Do you drive straight through or stop on the way down?

[ssphillips]

For those of you who drive a long distance, I'm curious how many of you drive straight through and how many of you stop half way or somewhere along the way for the night? Our plan right now is to drive all day and stay in valdosta Ga, then finish the drive the next morning.. Our first Disney day. I'm back and forth on it though. We have a 2 year old so I think it's probably smart to stop since we have a 16 hour drive (not including stops).. My husband isn't thrilled about driving overnight.. And our trip is a week away so I don't know how we would work it out at this point.. But I was wondering..

We drove 11 hours last time straight through. Too long for us though. We are flying next time so we will be less tired when we arrive.

 

[BigTigger]

Central MA to WDW is about 22 hours on the road with gas stops, food stops, and rest stops. I've done it straight through with a second driver twice and done the roundtrip over thirty times in the last ten years. Unless that second person can sleep while you drive and vice versa, I wouldn't recommend driving straight through. I now break the trip into two chunks and try to do 12-14 hours on one leg if it is during daylight hours and the rest on the other leg.

There is a reason that long-haul truckers can only be on the road legally for so many hours in a day (10 or 11 hours I think) and it's no different for the recreational driver. Driving is tiring even if you do it a lot. I'd recommend to anyone that asks me to limit driving to 12 hours or less in a day, especially if the driving is during night hours.

Drink plenty of water and chew lots of gum. Gum will keep you much more alert than caffeine.

 

[crazelion]

I drive the whole 10 hours all by myself. Mom naps the whole way. The kids naps on off for some 10 hours. But I don't drive at night. I leave between 8 and 9 a.m. and get around 10 pm. .

I get a full night rest. i must have cokes and potatos chips the whole trip.

 

[amcnj]

I leave around 2:30 AM, do all the driving, and arrive in the WDW area by 6:30 PM on average. My work and sleep schedule make getting up a couple hours earlier more feasible for me, and I would not be able to handle an overnight drive (ZZZZ!). That being said, I have departed WDW 8 AM and arrived home 12-12:30 AM and been fine. Overall I prefer a non-stop when feasible, as those second days always seem so long, even though they are much less driving than the first. Especially on the drive home for some reason.

 

[dbramer]

We are planning on driving straight through from Baltimore, leaving around 7pm and arriving around 8 am the next morning. We will have DS 10 and DD 5 and two drivers.

 

[DVCMikey]

What we have done the two times has been to drive to GA. We are from NJ so we take 78 to 81 to 77 to 26 and that comes out on I95 near Savannah.

Then we stay and in the morning we get up and it takes about 4 hours from Savannah to get to Disney.

This will be our first trip the end of this month with two kids. We are thinking of staying in VA and then from there heading all the way down or stopping for a 2nd night.

 

[mickeymousemom]

We've done both. I live north of Indy and have driven from Orlando straight thru with my 3 girls and made it in 16 hours. We're more likely to stay all night on the way down and drive straight thru on the way home. My youngest has been making the trip since she was 3 months old and we've never had a problem when we drive straight thru. We just got her out of the car when she was awake for a break, otherwise she slept a lot and/or watched DVDs as she got older. When we stay over night we usually stop between Valdosta and the Florida state line.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Our drive is about 15 hours, and we usually go straight through, leaving around 3 pm and arriving around 6:00-7:00 a.m. We've done it this way since our kids were 4 and 2, and it works well for us. DH drives the first five hours or so, I drive from just past Charlotte until the FL line while DH sleeps, and DH drives the rest. Our kids are now 13 and 10, but when they were younger, they were able to sleep in the car. They usually fell asleep around 10 or whenever it got dark.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

~750 mile a day is our limit. We are 1,050 from Disney, so we stop overnight.

Edit, my BIL and I made 1,085 miles non-stop once. But, that was with no kids or wives, and 75 MPH speed limits for most of it.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We drove 11 hours last time straight through. Too long for us though. We are flying next time so we will be less tired when we arrive.

11 hours? No way I'd fly anywhere that close. By the time you mess with both airports and transportation on each end, you'll maybe gain 4 or 5 hours - assuming your plane isn't delayed (mine WOULD be, I know that ).

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

Growing up we mostly ever drove down to Florida, for Disney and everything else. We mostly stopped overnight at first, though as we grew older my mom preferred to drive straight through. She'd nap during the day and we'd leave between 10pm-midnight.

We're not planning on doing that ourselves for this trip, but that's only because my youngest (4) can be a handful. We're stopping in Fayetteville for dinner and an early bedtime because that will just be easier on everyone. (We keep telling ourselves "we're in no rush, let's take out time", but I suspect that the second day on the road we'll be in more of a hurry!)

 

[lauradis]

We drive straight down from cleveland, ohio to the disney but we stop pass the half way point coming home.

 

[mom2mizmous]

hope op doesn't mind me piggy backing on their thread- anyone know how long it generally takes from bayonne nj to w d w ? we are getting off a cruise july 3 -niece's wedding- and plan to drive from the port. we will stop overnight somewhere but trying to figure out how far we can get by around 1130- 12 midnight. any ideas dis friends?

 

[amcnj]

hope op doesn't mind me piggy backing on their thread- anyone know how long it generally takes from bayonne nj to w d w ? we are getting off a cruise july 3 -niece's wedding- and plan to drive from the port. we will stop overnight somewhere but trying to figure out how far we can get by around 1130- 12 midnight. any ideas dis friends?

I reside in southern NJ now, about an hour and fifteen minutes from the Delaware Memorial Bridge. It takes me about 14-15 hours of actual driving time, and of course stops are additonal. But I leave 2:30 AM so don't have to worry about traffic, and arrive in the WDW area around 6:30 PM on average. Your time may vary from this, depending on time of year (shore traffic), day of week, and time of day you are departing from Bayonne.

 

[lnh'smom]

We've done both. I live north of Indy and have driven from Orlando straight thru with my 3 girls and made it in 16 hours. We're more likely to stay all night on the way down and drive straight thru on the way home. My youngest has been making the trip since she was 3 months old and we've never had a problem when we drive straight thru. We just got her out of the car when she was awake for a break, otherwise she slept a lot and/or watched DVDs as she got older. When we stay over night we usually stop between Valdosta and the Florida state line.

We live a little north of you. We have to drive this year, airfare is just too much this year! We were thinking it would be easier to drive straight thru on the way there because we are excited to get there and stop overnight on the way home. We are usually exhausted when we leave disney!

 

[mickeymousemom]

We live a little north of you. We have to drive this year, airfare is just too much this year! We were thinking it would be easier to drive straight thru on the way there because we are excited to get there and stop overnight on the way home. We are usually exhausted when we leave disney!

I wonder how close we are to each other...we live just south of Kokomo! We always drive. In the past there have been 5 of us going and driving was much cheaper. We enjoy the drive and sometimes drive straight thru both ways, it just depends. We are also exhausted when we leave and ready to get home. My husband just loads up on coffee and we usually make it back in 17 or so hours. I made it back in 16 hours one year when it was just my daughters and me...it really wasn't that bad. At any rate, I like the drive and the anticipation of getting there....when are you going??

 

[librarymom2007]

Our drive is 14 hours. We drive 10 hours the first day and finish the next day, usually to WDW by noon.

 

[asmit4]

Growing up we'd drive the entire 16 hours straight through. My dad and mom would trade off driving. It was HELL. By the time we arrived my body- even at 8yo was in PAIN.

This time I'm driving down ALONE (no kids) and my mom and son are flying, then we are all driving home together. I've never driven more than 9 hours alone- so I'm a little nervous- even at 34yo! I live farther away now so my drive will be 18 hours now.

My plan is to leave at 5:30pm on a Wednesday night, drive 5 hours, and stop....then get up at 7am and drive another 8 hours and stop AGAIN, and then finish off the last 5 the next day.

Yes, it's 2 hotel rooms but it's my very first drive that long and I don't have anyone to trade off with. I have found highly rated hotels at various points along the highway that are around 60 bucks for 1 person and I plan to pack all my snacks and drinks. I'll likely do dinner at a restaurant.

On the way home we will drive about 9 hours the first day, and then 9 the next but I will have my mom to trade off with so it should be easier. At least I won't be driving alone WITH my son. I know I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that.

OTH- my SIL did it 2 months ago- 18 hours alone with her 2yo and will be doing it A LOT. She's a teacher and is a new DVC owner. She is totally comfortable driving that long alone with her child in tow...Each person is different and only you know your breaking points. I don't know my own yet so I'm taking it slow!