Decent maps

duffy

The Tag Fairy did not give me this tag...I wrote i
Joined
Jan 12, 2000
Messages
2,628
Last time we went, we did not have good maps. We wasted time trying to get oriented. :mad: This time, I plan to have the best maps I can get--would those be just AAA maps?

We're driving, and will be bringing our laptop, and one idea I've had, is to use Microsoft's virtual earth site to save satellite pictures on the hard drive, so I can direct my husband (he's always the pilot and I'm always the navigator. 12-year old is the bombadier. :lmao: )

I've saved satellite pictures of I-4, from mid-Orlando, to our destination at the Wilderness Lodge. I make sure I'm on the "hybrid" selection, so I see the satellite picture and the roads are labelled too.

I use the "print" icon on the virtual earth pages to then open a new window, right-click and choose "save picture". I keep moving the cursor to further along the road, from our exit off of I-4, little by little to the Lodge. I must have 40-some pictures saved, of step-by-step approaches to the Lodge. Hopefully, I will know each overpass and exit that we approach before we get to it!!

I also saved satellite images of the surrounding area, too, so I'll know how to get to shopping arears, etc. I love Virtual Earth!!
 
Forget maps. Think higher tech.

Several years ago, I bought Microsoft's Streets & Trips software for this very purpose. It only costs about $20 and it is easy peasy to create routes and print them out in a format very similar to AAA's trip tiks.

Of course, if you are taking your laptop, you can use it 'on the fly'. In fact, you can plug a GPSr (or microsoft's GPS locater) into the laptop and it will route you completely through your trip.

GPS units can be found very cheaply online. Since I also enjoy geocaching, I've had one for several years. In fact, last year, I upgraded to a Garmin etrex Venture Cx which easily performs the routing function and provides me with turn-by-turn routing on the fly.

My wife thinks that I'm a big old geak, but she still bought me a Garmin Quest last year for Christmas. It lives in my car to turn by turn directions whenever I need them. My wife likes it so much that she asked me for one this year.
 
Forget maps! Get a GPS unit! That's the way to go! It's the best thing I've ever gotten myself. I could get lost driving to my mail box, I'm so directionally challenged. We used our GPS in Disney over the summer and never got lost. I'm taking it with me for our trip in Jan
 
Okay, okay already!! We'll buy a GPS!!:rotfl: :rotfl:
 

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but...:confused3 I just follow the highway signs. They are pretty accurate and I have yet to get lost driving to WDW. Of course since I convinced my DW to actually FLY :scared1: to Florida on an actual plane that DIDN'T :scared1: crash and we experienced FREE :banana: bus service to and from our resort... we stopped the 2 day driving trip from NJ!!!:thumbsup2
 
Maybe I'm just old fashioned but...:confused3 I just follow the highway signs. They are pretty accurate and I have yet to get lost driving to WDW. Of course since I convinced my DW to actually FLY :scared1: to Florida on an actual plane that DIDN'T :scared1: crash and we experienced FREE :banana: bus service to and from our resort... we stopped the 2 day driving trip from NJ!!!:thumbsup2

I understand!! ;) It's not so much the highway driving that I'm concerned about, it's when we actually are in and around the World. You know, the 5-mile radius around the parks. Not every road is labelled, and I can definitely see us at a red light, not sure if we should take this left or the next to get to the outlet shopping...ending up on a road with no signs...realizing we should have made that left turn at Albuquerque...oh, I've been there, my friend. :rotfl:

Glad you bumped this, though. I wanted to say, I GOT A GPS FOR CHRISTMAS!! :banana: Now I gotta figure it out...:confused: :love:
 













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