Any Boston to WDW roadtrip experience?

[mom2meiko]

dh and i are debating driving to wdw on our next trip - to try and save some $$ since we are now a family of 4. does anyone have experience with this trek? all words of advice/warning would be welcomed! our kids will be 2.5 yrs and 6.5 months. are we insane to even consider this??

 

[Fall1]

I have never driven, but I did ride on a bus once and that was comfy and still SOOOOOOOOOO LONG! I would never drive again!

My parents did it once and said never again either. Sorry, I just couldn't do it!!

Maybe you can get a deal on Jet Blue, we usually find them cheaper!

 

[kaleighmariesmom]

I have never done WDW but we have driven with a 1 year old from NC to Boson (where we are from) and it was NOT fun!! after a few hrs we were ready to cry!! I fly Jet Blue and LOVE them they are great for kids with their own TVs and the leg room... we never drove home again...

 

[Magical09]

HI,
I never drove but took a train once. It was long and miserable. I swore I would not do it again. We love jet blue too, more space and TVs.

We are also a family of 4 soon to be 5. We are saving every penny to go next year

 

[TinaLala]

Sounds like I'm your gal! We've driven from MA to FL many times - the last time was April 2008. We've taken our trailer and driven by car.

It's a 24 hour drive straight down - but I wouldn't recommend driving straight down regardless of how many people you have driving! You need to take a break along the way or you will be exhausted!!

If you have AAA they can provide you with a great Trip tik. We usually stop around GA for the night and then make it in to Disney by 10am. We stop at Cracker Barrels along the way since they're cheap. The biggest expense you're going to have besides gas is TOLLS! If you have an Easypass then you don't have to worry about having coins or dollars.

BONINE - if you're going to drive this motion sickness medicine is THE best! I use it at every amusement park we go to and I'm able to go on all types of rides.

It is a big cost savings by driving, but it takes longer and you really need to plan ahead with your trip for drive time. Also think about what will everyone do in the car - bring food -driving enables you to bring your own water and extra food so you can save while you're at the park.

 

[DISNEYFOS]

We drove in Feb with a 5 year old and a 18 month old. We left mid day on Friday and took our time to get there. We drove the majority of the hours in the evening while the kids were asleep. Stopped in Richmond first night...then Savanah GA the next. The GA stop was longer..we stayed in a Marriott with an indoor pool and went out for dinner...got a good nights sleep so we were rested for WDW..We got there about noon on Sunday.

DVD was an essential item...plus a sense of humor. Like on the ride home, 10PM, stuck in the middle of the George Washington Bridge in NYC stopped traffic. My 5 year old wakes up from a sound sleep to scream "I HAVE TO GO POTTY!!!!" Oh the memories.....

seriously though..we really enjoyed the family time and would do it again. I say if you are thinking about it ..go for it.

Oh and congrats on the new baby!..six days old and you are planning the next trip.. thats great

 

[mousebymarriage]

I have driven from Northern N.J. to Florida twice. The first time was a couple of years ago and it was not such a good trip, my DD (was 10 at the time) and my DS (was almost 6 at the time). My DD gets car sick but refused to take anything so she vomitted in Delaware, Maryland, Washington, Virginia and North Carolina. She finally agreed to take a dramamine in North Carolina and she was good after that. My DS who normally doesn't get car sick vomitted in Virginia but, that was an isolated incident. Crazy as it sounds we drove again this past March but, it was a last minute trip because my mom died and we had to get to Florida for the funeral. The cheapest flight we found at the last minute was over $500 per person round trip, so hubby and decided to drive. The trip round trip driving for gas and tolls was approx $250 total. We drove straight through (and most of it was a blur for me) but the airfare would have been over $2000 for our family of four. My DD 12 and DS was almost 8 and the trip was uneventful, no vomitting. I would definately drive again but, my kids are much older than yours. I'm not sure if I would do it with a 2 year old and an infant.

 

[emh1129]

Happy to see this thread! We are thinking about driving next May, since dd would be beyond lap baby years and we would need to buy 5 plane tickets- eek!
We're in Hartford, so it's a pretty long haul.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

We did Portland> WDW last year. (Patriot's Day week- airfares were $700pp. Yeah. Right. Of course the rest of our family already had cheaper ticks and we were all supposed to go together...)

It took us about 30 hours (GPS said 24, um, no. We only made bare minimal stops for gas/fast food take out.) We spent the night just into NC on the way down. DH wanted to drive straight through on the way back. By 3am, I made him pull over in a rest stop to sleep. (We were apparently in some wierd hotel-less area and I wasn't driving around looking for one.)

We'd consider doing it again, but it would have to be as significant a savings vs airfare. You lose 2 extra days of vaca. (Even flying, it's practically an all day adventure with connections and all.) It was "nice" to do a road trip with the kids though. Something everyone should do at least once.

 

[3boymthr]

There are 5 of us. My DSs are currently just turned 7, 9 and 13. DH has a phobia about planes and refuses to fly unless absolutely positively necessary. We drive every where, all the time. Love it. It's an adventure. We schedule destination/sight seeing stops along the way on all our trips to break up the day (i.e., stopping at Ft Delaware or Statue of Liberty when we go to see my MIL).

Our longest road trip was from MA to CA and back. Or as I like to call it 28 states in 28 days our 7,000 mile odyssey. Loved it would do it again in an instant. Kids were 4, 6 and 10.

MIL lives in DE and since it takes longer to fly we drive there every year. 8 hour trip no problem. Leaving for DE in one month. Looking forward to it.

Drive every few years to IN to visit FIL and SIL. 19 hours there and back. No problems. Will do it again in a couple of years.

Drove to FL with DH and no kids in 93 no problems. Went to WDW, Key West. Took our time getting down there. No reservations so we just drove and had a blast.

Drove to FL in May - the three kids in tow - will NEVER do it again.

WHY?

1) We stayed in hotels each night, but the 13 hours on the road each day was just miserable. Too much time in the car. Even when we drove cross country we didn't spend this much time in the car (well, once, but that was because we misjudged how long it would take to drive across the rocky mtns - that was miserable too).
2) We had time constraints that made it imperative we stick to our driving schedule so we HAD to do the long drives - no time for a long break - we did stop at south of the border but really that's not a great place to stop anymore - avoid it.
3) It shortened the time we had available for WDW.
4) After adding up the meal/drinks costs, the hotel rooms, the tolls, the gas it cost almost as much money as taking flights. In fact with just one less person it would have cost the same .
5) My friend decided to make an early visit - miserable - finding restrooms on that gotta stop NOW basis every hour was not fun. Having an overflow was even worse requiring a change of clothes mid day.

That said, if you do decided to do it some things that we did to make the trip more bearable and less expensive:

1) Buy variety packs of individual serving size snacks ahead of time. That way you're not spending $10 each time you stop.
2) Buy drinks ahead of time and put them in a small cooler. Just like at WDW drinks at the rest areas are very expensive.

We only had a 10 days available to get to WDW and get back. If you have more time than that then I would say go for it.

ETA - please note that each time I had to stop for my friend my kids had to get out too. Which just made the stops exponentially longer. We can and will drive long distance again, possibly even to FL, just not to WDW where you have to stick to that schedule to keep those reservations or loose your deposit possibly your reservation.

 

[mom2meiko]

thanks everyone! we're really up in the air on this one and not at all sure that the savings will be significant enough to make it worth the time and potential exhaustion of driving with the 2 little ones but we definitely want to consider all of our options.

Oh and congrats on the new baby!..six days old and you are planning the next trip.. thats great

thanks so much! we already knew we'd be going - just trying to figure out the details now that getting ready for our baby boy is taken care of.

 

[DVCJones]

Hi,

We do this every year (MA to WDW). Our first trip with kids was when my oldest was 16 months old. A few years later took a 3yo and 10 month old. We have been going every year since then and we wouldn't have it any other way. Yes, it is a long ride, but you have the freedom to take whatever you need and stop whenever you want.

We also skip Rt 95 and go Mass Pike to 84 to 81 to 77 to 26. We get onto 95 in South Carolina. It is a BEAUTIFUL drive with no tolls. We've done 95 the whole way too, but will take the inland route any day.

We usually leave around 3pm when I get out of work. The kids are in their pajamas and we drive until 11pm. Stay overnight at a hotel that serves an extended breakfast and start out early at 7am. We eat a quick lunch/stretch (drive-thru) and always stop for dinner and get out stretch and get the kids in their pajamas for the rest of the ride. We usually reach Orlando at about 11pm-midnight. We sleep in and check into our WDW resort early and enjoy the resort pool and do DTD and CM for dinner the first night. This rest day helps us get ready for the week.

A couple of must haves when traveling with little ones. Get a portable DVD player. This helps a lot. Lots of snacks and drinks. (we always did a diaper change/potty break and snack and drink refills whenever we stopped for gas. Even if the kids said they didn't have to "go." We made sure they did.
The one thing I would never travel without when traveling with small children is a portable potty. This is a MUST!!! Some of the gas stations or rest stops are NASTY and since my DDs have not mastered the art of hovering over the bowl, I always have them use our own potty. Plus, sometimes they need to "go now." It is nice to have a potty.

We love driving, and actually look forward to the "adventure" every year. My kids look forward to having the DVD player in the car since that is the only time we do this. We have done this so often, we know where our favorite hotels and restaurants are along the way. I also love being able to take my own stroller, pack&play (when they were babies) baby food, etc. You can also do a lot of shopping and not worry how you are getting all your purchases back.

Just make sure our car is serviced and ready to go and you visit AAA and get a TripTik and hotel books so you can find/call ahead and get a room at your estimated night stop.

Seriously, we have this down to a science now. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions or need more details.

You can do it!!! Have fun!!!
Pam

 

[3boymthr]

Oh,

I have a few more suggestions. We drive down to MIL every year (sometimes 2 or 3 times a year) and have been doing so for the last 22 years (when I met DH) as I said so we have a lot of experience heading south. We live in SE Mass right near Gillette stadium so logically for us the route is right down 95 but it doesn't take that much more time and is soo much less stressfull (DH usually spend about an hour swearing any time we go thru NYC) to travel via 287/87 over the Tappan Zee bridge instead of going thru NYC - the traffic is much much lighter and the tolls are about the same. From the Tappanzee you then go down the garden state parkway until you get back to the Jersey Turnpike (exit 11 on the turnpike I don't know the number on the GSPWay but it's well marked). A GPS will not send you this route, it will keep trying to send you back to NYC then down 95 but this route really and truly so much easier. No trucks are allowed on the Garden State Parkway but if you don't have an ez pass bring lots of change as there are multiple stops for tolls (about 50 cents each). You can plot this route on AAAs online trip tik for turn by turn directions.

Another stress saver going via the Mass Pike to 84 via Hartford to 684 then take the Saw Mill Parkway to 87/287. The saw mill parkway has a couple of stop lights but believe it or not we do this all the time and although it is longer than 95 the time factor is about the same and, again, the frustration factor is about half.