I have been looking for airfare for April 2009. It is spring recess here in NY. It is $700 cheaper to fly into West Palm Beach from NY instead of flying into Orlando airport.
Has anyone done this before? I checked Tampa and the prices are higher than flying into Orlando! We are renting a car and would leave the night before we check into our disney resort (we are DVC members). Even with a night stay at a hotel near the WPB airport it is still cheaper than flying into Orlando with money to spare.
If anyone has done this drive please write back and tell me how long it took and if you thought it was worth it. Thanks!
Terri :D

My grandparents used to live in WPB, so several times we flew in to WPB and visited with them for a few days before driving to WDW and flying home from Orlando. It took us four or five hours, as I recall, with moderate traffic and road construction. Easily doable.

Terri,

My daughter lives in Port St. Lucie (about an hour north of West Palm Beach), and my wife and I routinely drive between Port St. Lucie and Walt Disney World when we visit Florida each December. Using the Florida Turnpike, it's about a 2 hour drive each way. Add another hour for the Port St. Lucie / West Palm Beach leg, for a total of about 3 hours each way. Of course, that's assuming no major traffic tie-ups along the way.

The Turnpike toll is about $10 each way, plus another $1.50 if you use the Osceola Parkway once you get to Orlando. There are other alternatives to Osceola that are non-toll roads, but Osceola usually has less traffic.

If you wanted to avoid the Turnpike tolls, you could take I-95 North from West Palm Beach to the Cape Canaveral area and then the Beeline Expressway West to Orlando. But that's going to be a longer drive than the Turnpike, because the Turnpike cuts diagonally from West Palm Beach to Orlando.

Arnold

Hey, I'm also looking at tickets from the NYC area (I'm in CT). I haven't bought yet, but I noticed that there are cheaper flights out of Philly or Boston for some reason. I didn't look into West Palm Beach, but we would really like to fly into Orlando since we want to do Magical Express. We're staying at Pop. Also, our original plan was to fly out on Easter Sunday and return the following Saturday. But it's a lot cheaper to fly on Monday and return Sunday. It sure is a lot harder these days to find good deals on tickets. Good luck!

I live in the WPB area (only 15 minuted from the airport) and it's about 3 hours from my driveway to the gate of any WDW park.

I highly reccommend taking the FL turnpike (even though there are tolls) over I-95. The speed limit on the turnpike is 70 mph over 55 mph on I-95. When you leave PBI, just follow the signs for Southern Blvd West- it will lead you to the turnpike entrance.

Exit the turnpike at the Osceola Pkwy -this is the "slowest" part of the trip, it's about 10 miles from the exit through the gates of WDW.

Only you can weigh the cheaper airfare with the cost of a rental car, gas, tolls and those 3 hours of your trip.

I was going to suggest the same thing (checking out area airports to depart from rather than not flying into Orlando). Depending on where you are in NY, you should check out flights from Newark, NJ (Continental Airlines) or Philly.

If you haven't booked a flight yet, check Delta Airlines. I just booked our flight for spring break with them. We're leaving from Westchester going to Orlando. It helps to be a little flexible with your dates. We ended up leaving on April 8 and returning on the 15th. DD ends up missing 2 days of school, which we didn't want to do, but otherwise it would have cost so much more. I'm so relieved now that we booked the flight. We're really going:-)