"For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" (Part V)

[OKW Lover]

Can any one recommend a nice place to sleep over between Jacksonville and Orlando?

Once you pass Jacksonville, there are a lot of hotels in the next 20 miles nearby the I-95 exits. Stick with any of the chains (we prefer Marriott properties like Residence Inn or Fairfield Inn) and you'll be fine.

 

[cranbiz]

Plenty of choices in Daytona. I have used the La Quinta before. It's not 5 star (not 4 star either) but clean and cost effective. There are plenty of others if you prefer another chain. Choice hotels, Hilton and Marriott are close by.

 

[sharadoc]

Wow! Thank you for the advice. If we plan I'm driving west to Harrisburg what time Friday or Saturday would you suggest to leave? We check-in Monday. I am such a planner yet I can't figure this out.

Sorry - I haven't checked in for a few days. We need to put out the Dave Signal for DVCZerfs. He drives from the Allentown/Bethlehem area so uses the "back" way. I'll see if he can jump on here and help you out with your question.

EDIT - I noticed that he gave you generic advice about that route. Hopefully he can chime on the timing.

Is your plan to stay at a hotel near Disney on Sunday night? Or do you want to get there and check in to your WDW room early on Monday?

If you want to leave on Saturday, I would suggest checking Google Maps for the few weeks before your trip, and check traffic from Baltimore through Richmond. Maybe you could leave home at around 2:00 pm and drive to South Carolina, Florence area. That would put your about 8 hours away from WDW, so you could get up and drive at a calm pace to get to Orlando area by dinnertime on Sunday. If you want to get there early on Monday and drive a long time on Sunday, then leave home at 5 am on Sunday, drive to Southern SC/Northern GA (Savannah GA is great). That would put your about 4-5 hours away from WDW and you could get there by check-in time.

I'll see if we can get DVCZerfs to chime in and help.

 

[dvczerfs]

Hi Sharadoc!!! Anything for you! I posted this a few times but at this point I have no idea where,when or what thread its on. Here is my driving chart ( I also have it heading home and the other route we drive lol )

 

[dvczerfs]

Hi Sharadoc!!! Anything for you! I posted this a few times but at this point I have no idea where,when or what thread its on. Here is my driving chart ( I also have it heading home and the other route we drive lol )
BC, if you want you can post this on page one. I would also share the other chart if you want to post it on page one. Give people an idea on driving times and mileage other then the Google , AAA and Garmin come up with which I out driVe every time. Lol
I live in Nazareth so I us i78. You can google it but I'm real close to the NJ boarder and these times are leaving at 2am and not hitting Major cities at a rush hour.
Home to i81 --------- 1 hour ------ 1 min.
I81 to Ma. 1. 19
Ma to Wv 10
Av to Va. 22
Va to i77. 3. 23

I77 to Nc. 26
Nc to Charo. 1 44
Char. To Sc. 11
Sc to i26. 1. 13
I26 to i95. 49
I95 to Ga. 1. 07
Ga o fl. 1. 44
Fl to i4. 1. 42
I4 to exit 68. 54

These time enclude brief stops and missing traffic.

Lol. That didn't turn out well. Give me some time and I'll do it on my lap top. Try to do it on an I pad.

 

[staceywj]

Thanks Sharadoc and dvczerfs! I greatly appreciate the advice and could not wrap my head around this planning. We are going to give that route a try instead of 95 given the weekend and summer traffic. I also would prefer to arrive in WDW on Monday.

 

[java]

We made it to Savannah today!!!!
Easy trip along i81/77/26
We ended up leaving at 3:30am!(were trying for 4 actually were so excited we hit the road early!)
So I can say that the construction wasn't happening when we passed through. We hit the initial setup and I would call it a brief slowdown. We got to 77 in 7 hours. Then to Savannah for a total of 12 hours!
Tomorrow starts stage 2 but won't bore you with those details as we are heading well beyond disney first.

One word of warning on speed traps. The only place I saw heavy police activity was in VA. Just south of JMU down to Roanoke.(sp?) they were everywhere. Pulling everyone over. We thankfully made it through without any problems but be careful as you pass through that area! Thanks for all the help everyone. I can answer any? Oh Georgia welcome center is closed, they knocked it down I assume for remodel.

 

[kittylady1972]

We made it to Savannah today!!!!
Easy trip along i81/77/26
We ended up leaving at 3:30am!(were trying for 4 actually were so excited we hit the road early!)
So I can say that the construction wasn't happening when we passed through. We hit the initial setup and I would call it a brief slowdown. We got to 77 in 7 hours. Then to Savannah for a total of 12 hours!
Tomorrow starts stage 2 but won't bore you with those details as we are heading well beyond disney first.

One word of warning on speed traps. The only place I saw heavy police activity was in VA. Just south of JMU down to Roanoke.(sp?) they were everywhere. Pulling everyone over. We thankfully made it through without any problems but be careful as you pass through that area! Thanks for all the help everyone. I can answer any? Oh Georgia welcome center is closed, they knocked it down I assume for remodel.

There are ALWAYS tons of police in Virginia. I think that is how the VA government makes all of their money by speedtraps!

 

[scrappinmom]

Leaving tomorrow morning from northern Illinois - should be nice & thunderstormy for the first few hours - yay! (No not really)

 

[jm106]

We made it to Savannah today!!!!
Easy trip along i81/77/26
We ended up leaving at 3:30am!(were trying for 4 actually were so excited we hit the road early!)
So I can say that the construction wasn't happening when we passed through. We hit the initial setup and I would call it a brief slowdown. We got to 77 in 7 hours. Then to Savannah for a total of 12 hours!
Tomorrow starts stage 2 but won't bore you with those details as we are heading well beyond disney first.

One word of warning on speed traps. The only place I saw heavy police activity was in VA. Just south of JMU down to Roanoke.(sp?) they were everywhere. Pulling everyone over. We thankfully made it through without any problems but be careful as you pass through that area! Thanks for all the help everyone. I can answer any? Oh Georgia welcome center is closed, they knocked it down I assume for remodel.

Best of luck on the rest! We are 3 days out DH would like to leave by 4:30 am.
We are still deciding between 78/81/64/95 or 78/81/77/95. (We drive down to Roanoke area to MILs so I am familiar but think bc of that, it makes me hate that drive even more lol.)

 

[dvczerfs]

 

[sharadoc]

Thanks Sharadoc and dvczerfs! I greatly appreciate the advice and could not wrap my head around this planning. We are going to give that route a try instead of 95 given the weekend and summer traffic. I also would prefer to arrive in WDW on Monday.

Okay good luck!! Let us know how it goes because I would like to know what the experience is like from our neck of the woods, cause DVCZerfs has a perfect shot from his area, but I need to understand if it's worth it to go west to go south. We may want to look at this route to come home our next trip, since we'll be driving over the Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[sharadoc]

Hi Sharadoc!!! Anything for you! I posted this a few times but at this point I have no idea where,when or what thread its on. Here is my driving chart ( I also have it heading home and the other route we drive lol )

Aww shucks!! You're the best!!! I would like to see it heading home, actually, since we'll be driving home on Thanksgiving weekend.

Not sure if you want to drive to our house, but we're doing an outdoor movie night for Mike's birthday on July 11 - the original Star Wars!! But we won't be starting until dark.

 

[staceywj]

Did you leave from NJ? Trying to finish what is the best time to leave on an early Sat Aug morning. V

 

[java]

Yes I am in Western NJ

 

[dvczerfs]

Did you leave from NJ? Trying to finish what is the best time to leave on an early Sat Aug morning. V

Not sure if your talking to me? Lol but If you are coming across i78 from NJ, if you use "home" as the NJ / PA boarder, it will be real close.
If your coming across I80, you can hit I81 off of I80 or you can hit rt33 off of I80, at that point it only runs south but rt33 will take you I78. Rt33 is a nice highway, similar to I78.
Rt33 connects I78 and I80 through the Lehigh valley and into the pocono mountains.

 

[staceywj]

Not sure if your talking to me? Lol but If you are coming across i78 from NJ, if you use "home" as the NJ / PA boarder, it will be real close.
If your coming across I80, you can hit I81 off of I80 or you can hit rt33 off of I80, at that point it only runs south but rt33 will take you I78. Rt33 is a nice highway, similar to I78.

Great, thanks again!

 

[dvczerfs]

Did you leave from NJ? Trying to finish what is the best time to leave on an early Sat Aug morning. V

leave as early as you can. 2/3/4am. Taking the inland route isn't bad at all on a Saturday. There is no shore traffic and the camper and weekend people are already where they are going on Friday night.

 

[BC1836]

On our recent drive two weeks ago, we noticed that the GA welcome center on I-95 was closed due to new construction.

Plan accordingly, if you anticipated using the location's restrooms.

All the best!

 

[dvczerfs]

Back in the 70s, my dad would drive all different ways. Back then, I95 was not compete. You had to exit, drive on two lane roads and enter back on and a lot of it was under construction. There was also a fraction of the traffic?
The recall going this way when I was a kid, stopping at 76 truck stop plazas and Howard Johnsons. We use to stop at a place called Whites truck stop. Not many gas stations etc...
Back in the 80s, 90s, we always used this way. The winter time is fun going this way.lol
Now, I use this way and another way pending on time of departure and time of season.Both get me there in 16 hours and about the same mileage.
Again, for me this works out great. For someone south of me towards the Philly area, in most cases, it don't pay to drive north toI81.
Gotta love auto correct!!!!