Advice for drive from Detroit to WDW

[msumissa]

Hello, this is my first post! We are heading to Disney for the week of Thanksgiving. We have decided to save money and drive it. Does anyone have any advice for making both the trip down and back more bareable? We have 2 DDs, 5 and 2. We will be taking the 2YO potty with us for needed breaks on the road.

We are thinking of starting around Dinner and then drive till we drop and then get a hotel, wake up and do it again.

We have a DVD player in the vehicle we will be driving.

Any tips and tricks are GREATLY appreciated. If someone has a schedule that they followed, that would be great too!

 

[Disneyfanatic108]

We drive down from Grand Rapids. we are planning on leaving early in the morning and driving about 14 hours. this will bring us down to Macon, GA where we have a hotel with an indoor pool. From there it will be abut a 6 hour drive. The DVD is one of the best things. Bring as many disney movies as you can. Also have plenty of snacks so you do not have to stop as much. Our first drive was when our oldest was 5 and the middle one was 3. It went very well. The hardest part of the trip is the drive home. Vacation is over and now there is the long drive home. It will be very tiring after a few hours. We are planning on driving about 7-8 hours and then getting a good night rest for the rest of the trip.

 

[kristenrice]

We too are driving from Grand Rapids next April. It will be the first road trip for our 2 DD's who will be 4 and 6 when we go. We are planning on leaving around 4pm (after picking up DD6 from school) and driving until about 11pm. We'll drive all day the next day and stay at another hotel. This will give us about a 2-3 hour drive into Disney the next day. We spread it out like this so that the adults do not start the vacation completely exhausted from driving.

When I mapped our route on MapQuest, I look at the drive times listed and add about 2 hours to account for pit stops and meal breaks. We are going to try and stop once every 2-3 hours to get out and stretch. We'll probably eat at fast-food restaurants and allow the girls a little time in the playland if one is available.

Our plan is to switch drivers at every stop. My parents are coming too so we have 4 people to rotate. If the kids take a nap, we will drive until they wake up and forego a "scheduled" stop.