For those who drive to wdw why do you leave at night?

[cottontail]

Hi: Just reading some posts and noticing that alot of people leave at the supper hour or later in the evening to start their drive to wdw and drive all night and most of the next day before they stop.

I am just wondering, is it because you encounter alot less traffic through the night, and are their gas stations open in the middle of the night? (I79/77-95)

We usually leave at 4 or 5 a.m. and drive about l2 to 14 hrs then stop for the night and get to wdw at supper time the next day leaving around 7.30 a.m.

I am rethinking my approach to the long drive.

Deb.

 

[hockey mom]

We never leave at night. We either leave early am and drive through the night arriving at Disney around 9 am, or pick hubby up from work at 3 and drive all night hitting Disney mid afternoon. The gas stations are open all night.

 

[DSNY FN]

We travel with 3 kids and leaving at night after supper works well for us as the kids have eaten we are not waking them up to go in hopes that they will fall back to sleep. Our kids will fal asleep in the car when we drive at night and not usually wake up till we stop in the AM for breakfast in Georgia so we find this has advantages that driving at 4 AM does not we also travel the I75 not the other route. We have also found doing it this way allows us to stop about 3 or 4 in the afternoon in Valdosta for the night and a nice sleep in a bed for the kids gets them back on somewhat of a routine and then we arrive at WDW around lunch time the next day. Then we check in and let the kids go swimming at the resort and head to DTD after that it makes for a nice relaxing first day at Disney.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

We usually leave around 4pm in the afternoon when I manage to get home from work. We then drive for 5/6 hours and stop in Ohio. Then the next day do a long day and usually stop somewhere south of Atlanta for a second night on the road. We then arrive in Orlando on the third day around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. The drive home we do in 2 days with one overnight stop.

We started leaving at 4pm on the first day because this forces us to be ready to go basically the night before. We always seem to have last minute errands to run so that if we left the next morning we probably wouldn't get on the road til 9am despite our best intentions to leave at 6am. We figure it's worth the extra night in the hotel.

I have done the drive straight through a couple of times but am so exhausted afterwards that it's not worth it.

When my DS was younger we did leave at around 4am so that he slept for the first few hours.

 

[Nagle]

We have found that leaving early to mid-afternoon works for us. That way we are driving through the night in the Southern states where we find that the traffic can be a pain in the rear. This gets us through Syracuse before the evening rush hour/ congestion and we end up driving through most populated areas during off peak times. We then arrive in Orlando before noon the next day and we usually stay one night off site so we don't feel we have to rush off to a park to get our money's worth of a Unlimited Magic Pass. A nice quiet day off site and an early evening at Downtown Disney gets us ready to head to WDW the next morning and jump right in.

Cheers
John

 

[soupy11]

We always leave Kitchener, Ontario at 7pm for a couple of reasons.

1. We leave right after work. (we only get a week off so we like to get all our holiday time spent away from home)
2. This start puts us in Windsor at 9:30 pm. We find the crossing is really quick at this hour. (Detroit, Friday night 9:30pm, good chance to see some kind of wild behaviour, but don't stop at the stop signs. The cops will think your crazy if you do, live it up a little see what an economic ruin Detroit is and feel good about your own neighborhood and Canada's great social net.) no disrespect is meant by this post. I am sure Detroit has wonderful areas and neighborhoods as well.
3. We get thru Cincinatti at 1am. No traffic.
4. Hit Kentucky/Ga at daybreak. Almost there!
5. Arrive at Orlando at check-in time. Crash in hotel.

 

[pkitty]

we live in Wasaga Beach north of T.O. by about 1.5 hours. we rest up and go to bed until 11:00 washed dressed and out the door by midnight well rested. then proceed to Windsor to the I-75. and on to WDW.
We do this in order to avoid rush hour in two major cities. Detroit in the morning and Atlanta in the afternoon. We have made the trip 3 times now and left in the afternoon on our first trip and have found doing it in the afternoon put too much stress on us, by the time you were feeling tired you were going through the smokies trying not to fall asleep. so by leaving at midnight we went through the smokies in the middle of the day. made for a good scenic drive and did not feel tired. We then take a Best Western Hotel in Macon and had only a 6 hour drive to DWD.

 

[nana2tots]

Hey we are in a hurry 2 get there!!!!!!!!lol, actually there is less traffic at nite, we are planning on leaving around 4;30 a.m. 2- vans rolling down the highwat to visit the MOUSE!!!!!!!!!!! disneynana

 

[nana2tots]

HIGHWAY!!!!!!!!!

 

[TimNDansMom]

Our route is similar to yours Fiona! We usually leave on the Friday night and drive as far as Lima, Ohio for the night. Saturday night we spend in Byron, just south of Macon, Georgia and arrive in Orlando by 3 pm at the very latest. Then on the drive home, we have just one stop in Knoxville, about half-way for us, on the Saturday night.

However for last week, we left on the Friday morning before March Break, with just one stop in Knoxville and we were exhausted by the time we got to Orlando on Saturday night. We really need an extra night on the way down but are rested enough to do just one stop on the way home.