Chicagoland Friends - Any Driving Tips?

[LJERRY]

Hi! We were talking lately about purchasing a mini van.....with this decision came talk of "why don't we drive to Disney"? We have ALWAYS flown, however, with the 4 of us, the last time it cost us 1200.00! And that was on Southwest! We love Southwest, but unless you get a fantastic deal, even their prices are up. A friend of our said that the last time they drove to Disney a few years ago, it cost them 400.00 round trip! So, we have decided to try it out for the savings.
We will be leaving here on November 19th. We plan on driving straight through, perhaps leaving around 3:00am.
I'm wondering if any of you have any driving tips. I know there are basically two ways that you can take, so I'm polling to see how many of you take which way!
Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[WDWLVR]

We prefer to go the I-57, I-24, I-75 route. We usually leave about 4 am from the near north suburbs and stop in Macon, GA (around 8-9 pm local time). Get a good nights sleep, back on the road at about 5:30 am and then to Disney around noon time.

 

[Friendofpluto]

Like the previous poster, we always did the way down in 2 days otherwise you will be too beat to enjoy the parks. Went through In- I65- liked it better than travelling through Il. Stopped at same location in Ga. We would sometimes travel in one day to get home. We used to get our maps, hotel books from AAA prior to travelling. Let me know if you have any other questions. My daughter is doing it in Dec in a van with her 2 little ones. We only fly now since we are middle aged.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

You can take I65 all the way to Montgomery, Alabama, and then get on US 231 until you get to I10 in Florida. Then take I75 to the turnpike.

PLEASE come to Alabama, spend the night, eat dinner and breakfast, and buy gas!

 

[il dvc junky]

we have alway found 57 to 24 to 75 to the fl turnpike was the fastest. We leave at around 8 pm so the kids sleep in the car. the im the only one who is crabby the first day

 

[CMOORE185]

We gave up driving years ago because no matter how hard we tried we always hit a couple of bad traffic backups. Usually construction somtimes accidents. I am talking hours of barely moving. It really makes for a long trip.

 

[mvc1997]

 

[donkortajr]

We always take the route I-65 to Nashville, TN. then I24 over to Chattanooga, TN, then I75 to the Florida TurnPike and that to WDW. We have always driven except for our last trip and our next trip because the family we go with now won't drive and it make it easier for meeting up.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

We did it a lot of times as a kid and always did the leave in the middle of the night thing. Works pretty well, but make sure you share the driving load. It's a long trip and you don't want to burn out the main driver.

 

[ospopo5]

We are driving in October down. We dont have a route yet but I am sharing traveling duties with my Father In Law. We are not planning on stopping overnight at this point but driving straight through sharing driving duties.

 

[Chase'n'Ciera]

65-24-75 for us. We have gone the 57 way also but seem to have better luck going 65. We also have come home through Alabama once which didnt really take much longer. Always went straight through but the wife finally put a stop to that last year. We stopped around Valdosta so we had a short day to Disney and got there early.

 

[mnra]

I have driven several times to orlando and the best time we made was 17.5 hours. We take us 41 along the indiana/illinois border to pennyrille parkway to Interstate 24 to interstate 75 South It is about 35 miles less driving time with this route over the going interstate 65 route. If you pm Me I can try to find our actual trip ticket we used for this.

 

[nolanboys]

Have never driven, but a heads up on airfare - I don't know where you live, but we now fly out of Milwaukee. Much cheaper flights and much cheaper parking. Have flown Air Tran and just booked frontier for our trip in March for $1400 for 6 tickets. This past February the 6 tickets were only $1250. I know it's still more than driving, but anything over 12 hours with 4 boys sends me over the edge!

 

[KiminChicago]

Has anyone ever flown out of Rockford? We flew out of O'Hare last October and the whole flying experience was so unpleasant that we've vowed not to fly again unless we're going to Aulani. I was just wondering if going to Rockford would be an improvement.

About 20 years ago I drove down with my parents, my sister and her two daughters. We left at 7pm and drove through the night, then stopped somewhere in Florida around 2pm the next day. After going to bed early and getting a good night's sleep, we were able to get up and get to WDW around the time the parks opened. We took the I-57 route and the only real issue we had was my poor mom having a panic attack in the mountains (she has an extreme fear of flights, which is why we didn't fly).

If we go down through Alabama, would we miss the mountains? I'm trying to talk my parents into going down with us (DH, DS, DD and I) again, but I don't want to take my mom through the Smokies again!

 

[perpetualplanner]

I know there is currently construction on 57 - I live right by it and while Southbound doesn't seem to be as bad the Northbound gets bad...especially on Fridays. Quite a few fatal accidents too because people don't want to merge into one lane. It's been crazy. They are trying to do most of the work at night though.

 

[Chelley00]

We take us 41 along the indiana/illinois border .

This might be shorter mileage wise, but timewise? The lights in Terre Haute IN are AWFUL and there are a lot of small towns on 41 that you have to slow down for. I just went that way to go to a family reunion and it's torture

 

[sarahk0204]

Has anyone ever flown out of Rockford? We flew out of O'Hare last October and the whole flying experience was so unpleasant that we've vowed not to fly again unless we're going to Aulani. I was just wondering if going to Rockford would be an improvement.

About 20 years ago I drove down with my parents, my sister and her two daughters. We left at 7pm and drove through the night, then stopped somewhere in Florida around 2pm the next day. After going to bed early and getting a good night's sleep, we were able to get up and get to WDW around the time the parks opened. We took the I-57 route and the only real issue we had was my poor mom having a panic attack in the mountains (she has an extreme fear of flights, which is why we didn't fly).

If we go down through Alabama, would we miss the mountains? I'm trying to talk my parents into going down with us (DH, DS, DD and I) again, but I don't want to take my mom through the Smokies again!

Rockford flies to Sanford, not MCO, so you have to rent a car (no ME at Sanford)

You can take I65 all the way to Montgomery, Alabama, and then get on US 231 until you get to I10 in Florida. Then take I75 to the turnpike.

PLEASE come to Alabama, spend the night, eat dinner and breakfast, and buy gas!

We took this way last time, and we liked avoiding Atlanta!

We are going I57 to I24 to I65 this time too. Doing the double digit dance!

 

[LJERRY]

Thanks so much everyone for your replies! We are going to discuss this further this weekend, so I will show my husband all of your input!
We also have a friend that I knew has driven down several times due to fear of flying, and she was kind enough to give us all of her information, including a book with every rest stop between here and there complete with notes on which bathrooms are the cleanest!
Like I said, right now we plan to drive it straight through, and maybe stay at a value resort for the first night, since our resi. doesn't start until Saturday at OKW.
This is very exciting - almost like planning your first trip to Disney ever, because the experience will be so different for us! I can't believe I don't have to worry about the weight of my suitcase, so I can pack all of our stuff together and I can also bring my blender!!! YAY!!! I'm aware that about 10 hours into the drive, my *excitement* may turn into something else, but we'll be alright!

 

[Chelley00]

Like I said, right now we plan to drive it straight through, and maybe stay at a value resort for the first night, since our resi. doesn't start until Saturday at OKW.

Do yourself a favor and stop halfway and stay on the way home! We found that the drive there straight through is pretty easy! You are rested, excited and ready to go. On the way home we are tired, worn out and the trip just drags. We came straight through home once, and I literally cried the last 2 hours I was so exhausted. Now we always stop halfway on the way home.

 

[jrbarnes]

We also take I-57 route. Everything else is the same as the other posters (24 to 75). We have 4 kids. With the time we are leaving, going 80/94 toward I-65 is backed up, so we save on the time as we are flying down I-57.

We leave at about 4pm or so and drive to Champaign. Get some dinner and then we get into the main part of our driving. We like this time as it allows for a 4-5 hour window of awake time for the kids, then they sleep all night. They wake up at 7-8am and it is breakfast time. We have about 2-3 hours left when they awake which works out perfect for our group. We do share the driving, switching about every 3 hours which seems to work out pretty well. The first day at WDW is usually a lay around the pool type day. Kids spend time doing various things while we relax.

I would agree with a few posters who state make a stop on the way back. Usually that last 2 hours is a complete disaster as we are trying to get home very quickly. That is a great idea and one thing that I think we will look at for our next trip.