The Dark Side of Disney - Leonard Kinsey [4]
“It was the most horrendous thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life. The 12 year old is still in therapy because of it. We never did get to Disney. That was easily the worst vacation I’ve ever been on, and probably the worst experience of my life.”
Moral of the story: take a plane!
Southwest Is Best:
The airline of choice for getting to WDW is Southwest Airlines. At the time of this writing, Southwest is merging with AirTran. What this means to WDW vacationers is probably that you’re going to get cheaper flights from a wider variety of locations. Every year I compare the costs of Southwest’s flights vs. AirTran (and Delta, American, and all the others) and Southwest always comes out ahead. Don’t forget to factor in baggage fees when you’re doing such a comparison.
Southwest is great because they don’t charge said baggage fees, their fares are published far in advance, and their schedules stay consistent (as opposed to AirTran, who changes their flight schedules so often that it seems like there must be a crazy monkey throwing darts at a scheduling dartboard every month). And they’ve recently become a part of the Disney Magical Express program, which means that a) you don’t need to rent a car because Disney will bus you to your resort from MCO (i.e., they’ll take you hostage for the length of your stay) and b) your luggage will be delivered to your room when you arrive and will be taken to the airport for you when you depart. I’ve only had good experiences with Southwest and with the DME program.
Disney’s Magical Express luggage tag
For better or for worse, this is one of those occasions where it pays to plan ahead. Southwest publishes their fares by grades, and the cheapest of these grades are the “Wanna Get Away” fares. Unfortunately, these go quickly and once they’re sold out you’re left with the non-cheap “Anytime” and “Business Select” options. Southwest generally publishes their flights 180 days in advance, so it would behoove you to check them on the day that your fares are published and lock in the lowest rate.
“But what if the rates go lower?” you ask. Well, inquisitive reader, another great thing about Southwest is that they’ll allow you to cancel your reservations at any time and get a credit. Which means that if you find a cheaper fare between when you booked your flight and the day of your vacation, you simply call them up, cancel the old flight, and purchase the new one. You don’t get any cash back, but you will have credit in your account which you can use the next time you go to WDW (which, if you’re reading this book will probably be pretty soon).
Another perk about booking Southwest is that they often offer discount codes, especially for flights to Florida. So even if you’ve already booked your flights, if you get a code in your email you can cancel your current reservation and rebook with the code. This author recently saved $25 each way with such a code! That was a big discount, and one which simply cannot be beat by any other airline out there. If you weren’t offered a code via email, you can often get one by begging in threads on the “Budget Board” on disboards.com, or by buying one on eBay for pennies on the dollar.
Driving Drunk on The Disney Magical Express:
The Disney Magical Express bus, aka The Disney Drunk Taxi
Personally, I think the best part about flying Southwest is the drink tickets. Yes, that’s right, DRINK TICKETS! You hand the stewardess this little piece of paper, and in return they give you an alcoholic beverage. Cash be damned! “Wait a minute,” you say, “I don’t have these drink tickets. I’ve never been offered these drink tickets. How do I acquire these mythical drink tickets?!” It’s true, us mere mortals cannot get drink tickets on our own. They’re only given