Anyone else enjoy the drive to WDW?

[photobob]

Honestly I am always so amped up for our trips to WDW that I really enjoy the drive down, the anticipation! My first big thrill is crossing over the Florida line and then hitting the Florida turnpike. I guess my biggest thrill probably is driving under the big Welcome to Walt Disney World sign and then pulling into our DVC resort and having a Welcome Home from the guard! We live 540 miles from the happy place and if I limit our stops we can be there in a little over 8 hours. The drive home though is a different matter altogether!

 

[cvjw]

We are in Atlanta, and love our drive down. We go so much, that we have a certain Chick-fil-a that we stop at for breakfast every trip. We always stop for gas at the same gas station, and love hitting the turnpike - we know we are almost there! We are 7.5 hours from Disney if we stop only twice!

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

I agree with you for the most part. The longest stretch for us on the way down is I-10 from Tallahassee to Lake City. That is the largest stretch of nothing I've ever seen.

 

[SamSam]

If we only had 8 hours I think I would like the drive. For us it would be around 22 hours, and although we think about it occasionally, the thought of the drive home keeps us from trying it.

We always get a rental car, and like you, when we drive under the BIG WELCOME sign we both just feel so happy.

 

[Granny]

We live almost exactly 1,000 miles from Orlando but yes, I still enjoy the drive. It is about 16 hours plus we lose an hour, so we leave about 4:00 in the morning to get there by 9:00 at night. I do enjoy the drive as we know exactly what great experience we will have once we get there.

As you say, the drive back is not nearly as much fun.

 

[mom of princessx2]

We enjoy the drive as well. I have never liked car riding before but now we love to talk about Disney on the way down. Our trip is about 13 1/2 hours and we usually stop after 10-11 hours and then get there by noon the following day so we are good and ready to do all the things we have been talking about. Of course dd6 now thinks she is funny and starts with the "are we there yets" as soon as we hit the KY state line which is about 10 minutes into our drive

As pp stated the drive home is no fun and we do that in a straight shot.

 

[sallysue66]

We love the drive. We like to say we're on our way to our "real home" so we're happy and laughing the whole 8 to 8 1/2 hours. DD12 has been a great road tripper since she was 2. A few years ago we found a great exit near Jacksonville at a new shopping area that has all new fast food places really close together so everyone can have their choice. There's Chick-Fil-A, Arby's, Taco Bell, McD's and even a 5 Guys

 

[dianeschlicht]

We drove down from Minnesota last week for the first time since we became DVC members in 1997. I was NOT looking forward to that 1700 mile drive, but it turned out to be not so bad. It would have been easier if we had less people in the car, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. We lucked out on weather too. We were just behind the first big storm that dropped snow on Kentucky and Tennessee, and ahead of this current one, so our timing was good.

 

[lucyem]

We get excited at each state line, all 12 of them

 

[nytimez]

I drive from NY... love the road trip!

 

[bfrosty]

Yes, we have the van now and are thinking of driving down in Oct. I never thought about the drive back. We are 1000 miles from disney. My wife and I could swap after 8hrs....I think we could do it straight through is the only way. Otherwise, it doesn't make much sense to spend for a hotel room twice and the gas....we may as well just fly down.

bfrosty

 

[disney ny]

We are driving when we go in two weeks. This will be our first time driving since I was a kid and I am not really looking forward to it with my tgwo year old. We are driving from NY too and plan to leave Friday night when we get out of work and drive through. We shall see how this goes but the cost to fly at that time was just too outrageous for us. Hopefully we can relax and make it fun. I hope the traffic on I-95 isn't too bad- maybe we can get ahead of some of it!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Yes, we have the van now and are thinking of driving down in Oct. I never thought about the drive back. We are 1000 miles from disney. My wife and I could swap after 8hrs....I think we could do it straight through is the only way. Otherwise, it doesn't make much sense to spend for a hotel room twice and the gas....we may as well just fly down.

bfrosty

We went 1700 miles with just one night in a cheap motel each direction. It cost less than $50 a night for us. We were only in the motel for about 7 hours each way. Going down, we left at 11 PM and drove for about 23 hours before we stopped. Then we had just 6 hours left the next day. On the way home, we left OKW around 7 AM and stopped for the night in southern Illinois around 10 PM. We were home by 6:30 PM the next day. We had 6 people though, so it was significantly cheaper than 6 airfares.

 

[DoleWhipDVC]

We have a great time driving down every year. From our area in upstae NY it's about 1300 miles one way. We leave early a.m. (around 5ish) just as the sun is coming up. We have all these silly "traditions" that have to be done at each state line crossing, and certain places to eat that we always stop at. We tend to stay overnight in NC and then head out very early the second morning to get into Orlando in the early afternoon. One place we MUST stop at is South of the Border and even if it's early morning and nothing is open, we always exit, cruise through and then jump back on I-95. The other thing we do is borrow books on tape from the library that the family all agrees on (those Harry Potter novels really soak up the miles). We have a blast every time we go down. It helps us have more together time, and we even have our own car as soon as we are on property! I have driven straight through and can get to Orlando in 18 hours, but DW and DS refuse to travel that way. It works out though, because we have so much fun with the longer trip(not to mention the savings from air fare).

 

[CMOORE185]

We live just outside of Chicago and have driven a few times. Absolutely hated it! It is about 23 hours. The way down was bad enough, but driving home was brutal. Whenever we drive a long distance we always seem to run into some traffic which makes the drive even worse.

 

[sleepydog25]

We always drive down, 600+ miles one way. As you say, when you hit the WDW sign, it's quite a feeling of elation, which is further amped up when we drive through the totem at VWL. I've driven straight through and have stopped a little over halfway for the night (after getting off work), and both have advantages. Our time is spent looking for Starbucks, and this last time we programmed their locations into our smart phones! lol We also keep track of where the cheapest gas stations are for the return trip. Other than that, I made a couple of special CDs with Christmas music (we went the first week of December) and one that had nothing but western-themed music a la the music played at VWL: The Magnificent 7 theme, Aaron Copland suites, theme song from Silverado, and about 15 more. I flew once several years ago, but the cost and hassle were no match for driving at my own pace, on my own schedule, packing what I wanted (a big bottle of shampoo--take that TSA!), and having a vehicle when I got there.

 

[sarahk0204]

We live 1300 miles away, and we love to drive. With two adults and 2 kids, we've done the trip three times in a Saturn VUE and twice in a Toyota Prius. The Prius has gotten too small, and the VUE had gotten too uncomfortable for a long trip. So, we just traded in the VUE for a Chrysler Town & Country minivan with the stow & go seats and electric everything. The main reason for the trade was to have a comfortable ride to WDW and DLR in 2012. So, we bought a car for Disney!

We make the trip in 2 1/2 days, stopping for 2 nights each way. DH and I have never been drive-straight-through people, even before kids. We tried 2 days with 1 overnight stop our last trip at Christmas because we were pressed for time. We hated it. So, we're back to 2 1/2 days for this next trip. In the summer, I pack a lunch for the first day, and we picnic at a rest stop. We also like to hit a Chick-Fil-A, preferable with a play area, because we don't have those up North. We have a couple of different routes that we use, depending on whether we're going to the Atlantic side or the Gulf side before or after WDW.

We are also going to invest in a GPS before our next trip, mostly for the traffic updates. We hit traffic in Birmingham on the way down and Atlanta on the way back, and we want to try and mitigate that next time around.

 

[Vickis3js]

We live in South Jersey and we drive every year. With 3 kids it a lot cheaper to drive then fly. We really like the trip. We go for Christmas and for Hanukkah they get all new DS games and movies for the car ride. On our first trip I had messanger bags made for each of them. I put in game print outs, activity books, special treats, travel games and new books. We leave around 3am and we stop for the night in GA and then the next day we have a 4-5 hour drive. We get to WDW around noon and we are rested and ready to go.



Last year gas cost us $25 OOP and if it didn't jump about a month before we left it would have cost nothing. My goal is to have the gas be free this year and have a few GCs for places to eat along the way as well!

 

[WDWLVR]

We live in the Chicago area and love our drives to WDW. We usually leave at 4 am and stop about 8 pm Eastern in the Macon, GA area. Then the next day we leave about 5 am and hit WDW about noon.

Love stopping at the Florida welcome center, then onto the turnpike and the use of our Sun Pass and finally under the big arch and home to our DVC.

The drive home is long but we have family in TN that we stop and visit.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you think Tallahassee to Lake City is a long boring ride, try Mobile to Lake City. We're actually on I-10 from Lafayette, but that AL-FL drive always seems to be the worst. Nothing like the turn South, though.

On our last trip, we were only there four four nights (three days and four nights), and we drove all the way there without stopping and all the way back without stopping (except for fuel and food).

Now for June's trip, we'll be stopping in Tallahassee on the way there and Daphne, AL on the way back.