Driving 16 hours to Disney World with kids?!?!?

[vbarry]

O.K.- We have decided to drive! We have DD2 and DD6 and we will be driving from Illinois to Orlando. We usually fly but DD6 has ear pain while flying and does not want to fly at all. We can also save a lot of money by driving and we are heading to Ft. Walton Beach after we leave Orlando.

Can anyone give me advice on how to do this?

Thoughts are:

1: Leave early evening and drive all night. DH does not think this is a good idea. It sounds great to me- but I am sure we will be exhausted when we get there and the girls will have a lot of energy!!

2. Leave late afternoon and drive 5 hours and stay overnight and finish the trip the next day.

3. Spend one long day driving (leaving around 4:00 a.m.) and stay overnight around 2-3 hours from Disney.

Any suggestions??

We have a DVD in our vehicle but DD2 still is not the best rider.

I just do not want to be totally stressed out before we even get there!!

Thanks for any help!!

 

[Minnie824]

I vote for option #3...leave at 3am even though. Thats what we did and it worked great. I put the kids to bed in comfy clothes, woke them up, took older one potty, changed little ones diapers, moved them to the car when DH & I had everything ready, then we left. It took them another hour to fall back asleep, but they just sat there quiet. Then they slept at least 4-5 more hours. We stopped for breakfast. I brought peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. Stopped for dinner, then about 2 hrs after dinner stopped at Gainesville. We arrive there at 8pm cst. We got a full nights sleep there and everyone was well rested for our 2 hr drive the next day. It worked out really well. My DDs were ages 5 and 2.5. We watched videos, I brought a couple coloring books and small pack of crayons, and I brought them a new Polly pockets doll to play with. They did VERY well driving. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Jon99]

We do #1.. This coming trip we leave on a Thursday when my wife gets off work (school teacher).. She goes to school, kids go to daycare and then I get a free day, to finish up packing and take a nap.. When she gets home we are pretty much ready to go by around 3:30..

I drive until dinner, after dinner she will drive for a couple of hours if I think I can sneak in a quick nap, if not I will drive straight thru until breakfast (around the Florida line).. We then are into WDW before lunch..

 

[diskids2]

My family did this.....at the time...DD age 13 DS age 9...DH and I drove but our trip is 20 hours.

We left the house at 2 am. The kids actually stayed up until we left. I went to bed around 7 ( I can do this so it worked for me). I drove first since I had about six hours of sleep...while DH slept in the car. The kids also slept with pillows and comfy blankets. They woke up around Virginia....seven hours later and then the older one even went back to sleep.

It is a GREAT idea to bring new things that they get excited about.

Here's something to think about too....If you drive straight through and arrive at night, paying the WDW hotel for another night....would it be better to stop even three hours away, at a cheaper hotel, and then get up refreshed drive three hours and be at the parks for the afternoon...Just a thought.

If you have any questions, feel free.

 

[vbarry]

Thanks for all the ideas!!

I do think stopping 2-3 hours away would be a great idea and then getting to Disney in the a.m. and having the entire day!

But....the idea of leaving after work and driving all night while the kids sleep sounds very peaceful!!!

 

[dsnymomof4]

We do #1 as well - usually leave between 6:30-7:30 to miss the evening rush hour traffic. Especially with small children, the more they will sleep in the car, the better. It does get very tiring, though, driving through the night. So, it works best if one of you can sleep for a while, then switch drivers when the other gets tired. And yes, the first day DH and I are usually pretty tired, but you don't have to plan a late night that first day. At least you're there and can wake up fresh in Disneyt he next morning!

 

[Funwith4kids]

We have done all the options you listed. We prefer the option of leaving afternoon after the kids get out of school and drive for ~6-7 hrs and stop between Nashville and Chattanooga. We then get up, drive, and arrive by dinner the next day. To the kids, it feels like one day of driving and we are not exhausted from driving all night. Our next preferred option is to start out early, I mean EARLY (2 or 3 am) so the kids sleep away part of the trip. The kids don't quite get a good sleep and tire earlier in the week while taking on WDW.

However, on the way home we may drive all night as they don't have a full day of WDW ahead of them.

 

[Miffy]

I vote for #2, or a variation on it. I'm not a child, but I vividly remember being one in the backseat of the car during family vacations, and the one thing I could not do was get any real sleep (but maybe your children are better car sleepers than I was). I also vividly remember the last time I was a backseat passenger for a long drive. Both the kid and the adult me prefer shorter spurts of driving interspersed with stopping somewhere to sleep or have a real rest. I feel that option #2 is best, since you'll all be able to enjoy your first day at WDW as well-rested peoples. Now, the drive home is another story. My theory on that would be: leave WDW at the last possible minute and have a marathon drive home! JMO.

 

[kandb]

We are driving to WDW with our twins who will be almost 4 years old by then. We live in NY and it's around 1100 miles. Both my dh and I get a lot of time off of work so we are going to take our time driving down (2 1/2 days) and will drive back in 2 days. Originally, I was going to put them in the car around 5 pm and drive straight through but it just seems so exhausting. So we ill drive the first 2 days for around 7 hours and the third day only 3 hours. We will stop for lunch and the hotels we are staying at going down will have indoor pools and we will make a fun night out of each night (go for a swim and out to dinner, Mom will bring some new fun toys for the hotel room etc.). We love Cracker Barrel so we will go there eat and let the kids play in the gift shop. We will just take our leisurely time and make it a fun family trip. I will bring new DVD's for the car, new toys from the dollar store, those really long skinny ballons with a pump, pipe cleaners and other little toys for the kids to play with.) We took the autotrain down in October and the kids were fine getting there (4 hour trip). So I'm hoping they will be good the rest of the time. Linda

 

[Sandy22]

I just got back from driving to Disney (1400 miles each way). I found it very tiring to drive at night. My preference would be number 3 but I would probably try to make it to the Disney hotel that night. That way you wake up right at Disney. If you left at 4:00 am and took a couple hours for breaks, you should check in around 10:00 and be able to get a good night's sleep.

 

[lynn46356]

We live in Indiana, almost Illinois, actually Northwest Indiana, a little over an hour from Chicago. We've drove 4 times to Disney. The last two times with a 1 year old and then a 3 year old. Anyway, we always leave around 11:00 a.m. in the morning. We drive straight through. We usually are going through Atlanta at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. and one time we only counted 4 or 5 cars on the road. It was wierd. As good as I can remember we arrive at WDW around 7:00/8:00. Depends on if we eat breakfast first or not. With leaving around 11 we have some ofo the day with the kids awake but then once it gets dark they go to sleep and most of the drive is then with them sleeping. We are leaving February 10th for the first trip since 2001. My husband wants to stop this time though so we'll probably leave at 3 in the morning and drive until we reach Florida or Valdosta, Georgia. Anyone know long it takes to get from Valdosta to WDW. I'd really rather drive straight through at least on the way down. With the excitement it's really doesn't seem that bad to me. Now coming home is another story if you know what I mean. Good Luck.

Lynn

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

I would pick #3. Getting up early and driving a long day. In our case its 2 long days.

I have driven down every way that you have mentioned.

 

[vbarry]

If we do #3- would you suggest driving all the way to Disney that night getting there around 10:00 p.m. or stopping a few hours before and then finish in the a.m.??

 

[FOTM_Ring_Bearer]

We've done all 3.

Option 1 is hard if you're not well rested. About 2am, it gets really hard to stay awake.

Option 2 isn't bad but I hate spending the night and driving again the next day.

We just tried option 3 last year. We left around 4am and arrived in Disney that night. Had a nice dinner and were well rested for the next day. So that's what we're doing again this year.

When our dd's were smaller we used to stop at the welcome centers and let them run around for a while. I also used to buy new toys for them to open in the car. Good Luck and have a great trip.

 

[Twingle]

I did this last June. It was my mom, myself, and my three children, then aged 6, 2, and 2.

We left Virginia around 7:00 p.m., and drove straight through, getting to OKW around 9:00 a.m., I think. My kids are pretty good car riders, but it helped that I had new books and cd's for them to listen to. One of my daughters had a hard time sleeping, mainly because she's a tummy sleeper and couldn't get on "her other side", but she eventually crashed. The other two slept like rocks. My mom and I switched off driving some, but I mainly drove all night, and then she took over in the morning for awhile.

Coming back, we left around 5:00 after a whole day in the park. That got hard around 6:00 a.m., but after a refreshing stop at a McDonalds that had the AC set to about 12 degrees, we got home about 9:00 or so.

In any event, I would be really honest with yourself about what kind of driver you are and what kind of riders your kids are. It was MUCH easier driving there, with the promise of Disney waiting for us, then coming back to plain ol' home!

 

[Pembo]

We've driven the last 2 years with 3 kids. They were 2, 6, and 8 the first year. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did in the car, especially the little one and we do not have a TV.

We drove down in 3 days, left around 3 pm the first day (had to due to dh's job). We drove until 10, stayed in a hotel and were on the road by 7 am the next day. We drove all day and stopped about 3 hours from Disney that night. Everyone was well rested for that 3rd day when we arrived.

Take lots of snacks in the car, non-sugar if you can. Bottles of water were our friend, the 2 yo loved them. Pipe cleaners are a great "toy" for the car. You can do alot with them. 6 yo made a hockey mask from them last year. I had balloons and bubbles for the rest stops. We had picnic lunches and it was a great way for the kids to run around. Blow up a few balloons and let them run. We also had a rule, if you said "Are we there yet" you I would write it down and once we got to WDW I would take .05 cents from their spending money for everytime they said it. I didn't have to take any money.

I was very skeptical about driving. My kids can be cranky on a 10 minute ride to the store but they were great. Yes we got a little irritated with each other but we had lots for them to do, too much in fact.

AND we drove home in 2 days. To me once you start driving home, I just want to keep on going. Good luck

 

[MOmousefan]

Our first two trips to WDW were with three kids and a Dodge Grand Caravan. We would leave Central Missouri in the morning and stop around 2:00 PM, usually Chatanooga. The kids loved to dwim in the motel pool. Our next stop was Lake City, FL. What I am getting is that the journey was as much fun as the destination. Sometimes we will drive along the gulf coast and stop in Destin or Panama City for the beach. We are both teachers, so we have more time than most people.
Our last trip was in May,2005. Only my two grown daughters went with me for this trip. We left at 3:00 PM on a Saturday and drove straight through arriving in Orlando around 10:00 AM, a drive of 18 hours and 1200 miles. My daighter spelled me at driving twice for two hours. WE were worried about how tired we would be, but felt fine. We left for home the next Saturday at 7:30 AM and arrived home around midnight.
Based on these experiences, with small kids the short distances and pool time were great. But after our last straight through drive, this is how we will travel from now on. We will drive all day as the night drive, while traffi-free, was very boring.
However you do it, have a great time!

 

[jtopp]

We have tried all three options. Option 1 sounds good until you get there and are ready for bed, but everyone else is charged and ready to go, and you still don't feel like yourself for a day or two. Option 2 is my personal favorite. We leave after school/before dinner and drive until 11 or 12 only(no sense tiring yourself out only to get up and do it all again). Then, we continue the trip the next day, getting to WDW mid afternoon. Option 3 is also good, as you get the maximum driving done on the first day when everyone is all excited, and you get to WDW the next morning, checked in and ready to go before lunch. Always pack snacks and drinks, and lots of DVD's to keep everyone happy( my kids watched the WDW vacation planning DVD 3 times on the way down). Keep in mind that every option is good GOING DOWN. The drive home STINKS, no matter which option you use.

 

[MALE*RN*777]

On our last trip we drove from MD to FL after I woke up Friday at 5:30am, went to work, got off at 3:30pm, let the house at 5:30pm, drove in the pouring rain until 12 midnight, the wife took over for 3 hours while I tried (I tried) to nap, actually napped about 1 1/2 hours, took back over the driving around 3 am Saturday and we arrived at 9am Saturday. Kids did great sleeping the night. We spend less than $100 in gas and about $20 on food/coffee. Saved both ways about $400 in airplane tickets for both ways, overnight hotel and parking not to mention a rental car. We were only traveling about 3-4 hours longer than the rest of the family who flew.

 

[Flyin2MCO]

How about checking in with the primary care doc about something for the ear pain? Driving is certainly a viable option, but flying is so much better!! Less time traveling and more time enjoying!!