anyone driving from NJ/NY to WDW?

[Mrs.viv07]

i remember doing this with my parents when i was about 9. My son will be turning 6 in january and i was wondering if anyone had done this with a child this young? we are thinking of leaving on a wednesday afternoon to get there by thursday afternoon and then leave on the follwoing tuesday night

does this sound reasoanable?
there would be 3 people driving

 

[mandysmom]

We drove down from NY in 2002 with my then DD6 and DS9. We did stop in Asheville, NC (scheduled visit) for two nights and then continued to WDW. If you have 3 drivers I think you'll be OK. My kids handled the drive down just fine and we could have kept going if we hadn't scheduled the NC visit. Hope you have a great trip.

 

[C U AT DISNEY]

My wife and I drove down in Dec of 05 and we drove straight throu and will tell you not to do it that way. If I were to drive again, I would stop in NC which is halfway. My friend went with us and he stays in Fort Wilderness Campground and he brings his own Golf Cart instead of renting one there. Well needless to say after driving behind him going 60mph the whole way there it took us 20 hrs to get there. We left at 1:30 in the morning and didn't get to our hotel until 11:45 that night. Talk about a long drive.


James

 

[byoung]

From NJ but I will not drive down.

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

We just drove from Baltimore to WDW in June. What I did with my 3 kids was pack them a "surprise" bag. It had juices, snacks, car games, little toys, mini fans, glow sticks, & all kinds of other fun stuff. We brought our portable DVD player & let them watch a couple movies on the way down. We didn't even bother to turn it on on the way home.

I didn't make any reservations because I didn't know where we'd stop. I wanted to leave our house at 4, but we didn't leave until 5:30-- anyway the point was for the kids to fall back asleep so we could get a several hours worth of driving under our belt before stopping for breakfast.

We drove down I95. I went to the I95 website & it listed all the states from VA thru to FL. It told me how many hours it would take to drive thru each state & some other little trivia. It also listed every exit for each state & what we could find there as far as food & lodging goes. Both times we stopped at SC to spend the night. I printed this information out & made a book. As we were ready to stop, we could just pull out the book & see what each exit offered. It even listed the places that sold the cheapest gas.

I was so proud of my kids on both drives, but they did have plenty to entertain themselves. Also at each stop I made them run around to get some exercise.

Good luck & have fun!

 

[sherreis]

We just drove from Baltimore to WDW in June. What I did with my 3 kids was pack them a "surprise" bag. It had juices, snacks, car games, little toys, mini fans, glow sticks, & all kinds of other fun stuff. We brought our portable DVD player & let them watch a couple movies on the way down. We didn't even bother to turn it on on the way home.

I didn't make any reservations because I didn't know where we'd stop. I wanted to leave our house at 4, but we didn't leave until 5:30-- anyway the point was for the kids to fall back asleep so we could get a several hours worth of driving under our belt before stopping for breakfast.

We drove down I95. I went to the I95 website & it listed all the states from VA thru to FL. It told me how many hours it would take to drive thru each state & some other little trivia. It also listed every exit for each state & what we could find there as far as food & lodging goes. Both times we stopped at SC to spend the night. I printed this information out & made a book. As we were ready to stop, we could just pull out the book & see what each exit offered. It even listed the places that sold the cheapest gas.

I was so proud of my kids on both drives, but they did have plenty to entertain themselves. Also at each stop I made them run around to get some exercise.

Good luck & have fun!

Mary -

How long did it take you from Baltimore? I live in Carroll County. We plan on leaving the evening of Nov 17th right after my son's belt test for karate and getting a good 4-5 hours in before stopping. I figure it'll be as we get into North Carolina. I'm hoping to be seeing Mickey by late Saturday!

I like your idea of the surprise bags. I think I'm going to copy you on that one, OK? I didn't know 95 had a website so I'll be checking that out. What were gas prices like compared to up here?

Now, if only my fairy godmother would wave her magic wand, so we could fly

Sherri

 

[DISUNC]

i remember doing this with my parents when i was about 9. My son will be turning 6 in january and i was wondering if anyone had done this with a child this young? we are thinking of leaving on a wednesday afternoon to get there by thursday afternoon and then leave on the follwoing tuesday night

does this sound reasoanable?
there would be 3 people driving

Yup! Very doable with 3 drivers!!!!!! Depends on the child......but we had no problem.

The only thing that concerns me is if you are going in January??? Snow & Ice can slllllllllllllllllow up a Car trip big time!

 

[Princess89]

We drive from NJ every year. Last year with a 1 year old and a 9 year old. Only 2 drivers. We leave at night, I will not leave at any other time. I for the most part drive right into FL, then DH is awake enough to finish the drive, not like there is much, but he does put in a full days work the day we leave. We leave between 7 and 9, and we hit the beginning of FL by 7 or 8 in the morning, since check in is so late we take our time, get out of the car have breakfast let the kids run around somewhere. Definitely can be done, especially with 3 drivers.

 

[java]

We just got back from a drive down....We drove down leaving at 4 am and making it to Georgia that first night around 6. We have 4 kids..12,8,3,1. It takes us about 16-17 hours to get there from western NJ(we don't get on 95 until DE- no turnpike for us )

 

[mrsscooter]

We drove from Connecticut to WDW several years back with my nieces, then ages 16 and 13 and had a blast. We did not drive down straight through (did that once). We left at around 3am and drove until we hit the very end of South Carolina which was about 14 hrs which was around dinner time. At that time we stopped and got a hotel, had dinner and off to bed. Decided to "sleep inn" and we were up and out the door at 8am and hit the big WDW around 3pm.............just in time for check in!!!! We had lots of fun playing corny car games, i.e. highway bingo, "the name game" and green glass door, etc. The girls had plenty of homework to keep up with, so that took up most of the time. They brought little travel games like yahtzee, trouble, uno. thos helped alot too. We are driving down this October with my two kids, ages six and four and cant wait really. A lot of people still cant beleive that we are "brave" to drive that far with little kids, but I think it will be fun. We dont have to worry about diapers and bottles, and napping schelule, just the regular potty stops. We to just bought a dvd player for the car and some of those hand held video games that you plug into the tv, and I have already been collecting bags of little doo dads whatcha call-its to make up "travel fun packs". Now we are patiently waiting until October 7 to leave!!!!!

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

Mary -

How long did it take you from Baltimore? I live in Carroll County. We plan on leaving the evening of Nov 17th right after my son's belt test for karate and getting a good 4-5 hours in before stopping. I figure it'll be as we get into North Carolina. I'm hoping to be seeing Mickey by late Saturday!

I really can't give you a definite time because its all in how long you spend at a rest stop. We basically stopped at the first rest area in every state then tried to drive right on through. It usually took about 3 hrs to get through every state. However at the rest stops we'd go potty then go in & look around at the visitor areas & gathered pamphlets & stuff. Here's the link to what I used for I95 (duh, no wonder it was so familiar-lol). http://www.wdwinfo.com/transportation/Driving_to_florida.htm Just pull up every state. Also try to find one for 4, that's the highway into WDW & its long. Word of warning, once you get in FL you still have another 3 or so hrs to go. For us VA & FL were the worst driving states the rest was really nice.

I would definitly print out all the info for each states, it was so cool to be able to know where we wanted to stop when we were ready. Alot of people talk about driving right on through, but it was so nice to stop about 4:30 & just rest for the evening. The kids went swimming at the hotel pool & were calm for the next days trip.

I like your idea of the surprise bags. I think I'm going to copy you on that one, OK?

As far as the bags & stuff go, feel free to use that, I got all those ideas from these boards too.

I didn't know 95 had a website so I'll be checking that out. What were gas prices like compared to up here?

Now, if only my fairy godmother would wave her magic wand, so we could fly

Sherri

VA, SC, & GA are cheaper than MD & NC. At exit 3 in GA we got gas for $2.67 a gallon compared to our $2.99 at the time.

Have a great trip!

 

[PA Princess]

We live in NE PA and we have done the drive to FL several times with our kids (well, the older 3 anyway...not yet with the 1 year old). My kids actually like the drive and miss the drive when we fly - wacky kids! We always leave at night about 7 pm and drive through the night. We have tried stopping in NC or SC, but we are all so anxious to get to WDW that we would rather drive straight through. Driving through the night means less traffic (especially around DC) and sleeping kids, so it works well for us. We do stop for the night half way on the return trip. You may be pleasantly surprised how well your 6 year old handles the drive. I remember a drive we did with our 6, 5, and 1 year olds. The two oldest had all of these toys and entertainment items, but they literally entertained themselves down and back with 2 stuffed animals LOL For our next trip in September we are taking the auto train, but I am sure we will drive again some time in the future.

 

[NJOYURLIFE]

We have frequently done the drive from NE PA also. The first time we did it, my youngest was 3. We were all prepared with our brand new portable DVD player. Of course we hadn't tested it out and the darn thing didn't work. So we did the trip without it. We do the trip in 2 days stopping somewhere in NC or SC depending on how far we get. And no matter how hard we try we rarely get on the road before 11:00 on our first day. We stop when we need to and don't "push" ourselves. While I do some of the driving, I will say that my husband does do way more than me, so 3 drivers would be heaven.

We are trying Autotrain for the first time in 2 weeks which should be different. We are going down before my husband plus during the summer they usually run a deal where buy adult get 2 kids free.

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

Please let me know how you all like the auto train. We thought about doing that next time too. It's about the same price as flying. I thought the kids might like it. Also, I like the idea about being able to bring as much stuff as we wanted.

The only drawbacks that I have read about it is that you have to get to the station 2 hrs before hand so they can load all the cars up. There's nothing around so if you don't bring something to do you'll be totally bored until you get on the train. Same thing for when you get off you have to wait 2 hrs for everything to come off.

Hope you both enjoy it.

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

my DF's uncle does this every other year and they have an adopted son who has Cerebral Palsy(sorry if i spelt it wrong, i'm running on 2 hours of sleep here!) and he's perfectly fine with it. and they also bring a grandkid or two with them who are all under the age of 10 and they're fine with it as well. just make sure to take bathroom and food breaks! keep him occupied in the car with games or dvds and he should be fine.

 

[sherreis]

We drove to Atlanta from Baltimore last year and it went well with our 2 boys. We took the middle seat out of the van and moved the back seat up so that the boys would have more room between them and it worked great. We had them pack a plastic tote with what toys they wanted in the car and it was between them. Every once in awhile I would surprise them with something new that I brought along from home as well. We bought the car DVD player for the trip and it was wonderful. I surpised them with some new movies they had never seen before so that kept them busy. If you're driving with kids, it really pays off to do part of the trip while they will be sleeping. We left for Atlanta about 5 AM (I still can't believe we left on time) and they slept for the first 3 hrs of the trip so that our first stop was breakfast. They dozed off later in the day. The way home we drove through the night and it was really nice not having any fighting coming from the back...

I think I'm going to start buying things for their bags now and buy something every few weeks so I'm not waiting till the last minute.

Also, there are a lot of websites that give you games to play in the car with children. We did some of them as well.
Sherri

 

[Dorisk3]

We drove down from NJ last year with a 5 year old and a 2 year old and I'd never do it again. It took us about 18 hours, straight down on the way there and stopped overnight on the way back (left in the afternoon). If you've never done it before, it sounds like an adventure and everyone here will tell you that your kids will color or watch movies the whole way and you can give them a surprise every hour to keep them entertained. 8 hours into it my kids were more than sick of watching movies, couldn't care less about any surprises or treats and its pretty uncomfortable to sleep in a car. Maybe its just my kids, but they didn't sleep practically the whole way.

If a person does it to save money, you need to think of what all those little treats/entertainment in the car add up to , gas, food, possible hotel. By the time you factor that in, a person would be better off looking for a good Southwest or JetBlue sale price. Also, by the time you get there the car is trashed. The other thing to think of is when you arrive in the afternoon you are bone exhausted because you've just come through an ordeal. And then worse yet is knowing you have to do it all over again 5 days later.

Good luck in your decision- I'm sorry I sounded like a downer- I just wanted to voice an opinion that hopefully was constructive in your decision. We're flying this time, and I will say I'm a little nervous not having flown in a few years- but anything is better than the endless monotony of being in a car for almost a full day.

 

[jimmalru80]

We're from NJ and have made nine previous trips, but have never driven down to WDW. The time it takes to drive would really cut down on our time to vacation there. MY BIL goes several times a year and has no problem with driving, so it can be done with no major inconvenience. We drive to AC Airport, (about 40 minutes) and we are in Orlando in less than two hours. Flying works for us, but driving is a viable option and it works. Either way, good luck with your trip.

 

[sticker231]

We are form Jersey and I don't think we will be driving in the near future. The kids are too small(5/4/3). I'm sure they would drive me nuts the entire jurney. They all fly well so that is what we will be doing for a while. Thinking about trying it one day, but not in the near future. We book far enough in advance that the flight is pretty cheap.

 

[RyansMommy]

We'll be driving down in November from Queens, NY. Our son will be almost 3 1/2 by then. Since my husband has a fear of flying, this will be the only way to go. My parents had gone down by train a few years ago and strongly advised us against it. We plan to leave around 4 am and then stop in South Carolina to sleep. We will split the driving. I'm a little nervous about doing it but hey whatever it takes, I want to go!!

Good luck with whatever you decide!