anyone ever do 14 hours of drive time with kids?

[mommiepoppins]

I was thinking of doing drive time of 14 hours with my little ones. do you think it is possible or am I nutts? what time do you suggest we leave?

 

[4formickey]

you are not crazy, we plan to do18 hr with ours next month. We will have the game boy and the dvd player.We plan to leave around 4am stop in GA and finish the trip the next day. We will have the cooler in the car with fruits. Every 4 hrs or so we will stop for a little bit so the kids can get out and that we can change drivers. Don't let those that are self rightous tell you that you are making a mistake. Enjoy your family and your trip

 

[Disneyjosh229]

Not too crazy

I would suggest, if you havent invested in one yet, getting a portable DVD player. I saw one at Target (On Sale This Week) that is a 2 screen player that ties to the back of the headrests. It is a Magnavox (sp?) and is on sale for $179, awesome price. This should entertain for hours...

 

[kaw1218]

We have drove 5 times so far. Starting when my kids were 4 and 18months. We normally leave around 11 pm on a friday night. We get to disney around 4-6pm on Saturday. Depending on traffic and how many rest stops we do( we stopped a few extra times when it was just me and the kids). I don't think you are crazy, we stopped overnight the first time we drove and it felt like we wasted an extra day. By the time we get there on Saturday we head to the pool,eat dinner, relax and go to bed early. By the time we get up on Sunday morning we are ready to head to the parks! One thing to remember is if you are driving straight through, your room is not always ready before 3 or 4 pm. If you arrive early morning, you have to keep your kids happy for a few extra hours. (which can be quite painful if you haven't really slept all night!)

 

[minkydog]

We have done it several times, and my parents did it 2000 miles every summer with 5 kids, a St Bernard, no a/c and definitely no DVDs. **The trick is to get on the road very early. ** Take "dry breakfast"--cereal, poptarts, bananas,water--doens't get too messy. No soft drinks. Stop at rest areas every 3hrs and make the kids run for 20 minutes whether they want to or not (keeps them from getting constipated and gets their wiggles out). Water pistols help. Listen to books on tape. Picnic lunch, everybody has to eat some fruit,no fast food. Have a good sit-down meal in the late afternoon when you are almost there. Wear the kids out in the pool when you get there and hit the hay.

Good times

 

[Dan Murphy]

We did that all the time when I was a kid, flying was not nearly as popular or inexpensive (relatively speaking) as it is now. We used to play games, sightsee, and even talk. Always worked fine.

 

[bdcp]

We drove to Alabama when our two boys were 1 and 3, (also 4 and 6 and also 8 and 10) and to FL when they were 3 and 5, plus countless 3-5 hour trips to the beach, etc. They are in college now (well one actually graduated today). Anyway, they did great. We didn't have dvd players and I don't think I'd use them today. It takes away from the family time. They would draw and talk to us, play road games and nap and eat. We always leave by 5 am and get 3-4 hours on the road, stop for breakfast and then lunch as well as a few potty breaks and we never had one problem. They've always been good travelers and part of that is we always made them use their car seats, never an exception for ANY reason and they never felt trapped. We never drove over night, too risky for tired drivers. Going to bed early, getting up early and getting several hours in before lunch made a huge difference. We would always be to our destinations by dinner time. It's a great family experience. And we always did 14 hours in one day. I too as a child did it many times MD to TX and my siblings and I would play games, talk, etc. It was a family adventure.

 

[WDW4us2006]

Over ten years ago we took our kids, then 4 and 2, and drove from Massachusetts to Disney World. People told us we were crazy, and thankfully we didn't listen. We have taken many vacations since then, but that is still my favorite. Allow yourselves extra time for frequent stops, and the unexpected. We stopped at relatives in Virginia very quickly one night, then spent the next night in a cheap hotel in Jacksonville so the kids could get a good nights sleep, and be up and ready for a short drive and big day at the parks. One thing we did that absolutely saved us: I had a 'Surprise" bag with me, and every 2 or 3 hours, I would reach in and pull out a surprise for the kids: a new Disney coloring book, silly putty, a cheap handheld game, a Disney figurine. They loved it! For the ride home, I picked up cheap souvenirs at the parks that I wouldn't "let" them get, and handed those out. It made time fly by. (We also didn't have a DVD player, and survived!)

 

[Nedlo2]

We've done the long drive before. Our trip to Orlando is 13 hours.

Had a 2 & 5 year old. We left at 11 pm and arrived in Orlando at noon the next day. Worked great since the little ones slept most of the way. Also had a portable DVD for them to watch cartoons to help keep them occupied when they were awake.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

We did this drive (14 hours) two years ago. My girls were 3 months and 3.5 years old. We are doing it again next month too. It wasn't hard at all. On the way down, we made good long stops and let my 3 year old RUN around a large common area and our last stop my DH took her into Home Deport for a run. It was our last stop, we had dinner, got them in PJs and while I got the baby fed, he took her into HD and they went up and down the isles for about 15 minutes. They both went to sleep right after that and didn't wake up until we got to the hotel.

We had a portable DVD player of course and this kept the older one happy the whole time.

The last time, we left here around 10am, got to Daytona at 1am. This trip, we are getting up and leaving at 4am and will arrive by dinner time hopefully. Stopping overnight seems such a waste for us, since we can do it all during daylight hours.

 

[4formickey]

the only real question is, "Are we there yet?"

 

[BeckWhy]

When I was a kid we only drove. There were 7 of us (both my parents, and 5 kids) so it was cheapest to drive. And we would drive straight down, no stopping at hotels. It's about a 23 hour drive for us. We never had a problem with it.

 

[sixcats]

We did it once over a major holiday. I would try and time leaving so I would get to the resort around 3pm. Waiting for a room when you are beat is not fun. I second the poster who suggested a bag of surprises. We also brought a laptop with for DVD watching. My three kids were great! (I was the problem )

 

[hanncam]

for the last ten years we have driven 10 hours to orlando 2-3 times a year with three children we have a game boy, dvd player and good times talking and singing. I say you are not crazy not at all.

 

[MinMouse]

We've driven the 1,000 miles to WDW five times with our DDs (started when our youngest was 5). We've tried it several ways . . . overnight, straight through, stopping in Georgia overnight . . . But we determined that for us we prefer to leave very early --- between 2a.m. and 4a.m. This gets us through the dreaded Washington,DC traffic on I95 before the rush. We either pack breakfast or lunch and stop for the other meal. Kids have DVDs, gameboy, books, books on tape, maps of the US to mark off license plates, etc. May seem crazy but we usually book a room in Lake Mary, Fl (about 30 miles north of WDW). We usually stay at the LaQuinta there . . . great free continental breakfast in the morning. We eat breakfast and head out by 8 a.m. We checkin at our hotel room around 8:30/9:00 a.m. It's usually not ready but they give us the key, take our luggage and give us a phone number to call for a room number later in the day. We have never hit a crowd in the lobby at this hour of the morning! THen we're off to a park for the day fully rested! I just hate to drive in to WDW late one night "wasting" that night's resort fee. Try it . . . you might like it! We are flying next month for the first time in about 5 years . . . DD11 doesn't really like the idea. She'd rather us drive! I think they even think of it as part of the trip now.

 

[Amy&Dan]

We used to drive 14 hours from here in the Denver area to Texas all the time when my kids were little. And the dog was with us too! This was in the days before DVD players and the first time we did it my kids were about two and half and seven months. It wasn't ideal but then no car trip with little ones is! Personally to me its easier just to drive straight through whenever possible, than to unload all that stuff any more times than necessary!

 

[CamColt]

We have done a 24 hour ride to WDW 3x now. Our kids were 6 & 3, 5 & 2, and 4 & 20 months(this time Grandma was with us too).

I used to think it would be crazy to do it, but have to admit it worked out pretty well...well enought to repeat it, LOL! We haven't done it in a few years as we have flown (or gone to DL, where I'm not driving to, LOL) and DH and the kids were missing the ride. They wanted to drive this time and not fly. I gave in as I tell them it is the closest they will get me to camping, so we are doing the 24 hour ride again this summer (they will be 6 & 9).

We have brought a tv/vcr lots of games, books, and CDs. All their favorite junk food helps too. Surprisingly for 2 kids who fight over everything, they fight very little in the car and it actually goes pretty smoothly. We like doing it 10:00am-10:00 am so that when we wake up in the morning we are almost there. The first time we did it 3:00 pm-3:00pm and it seemed longer...almost like we had 2 days of driving.

 

[theterms]

When DH was finishing up college, we did it every year from NW New Jersey. The kids loved driving. We left around 10 pm and drove straight through. DH drove through the night, I drove us into FL and then we switched again in Jacksonville. DD was 5 and DS was 2 the first time we drove, they're now 13 (she'll be 14 on our trip) and last year was the last time we drove (and probably ever will). At the rest areas, we'd play frisbee or tag and get them tired. DS sleeps in the truck no matter what, though.

In the beginning, when the kids were little, I would find printable activities on line and make books for them (tictactoe, hangman, etc.), but as they got older - dual screen dvd player with PS2 hooked up to it. One could play a game and the other could watch a movie, or they could each watch a different movie with headphones, or they could both play a game. We'll be going that route in July when we go to the Outer Banks with 4 other families.

Now DH is a Rutgers grad and we are flying in June. I think it's actually about the same - with gas prices the way they are. I booked our air in March at $173 per ticket from Newark, NJ.

I'd say "GO FOR IT" - it's not bad at all!

 

[HeatherPage]

Will it just be you driving or is there a husband/friend that would be taking turns with you? If it's just you, you might want to think about splitting the trip up into two days. You wouldn't want to get so exhausted or dazed from driving (just yourself) that you had an accident. If it's you and someone else driving, one day should be fine.

 

[cranbiz]

We just did a 22 hour trip the end of March with me, DW and DBIL's girls, 2 and 4. We left Wareham (Cape Cod) at about 7pm and arrived in Deltona right about 5pm.

Drove straight thru with whatever stops were necessary and did not rush the stops. Kids in PJ's and we bought them coloring books and cheap Disney handheld games. They were great! We stopped for a sit down breakfast on the way down and a sit down dinner on the way back.

Go for it!