Any tips for a car ride??

[jaclark]

We are surprising the kids this Friday and leaving for Disney (my mom and the kids are going south while hubby/dad goes north to snowmobile!).

We've never driven before as we usually fly. But we figure we can get more trips planned with our DVC if we drive...

Anyway, any helpful hints from those who drive? We live in Illinois - I have three kids, ages 9,5,3 - bought a car DVD player with 2 screens (Sam's club for those interested) so everyone can see.... Any hints for things in the car, etc. We plan on driving about 4-5 hours on Friday night, what we can Sat (8?) and finish up Sunday to get us to check in.

Any helpful tips would be great... I used Mapquest to do the route.

Best wishes and thanks,
Annette

 

[phawley]

We usually "encourage" our kids to behave in the car by giving each one a roll of quarters each day. Any misbehavior results in a fine of one to four quarters paid directly to the adults. At the end of the day, the kids get to keep what is left for spending money on vacation. This works well for a couple of days of driving and lets them buy their own treats/souvineers without having to ask the adults. Hope your drive is great--I'm in Illinois, too, and just waiting for the next snow storm!

 

[HookdonWDW]

Here is a link to some printable games you can play in the car. Hope you have a great trip!

http://www.momsminivan.com/printables.html

 

[tjkraz]

Best advice I can offer, from my personal experience / preference, is to ditch the idea of spreading it out over 3 days.

We drive from Ohio, which is about 18 hours with no breaks--about 21-22 hours when you factor in gas station stops, meals, bathroom breaks, etc. We usually leave around 7-8pm and drive through the night. The kids will sleep through the night, which gives us about half of the trip completely uninterrupted.

Granted some of your children are older, but I'm assuming they will eventually give-in and sleep a good portion of the trip.

Unless you are making scheduled stops and have good reason to spread the trip out over that many days, I'd try to get it out of the way much quicker. If you're planning the same sort of return trip after your vacation, trust me when I say it will be agony.

 

[angel's momma]

We're from IL too & were planning just about the same as jaclark, but only have DS6.

tjkraz: Do you drive straight through then? Appr. what time do you arrive? Do you take I75 or I95?

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by angel's momma
tjkraz: Do you drive straight through then? Appr. what time do you arrive? Do you take I75 or I95?

As "straight through" as we possibly can. If we leave about 8pm, we hit Atlanta around 6am. So we will stop outside Atlanta for a nice breakfast. That lets us get out of the car and stretch our legs.

Then we'll stop again for lunch. After that the kiddies will end up taking a nap in the car.

Straight-though, it's an 18 hour trip. Figure 2-3 hours for stops. So if we leave at 8pm, arrival is around 5pm the next day.

We are right on I75, so we take that all the way down to Florida.

 

[angel's momma]

Thank you.

 

[PKS44]

MY 9 and 7 year old just did a summer drive withut--movies were helpful especially if they had never seen them before..less so for old favorites...the most popular thing was that they could plug their GAMECUBE into the TV and play gamecube for HOURS--I mean we would stop and they would not want to so they could keep playing..!!!

Have fun. -- My wife and I listened to a couple of great books on tape (rocket boys by Homer Hickham was the best!)

Paul

 

[jaclark]

Originally posted by tjkraz

We drive from Ohio, which is about 18 hours with no breaks--about 21-22 hours when you factor in gas station stops, meals, bathroom breaks, etc. We usually leave around 7-8pm and drive through the night. The kids will sleep through the night, which gives us about half of the trip completely uninterrupted.

Yikes, I know personally I couldn't do that!! For this trip is my mom and me and we'd never make it up all night!! I am not a night owl person - more of any early waker... And I don't think I'd be able to do it...

I love to get a long day in on Saturday - if we can without really getting on each other's nerves, great..

thanks for all the great advice!
Annette

 

[Yensid_MD]

Lots of movies. Lots and lots.

Go to the library and check some out. At our library you can check them out for 5 days and then a $1 fine per day per movie. It stills gives us the opportunity to have variety, even with the fines. Check with friends. Get a CD case for the movies (the portable wallet kind) it is much easier than dealing with the DVD cases.

Muppet Treasure Island, Emperors New Groove, and Hercules are all great movies for you as a driver to listen to. Lots of quotes....

Also any movies you can get that are about the rides, or exhibits help as well.

I agree with the others. I would try to take it in two days if possible. We have three kids and once did 15 hours straight with lots of movies.

Snacks, and juice boxes, freeze them ahead of time to help save space in the cooler. This will save you money on the road at not having to buy drinks.

Make rules around the movies, alternate who gets to pick, as this can always be a source of unpleasantness if not careful "I dont want that movie" or just let them know you will be selecting the order.

Good luck and have a great time!

Oh and I think you said this was surprise, I would keep it that way until you are 45 minutes away, otherwise you will be aske a million times "How much further?"

 

[angel's momma]

jaclark: We don't think we can either Still thinking 3 days is better for us. Please let us know what you do & how it went. Have a wonderful trip!

 

[NotUrsula]

Unless you are making scheduled stops and have good reason to spread the trip out over that many days, I'd try to get it out of the way much quicker. If you're planning the same sort of return trip after your vacation, trust me when I say it will be agony.

It would be a LOT more agonizing if she and her family ended up injured or dead. I'm sorry, but I think it is really irresponsible to encourage an inexperienced long-distance driver to pull that kind of all-nighter in the dead of winter with a car full of kids, especially when one of the drivers is older and probably has some issues with driving at night.

Take your time, be safe. One less day at Disney is much better than risking your lives. Go back to Sam's and buy a road atlas; never drive long-distance without a good atlas in the car. If you have a cell phone, keep it inside the car & charged up in case of emergency. Also make sure you have winter road gear and melter in the car; there is a possibility of getting ice all the way into Northern Georgia.

Regarding what someone has already said about libraries: When you get your tapes at the library, tell the librarian that you are going out of town. They will almost always be able to give you an extended loan period so that the materials will not come due before you return. It is best to store the tapes in a small cooler in the car, so that they won't be damaged by temperature extremes; they can become brittle and shatter in extreme cold.

You don't want to be randomly searching for somewhere to sleep.
Make your highway ressies in advance, and make *sure* that your planned stops have an indoor pool that is in working order. The drivers can use this to get the kinks out, and the kids will burn off energy from being cooped up for so long. Swimming is a wonderful thing on road trips; it's relaxing for adults, but it wears kids out.

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by NotUrsula
It would be a LOT more agonizing if she and her family ended up injured or dead. I'm sorry, but I think it is really irresponsible to encourage an inexperienced long-distance driver to pull that kind of all-nighter in the dead of winter with a car full of kids, especially when one of the drivers is older and probably has some issues with driving at night.

No need to get all indignant there, NotUrsula. I never said that the suggestion fit all situations, but rather it is the approach I personally choose to take. OP asked for suggestions on making the trip more managable, and that was my suggestion.

I don't recall seeing any info from OP that indicated that "mom" was elderly or blind. My own mother is in her early 60s, and has every intention of helping us drive to WDW next December.

Different strokes...

 

[NotUrsula]

You don't have to be elderly or blind to have more difficulty driving at night than in daylight hours:
http://www.rvaa.com/articles/nightdr.php3

By our 40's, most of us are no longer seeing completely clearly at night anymore, and it gets exponentially worse. By age 50, long night-driving stints are a bit dangerous for most drivers.

 

[jaclark]

Originally posted by tjkraz

I don't recall seeing any info from OP that indicated that "mom" was elderly or blind. My own mother is in her early 60s, and has every intention of helping us drive to WDW next December.

Thanks everyone for the great ideas!! Mom is not elderly or blind My mom is 51 (as is my dad as well)!! (I'm 33). She doesn't really care to drive long distances so I plan on doing most of the driving and let her work as "hostess"

I have goals I hope to meet and have researched hotels in those areas. One time we drove to Kansas to visit the great-grandparents. We made reservations ahead and wished we hadn't since we were tired (physically) long before getting to the destination..

You guys are all the best - I will post when I get back...

One note, my kids (and me) are of that weird variety that can view the same movie a zillion times before we are sick of it so thankfully, I think they will enjoy movies they have already seen anyway!!

Of course, any more ideas, please keep them coming.

Best wishes to all,
Annette

 

[mom2alix]

I know I love to spend the drive looking over the guidebook and picking which attractions are going to be "can't miss". Seems like the kids would have a lot of fun with this. Admittedly my little one is much younger, but we showed her the vacation video and it really helped her get excited about the trip. She still asks for the "castle movie".

 

[deb305]

We drove from Dayton this time last year with a 1yr old and 4.5 year old. To break up the boredom we took mystery treat bags that they opened every 30-45 miles. Some of the bags had snacks, others had small toys, a few DVDs etc. We did not need the bags for the return trip home, the kids were too tired.

Going through the mountains can be dicey this time of year. We hit snow on the way down, breezed through on the way home. If you have a cell phone, and good maps of all of the states you go through you should be okay. Before I left I printed info sheets on all of the hotels we could stay at along the interstate in Georgia. About an hour or two before we stopped I would call around and get us a room. As long as you call before 4:00 you should not have problems finding a room. However an hour or two after we arrived the hotels both ways were full, so don't wait too long.

Doing the rooms this way allowed us to get the most miles in a day and yet stop before we got dangerous. The weather, contstruction etc are so unpredictable we did not want to stop too early, or risk pushing it to make it further which we would have done if we made our reservations before the trip.

 

[figment95]

I agree with finding a hotel with an indoor pool. It is a great way for the kids to burn off some energy after being in the car all day. I usually make reservations where we think we want to stop for the night. I make sure the hotel has a 6pm cancellation policy. If we feel like pushing farther that day, we will know before 6pm and we call from the car and cancel the reservation and re book somewhere farther down the road. We stop at all the welcome stations in every state to get the travel guides. They usually have good deals on hotels. I also get all the AAA guides before we leave home.

Another great trick I have found is to stop at a Mc Donald's with a playland. Get food for the adults and eat while the kids play. Before you leave, get food for the kids and let them eat in the car.

Have a great trip!

 

[jaclark]

Just wanted to thank everyone again for the tips. OUr Friday night went well, we made our goal of Paducah, KY. Saturday was a long day, we made the mistake of not stopping enough so we ended up staying in Perry, GA. MAde it to Orlando in early afternoon.

The DVD player was great - we would take turns picking movies and would turn it off for periods of time.

The ride home - we left ORlando around 1pm on Friday and drove to an area around Chattanooga. Got up and just left on Saturday morning and got home around 630pm Saturday night. We made stops for snacks, potty and it was still a long day.

We used Mapquest for our directions with no problems.

Let me know if anyone has any questions,

Thanks,
Annette
Far SOuth Suburbs of CHicago

 

[Jon99]

Was there any construction???? We are leaving the afternoon of Friday, April 2 and will be driving straight thru, arriving at WDW hopefully before noon on Saturday...