FIRST TIME Driving From NY: Enough Time for WDW? help

[fairytinkerbell]

Hi everyone!

We are planning to drive for the first time to WDW from NY at the end of July. (saves us money -no plane & no rental car)

Can you check out my plan and answer a few questions??

SATURDAY
6am: Leave NY
drive for 14 hours (1 allowed for bathroom and 2 meals)
9pm: SC hotel to sleep overnight

SUNDAY
8AM: Leave for Lake Buena Vista (Offsite Hotel- Country Inn LBV)
drive for 3 hours
11AM: Arrive in WDW

1. Is this a correct estimation?
2. We will have 5 days in disney, plus Sunday afternoon/evening
- but really 4 days because 1 day is for Universal Studios.
3. We are leaving for home the following Saturday morning.

4. DO you think we will have a good disney experience? Is this enough time?

5. Staying at offsite hotel. But there is NO trolley on a reg. basis.

Is it better to take trolley to all of the parks?
What's good or bad about the trolleys?

**WILL WE HAVE A BETTER DISNEY experience at a disney hotel (even budget) vs a Country Inn LBV??

**VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION BELOW:***
Does it get annoying to drive to WDW then to keep driving to the parks each day???


Please share your driving experiences and how your week went. Was it enough time for your vacation? Did u stay offiste? Do u wish u didn't?
Help! Thank u

 

[msmayor]

If you're traveling with kids, especially young ones, then I think allowing only 1 hour for bathroom and 2 food stops over the course of 14 is not enough. I'm also not sure about only 3 hours of driving from SC all the way to your destination. We've done this drive from south Jersey three times, and it generally takes us 17-18 hours of drive time.

 

[kylara]

Not sure where in NY you are leaving from but the time to SC sounds okay if you don't hit any traffic and don't stop too long.

But your time from SC to Disney is about an 1 - 1 1/2 hours off even if you are at the last exit in SC.

 

[baileybelle]

It's about 7-8 hours to WDW from SC depending where you are in SC. We have driven down 3 times from Maine and for us it was between 23-24 total.

When we drove down,we were at WDW for 8-9 days. The drive down isn't bad because everyone is so anxious to get there. The drive home is "THE WORST!!!" We were so tired. It seemed like we would never get out of that van.

As you can see from my signature we have stayed on and off site. We prefer on-site. We always use WDW transportation. I would drive to the parks if I was off-site. Off-site transportation can be iffy. Driving to the parks wasn't too bad, but we did get lost a few times.

 

[mwehttam]

It's about 7-8 hours to WDW from SC depending where you are in SC. We have driven down 3 times from Maine and for us it was between 23-24 total.

Agreed. When we drove down last summer form NY we stayed in Savannah, GA off 95 and it was still a 4 hour drive the next day to WDW.

 

[mr.mike]

We've driven a few times from NYC.

best time was 17 hours and the worst was i think 18.5

We've driven straight through and other times have made stops.

If i remember correctly the time drivign through these states were
FL 3 hours
Ga 1.5
SC 2 hours
NC 2 hours
va 3.5 ( i think)
and from DC back to NY 5 hours which equals 17.


When we drove straight through we stopped 4 times to get gas when we hit half a tank. The fourth time we were already in FL.

We also left at 11pm at night which was great to bypass any traffic and be past DC before morning rush hour.
My wife would drive when i got tired and the kids slept alot.
One time we had no choice but to leave in the afternoon. Took us more than 2 hours just to get out of NY

I can't do straight through anymore...but it was fun the few times we did it.

One time we were supposed to stop somehwhere in VA on way home but i couldnt get myself to stop knowing we could be home in 6 hours or so.

We will be driving down again this december for our first Christmas trip because we figure the plane fares will be crazy for Christmas.