Drive from Chicago to WDW? Are we crazy???

[debster]

We are a family of 5 with 3 children under 8.

We have this opportunity for 1 week in a timeshare in Orlando this June and are tempted to take it. With a cruise planned later this year we would need to do a "budget" trip.

Looking at airfare and rental car would add a lot of $$$ so we are thinking about driving.

I am very intrigued by driving, seeing the new sights, but my husband is slightly more hesitant.

Have you driven from Chicago to WDW? If we split in into a 2 day trip is it tollerable?

We are equipped with the DVD player and all the games and toys, so I think it will be a fun adventure.

 

[GoofyinNY]

We're planning to drive from NY to Orlando with one child age 8. I'm also a bit worried about this. How many hours will it take you to drive from Chicago?

I think breaking the trip up into 2 segments will make it much easier -- at least I hope so!

 

[WDWLVR]

We are in the northern suburbs of Chicago and have driven to WDW a number of times. In fact we plan to this October as well. Now it is just the two of us and no kids, but it sounds like you have the entertainment factor worked out. We definately break it up into two days. A good nights sleep really helps with the drive that 2nd day.


We have also found over the years that driving down 57 in Illinois to be more enjoyable than doing 65 through Indiana. It is a slightly longer route but not as busy or with has many trucks.

Enjoy your road trip!

 

[Scutapipig]

We drive from West Michigan every time we go. Part of the fun for us is the drive down and back. It takes us 21 hours...either 2 full days driving or leave around 3pm on a Friday and then stop for the night around 9pm, full day drive on Saturday, stopping for the night about 6pm, and then check in at Disney around noon on Sunday. We stop to stretch and play tag about every 2-3 hours and bring plenty of cd's and movies for the kids in the car.

We love the scenery, especially through Tennessee. There's something special about hitting the Florida state line, and then we always make it a point to stop in Ocala at the Disney Information site.

The drive is what you make it to be. It can be a chore, or you can make it exciting. We play silly games, make our rest stops fun by allowing the kids to pick out a snack or by playing tag for 10 minutes. We also give the kids maps and get excited about each state line we cross.

My two are ages 8 and 10, and we've been driving them all over the country since they were born. They get bored at times, but then we start a new game up (the road alphabet game...I Spy) and they start to forget about their boredom.

 

[HappyLawyer]

i couldn't do it, i just really couldn't do it.

 

[lpbm4]

We drove from Chicago to Pennsylvania (12+hrs) last June. Our kids were 4 and 2 1/2 at the time and that was the longest I'll ever drive with them. I think it's too far personally.

 

[jlovesee]

While we don't have kids, we have driven from Kansas City to Orlando four times round trip, and actually enjoy it. We usually leave about 5PM friday night, stop about midnight, and then drive all day saturday and arrive about 10PM. If you plan on two full days I think you could easily make the trip.

My two favorite places to stop are the Kentucky state line rest stop (its a historic home) and the Florida Welcome Center Free OJ...

Jennifer

 

[TazFan]

We have drove twice from West Central Indiana and while I would do it again...I rather fly the next time.

Brief overview...
Our 1st trip we hit the road around 1pm and was at 'Da World' around 5:30pm next day (overnight stay in Macon)
Our 2nd trip we hit the road around 9pm and was at 'Da World' by 2:30pm (Straight through)

DON'T DRIVE STRAIGHT THROUGH UNLESS YOU HAVE CO-DRIVERS!!
Just be safe and take turns driving...No more than 6hrs each...tops! There's nothing like dosing off in the middle of Atlanta! Fortunately, this happened at 7am Sunday morning and was able to pull off and let my DW take over for awhile.


TazFan

 

[mickeymousemom]

We drive everytime from Central Indiana(north of Indy). My DD's are aged 16, 12, and 2. Our two year old has been to WDW 4 times, and the worst time driving with her was last October(she had turned 2 in July). It wasn't too bad, and we are getting ready to make the drive again, just her, Dh and I this Saturday. I think its imperative you make it a two day trip. We'll leave early AM saturday, drive clear thru to Lake Park ,GA(a few short miles from the state line), leave early Sun and get to Orlando around lunch or a little later. We stop several times to let her run, and get her snacks whenver she asks. We'll also have a DVD player...this worked miracles last year! Good luck and have a great trip!

 

[Jon99]

After making the drive from Kankakee County to Florida many times over the years, we find the best way is to drive straight thru on the way down, leaving in the afternoon and getting down the next morning, allowing the kids to sleep a good portion..

Then on the way back, when the mood has changed and everyone is tired, do a stop over..

 

[Bunchkin]

We live outside Chicago, and in Dec 2003, we drove with our two children to WDW. They were 6 and 1 1/2 yrs old at the time. We have a conversion van with a tv and that REALLY helped. We tried to drive straight through on our way down. At one point we pulled over to rest for a bit. But it was proved to be overtiring in the end. We got to WDW the next evening and crashed!! The next morning was a slow start, as everyone slept in.
One thing that would have helped was leaving early in the day, because of some emergencies with DH's business we ended up leaving around dinner time and drove through the night!! Never will do that again!!!

On the way back we made it a 2 day trip.

It can be done if you plan!! And take your time. We drove through Illinois too, not through Indiana. As another said, not a lot of trucks.

 

[Laurabearz]

We are driving to Disney's Hilton Head Island from Chicago in July with our 3 kids who will be 7,5,3 at the time (woo hoo) Our plan, 3 days down(6 or7 hours driving each day), 2 days back. (10 or 12 hours the first day 5 or 6 the next.

SOmeone posted what they do and I am going to follow it. They write up a schedule. Movie (90 minutes) snack, workbooks (20 minutes) coloroing (30 minutes) video games (30 minutes) rest stop... then start over...

I would also for the heck of it check out fares from SWA. We were able to fly ROUNDTRIP for $577 for all FIVE of us to have seats... That is about what gas and hotel would run us.... (Now for the 5 of us to fly into Savannah from Chicago it would cost $1500 RT... )

 

[kelsco99]

I have done this 3x now from Ontario, Canada. Twice with just adults and once, last October, with our kids who were 5 and 7. My DH and I took turns driving, about 4-6 hours at a time and we drove straight through. It took 25 hours. We were expecting it to be pretty hard on the kids but we didn't have any problems at all and it was actually quite enjoyable.

We decided before we left that we would stop for the night if we felt the need to. We never did and we felt fine - not overly tired because we took turns sleeping while the other drove.

We left at 10am and got to Disney at about 11:30am the next day. When I went to check in, I requested a room that was ready. They were very accomodating. I urged everyone to rest since it was a free day with only dinner reservations but we just couldn't - instead we watched some TV for about an hour and then had to get out - had a late lunch, rode the monorail around to all the resorts, went back to the room, got ready for dinner and headed to Chef Mickeys. In the end, we would much rather drive straight through and have a lazy day at Disney rather than spend 2 full days on the road.

I read lots of tips on this board but mainly the things that worked for us were...
FIRST AND FOREMOST: Set the kids expectations that this is going to be a LOOOOOONG drive - for us, a whole day and a whole night - we kept reiterating this before we left. Our kids were both old enough to understand and it really helped. We didn't get a single " are we there yet?" until Georgia when the kids woke up in the morning.

1. watched a few movies on the DVD player (we really didn't feel like we had a lot of time for this but I am glad we had it for the times we did use it)
2. If possible, stop at a fast food place with a playland - eat while the kids play and get the kids food to go so they can eat when you are back on the road.
3. took the Leappad which covered the US states we were driving through and had many other activities too
4. Gave the kids journals and they wrote down all the cool things they saw. We have fun reading these today ("drove over bridge to USA" "saw rock mountains" "saw a palm tree"). I answered a TON of "how do you spell...?" questions
5. We followed the same bedtime routine we would at home (as best we could). At 8:30, we stopped at a rest stop, kids got their jammies on, brushed their teeth, used the loo, and then we read a story and tucked them in. They slept right through and woke up at about 8:00 in the morning.

When we go back (my DH says "IF"), we will definitely drive again and we will try again to do it straight through.

That's our story,

Kelly

 

[B9erSteve]

I thought about driving to WDW with my 5th Wheel. I live in CA and figured that it would take 5 days. (8 hours/Day due to very young children) But when I calculated 10 days of travel plus 7 days of WDW, I would be better off timewise and dollarwise to fly. That's even adding two extra days onto our stay at WDW to accomodate travelling. Someday I'd like to do it though.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We used to drive long ago, have flown 3 times, not to my liking, and used Amtrak. I won't drive any more and flying for me is not an option. Its the train. Its still over 20 hours but its relaxing hours for me. No stress, no maps no traffic. Our kids are gone and grown up now so its just me and the wife. We enjoy the train and never encountered any major problems, been late a few times but always arrive in one piece.

Few trips back, we waited too long for booking the train and were forced into driving, just her and I, terrible, terrible long boring trip. Coming home was even worse, leaving WDW. We used to drive straight through, me alone doing the driving and that trip I let her take first shift and when it was my turn, I was tried from just sitting there watching all the traffic. Told her to find a motel, which she did and it wasn't the best but after 12 hours on the road, who has time to look. Next morning got up very early and let her drive till we needed gas and then I took over and tried to make time to get to WDW early in the day. Way to hectic and stressing for me to think about doing again.