Every family has to decide how to haul everyone to the parks. Some live close enough to debate flying versus driving. For those who rarely fly, figuring out the tricks of the trade brings a new set of challenges. With this in mind, we asked our Parenting Panel: Planes, Trains or Automobiles: How do you transport your family to the Disney Theme Parks? What tips or tricks can you share?
This week, we’re happy to welcome a few new voices to our Panel, joining our established veteran Panelists! Today we have two perspectives on flying to the Walt Disney World Resort. Tune in to our next Parenting Panel, on March 15, to hear from two families who chose automobiles, driving to the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World.
Jen, also known as *Nala*, is an engineer, a Disney fan, and a MouseAdventure fanatic. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and two future MouseAdventurers, ages 2 months and 2 years. Jen writes:
Since moving to Virginia a few years ago, we have averaged about one trip to WDW and two trips to Southern California, always including a Disneyland visit, per year. We have flown for every one of those trips.
Why fly? For the California trips, it's fairly obvious. At a distance of 2,288 miles, according to my frequent flyer mile balance, it would take most of our vacation days just to drive there and back. When we get there, we either ride with family or friends or rent a car to drive to the parks. We usually have other reasons for our visits, besides the trip to Disneyland, so we need the flexibility of a car and so haven't explored using a shuttle or bus.
When traveling to WDW, the decision to fly is a little tougher, but we haven't yet braved the 900 mile, roughly 15-hour drive with kid(s) younger than 2. We justify the choice to fly by the fact that both kids are still under 3, so we don't have the expense of buying them park tickets. Once the kids are older, potty trained, and can be more easily entertained on a long car trip, we will most likely become very familiar with the drive down I-95.
Flying to Orlando only gets us most of the way there, of course. We are big fans of using Disney's Magical Express to get the rest of the way to WDW. As Disney Vacation Club members, we always stay on property, and therefore Magical Express is included at no additional charge. They will pick up our checked luggage and take it directly to the resort, leaving our hands free to carry squirming children.
Speaking of squirming children, flying with infants and/or toddlers is a challenge in itself. Gone are the days of sitting with a drink and watching the movie or taking a nap on the plane. My husband and I do our best to avoid being “those people” on the plane with a screaming baby or out-of-control toddler, though there are always moments we can't control. Starting in the airport, we divide and conquer: I take care of kids and husband deals with luggage. Once on the plane, we have an arsenal of toys and snacks ready to attempt to keep the kids happy and reasonably well-behaved. For baby, it's feeding and pacifiers, maybe a toy or two, and even the Boppy pillow for a comfy nap on mommy or daddy. For toddler, it's quiet toys, such as a slinky, coloring books, stickers, or a squishy ball, and of course plenty of snacks and drinks.
The end result of all this planning and in-flight entertaining is that we arrive at our destination ready for a nap ourselves, while the kids are happy and rested and ready to go. But in the end, we are at Disney, and it's all worth it!
Nancy is an enthusiastic Disney Parks fan, wife of nine years, mom of two years. A Disneyland local, she first visited Walt Disney World in 2006 and has returned four times since. Nancy writes:
We took my son to Walt Disney World for the first time when he was just shy of 5 months old. If the timing had been up to me, I wouldn’t have braved a cross-county trip with one so little, but it was for a family reunion and I wasn’t in charge of picking the dates. Since we live in Southern California, we flew to WDW and back on direct flights. With an infant, this worked in our favor. We didn’t have to deal with changing planes, which also meant we didn’t need to drag our heavy car seat and other infant necessities through a terminal trying to catch a connection.
Flying with an infant can be challenging, but I’m thankful our little one didn’t have too much trouble. We kept his feedings and naps at the same intervals as home. Within a couple days of early WDW mornings, he adjusted to East Coast time very well. They key to our successful flight was making sure he had enough to eat and a few quiet activities to entertain him. We also went up and down the aisles a few times so he could take a look around at all the people. As you walk down an airplane aisle, you can spot people giving you the look that says please stay away, but then there are those who give you a look saying “Please oh please let me talk to your baby!” Those kind souls were good interactions for him when he got tired of mom and dad.
When we arrived we rented a car, which to date is my only rental car at WDW experience. On my four other trips we’ve exclusively used Disney’s Magical Express. For this trip, we were staying off site and a car rental was a necessity for us to get around. As a new mom, I really enjoyed the luxury of packing up the car with extra infant stuff and leaving it the parking lot “just in case we needed it.” We also didn’t have to deal with loading our huge stroller on and off of trams, which was a nice perk.
Our son’s second WDW trip was when he was 18 months old. We flew direct again and used Magical Express to and from the airport. At this age, we still enjoyed the direct flight, but any older than this and a change of planes might be appreciated to give him time to run around between flights. Magical Express worked well for us, except for the delay on the bus before departing for our resort. We sat for a long time. He was tired and antsy and there’s not much play room. But a snack or two distracted him and we were soon on our way. Living so far away from WDW, I doubt we will choose any other travel method for some time. Someday I might be crazy enough to attempt a cross country road trip, but not any time soon!
It's your turn—keep the discussion flowing!
Visit the Parenting in the Parks forum on our MousePad discussion board, and share your opinions about this topic or many others, or send your suggestions via e-mail. Reader-submitted tips might be used in a future article, and you might be selected to participate in an upcoming panel discussion!
