then we had a relaxing night, drove the remaining 90 mins or so to Sydney the next morning and spent the day exploring a bit of Sydney (the boys had only been once when they were babies) before embarking on the Monday.

 

We did self-assist debark and were on the road headed for home by 7:30am. We did the trip in one day on the return and were home within 12 hours.

 

Driving wasn't any more tiring than flying as when I wasn't driving I could relax and snooze. It was cheaper and much less stressful than trying to wrangle two kids (including one with ADHD and Asperger's) and all our luggage through the airport.

 

TL;DR - with just two cruises under our belt so far and two kids, we prefer to drive to the port if feasible.

[Sea Hag]

My hubby is tall and has a bad back. That makes flying miserable for him, so we definitely prefer road trips.

[Warm Breezes]

I would say we are about 50/50 in our travels to cruise ships. We live in Michigan and have driven 14 hours to New York 2x, 16 hours to New Orleans on our last cruise, and a handful of times the 24-26 hours to Florida to Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami for cruises. We have also flown to New Orleans, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami for cruises. It all depends on who is going with us and what kind of deal I can get for airline tickets. When booking a cruise a months to a year + out I try to build in time to either drive or fly in a few days before hand.

 

We don't mind driving at all. When I was in college, DH (who was then my boyfriend) would drive 2 hours to and from my college every weekend to come get me for 3 years while school was in session. We do many road trips for vacations besides cruising and find it fun when we can combine the 2. Luckily when we had kids, they turned out to be great travelers too. DS had his first flight at 6 months old and his first 25 hour road trip to Florida at 2. Absolutely no issues either time and while we waited to travel a little longer with DD since she cried all the time (not just when traveling) until she could talk, once she started talking she had no issues too (she just never stopped talking :D:p). They are now 19 and 22 and DS just moved 16 hours away for his first post college job. Road trips will definitely be part of our near future (meeting him half way next week for a Tigers game in MN :D).

 

Our next cruise is next month out of NY for just DH and myself. We will be driving through Canada stopping at Niagara Falls. I'm hoping for a great color tour.

 

We are about 5-6 years out from retirement. Our plan is to continue both our love for road trips and cruising. We are selling out, purchasing a motor home, and downsizing to a smaller place in Florida. The first trip on our bucket list is to do Route 66 and once we get to LA do a Mexican Riviera and Hawaii Cruise. We then plan on driving up the coast to Seattle and do an Alaskan cruise. Then drive across the heartland to the East coast for a New England and Bermuda Cruise and then down to Florida to find our new home. We are hoping to have the flexibility then to cruise, fly, and road trip in our motor home to travel and visit our kids where ever they end up. Just praying for the health to do so as we love all types of traveling as long as we are together.

[mom says]

That would be an "oh hell no". A 3 day drive to get to any of the Florida ports. In the winter? I don't think so.

 

And for some reason, the old Volvo has trouble with that last leg into San Juan or Southampton. Might be a moisture problem.