Drive Chicago to WDW-questions

[JJSWDW]

For those who drive from the Chicago area, some questions:

do you normally drive straight thru?

Our normal discussion centers on the price of airfare and the choice of 6 hours of chaos (airport,security, delays, etc) or 22 hours of boredom (sitting in the car)

If so, do you pull over to nap or switch drivers?

If not, how many days do you take and where do you stop?

Advice for car travel with kids in your scenario?

How long does it take you to recover from the drive once you get to WDW?

Thanks!!

 

[DSLRuser]

We drive and are leaving tomorrow from st. louis. Chicago is another 3 hours tacked on , so they are similar. 16 from STL, 19 from CHI

We time our trip to leave at 7pm after we have a nice dinner at home.

We put the kids, 8 and 3 in their PJ's, and leave. They watch a movie or two and fall asleep. My wife will drive from STL to nashville while I rest, then around 11pm in nashville, I take over and drive all night.

We make it to ocala florida around 7am, and stop for breakfast, at cracker barrel and allow everyone to stretch and rest. After we eat, it's a nice 4 hours to WDW. We usually get there around 1pm.

Driving through the night has many advantages. The kids sleep, so they dont get bored or on their or our nerves. traffic is very light. we go through downtown atlanta at 1am. And the trucks on i75 are not an issue.

I know not everyone can drive all night, but if you can, it works great. From chicago, I would leave around 2pm. If you stop for dinner and breakfast, you would be in WDW by 1pm the next day.

 

[WDWLVR]

We've done the drive every year for the past 6 or 7. No kids so I can't help with that.

We leave at 4am and make it as far as Macon, GA by evening (usually about 8 pm local time). We stop for the night there and get back on the road about 5-6 am the next morning. We're usually at Disney by 1 pm.

We actually enjoy the drive. DH usually does all the driving but I may take some turns next time we go.

We take I-57 down to I-24 and then over to I-75. Works great for us.

As for recovery we usually will rest a little once we get in our room at Disney, then head out at dinner time and have a normal evening. We're usually fine by the next day. Having a long first day followed by a good nights rest and then a shorter drive the second day is what helps us.

 

[SLBGBR]

My main worry with driving was the wear and tear on our van.

You should check out AAA's web site. They have a fuel cost calculator. You can type in your make and model number and destination and get what you probably will pay for gas. For us there was a couple of hundred dollars difference between driving and flying. Our experience at Ohare on a Saturday went REALLY SMOOTH (a group of 6, with 2 wheelchairs and 3 kids!).

We were planning on doing the drive for our trip last month, however when United came out with $170 roundtrip flights out of Ohare THAT sold us immediately. We are banking on the United/Continental merger to start a price war for our trip next year but we are not holding our breath.

Good Luck and have a safe trip!

 

[hearts8701]

our last drive was in may we drive from chicago a few times a year no kids just my husband and myself we drive 57-24-75 straight thru mostly if the weather is bad we stop usually after dalton ga. the less we have to drive the next day the better my husband likes to drive straight thru he is our only driver we make it there in 18 hours we rest most of the first day we arrive and on the way home we always drive straight thru leaving orlando about 6 am arriving home before midnite
i bring dvd's..read.. snacks.. small cooler with frozen water bottles instead of ice (ice melts and has to be poured out & replaced)
the cost for our 2009 Hyundai Sonata four-cylinder engine in gas it's about $200 round trip
we drive thru rather than stopping to eat my husband doesn't like to stop for long he said that makes him tired

 

[mrodgers]

I keep seeing the "wear and tear" on the vehicle pop up on this transportation board. Worried about wear and tear on your vehicle on a vacation trip? Really? For the long haulers (like me) 2000 miles round trip seems to be quite the norm. On a vehicle which you should expect to last 200,000 miles, that is 1% of the total mileage. If folks are worried about wear and tear on the vehicle because of a vacation trip, those folks should really rethink what vehicle they buy the next time around.

If my wife would ride in it, I would have no problems with driving my 187,000 mile Civic the 2000 miles I am driving, especially now that it has a fresh head gasket I just put in it 2 weeks ago. I'd love to see the 40 mpg I would expect on a trip like that in the Civic over the 25 I expect to get out of the Mazda (Ford) Tribute. It would be far more comfortable as well with 187k on the driver's seat as opposed to 50k on the Mazda's seats.

Wear and tear on the car on a 2000 mile trip, cracks me up.

 

[SLBGBR]

I feel it is important to keep in mind some of us don't have the "luxury" of driving such a gas conserving vehicles.

I need to drive a 07 Chevy Express Handicap Accessible Van. WEAR and TEAR is VERY important to me. Just offering a broader perspective on the matter, perhaps to those folks that don't think outside of the box.

 

[cruisingkat]

We drive from Chicago to FL several times a year. Hubby does all the driving (no kids) and we stop just south of Atlanta in McDonough, GA on the way down. We usually leave around 9am to miss the Chicago rushhour. We take 355 to 80 to 57 to 24 to 75 to the FL Tollroad. On the way home we stop just northwest of Chattanooga in Kimball, TN (we usually don't leave Disney until 11 am). We like to put most of our driving on the first day.
We have tried other routes, but found the 57-24-75 route the quickest (no matter what the time of year) and less stressful route. I65 through IN has way too many trucks.

 

[clkelley]

We make it to ocala florida around 7am, and stop for breakfast, at cracker barrel and allow everyone to stretch and rest. After we eat, it's a nice 4 hours to WDW. We usually get there around 1pm.

4 HOURS from Ocala??? What route do you take?? Ocala is about 95 miles from WDW. Never takes me more than 2 hours from Ocala

 

[robinb]

For those who drive from the Chicago area, some questions:

do you normally drive straight thru?

Our normal discussion centers on the price of airfare and the choice of 6 hours of chaos (airport,security, delays, etc) or 22 hours of boredom (sitting in the car)

If so, do you pull over to nap or switch drivers?

If not, how many days do you take and where do you stop?

Advice for car travel with kids in your scenario?

How long does it take you to recover from the drive once you get to WDW?

Thanks!!

We have driven from Madison a couple of times and that adds about 2.5 - 3 hours onto the trip from Chicago.

I personally can't be in a car any more than 12-14 hours straight and I can't rest effectively in a moving car. I can nap but I can't sleep well enough to be refreshed when I wake up and be a safe driver. So, we stop for the night along the way. We usually stop in Chattanooga on the way down and Nashville on the way home. I us Priceline or Hotwire to get us a cheap hotel.

Depending on where you live in Chicago you may want to consider driving down the length of Illinois on I-57 instead of going east into Indiana on I-65.

 

[DanG07]

We have driven from north suburbs of Chicago to WDW to last four times with 4 kids aged between 6 months to 8 yrs old. Since I am the only driver, I usually go to bed real early on the night before we are leaving and wake up around midnight to 1 am. We have already loaded up our minivan the day before. We get the sleeping kids in the minivan and are usually on the road by 2 am. We take I-65 to I-24 to I-75.

We usually drive straight through making semi-frequent stops for food, gas, and restroom breaks. I find driving that early allows us to avoid all of the traffic in Chicago area and Indianapolis area and before you know it, we are in Kentucky. If we do stop for an overnight motel, it is usually somewhere in GA, the closer to FL the better.

As for entertaining the kids, we have a DVD player in the minivan and own lots of Disney movies. I find that this gets the kids in the mood for our vacation. We also play the license-plate game and 20 questions (usually about a Disney character).

We have flown before, but I can tell you that my family actually prefers driving. The kids look forward to the drive almost as much as the vacation itself. In addition, by driving, we are not limited to WDW transportation and can come and go as we please during our vacation stay.

 

[Tam1067]

We live very close to where I-80 and I-57 cross, and I would also say that you're wise to take I-57 instead of driving through Indiana to I-65. We locals avoid that stretch of I-80/I-94 if we can, and when we drive south, we always take 57.

 

[DanG07]

We live very close to where I-80 and I-57 cross, and I would also say that you're wise to take I-57 instead of driving through Indiana to I-65. We locals avoid that stretch of I-80/I-94 if we can, and when we drive south, we always take 57.

I have never taken I-57 before because mapquest had it approximately 40 minutes longer than taking I-65. However, looking at the map, by taking I-57 we would be avoiding downtown Indianapolis and Louisville. I'll consider I-57 for our upcoming July trip. Thanks for the heads up, Tam1067!