anyone driving from NJ/NY to WDW?

[sherreis]

That is how I'm looking at it as well - I want to go this year and Thanksgiving time is the only time that I wouldn't need to take a lot of vacation time from work - only 3 days. I would much prefer to fly to not spend all that time in a car and wasting precious vacation time. Flying would cost us approx $1200 because we're going over Thanksgiving week. The flight down would be fine. It's the flight back that'll put us over the edge. I would never have thought that the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend would be so expensive to fly.

--Sherri

 

[WDWstu]

We drive down from NJ every year. Started when my daughter was 2. As a matter of fact, before Disney we drove down to South Carolina when she was 1. And now we are planning our second trip to Disney this year so we will be driving down for a second time this year with her!

Here's what we do. I get home from work around 6 and go lay down in bed. Try to sleep for a couple of hours. The SUV was packed the night before. I wake up around 9, pack the family in the truck and go. I find this to be a great strategy because then my daughter goes right to sleep and sleeps for the first half of the trip. Driving over night there is very little traffic so you get off to a good start. Plus since everyone sleeps you don't need to make a lot of stops. By the time we hit North Carolina, the sun is just starting to come up. I wake my wife up, and she takes the wheel. I sleep for a couple of hours, get nice and refreshed. Wake up get and we stop for breakfast. I take the drivers seat as we enter South Carolina and drive the rest of the way through. Stopping for lunch of course along the way. We end up in Disney around 3 or 4 pm.

This has worked great for us! Get there just in time to check in, unpack, eat dinner and relax by the pool for the evening. Get a good night sleep and hit the parks first thing in the morning.

I think its helps so much to start when we do. Because it doesn't give my daughter a lot of time to get bored in the car. She wakes up the next day down in the carolinas and half way there. At that point she is so excited that we are getting close that she is pretty well behaved.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[briar*rose]

Many people have already responded but I thought I'd throw in my two cents...I'm 24 years old and from Long Island...I have 5 younger brothers and sisters and I've done the trip back and fourth to Disney/Florida about 17 times (probably more).

With children, it was usually my parents (who drove), myself, my 2 sisters and 3 brothers all stuffed in a Caravan. Like most people, my parents would leave in the middle of the night (aprox. 3am) and have lots of stuff for us to do when we awoke (like Mad Libs, or Car/Memory Games, Walkmans, snacks, books to read, and we actually had a mini-tv w/ VCR that we'd plug in and sit on my lap, that was, of course before DVD's). We always drove straight-thru. My dad was one of those sterotypical people who make us "hold it" until we needed gas, and who only stopped when my mom nagged him. They are my fondest memories of my childhood/early teens with my family. We'd have silly sing alongs and just generally spend alot of time together (like we had a choice ). The little one's (and my lazy sister) would sleep thru most of the ride. It usually took us about 16-20 hours, depending on traffic. I loved every minute of being squished in that van.

Now that I am older I have continued this "tradition" of driving to Disney with my own "family" (which as of right now consists of myself and my BF of 5-1/2 years). We have driven down to Disney the past two years and plan to drive down to Disney with two friends in late September. It's an intergral part of my Disney Trips now, I couldn't think of Disney without thinking of the trip there. However, since I travel without children (for now) I have modified my parents trip just a little. We now leave at Midnight. This allows us to skip over traffic in NYC, NJ and Washington D.C./Virginia (which tends to be the worst). By 8am we are aprox. halfway thru Virginia. We usually only stop for meals and gas and bathroom (because I'm so used to the drive, I can practicly do it myself) and we arrive to check-in at about 6pm. Being the person that I am....I'm showered and at the Disney Marketplace eating dinner by 8:30pm. Normally we have two drivers....This year we'll have 4!!

Now, I do understand that not many people are accustomed to driving that much, and I don't particularly recommend it to anyone, HOWEVER I think the point I am trying to make is the lasting memories driving with my family and now, with friends, etc. are so important to me, and I guess you could interpet it from there....

 

[yaksack]

This will be our third time driving down. We will leave Sussex County NJ 7pm on 11/3 and arrive about 12noon in WDW on 11/4. We drive straight through and have no problems. In the past it was my wife, DD4 and myself. This year it will my wife, DD6, DD1 and myself. I am a little concerned because DD1 can't sit still too long. In the past DD6 fell asleep by 9pm and didn't wake up until 7am. We bought a portable TV that plugs into the car, which has a VCR in it. That kept her busy.

We condsidered flying but tickets cost about $600 each round trip on Jet Blue.
I estimated in would cost about $500 to drive down and back.


Good luck.

 

[sherreis]

Briar Rose -

Thanks for what you wrote about your fond memories of travelling with your family. I was trying to explain something like that to DH yesterday about why I feel this is the time to take our boys for their first trip to DW. I want them looking back on their childhood someday and remembering great family times.

--Sherri

 

[Scot-n-Michelle]

We live right outside of Cleveland, Ohio and we will be driving down to WDW for the second time. We purchased a dvd player for our two children (ages 2 and 4) and they were both excellent the whole time. We made sure we stopped often enough. We stopped right outside of Georgia at a rest stop for a few hours and then we we're back on the road. All together it took about 21 hours.

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

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!

What kind of things did your parents say about the train. I was thinking about trying that.

Enjoy your trip. Hope the driving goes easy for you, we didn't have trouble with our trip.

 

[BeckWhy]

Oy! I remember these days. I can't really remember what the youngest was our first drive down, but probably pretty young. When was the castle a cake? Well take that and subract it from 18 and that's how old my little brother was. Maybe he was about 8? I'm not sure.

Anyways, we drove from WNY which is a little farther. My mom and dad would drive and it would be straight down, no stopping except to get gas, food, or go to the bathroom. Well, we would stop when my dad needed to sleep and my mom wasn't rested enough to drive. Anyways, my dad used to say he liked leaving at night, so we would sleep through the first leg of the trip and it would seem like it would go by faster.

I think if you are planning on driving straight down, and the 6 year old is in a booster seat or something, it might be uncomfortable for him (well he might like it hehe).

 

[RyansMommy]

What kind of things did your parents say about the train. I was thinking about trying that.

They said the beds/rooms were way too cramped/tiny, the food was expensive, they had to switch trains in washington dc area so it was a bit of a pain, and amtrak will overbook and may not have dining room service if they need the room for passengers.

Hopefully things have changed over time, they made this trip back in '96.

HTH

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

They said the beds/rooms were way too cramped/tiny, the food was expensive, they had to switch trains in washington dc area so it was a bit of a pain, and amtrak will overbook and may not have dining room service if they need the room for passengers.

Hopefully things have changed over time, they made this trip back in '96.

HTH

Gosh that switching trains must have drove them crazy. We'd have to reserve 2 rooms, I can't remember if it holds 4 or 5, but not 6. We wouldn't have to switch trains though. We'd have to drive to the DC area & could catch a train straight to FL, but its supposed to still take 16 hrs. I'm not sure if that counts the loading & unloading times. I tell you for the price of the train we might as well fly. We'll probably still make the drive for a while.Cost isn't the issue as much as there's too many of us & it creates too much confusion. Especially with my mom so its better to drive for us.

 

[DznyLvr2005]

We drove from NJ to DW last year. Left at about 9am, got to Jacksonville around 10pm. Stayed somewhere there, so the next day we only had a few hours to go!
But I've done this driving thing TONS of times when I was little. We used to leave at 4am.. YES 4am! My dad used to stop in South Carolina and sometimes GA. It's not a bad drive going, but on the way back is the most depressing carload ever!!
That's why this year we're flying!

 

[Kellyscrapbooks]

We drove down in April and we drove straight through on the way down and stopped half way on the way back. I would definatly do it again. The kids were fantastic (8 & 4 at the time) and they couldn't have been better behaved. I whined more than they did! LOL
Ideally it takes 20 hours from my door to Mickey's, but due to unexpected delays it took 25 hour to do it straight through and that was just too much. Next time we will break it in half each way and it will be much better.
It cost me $330 in gas and hotels to do it that way, it was AWESOME and I had my car for all the other things we wanted to do in and around Orlando.

 

[disneymom06]

We have four children, started driving down when the youngest was just one year and the oldest was nine years old. We drive down from Westchester, NY. Our best time was 18 hrs and our worst was 25 hours.

We both split driving and stop at the rest areas to stretch our legs and give the children a chance to burn up some energy. We haven't yet stayed over in a hotel , although we always say we are going to stop but because the driving at night was always so productive and The children were asleep we kept on driving. DH naps first for a few hours and then we switch places. You must nap for it to work and you have to like driving.

The drive down is exciting, but the drive home is tough. You do get to be flexible with your departure time,(something that we need due to work) and you wind up with your car at Disney. It does give you another option.

The DVD system is a must. It does make the time tick by quickly and keeps everyone occupied. Each child picks a movie which takes alot of time. Each child packs their own bag of toys to keep them busy if they need. You must make it perfectly clear that you will not arrive at Disney until tomorrow afternoon.

It is a choice. For us it is much cheaper than flying and we have flexiblity. We've done the drive many times, during Christmas week, Easter week and in the summer, one summer directly in Hurricane Charley. This summer we are doing it again. DH loves to drive. It fits for us. Hope this helps, Good Luck.

 

[badblackpug]

I live in NJ and you couldn't PAY me to drive!! I am about 15 mins outside of Philadelphia and it is a 18 hour (straight through) drive. I found excellent airfare out of Philadelphia on Expedia. With the price of gas the way it is it will be cheaper to fly...

 

[Princess89]

double post oops

 

[Princess89]

I don't know how the cost of flying is cheaper. Yes, definitely more convienent. 2 hrs vs however many to get there. Last year, we took a Grand Am down with us and it cost both ways less than 200. That car was great on gas. This year we are taking my gas guzzling bus lol. Actually its a Suburban, but its a gas guzzler and so easy with the children. The cost to fill it will be 100, and I will have to fill it approximately 1 and a half times each way. So at a cost of 150+150=300 Round trip for my gas guzzler, it was still cheaper than airfare for my family of 4. This year I do need a car being that we are staying at our timeshare for a week. I do have other cars to take with me, but the gas guzzling bus is more for comfort. I still can take the Grand Am we took last year, but the bus is much more comfortable. Either way, unless airfare was 100 roundtrip for 1 person its not cheaper at all. I should also mention, that the children, they sleep 95%of the way in the car, they are awake for the drive in FL. We leave at night at DD's bed time. She still a toddler, so at bedtime she is always exhausted. DS 10 on the other hand is awake for a good portion, but plays his Playstation or watches TV. Then falls asleep around 1 am.

DH insisted on driving again this year, I tried to argue the gas prices to him thinking the same thing. I gathered airfare for a bunch of airlines, and he broke down the gas prices to 3.50 per gallon and they aren't even that high yet. DH still won that arguement. Either way, whichever car we take, he still won the arguement.

 

[sticker231]

our tickets were $180 round trip because we booked so far in advance. I don't have the flexibility with work, so I need all the extra time we can get. I wouldn't mind driving, but it is more convenient to fly.

 

[yaksack]

our tickets were $180 round trip because we booked so far in advance. I don't have the flexibility with work, so I need all the extra time we can get. I wouldn't mind driving, but it is more convenient to fly.

When will you WDW and which airline?

We are going from 11/4-11/11. I understand this is a big travel time due to the teacher's convention.

 

[sticker231]

We are going in October and booked Jetblue in April after our last trip, prices have gone up since. If you plan far enough in advance, the ticket prices are great.

 

[yaksack]

We are going in October and booked Jetblue in April after our last trip, prices have gone up since. If you plan far enough in advance, the ticket prices are great.

I looked for tickets with Jetblue back in February and they were ok, but now for four tickets from Newark to Orlando we are looking at $2000.
I think we are driving.