24 hour drive-would you do it?

[horner5]

We just got back from one trip, and here we are planning another one for late December for the holidays. Since we were just there and really want to go back in 10 months, we're trying to cut costs.

It would probably take us around 22-24 hours to drive straight through from Michigan with a 2 1/2 yr. old, a 9 year old and a 13 year old along with ourselves.

Has anyone driven that long with any good/bad experiences to share? It would save us nearly $750 to drive versus flying. We are definitely opting to drive straight through and switching drivers.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kristi1357]

We just did the 24 hour drive, straight through with a 6 mo. old. It really wasn't that bad! I say go for it, as long as you have a tv for the kids.

 

[phorsenuf]

We always do it! This will be our 3rd trip this year. I just picked up a video player for this trip, otherwise it's reading and gameboys!
I can't justify paying for 5 (used to be 6) plane tickets. That's a big chunk of my budget!

 

[da disney fans]

Personally, I can't imagine a road trip that long. I get antsy in the car after 3-4 hours! Also, I feel like time is money. I'd be sitting in the car getting super aggravated that I could've been at Disney for X hours already, and we still have X hours left to drive..

However.. if you think you and the kids can handle such a long trip, go for it! Saving $750 is awesome!

 

[klynn]

Yep, I'd do it. But first I'd try to Priceline tickets.

 

[ILPHIL]

We've made the drive many times over the years from here north of Chicago. Plan on making frequent stops during the day to break up the boredom and racking up all the miles you can overnight when the little ones are asleep. Make sure they have plenty of their favorite games, books, whatever. We have a conversion van and the VCR/TV and now DVD player have proven to be worth their weight in gold.


We will be making the drive again in June...

 

[pamlet]

The last trip we took to Disney we drove straight through - down - but broke it into 2 days on the way home.

We've had to stop long hauls like that tho' because my 14 year old son is epileptic, and we tried it this past fall to go to a family reunion in NC. BAD idea for us - a lot of the key to controlling my son's seizures is being aware of his "sleep hygene" as our nuerologist calls it... we threw him into a total mess of 10 straight days with at least one seizure a day... yuck... very stressful trip. We're never doing that one again!!

The only thing I'd warn about is we always found from about 1am 'til sunrise was HORRIBLE... sometimes having to stop every 1/2 hour or so to walk around... and that can be scary at 3am at a truck stop! Also - be ready to "give it up" if you get TOO tired.. better safe than sorry!!

Just make sure everyone has something to do ... and has comfortable places to sleep!!

My husband SWEARS by M&M's to keep him awake through the night... laugh...

It certainly is a LOT less expensive than flying.. we just build our time around the drive now... with us in Texas, and our families in Chicago and North Carolina we do quite a bit of driving in a year!

 

[Kim&Chris]

We thought about it, but the fear of having weary drivers is a little scary, especially with little ones in the car. Not only do you have to make sure you are wide awake, you have to pray that the other people on the road are just as awake.

IMHO, there's too much to lose.

When we drove in December of 2002, we stopped for the night, and boy, am I glad we did. We woke refreshed, and had only a 5 hour drive ahead of us. It was a breeze.

 

[stacy2197]

We drove from Wisconsin last year. It was suppose to 24 hours. It ended up being 32 hours. We hit road construction, Traffic jams, and worse of all there were a couple of accidents. We moved about 2 miles in 3 hours. I was considering driving again but my husband said no way. It is scary driving when your sleepy and then seeing a car rolled over that was probably doing about 75 mph. Makes you think twice about stopping for the night.
Stacy

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

Originally posted by horner5
24 hour drive-would you do it?

No.........

I would rather be there in 2 hrs..................

 

[mbb]

and would do that again...so yes, we'd drive it...only with a DVD player!!

 

[tinaluis]

We're doing it in less than two weeks but we're breaking the drive up with an overnight stay each way. Go for it. $750 is a substantial amount of $$ to save by driving and, if it allows you to plan another trip, it's worth it!!!!!!

 

[tzvdmd]

The majority of our trips we have driven. Its not bad if you can switch w/ the wife or someone to get a break. We live in N.E. Ohio and can be in Fla in about 17 or 18 hours. Although my wife traded her Montana van for a Vibe so the last couple of trips have not been as comfortable as in the past. I guess the type of vehicle you have can make a big difference. But the Vibe was really great on gas.

 

[crz4mm2]

We've driven down from west central Illinois. We have never done it straight through and never intend to. I feel that I would be so tired when I arrived that it would take at least a day to feel better again,so why not just stop on the way.
I would never drive with less than two weeks to spend. We have had great trips driving till we are tired and want to stop. We go slow and have fun. BUt I agree that I would rather be there in two hours! My DH does NOT fly, so when he goes, we drive.
This vacation, it is just DD and I so we are flying! whooopeee.

Best of luck however you decide to go. 750 bucks is a BIG savings.

Cathy

 

[angel's momma]

We (me, DH & DD6) will be making our first trip in Dec. and decided to drive, but not straight through. We are taking a different route than most in our area use & it's about the same time as you have. We decided that we would enjoy the trip more by taking 3 days to do it. I realize many think that is wasted time, but we feel that it is what will work best for us. By driving instead of flying, we are saving enough money to be able to spend 6 days at wdw instead of the 5 we had planned, and we're still spending considerably less than if we bought plane tickets. For us, a big benefit of driving is being able to take a wider variety of clothing to be prepared for the unpredictible Dec. weather. DH did not want to take extra luggage on the plane.

In another thread someone posted that after driving through the night, the adults were very tired & the children were well rested & needed to do something, which didn't work very well.


Hi crz4mm2 We are from west central IL too.

 

[drewc]

We did a 24 hour trip last year (from upstate NY). The trip itself was fine both ways. We did it straight through, with my wife and I taking turns at the wheel. Our three kids (5, 4 and 1.5 at the time) were great. We had a dvd player, but actually didn't use it all that much (a few movies both ways). It was a fairly pleasant journey, about as good as it can get considering you're stuck in a car for 24 hours.

We're going back next December, but we are planning on flying this time. It wasn't the driving experience that has pushed us toward that decision, it's the "lost" time. You lose two vacation days when you drive that distance, and that is assuming you go straight through. If you break it up with a sleep over on the way you lose even more. And when you do arrive after 24 hours in the car, it's tough to hit the parks full speed like you'd like to. So, you actually lose time recuperating also.

Sooo, when you weigh the costs, think about the cost of a vacation day to you and your family. My wife only gets 2 weeks, so each day is fairly precious. Flying can preserve some of that time, so you can either spend more time at Disney World, or save time for other days off throughout the year.

If you happen to be lucky enough to be able to take off for long periods of time, then I would definitely suggest driving. You save money on the flight, money on the car rental, and it can be a fun experience with the family.

 

[disneymom3]

Well. I have posted many times before on this topic, but I will tell you too. We love to drive and have many driving vacations planned for the next couple of years. In fact, we are going with extended family in March and me, DH and the three kids all wish we were driving instead of flying. We just really enjoy the adventure and the freedom--stop whenever you want to, no one else deciding when to give you a drink or when you can get up to use the bathroom.

We end up spending about 28 hours in road time including breaks--in other words, deduct the amount of time we stop overnight. However, we do spend one night in a hotel in GA on the way there. What we do is DH spends time sleeping the day we are going to leave. We then head out at around 4:00 to 6:00 depending. We travel through the night with him driving until about 3 or 4. He is in a band and is very used to staying up that late. Then we switch adn I drive until breakfast--I am a wimp! Breakfast is a good time to get out stretch, get everyone dressed, hand out a new surprise bag and hit the road refreshed. We stop that night at a hotel and get to Orlando sometime the next afternoon after letting everyone sleep as late as they want and having a leisurely breakfast at the hotel.

On the way home, we do the same thing in reverse. Except we have always planned to stop and end up going straight through. It seems kind of silly to stop for the night when we are already in Madison, so we just keep going.

I will say, we did this when we had two full weeks for vacation and again with 8 days. The two full weeks was a lot better way to go!

 

[mom_rules]

We did the 26 hour drive from Ontario with a 2-1/2 year old in the car (2 drivers) left a 3:00am. DD was great-slept most of the time. By the time we got to GA, DD was wide awake-both of us were dead tired (16 hours driving by that point). Decided to stop and get a room for the night and guess who was ready to party when we stopped? Got up at 6:00 am to continue the drive (still both dead tired) and another 10 hours later pulled into Orlando. We spent the first three days catching up on sleep (had to take turns because of DD). I agree with the time factor, I would rather try to book a discount airfare and fly 2 hours and get there ready to go! $750 is not enough to make me drive that drive again! I'd start putting a little away each week and find some way to fly.

 

[HaleyB]

We do long driving vacations all the time, but not straight through. We like to do 10-12 hours a day then sleep. This is what family vacations are all about. These are memories I would not trade for anything. And we do it without a TV. We play those old fashioned games my parents played with me when I was a kid... My oldest hates our road trips but we love them. One thing I should say is we are spoiled rotten, DH gets 3 1/2 weeks a year, so we don't have the time concerns that some have.

Any wuss can fly... actually I hate to fly with kids. Way too much stress. This comes from living in a small town in North Atlantic Canada (okay, sorry if you are from Nova Scotia, but, I consider Halifax a small town). It took 4 planes to get to Grandma's house! That is going through customs, changing planes 3 times, and about 10 hours... Have you ever carried two kids, two car seats, and carry on bags through customs and then tried to make them understand you were US citizens who lived in Canada except for the baby who was born in Canada but is still a US citizen (they thought we were freaks)... I hate to fly...

Making the 21 hour trip in 2 days this time...