5Dreamers
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2011
We drove from just North of Toronto, ON, to WDW and wanted to share our experience.
I did not want to drive, but flights back home during March Break were more than I was willing to pay, plus DH and DS really wanted to try it.
It was me, DH, and our 3 kids (15,11,8) in a Dodge Journey. We had one seat in the third row up for use, and the other down to fit our luggage. We secured all 3 pieces of our luggage together to ensure it wouldn’t tip over or pose a risk to the person sitting at the back. We had 2 pillows, a bag of bottled water and packaged food, and stuff in a few backpacks. We took our time, never speeding, and stopped when we needed to.
Drive down:
We left 8pm on Sunday March 13th and drove straight without stopping at a hotel. It was about 25 hours with stops, arriving just after 9pm on Monday March 14th. We drove the route that goes through Buffalo. We did not take the Jacksonville, FL by-pass on the way down which was a mistake. Too much construction and traffic, was our only real slow down. Highly recommend taking the by-pass on the East side.
Drive back:
Left just before 11am on Friday March 18th and also drove straight without a hotel stop. It was longer, about 27 hours, because we stopped to pick up a few things from a store and ran in to a few minor slow downs.
Things I learned:
1. Good neck pillows for each passenger are a must, as well as sleep masks.
2. I discovered I much prefer to drive at night, not many trucks/cars on the roads. DH preferred to drive in the day, so we were a great team. I did not realize there were sooo many trucks on the roads in the day time.
3. A vehicle with cruise control really reduces the pressure of staying at the speed limit during the night time drive. An option to display your speed in miles per hour helps too. We had both, and I really appreciated them for the first time because I’m not usually a cruise control user.
4. The highway signs for food and gas stops are great to use when deciding where to pull off.
5. We did not eat in the car. All food stops took longer than I had expected: about 1 hour each for meals and even stops for washroom & snack break took 30-45 minutes. We always got a good stretch before getting back into the car.
6. As I said above, take the Jacksonville, Florida I-295 East Beltway by-pass.
7. The travel stop in Angola, off the I-90, is about 30 minutes from the Peace Bridge. Very handy since it’s about 3 hours from the GTA area, perfect for a washroom break and snack/meal. Has exits in both directions that link up to the building in the middle.
8. Tolls in USD were $3.15 + $0.40 + $2.00 = $5.55 on the way down and $8.55 on the way back with the extra $3 upon entry back to Canada.
Biggest surprise:
The price of gas, in total, was only $199 USD and we came back with ¼ tank less than what we left with. It was a huge savings over flying for our family of 5. We got great fuel economy and gassed up 9 times in total. Probably could have dropped it to 7 or 8 since we always had over ¼ tank when we filled up, but I did not want to take any chances of running low. Our vehicle uses almost as much gas as a minivan, and was very heavy with people and luggage, so I’d say it was at the higher end of gas costs.
Hope this is helpful to any first time WDW drivers from the Toronto area!
I did not want to drive, but flights back home during March Break were more than I was willing to pay, plus DH and DS really wanted to try it.
It was me, DH, and our 3 kids (15,11,8) in a Dodge Journey. We had one seat in the third row up for use, and the other down to fit our luggage. We secured all 3 pieces of our luggage together to ensure it wouldn’t tip over or pose a risk to the person sitting at the back. We had 2 pillows, a bag of bottled water and packaged food, and stuff in a few backpacks. We took our time, never speeding, and stopped when we needed to.
Drive down:
We left 8pm on Sunday March 13th and drove straight without stopping at a hotel. It was about 25 hours with stops, arriving just after 9pm on Monday March 14th. We drove the route that goes through Buffalo. We did not take the Jacksonville, FL by-pass on the way down which was a mistake. Too much construction and traffic, was our only real slow down. Highly recommend taking the by-pass on the East side.
Drive back:
Left just before 11am on Friday March 18th and also drove straight without a hotel stop. It was longer, about 27 hours, because we stopped to pick up a few things from a store and ran in to a few minor slow downs.
Things I learned:
1. Good neck pillows for each passenger are a must, as well as sleep masks.
2. I discovered I much prefer to drive at night, not many trucks/cars on the roads. DH preferred to drive in the day, so we were a great team. I did not realize there were sooo many trucks on the roads in the day time.
3. A vehicle with cruise control really reduces the pressure of staying at the speed limit during the night time drive. An option to display your speed in miles per hour helps too. We had both, and I really appreciated them for the first time because I’m not usually a cruise control user.
4. The highway signs for food and gas stops are great to use when deciding where to pull off.
5. We did not eat in the car. All food stops took longer than I had expected: about 1 hour each for meals and even stops for washroom & snack break took 30-45 minutes. We always got a good stretch before getting back into the car.
6. As I said above, take the Jacksonville, Florida I-295 East Beltway by-pass.
7. The travel stop in Angola, off the I-90, is about 30 minutes from the Peace Bridge. Very handy since it’s about 3 hours from the GTA area, perfect for a washroom break and snack/meal. Has exits in both directions that link up to the building in the middle.
8. Tolls in USD were $3.15 + $0.40 + $2.00 = $5.55 on the way down and $8.55 on the way back with the extra $3 upon entry back to Canada.
Biggest surprise:
The price of gas, in total, was only $199 USD and we came back with ¼ tank less than what we left with. It was a huge savings over flying for our family of 5. We got great fuel economy and gassed up 9 times in total. Probably could have dropped it to 7 or 8 since we always had over ¼ tank when we filled up, but I did not want to take any chances of running low. Our vehicle uses almost as much gas as a minivan, and was very heavy with people and luggage, so I’d say it was at the higher end of gas costs.
Hope this is helpful to any first time WDW drivers from the Toronto area!
It all depends on your family, but I have definitely say the drive is not as bad as its made out to be.
