15 mo old and driving!!!

[cruzmouse]

Considering driving from central Texas to WDW...We have always flown w/our 6 yo DS but now I'm not so sure about flying w/his baby brother?? I hate the thought of him throwing fit on a airplane... Has anyone driven w/15 mo old this far away??? Also considering possibly flying back one way?? Suggestions appreciated..

 

[melanie18]

We flew down in Sept 2001 and had to end up driving home (because of 9/11) with our then 16 mo old DD. We were dreading it from the moment we left WDW. She did great! At that age, she slept quite a bit of the ride. We stopped at Cracker Barrel a couple of times (for 2 reasons, to eat and to let her walk around a bit in the shop and pick up a couple of cheap toys to play with in the car until the next time we stopped). We live in NJ, so it was about an 18 hour drive that we did over 2 days.

The drive wasn't that bad because we ended up driving up and back on 2 more trips! However, we've also flown with her 3 times and we've been really lucky on those trips too. I say go for it!

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

We went to WDW when DD was 15 months. DD is not a good car rider. She screams and moans when trips are an hour long. We could never have driven 17 hours to WDW. She had a meltdown on the airplane once. I just did what I could to calm her down. My thoughts are , What are you going to do? She stopped after a while. It seems when I fly there's always one screaming kid, well that time it was mine. Good Luck!

 

[KarenP99]

We've driven 2x to HHI with our kids 3, 2 & 5 months (21 hours). It was long, but the kids did suprisingly well.

That said, I'd fly. We didn't mind the drive to HHI because we were going to relax & do nothing while there. I can't imagine the long drive and then having to "do" wdw. My theory is that it could be a flight from hell, and a lot of stress...but it would be (in my case) 4 hours of chaos...but no matter how hard the prep/flight/transfers are...it's over with fairly quickly (5 hrs tops) for us, and then we can begin our vacation. If you drive, you could possibly drag that chaos out for a few days before you really get to start vacation.

Karen

 

[lbgraves]

We started driving on longs trips to see family 5 - 9 hours when DS was 6 months. He started fussing our first trip down to FL and I put in the Blue's Clues cassette that I had picked up just in case. That did the trick for him...but we had to listen to it for the entire ride. LOL! Now we have the kids pick out videos for the TV/VCR. That seems to keep their attention pretty well. Now they can manage headphones so we don't have to listen to any of it anymore & take our own CDs. One option is if you drive at night so that he sleeps most of the trip.

 

[Kristi1357]

Our DS has made the 24 hour round trip to FL 4 times before he was 2!

Our saviour was our VCR in the minivan.

 

[cruzmouse]

Thanks for all the suggestions/comments...I just have to convince DH, he wants to fly..

 

[Lady Cluck]

Wow! What a smart kid!!