You can get there from here but how? Part 1

By now if you live on the East Coast or in the Midwest you probably have heard about the debacle that is going on right now with Direct Air, a discount airline that flys into Orlando/Sanford airport. If you haven't,  here is the quick summary. Direct Air stopped all operation without notice stranding passengers and making them scurry to find a way home or to their vacation destination. This is a horrible situation for any traveler,  experienced or not. This situation has lead me to recall my experiences when it comes to traveling to Orlando or anywhere in that matter.

When it comes to going to Orlando, I prefer to fly. I like to get there are quick as possible and as cheap as possible. I could drive, but after about 5 hours, I am done with being  in the car for the day. I get cranky and antsy. The other problem I have with driving is that I am sucker for roadside attractions.It could get rather expensive very quickly if I want to stop at every alpine slide in the mountains, drive thru safari, Firework shop, etc. that we come across. Trust me I will find a way to stop and won't walk out empty handed. So flying for me and my family it is.

I just need to see the Skunk-Ape and maybe get a can koozie also!

Where we live, we are fortunate to have wide variety of airports to fly from. Three major airports  about 2.5 hours away(Detroit, Chicago Midway, and O'Hare) and four regional airports( South Bend, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Lansing) This provides for a variety of airlines and airfares, both discounters and major airlines. With this come a variety of routes that are either non-stop(the coveted of all flights) or many different hops in different types of planes. The non-stops tend to be the most expensive. This where the discounters come in. The big catch with discounters that fly into Central Florida is that they usually don't fly into Orlando International, but into Lakeland or Orlando/Sanford. Both of these Airports are about 45 minutes or hour commute to the Orlando and attractions area. This is really not a bad option for someone that had planned to rent a car or wasn't planning on using Disney's Magic express. Although with Discounters, you may end up in a situation like Direct Air stuck its customers with or you may have gotten a great flight at a great price. Just remember these discounters are really no frills, some of the planes seats don't even recline, and you may have to book almost a year in advance. In the past I have flown on the Discounter Spirit Airlines, after an awkward delay we had a pleasant flight to and from Orlando.(While being delayed at the gate before boarding the plane, an announcement was made that there was a mechanical problem with the plane and they were locating another aircraft. We watched the plane back away from the gate, stop, then return to the gate followed by an announcement that we could now board and that this was new plane.)

Discounters aren't the only airlines to have problems. I have had some great flights on major airlines and some nerve racking ones as well. The worst airline experience and flight resulted  from a flight cancellation that stuck the family at Chicago Midway for 7 hours in the baggage claim area. It would have been fine if we weren't subjected to the song Sweet Home Chicago over and over and over and over again. The night before the flight, severe weather ground stopped all flights and the airline claimed they called everyone that was affected. Needless to say, we didn't get the phone call. So we put the family truckster in the long term parking, took the shuttle to the terminal, and headed to check our baggage for our 6am flight.  That's when we get the are you stupid look from the clerk at the baggage counter and informed our flight has been canceled. The next available flight was going to be 3pm that afternoon and wasn't going to be non-stop. After trying to get on various different airlines with no avail, we finally boarded and were finally on our way, arriving at DisneyWorld sometime after midnight much later than our anticipated 9am arrival. That is not the only adventurous or delayed  flight we have had, just the most frustrating. The most adventurous and white knuckled flight we have had into Orlando occurred when our flight pattern took us directly over the swamp fires burning around Orlando International.  Fires of that nature tend to make up their own weather and turbulence. On final approach we had a drastic sudden drop in altitude, I mean worse than the Tower of terror drop, sending everyone into a panic and had people screaming, that is all but one little girl, my angel of a daughter, who was giggling and asking if we could do that again.

Please don't sing Sweet Home Chicago anymore!!!!!

Even with these mishaps and delays, I will take the 2 hour non stop flight into Orlando International or outlaying airports over the 24 hour non stop drive we would have. I had several of those trips and those were adventures in themselves. Stay tuned for part 2.