NY Road trip to Disney (any tips?)

[blessedfam]

Wow! Thank you! So much great info!

 

[Sheaboys]

When my husband and I drove, we had 3 kids, and left Massachusetts around 4pm. Stopped around 8:30, got kids dressed for bed, got them all comfy in their carseats, they slept through the night, up at about 6:30am. DH and I switch on and off. This is when we drove to "just north of Tampa".

We got to our destination around 3:30pm the next day. Kids had blankets, pillows, dvd players, headphones, we had a small cooler for drinks, a beach bag of clothes, a bag of snacks lots of them, a trash bag for trash, lots of wipes.

The next time, I drove to Florida by myself first with 4 kids in 2008 then with 5 kids, last June. Obviously with me being the only driver, we had to stop. We left around 7am, got to just south of Dunn, NC around 6:30pm. Got a hotel, ate dinner and swam a bit. In bed by 9pm, up and out of there after the continental breakfast by 7am. Made to "just north of tampa" around 7pm. Obviously me just driving we stopped a lot, and hit some pretty bad rain storms, so slow driving too. Same deal with snacks, cooler, beach bag of clothes, dvd's, kindles, headphones, laptops, ipods etc.

On the way home, made it to Virginia and once I stopped off in DC for a bit of site seeing on our 2008 trip.

 

[disnut8]

We live just outside (to the northeast) of Atlanta so we're close and get surprised looks from our friends when we say we are driving, not flying.

With driving, good points are that you get to be able to take things "just in case". Not sure if you need that jacket? Throw it into the car anyway. You can take whatever food and drink you want/need. Case of beer? In the car, not a problem. Need your favorite shampoo? Throw the bottle in the car, no problem with restrictions on size.

As for things to do on that drive, I grew up years ago before the internet and video games existed so we had to entertain ourselves with games that didn't depend on batteries. On our last drive to Disney World, I rediscovered the one that occupies your mind and gets you to look at your surroundings a bit as well. The Alphabet Game. You start with A and look at billboards and other signs along the road for something that starts with an A. Find something, call it out (or just mentally know you found an A), then move onto B. Proceed all the way through to Z. Q's are difficult so hope for a Quality Inn or a Quik-Trip gas station. The further south you are makes it easy for a Z - Zaxby's!

You can also keep a list of the different license plates you see along the way. For a huge variation now, check not only the state but the different themes. For example, license plates in Georgia have different counties on them. So a Gwinnett plate is different from a Fulton plate.

Yeah, long car rides can be a lot of fun.

 

[pemberley]

We drove from Long Island for the first time last month. It was a last minute trip since DH was starting a new job so we decided to try the drive. I was nervous since our DD is only 2 but it really worked out great. We left NY 5am and drove to Savannah. Stayed overnight and then only had about another 4hours to WDW.

As others have said they drive back wasn't nearly as fun. Our plan was to stop in Fayetteville, NC and stay overnight. But there wasn't a hotel room to be had so we continued north to Smithville, stayed overnight, and then got home the next day.

Would I do it again? Maybe. As a family of 3 it doesn't save us any money. Although it was definitely great having our car with us. We did a lot of resort hopping that we don't normally do.