The good, the bad, the ugly of driving down... Tell me your stories!

[shaynar]

Nothing officially booked, but thinking ahead to November 2017. Coming from Toronto.

I'd like to stay about a week and a half. Not going to the parks every day. Stay on site.

I'll have 4 kids, 8, 6, 4 and 8 months. I'd obviously like to save the money of flying. Plus we'd be able to go places on our days off and go food shopping as needed.

That being said, the drive scares the cr*p out of me! We've driven to NYC before and it was hell. And that was only with 3 kids. I'm also petrified of the way back. I can see the way there being fun and exciting, but the way back tedious and exhausting.

Flying is easy and convenient, but expensive. And if we'd want to go anywhere we'd have to rent a car and deal with car seats. But then we might not need the car when we're there other than a couple grocery trips, which we could in theory do via taxis.

Perhaps the best compromise would be to fly out of BUF. Save money and then just deal with a rental if we need it.

So tell me your thoughts on the flying vs driving debate. Thanks!

 

[bababear_50]

Hi Hon
Nov is a lovely time to visit Disney.
I have traveled with kids (3 sons)--and now travel with my granddaughter also.
Driving is for some people fun and many people enjoy the experience.That being said I would just be a wreck by the time I got to Disney.I'd spend three days just detoxing from the drive and no one would want to be near me.
With 4 kids I'd try looking for flights out of BUF.
Find a nice hotel near BUF airport that offers free shuttle and maybe even free breakfast.
Here is a place we stayed a few years ago and it was great.
https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=buf airport hilton&tbs=lf_hd:-1,lf:1,lf_ui:7,lf_pqs:EAE&hotel_dates=2016-11-20,2016-11-21&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rlla=0&rllag=42927252,-78737120,587&tbm=lcl&rldimm=13273020296053058080&rlfi=hd:2016-11-20,2016-11-21;si:13273020296053058080

If you plan to stay onsite then Ubber it or Taxi it for a special shopping trip.
Garden Grocer is another option.
https://www.gardengrocer.com/market...lV1bxN5GmcQjosh2eYCAHi_yY94kCl2ZzQaAqVL8P8HAQ
Orlando Grocery Express
https://www.orlandogroceryexpress.com/
We Go Shop
http://www.wegoshop.com/location15.html
I got some reasonable flights out of Hamilton a few years ago.
No matter what you decide remember to have fun planning.
Hugs Mel

 

[DM Minnie]

We live in Windsor and have driven down my whole life other than an handful of times that it was a short trip. I think I'm over 25 trips (gradmother owned a home there) we have always enjoyed the drive and it gets us out of work mode. But last year was our last time driving. The ride home was too much. My new suv on i 75 just outside of orlando had a valve go and the motor was shot. The awesome people at orange gm got us fixed to were we could get home in the suv. But there was a lot of crying because at one point the parts looked like they needed to be ordered and would take 7 days. We had already been gone for 2 weeks. My husband owns two businesses and couldnt be gone any longer so we were scrambling to find a flight for him to get home if needed. But they were awesome and found parts in another part of florida and got us on our way. But was told to get straigh home because they thought when the valve went it may have caused more problems. Thank god for warranty!!! We drove straight through. It was February and I75 was closed due to the land slide. That drive with a suv you could feel was starting having problems was horrible. We pushed through the night and got home. Longest drive ever!!!!! We parked my suv got in the house unpacked and slept for hours. We woke up went out to the suv and every colour of fuild you could imagine had come out of of it. We ended our last day of vacation at the dealership getting a need car. Our dealership was great and were able to take my suv back and give me a new one under there lemon policies.

Have a back up plan in your mind. We didnt and it was awful.

If staying over night country inns are great. We stopped every time in macon georgia.

 

[hardis5]

We've driven with up to 6 (one young one) many times, driving straight-thru, one night on the road, leaving dinner time, lunch time and before sunrise. Whenever we drive, the drive back seems twice as long as the drive back to reality is always...always a hard one.

We've flown Buffalo, Pearson (repeatedly and next time again through), Detroit and through Cleveland. Cleveland actually this past Spring was our bargain - just under $79 US pp direct with Spirit with great flight times. Less than 5 hr drive from the GTA and with a cheap sleep-n-fly deal ($91) three of us flew for 1/3 we'll be flying out of Pearson this week.

The drive/fly factors for us is having enough time to drive, enough drivers to drive, being able to get a fare that offsets a portion or all of the driving for us, and the times we can get flights for fitting our time away. Greats fares with huge layovers - nope. Flying in late night or back before the sun rises - nope. Being forced for that great fare to fly days I cannot take off or afford to miss - nope. Flying Buffalo in Winter - sometimes (two years ago when we last flew Pearson, it was the day after the big dump where Buffalo was shutdown literally with feet of snow - if we had chosen Buffalo, we would have lost a few days of our vacation).

With multiple young ones, one has to carefully plan driving with more than normal stops, have a van loaded with distraction and maybe plan an extra day into the drive. With our youngest (first at 18 months driving) we'd leave at dinner time and drive through the night (where we'd have 8-10 hrs of he sleeping) and stop late morning (by noon the next day) for our night on the road (Columbia SC normally), leaving a shorter (~ 6 hr drive the 2nd full day).

 

[mort1331]

We have done both. If its all of us we drive, jus2 or 3 then fly. We, (I) prefer to drive straight through from just north of TO. We drive I75 and take approx. 25hours. Cant beat the cost. Last year round trip for gas was approx. $250, add in a couple of meals on the road and we are only at $350.Around the cost of one flight our of Pearson.
You have judge our family on the ride, but for us the only part the wife doesn't like is the mountains. She always ends up driving in the night there. Luck of the draw.

 

[CandiceF]

We will be making our 4th drive with 3 kids (9 and under) this Friday. We bring lots of DVD's and I pack snacks and a surprise bag for each kid with things to occupy them in the car. It really isn't too bad as long as we take 2 days and stop for the night. We drive from the Niagara Falls area. My kids love seeing the mountains and looking for the Palm trees when we get closer. We save a lot of money by driving with our family of 5 and that means we can go more often. Whenever we stop at a rest stop we let the kids run around and wear them out a bit. We also try to stop for something to eat at restaurants we don't have in Canada because they find that fun. Having our own car means no waiting for buses at Disney and being able to pick up a few snacks for our room from a grocery store before we check in. We also like having the ability to stay as long as we want the last day and not having to worry about catching a flight. However the drive home can seem long.

 

[AprilDreamsOfDisney]

We drove to Myrtle Beach a few years ago and it was okay on the way down, but a nightmare on the way home. We just couldn't WAIT to get out of the car. It was too much.

I've priced out flying vs. driving for my family and the cost savings (flights vs. hotels, multiple meals and snacks per day per person, GAS, treats/games/surprise bags for the trip) don't warrant the headache of driving. PLUS, we'd lose at least two days of Disney before our real vacation begins and have to leave two days early to get home when we want to. And, frankly, I don't really want to start my vacation at Disney exhausted from all the driving.

Something to consider when travelling with the four children: with many different temperaments, it's so easy for at least ONE issue to come up with one child, thus throwing off your travel plans and timing of driving. When it's lots of kids, I say get there and get there fast!

I get great prices out of SYR and imagine BUF would be similar. Good luck with your decision.

 

[mab2012]

I drove with my two kids (7 and 10) from Ottawa this past summer, just to see how it would go. And really, it was fine. I'd do it again. BUT...

• My husband didn't accompany us. I've often "joked" that I would do a long drive with my children, or with my husband, but not both at the same time. I still think this is true. You have to take your personal family dynamics into account.
• Because this trip was really about "can we survive the drive?", and not so much a Disney trip, we took several days in both directions, with at least one stop of 2+ nights at the same place each way. There were a couple of 12+ hour days in the car, but on the whole it was very spread out. That said, having done this, I do think we could do it in two days without going crazy.
• There is no way I would have tried this with my children when they were under the age of 5. Other people do it and live to tell the tale, but it just would not have been worth the misery for us. And I only had two of them.

My 7-year-old watched movies on a tablet pretty much the entire way, both directions. This isn't something he is usually allowed to do, so apparently the novelty factor was enough to keep him engaged. The 10-year-old spent masses of time watching for license plates, trying to see one from each state. By the end of the trip we were only missing 4 of the lower 48! She is somewhat prone to carsickness, so extended periods watching movies or reading doesn't work for her. We also took audio books from our local library.

We do sometimes drive into upstate NY and fly from there. Toronto to Buffalo is pretty easy. We've driven from Ottawa to fly from Buffalo and considered it worth the $1300 savings, as long as the flights are direct and departure/arrival times are good. But flying with 3-4 car seats doesn't sound like much fun either, and the cost of a mini-van rental is probably not insignificant. If you want to try to get away without a car, consider a grocery delivery service (eg. Garden Grocer). It requires a bit of pre-planning to keep your costs to 1-2 deliveries, and shopping yourself is more flexible and probably cheaper, but not enough to justify the cost of a rental car.

Good luck!

 

[Vijoge]

We've driven down twice from Illinois. The first time was when my youngest son was nine. He threw up all the way. Upchucked all over the ENTIRE state of Georgia. The second time was with our granddaughter, who was 7 at the time. She began vomiting about 20 miles from home and didn't stop until we arrived at WDW. We no longer drive to Florida.

 

[mshanson3121]

We drove from New Brunswick, a 28 hour drive (one way). Children were 8 & 6 (one of whom has HFA and was still in Pull Ups). We drove the 81 to 77 route instead of the 95, so we avoided all the major cities. The route was beautiful. We stopped and toured the Shenandoah Caverns on the way down which were really nice. In all honesty, the drive down was a piece of cake. We took 3 days, enjoyed the new sights etc... The drive home was much more difficult because we were exhausted. The first day driving home actually wasn't that bad, but day 2 & 3 were much harder, I won't lie. Now, all that said: 1. I was sick on the way home with a sinus infection 2. It was a certain time of the month 3. I had a leg that was hurting me so I was stuck wearing a compression sock in the middle of summer and 4. We took a wrong turn which forced us to drive right through Hartford which was miserable. So, those definitely contributed to my views on the drive home. The kids, in all honesty, weren't that bad on the drive home. *I* was just miserable.

Would I do it again? Yes. Would I prefer to fly? Definitely. But, the reality is, it's much cheaper for us to drive than fly, and I would rather drive to Disney than not go at all. Things I would do differently: I wouldn't push ourselves as hard in Florida, so that we wouldn't be as tired for the drive home - we drove 3 days to get there which is tiring, and then jumped right into Epcot at rope drop the next day, and then did four park days in a row without a break. So, yeah, that was stupid. Next time, we'll take the first day to just enjoy some R&R. We also will make sure we take a day for a break after 2 park days, so we don't push ourselves so hard. My husband says that next time on the way home, he would like to break it up more, perhaps take 4-5 days to drive home, stopping more along the way to see stuff, so that we all have something to look forward to, to keep the excitement going.

 

[mshanson3121]

Also, things we did on the drive: we took a football and soccer ball with us, so whenever we stopped at rest stops, we would get out and play soccer or football, to let everyone stretch their legs and burn off some energy. We also brought an electric cooler, and made lunches, so we would picnic at the rest stops. We used www.hotelcoupons.com and got awesome deals on hotels that included pools which we swam at every night and morning, and full hot breakfasts. So, that gave the kids something to look forward to (the pool), and it also saved us from having to buy a meal. The only meal we bought each day was supper which was typically fast food, though one night we bought a couple pizzas and saved the leftovers for lunch. We packed goody bags for the kids which included their favorite books, coloring books, crayons, movies and DS games. We really did love the drive down, it was so amazing to watch the landscape changing as you drive, to drive by cities and see the different architecture etc... One big key however is to try and time it so that you are not driving past any cities during rush hours (morning or supper). We got stuck in a major supper hour traffic jam on the way down which cost us almost 2 hours.

 

[bankr63]

Thinking back to the days when Disney first opened, it was probably the way that most families got there, and they (mostly) survived. Many still tell the heartwarming tales of those family road trips. Now think back to those days, and there was no in-car entertainment. I have always taken long trips with the kids (late teens now) and now they barely come up for breath from their plugged in world. With a stack of DVD's and a screen in the back, or Gameboy/DS etc., you can be set if your kids don't suffer motion sickness. Get them a couple of new games for the trip to keep their attention.

We've flown down a few times, and driven down a few times, and for getting there on the cheap, you can't beat driving. With our family, I have learned that "ripping off the bandaid" and going for broke works better; we get down there as quick as possible. But, I really enjoy long haul driving so we can leave late Friday afternoon, drive until 10:00 or so, stay one night, be back on the road early and with DW spelling me off for a couple of short bursts, be in Orlando by midnight. Two twelve hour shifts and an overnight gets us back home in decent time on Sunday. Now if I could get my kids to just get their dang licenses, we could go without stopping at all!

It all really does depend on your family dynamic, and how much you like to drive. I'm already looking forward to our March drive to HHI, SC, but if the thought of driving, or driving with your kids, makes you cringe take to the friendly skies.

 

[shaynar]

Thank you all for your replies! I spoke to DH about it, and his response was, "absolutely not!" He remember driving down as a kid with his parents, and has fond memories of that, but they were all older. We also have dietary issues, so we can't eat out at restaurants, which he remembers as being half the fun of the trip.

Half your stories inspire me. The others scare me to pieces.

I can't foresee a drive down to FL with 4 young kids in tow any time soon. Maybe once they're all older. I'm just imagining the poor 8 month old strapped to it's seat for hours on end. Not fun for anyone. Flying out of BUF will prob be our best option. In the past though, comparing the prices from YYZ and BUF (including the exchange rate) it wasn't that much more to fly out of Toronto. We don't book that far in advance so it's hard to book right when SW introduces their prices, but that might be our best bet for our 2017 trip!

 

[Cheerio]

We drive with four children, we leave just east of Toronto at 3am, at the Buffalo crossing by 5am, stopped about 9pm in Orangeburg, SC for the night and about 7hrs driving the next day (we had crap rain weather, so needed to slow down) That said, my youngest is 10 - I'd never do the drive with babies. We flew down our first two trips.

 

[mab2012]

My husband says that next time on the way home, he would like to break it up more, perhaps take 4-5 days to drive home, stopping more along the way to see stuff, so that we all have something to look forward to, to keep the excitement going.

This was my intention when I drove with my kids this past summer, especially on the way home. On the way down we stopped at a resort in northern Virginia for a couple of nights (near Shenandoah). On the way back we camped on the beach in South Carolina for two nights, and then spent a night near Hershey, PA and went to the chocolate store on the way through. It did give us stuff to look forward to, which helped, but my vacation time is usually too limited to allow for that kind of leisurely pace. I could only make it work by thinking of it as a "road trip", not a Disney trip. We only spent 3 nights at Disney, and didn't go to the main parks at all, just one trip to a water park.

By the way, camping in South Carolina in July is a really terrible idea. Don't ever try it. The park we stayed in and its beach were lovely, but I discovered that there is a limit to even my tolerance for heat, and a 40+ degree humidex at 10 pm exceeds it.

Also, things we did on the drive: we took a football and soccer ball with us, so whenever we stopped at rest stops, we would get out and play soccer or football, to let everyone stretch their legs and burn off some energy. We also brought an electric cooler, and made lunches, so we would picnic at the rest stops. We used www.hotelcoupons.com and got awesome deals on hotels that included pools which we swam at every night and morning, and full hot breakfasts. So, that gave the kids something to look forward to (the pool), and it also saved us from having to buy a meal. The only meal we bought each day was supper which was typically fast food, though one night we bought a couple pizzas and saved the leftovers for lunch. We packed goody bags for the kids which included their favorite books, coloring books, crayons, movies and DS games. We really did love the drive down, it was so amazing to watch the landscape changing as you drive, to drive by cities and see the different architecture etc... One big key however is to try and time it so that you are not driving past any cities during rush hours (morning or supper). We got stuck in a major supper hour traffic jam on the way down which cost us almost 2 hours.

We also brought a cooler and ate many of our meals picnic-style at rest stops. It was faster, cheaper, more convenient, and probably healthier than stopping for fast food. No balls though. That's a great idea; I'll remember that if there is ever a "next time"!

Thinking back to the days when Disney first opened, it was probably the way that most families got there, and they (mostly) survived. Many still tell the heartwarming tales of those family road trips. Now think back to those days, and there was no in-car entertainment. I have always taken long trips with the kids (late teens now) and now they barely come up for breath from their plugged in world. With a stack of DVD's and a screen in the back, or Gameboy/DS etc., you can be set if your kids don't suffer motion sickness. Get them a couple of new games for the trip to keep their attention.

Much as I struggle to keep screen time and computer usage reasonable on an everyday basis, portable electronics are a definite sanity-saver travelling with kids. For most kids, anyway. But aside from the motion sickness issue, the other big limitation is age. At least for my kids, even electronics wouldn't have kept them engaged for long under the age of 5 or 6. They just didn't have the attention span. OP's kids are very young, and 50ish hours (round trip) strapped into a carseat is a looong time to keep them entertained. I think it's doable with the right kids and the right pace, but I would've needed a much better reason than Disney to make that kind of drive with my kids at that age.

 

[WDGPCFR]

We drove to the west coast of Florida last Christmas break. On the way south it is fun for the kids to count down the miles to the next state border. The one thing you have to watch is when you are going through major cities, you don't want to hit rush hour. We ran into huge traffic jams from the southern portion of NC all the way to the Georgia border. No apparent reason, just traffic. Plan your route in more detail than just the roads you are taking.

I remember driving as a kid to Disney with seven people in a Chrysler 200 sized car. Dad would stop (next hotel) somewhere along the way. I don't have any bad memories of doing this.

 

[Owl X]

Has your family ever been to Dollywood or Gatlinburg in Tennessee?
It would be a little more than half way between Toronto and Orlando (alternate route).
Gatlinburg has several family attractions and Dollywood is open most days in November.
You could spend one day at Dollywood on the trip down and one day in Gatlinburg on the way back.

Dollywood Calendar:
http://www.dollywood.com/calendar

Gatlinburg Attractions:
http://www.attractions-gatlinburg.com

Possible Routes:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Tor...N+37863/Walt+Disney+World+Resort,+Orlando,+FL
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Tor...f1a0!2m2!1d-81.563874!2d28.385233!2m1!2b1!3e0

 

[mort1331]

Thinking back to the days when Disney first opened, it was probably the way that most families got there, and they (mostly) survived. Many still tell the heartwarming tales of those family road trips. Now think back to those days, and there was no in-car entertainment. I have always taken long trips with the kids (late teens now) and now they barely come up for breath from their plugged in world. With a stack of DVD's and a screen in the back, or Gameboy/DS etc., you can be set if your kids don't suffer motion sickness. Get them a couple of new games for the trip to keep their attention.

We've flown down a few times, and driven down a few times, and for getting there on the cheap, you can't beat driving. With our family, I have learned that "ripping off the bandaid" and going for broke works better; we get down there as quick as possible. But, I really enjoy long haul driving so we can leave late Friday afternoon, drive until 10:00 or so, stay one night, be back on the road early and with DW spelling me off for a couple of short bursts, be in Orlando by midnight. Two twelve hour shifts and an overnight gets us back home in decent time on Sunday. Now if I could get my kids to just get their dang licenses, we could go without stopping at all!

It all really does depend on your family dynamic, and how much you like to drive. I'm already looking forward to our March drive to HHI, SC, but if the thought of driving, or driving with your kids, makes you cringe take to the friendly skies.

Maybe see you there. We are in HH march 23-26 after a 4 night cruise. First time for both, looking forward to it.