The original post: /r/travel by /u/50shadesofPuppies on 2024-11-13 19:17:32.

Hello,

Metro-Detroiter here. My parents have booked our entire family (kids, grandkids, etc) a condo in Orlando over spring break- end of March 2025. No an ideal time to travel because of crowds, but 2 of my siblings work for school systems and requested it.

Right now, flights from DTW to Orlando are hovering btw $600-700 a person (nonstop, roundtrip). For my family of 4, this is going to cost us around $2500 in flights alone. I noticed that we could fly from Toronto Pearson Airport to Orlando for $150 a person, or around $500 for our family. That flies our whole family for less than 1 ticket from DTW. I’d plan on driving the 4 hours the day before and staying in a hotel that offers week-long parking (around $300- so still less than half of DTE price). I feel like this would reduce the rushing and stressing of traveling with 2 toddlers.

Now for my questions…is it worth making the trip to Toronto? I’ve barely flown domestically, so flying internationally is terrifying. We can check in online the day before, so do we go straight to security? Is customs after that, or only at the destination? Is there any service like TSA pre-check that could improve our wait times? I’ve read some horror stories about long flight delays and cancellations…was this just a covid-era issue, or is Toronto still bad for that?

I’m an anxious person, especially in new environments. If anyone is to walk me step by step through your Toronto airport experience, I would be SO appreciative!