Driving from NJ to Disneyworld

[mati]

We are planning to drive from NJ to disneyworld this spring with 2 children (6 and 8) and an infant. Any suggestions on how to survive the drive?! Maybe good places to stop, where to spend a night in betweeny, etc...Any advice/insight especially from someone who has done this (or a similar drive) recently would be much appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[dsnymomof4]

We've driven from NJ many times with 5 kids (6 in Aug - DD15 brought his friend). We always drive overnight - that way the kids can sleep most of the way. DH and I take turns driving/sleeping - the overnight hours are tough - but there's not as much traffic and by morning (if we leave around 6:00pm) we are usually in GA. When DD2 was a baby, we made more stops than usualy because I was still nursing, so we would stop and everyone would get out and stretch until he was done - he was really good though - slept most of the time. Good luck!

 

[mati]

Thanks!

 

[sharadoc]

Check out this thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1655918

Take your time and read it all! It will probably cover every question you have. It's the best thread on the DIS!

Driving is great. We leave tomorrow morning from PA and will race the storm!

 

[eliza61]

We are planning to drive from NJ to disneyworld this spring with 2 children (6 and 8) and an infant. Any suggestions on how to survive the drive?! Maybe good places to stop, where to spend a night in betweeny, etc...Any advice/insight especially from someone who has done this (or a similar drive) recently would be much appreciated. Thanks!!

We've done it a number of times. My kids are a little older though.
First, start out real early. We try to make it pass the Washington DC area before morning rush hour.

We try to make it to the Georgia/florida border on the first day and we stop right off the I-95 exit name Brunswick. Of course you know about videos and plenty of snacks (LOL). We generally have 2 really big rest stops for every body to stretch their legs. Dh & I take turns driving.

When my kids were small they loved stopping at "south of the Border". Its a tourist trap that sells trinkets and stuff but it;s loud and colorful and you start seeing road signs for the thing 80 miles out.

Next day it's only about 2 hours to the world.

 

[GranddadTom]

We just got back from driving down to WDW for a long weekend (from just north of Washington, D.C.) You want to time when you leave home so that you are not in Baltimore or Washington during their rush hours. If you left home after your local rush hour, you would certainly be past Washington before theirs began. As you come down Rt. 95 approaching Washington, go to the east on the Beltway and as long as you are onto Rt.95 south of Washington by 2:30 pm you should be okay. For us, Brunswick, GA is just about a 9 hour drive plus time for stops (650 miles in 9 hour you ask? Yep, the speed limit through most of the drive is 70 mph and the traffic goes at more like 75+). From Brunswick it’s 3 hours to WDW. BUT, if you’re going down for Spring Break, the dynamics change drastically. Then you’re big problem is not getting through Washington but it’s handling the heavy traffic all along the east coast because the highways will be jammed with people going somewhere. It gets really bad on I-4 as you approach WDW. This is why you are hearing people talking about driving through the night when they go down during Spring Break. It seems like everybody stays in Brunswick and leaves there at 7:00 or 8:00 am so the rush hour never ends on I-4 (and it continues late into the night). If I were ever to make the drive during Spring Break (which I will not do), I’d seriously consider getting into Orlando some way other than I-95/I-4; maybe one of the back roads down from Jacksonville).

 

[Missytara]

We just got back from driving down to WDW for a long weekend (from just north of Washington, D.C.) You want to time when you leave home so that you are not in Baltimore or Washington during their rush hours. If you left home after your local rush hour, you would certainly be past Washington before theirs began. As you come down Rt. 95 approaching Washington, go to the east on the Beltway and as long as you are onto Rt.95 south of Washington by 2:30 pm you should be okay.

This also creates a lot of issues in the summertime for us, because you have the beach traffic every Friday night and every Sunday night - all summer long! A great deal of people from DC have places at the DE beaches. Ugh! Traffic is horrendous if you want to go over to MD for a weekend.

An alternative route, that we take from DE, is to take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, and then you avoid all the DC traffic. You do hit a lot of lights in DE, but we do have tax-free shopping.

 

[emlutz23]

We are driving down to WDW from NJ for the first time in Aug and I asked a similar question here a few months ago. Someone here suggested an I-95 guidebook. I bought the following book from amazon: "Drive I-95: Exit by Exit Info/ Maps/History/Trivia" by Posner and Phillips-Posner.

I bought it and will be glad to have it! It lists what restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, gas stations, which mechanics are 24hrs, etc... for each exit! As an avid WDW planner, this will help me plan our trip down and help plan for any unforeseen problems on our drive down!

Good luck!

 

[BC1836]

As sharadoc wisely suggested, all you need is the "For 2,000+ Round-Trip Drivers Only!" Transportation thread.

 

[disneyfan55]

We have (and even by myself with 2 children) driven from NJ to WDW since I was pregnant with my first child in 1977! All the times 2003 and prior were straight through drives. We never had a probem and that was back in the day of no electronic gadgets. They each broght a bag of things to do. We even drove cross country 3 times when the children were quite young (6-12yrs.) Just be sure to have an open mind, make stops and play games with the older children. You can even make a chart for them with license plates to find or other points of interest even things like who sees the first palm tree, a certain sign in a state, the welcome signs (easy things to find but they have to be looking ) Make sure you stop at the FL welcome center for a taste of OJ or grapefruit juice. We are all in fact leaving from central NJ (my daughter now 32, her son 1 1/2 - his second drive, and my son 29) They still like to drive down!! It's all part of the trip for them. We did have to fly in 1995 with the school trip and the first thing my daughter realized was that it just wasn't the same without the anticipation of the drive! Have fun in WDW and don't fret!!