Best Way To Travel From Orlando To Huntsville? (Mobile, Jackson: taxi, prices)

[dave w]

If they are anything like Spirit air they could cancel your flight for any minor thing and ruin your vacation. I hate flying anymore,such a hassle. As for the other topic I would work all week, drop the kids at granny's early Saturday morning. Drive to Orlando grab motel probably get there about 6pm
get a bite to eat and go see Downtown Disney(free) nice to walk around for a couple hours.Get up early Sunday have breakfast, drive to Cape Canaveral cruise port, park my car right there, walk on the ship.Disembark Sunday morning,(if you roll your own bags out you can usually get off the ship by 9am), walk over to my car and start for home. I would probably drive strait through and get home about 9-10pm or do another motel night. Take Monday off,(work the rest of the week your 4/10s) go get the kids, have some fun. I figure 300 for gas, up to 160 for motels (2), 80 for parking at(CCP) plus food. I guess I find driving less stressful for me. Anyway have a nice safe trip.

[dijkstra]

Originally Posted by Nlambert

I'll break it out more then I guess. Didn't realize it would be that difficult to understand.

We would need to leave our house on Thursday morning, take the kids to her parents, then drive as far as we are comfortable driving and potentially spend the night somewhere (I rarely make a straight through drive for eye fatigue). Friday morning we would need to drive the last leg to get to Orlando and get checked into a hotel. We come back on a Sunday. So for us to drive the entire 11 hour leg on Sunday, pick up the kids and get unpacked we would be midnight or better getting in bed, only to get up Monday morning to report to work at 5am.

If we fly.... our kids stay with us until Friday morning to see us off at the airport. We are in Orlando ~ 1:30 pm and have time to check in and then go see some sights before getting in bed. When we disembark the ship on Sunday morning we go straight to the airport. At 2pm we fly back to HSV. By ~3-3:15pm we should be back in Huntsville (time change). By 5pm we will be at home unpacking and preparing for the work week. And a lot less fatigued because we were driving for 11 hours.

If we had 4, we would drive. But with 2 of us it just didn't make sense. Baggage is no issue for us because one piece of luggage will be enough for us for the week.


Anyhow.... the question wasn't whether people think we should drive or fly or if we could get a flight out of another airport. The question was to the quality of Silver Airways and whether or not anyone had experience with that airline. We've already bought the tickets. I just wanted to know who (if anyone) else had used them.

Well that helps me understand. I didn't realize it took an entire day to drop kids off at her parents and to drive part of the way to Orlando. It is difficult to understand because I have done exactly that at least 25 times and made it to Orlando by 6:00PM in one day. On the trip back, I am usually at home between 5 and 6 in one day. I have dropped the kids off or the dog off when leaving out and picked them back up when I got home. Went to bed at my normal time and I'm up at my usual 5:30AM for work. As I stated, you would only beat me home by an hour or two tops.

I noticed you had said you didn't want to drive and you could fly there in two hours the first time I read your post but I just let it go and didn't comment on it because it was off topic but then someone else pointed it out and I couldn't help but comment. Basically, I am just pointing out that you are rationalizing it in your head by counting only two hours as the time it takes to make your journey, when in reality, it is more like 6 to 8 when you actually start timing from when you leave the house until you are in the hotel lobby. So you are actually only saving 2 or 3 hours not 9.

Anyway, I haven't used Silver but what little I have heard around town has been average. I have not heard any talk of a disastrous experience. I hope you have a great trip, it sounds like fun.

[Nlambert]

I do appreciate the comments, so I hope I didn't come across otherwise. For us, driving isn't relaxing.

I have some back issues so sitting in a car for 11 hrs can become excruciating. Hence the reason that we don't drive that leg in one day. It takes me a couple of days to get over the soreness if I drive that long. Couple that with the relatively low cost of flying (in our opinion) and that we don't miss extra work days and this was a win win.

I don't count airport time because it's Huntsville Airport and I've never been through there when I needed to get there 2-3 hrs early. Get there an hour early, have some breakfast, board the flight, and leave. When we get to Orlando I expect that it will take us 30-40 minutes to grab our luggage and get to our hotel next door. I know that there can be airline delays but since we are leaving early it gives us time to catch another flight if we had to and still make it before the cruise. If our Expedition broke down on the interstate half way there, we'd be stuck and likely miss the cruise. Different strokes for different folks, I guess but this is how we have it planned out.

I guess we will give Silver a shot and report back here as to how their service goes.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by Nlambert

I do appreciate the comments, so I hope I didn't come across otherwise. For us, driving isn't relaxing.

I have some back issues so sitting in a car for 11 hrs can become excruciating. Hence the reason that we don't drive that leg in one day. It takes me a couple of days to get over the soreness if I drive that long. Couple that with the relatively low cost of flying (in our opinion) and that we don't miss extra work days and this was a win win.

I don't count airport time because it's Huntsville Airport and I've never been through there when I needed to get there 2-3 hrs early. Get there an hour early, have some breakfast, board the flight, and leave. When we get to Orlando I expect that it will take us 30-40 minutes to grab our luggage and get to our hotel next door. I know that there can be airline delays but since we are leaving early it gives us time to catch another flight if we had to and still make it before the cruise. If our Expedition broke down on the interstate half way there, we'd be stuck and likely miss the cruise. Different strokes for different folks, I guess but this is how we have it planned out.

I guess we will give Silver a shot and report back here as to how their service goes.

Sounds good. Let us know how your trip works out when you get back. Flying Silver from here has got to be a lot better than driving somewhere else just to fly from there.

[dijkstra]

Originally Posted by Nlambert

I do appreciate the comments, so I hope I didn't come across otherwise. For us, driving isn't relaxing.

I have some back issues so sitting in a car for 11 hrs can become excruciating. Hence the reason that we don't drive that leg in one day. It takes me a couple of days to get over the soreness if I drive that long. Couple that with the relatively low cost of flying (in our opinion) and that we don't miss extra work days and this was a win win.

I don't count airport time because it's Huntsville Airport and I've never been through there when I needed to get there 2-3 hrs early. Get there an hour early, have some breakfast, board the flight, and leave. When we get to Orlando I expect that it will take us 30-40 minutes to grab our luggage and get to our hotel next door. I know that there can be airline delays but since we are leaving early it gives us time to catch another flight if we had to and still make it before the cruise. If our Expedition broke down on the interstate half way there, we'd be stuck and likely miss the cruise. Different strokes for different folks, I guess but this is how we have it planned out.

I guess we will give Silver a shot and report back here as to how their service goes.

I understand, some people just don't like driving or like you have something like a back issue that just makes driving long distances not much fun. I would fly too.

I don't mean to go completely off topic here but it would be a good place to mention this in case someone else reads this thread that is thinking about driving. You mentioned if your Expedition broke down you would be stuck, that is why I rent a car for trips over around 6 or 7 hours driving time. Eight hours is my tipping point where I almost always rent. I do this for a few reasons. If the car breaks down, it is their problem and I am not stuck with my car hundreds of miles from home broke down, needing it fixed. I can rent a car that gets close to 30MPG or better whereas my tahoe, suburban and silverado all get low gas mileage by comparison. Depending on the cost of gas, I have completely or almost paid for the rental car with the savings in gas compared to what it would have cost me to drive my own vehicle. There is also the miles and wear you put on your car driving long distances, I put it on a rental instead. Just the mileage of taking a long distance trip or two a year will significantly depreciate the value of your vehicle when you add up 5 years worth.

Let us know how Silver works out for you. I am sure there are plenty of people wondering, including myself. It will be good having a low cost, reliable flight to Orlando out of Hunstville.

[DaMadHatter]

Drive...

[denofhc]

I would definitely fly out of Huntsville. I am thrilled Silver offers non stop to Orlando. I suspect this will be quite successful and perhaps the start of lower fares in general out of HSV.

[bmrisko]

If anyone had flights on Silver booked out of HSV, you may want to look at making alternative plans...service now tentatively starts in September, not next week.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by bmrisko

If anyone had flights on Silver booked out of HSV, you may want to look at making alternative plans...service now tentatively starts in September, not next week.

Thought it was May 23 instead of next week, but delaying until September sort of makes sense since Orlando Disney World can be really too hot to visit during the summer.

There's another small airline ... can't remember the name ... that will at some point have flights from Mobile and Jackson, Mississippi, to "Orlando", but it's really to the small airport in Sanford, not MCO.

[AU HSV]

Originally Posted by bmrisko

If anyone had flights on Silver booked out of HSV, you may want to look at making alternative plans...service now tentatively starts in September, not next week.

not a great way to make a first impression. Ticket sales have been strong, now have to rebook.
Their first new aircraft