8 hour drive for a short trip?

[MickeyNola]

We live a little under 8 hours (500 miles) door to door from the Magic Kingdom and our family could use a little pixie dust, so I wanted to ask if anyone had experience doing a short 2-3 night stay at Disney World as a family surprise. Our kids- 7, 5 and 3 are pretty good on long car rides and I would think we'd do 2 Magic Kingdom days.

I know our experience might be different, but has anyone done this? Is this too "commando" for kids this age? I think we'd do the following:

Depart Thursday @ 5:00am, arrive by 1:00pm, resort pool/ Disney Springs
Friday- Magic Kingdom
Sat- Magic Kingdom
Sunday- wake up late, breakfast, depart between 10am and 12, arrive home by 8pm.

Thoughts on this plan? Advice on switching days (would Sat-Tuesday work better?) Thanks!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Go for it!! We’ve flown from Canada twice for trips only one day longer. Short trips can be just as magical!!

 

[Karalee402]

We live a little under 8 hours (500 miles) door to door from the Magic Kingdom and our family could use a little pixie dust, so I wanted to ask if anyone had experience doing a short 2-3 night stay at Disney World as a family surprise. Our kids- 7, 5 and 3 are pretty good on long car rides and I would think we'd do 2 Magic Kingdom days.

I know our experience might be different, but has anyone done this? Is this too "commando" for kids this age? I think we'd do the following:

Depart Thursday @ 5:00am, arrive by 1:00pm, resort pool/ Disney Springs
Friday- Magic Kingdom
Sat- Magic Kingdom
Sunday- wake up late, breakfast, depart between 10am and 12, arrive home by 8pm.

Thoughts on this plan? Advice on switching days (would Sat-Tuesday work better?) Thanks!

These little trips have been some of my favorite with my kiddos. We actually just did a two night trip over the holidays and surprised our kids with it as their Christmas present. Our drive is a bit longer than yours, but we enjoyed it so much that we keep talking about doing it again even just for one day in the parks. Sometimes we really do need pixie dust, and the adventure, for us, was more than worth it!
Your plan of resting/spending time at the resort the first day is perfect. It'll let everyone rest up after the early morning/long drive. I think a Sat - Tues. may be better crowd-wise, but it's hard to know for sure these days. Keep us posted! And have the best time!

 

[HopperFan]

Same distance.

When kids were younger most our trips were 3 nights. Just enough magic without breaking the bank.

Did it last year - 1 day at DHS and 1 day at Discovery Cove - then home.

I’d do it!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

An Eight hour drive is nothing to me especially leaving at 4-5 am. You essentially get a full day at your destination.

I would do it in a heartbeat. Especially since your kids are good travelers.

I’m in NJ and done the 16 hour drive in one day several times.

 

[DisneyOma]

We've done 20 hours of driving for a 3 night stay when the kids were little.

 

[loves to dive]

We live about 7 1/2 hours away and when my son was younger, we often went for those 3 night trips. The only difference is we did a park on arrival day as well as on the other two days and we always park hopped. We still do but the shortest trip we(I) do now is 4 nights but he is a grown man now with a little of his own. They also drive down, she is 2 1/2 and has already been 3 times. I think their shortest trip was 5 nights.

 

[MickeyNola]

Thanks for the replies! We're going to pull the trigger, I think we can get a friends and family rate at the Swan and Dolphin so we're going to either do that or a good neighbor hotel. I looked for short stays in April and May and it looks like so many places are totally booked!

 

[hpsalb]

We live about 5 hours away and prefer the shorter trips. My kids prefer a 3 night trip like you described over a week-long theme park trip. We usually keep it to a day or two in the parks and leave time for the hotel pool, Disney Springs, etc.

 

[DawnM]

I would do it. We are about 8 hours away and we find that by the time we travel to the airport, wait, fly, arrive, wait, travel to the hotel, we are already at about 6 hours' travel time. We may as well add 2 more and have a vehicle while down there. Never mind all the cost savings.

 

[Shellyred8]

I would totally do this! But I would go with the Sat - Tues dates.