Driving and stopping half way

[mom2jcc]

So, for those of us who drive to WDW....

.....Do you plan out exactly where you are going to stop and get a hotel with a pre-existing reservation or do you just go as far as you can and look for a hotel room?

We are 12 hours away form the World and could make it in one day, but this time we have two 13 month olds and want to break the trip up into two days. So, do I make reservations at a 1/2 way point or hope we get a little further than 1/2 way the first day so we will be even closer to Mickey Mouse and try to get a room where we stop without a ressie???

 

[OKW Lover]

I would suspect that you could go a bit further than just 6 hours the first day. Why not go as far as you can and then find a room at that point. You don't say what route you are taking or what time of year, but unless its a holiday or you are near a big city I wouldn't think there will be much problem finding a cheap hotel for the night.

If you are AAA members, call them up and get a triptik and the state books from them. They will give you good info about hotels along your route. You'll find that as you're driving along and start to get tired, you can call an up-coming hotel from your cell phone and ask if they have rooms even before you get off the highway.

Just noticed that you are from LA. I've got good friends that do the drive from NOLA and they usually stop in the Ocala area on the way down. Lots of good, cheap hotel rooms around there.

 

[stacy6552]

Don't try to wing it, w/o any resservation. Thats how you end up staying at "the Pit of Dispare Hotel." Trust me it was a hard lesson learned.

We drove from DC a few years back. We made 2 reservations that could be cancelled before 6:30 that evening. One farther along than the other. When we passed the first one early in the afternoon, we cancelled it. The drive was so smoothe that we actually ended up cancelling the second and stayed at the Pop Century on the fly (having called ahead), though I wouldn't do it again. 16 hours left us feeling jet lagged the second day.

 

[NCRedding]

We booked our hotel the one time we drove to WDW. We ended up getting a later start than I originally planned, so it was after 11 before we got to the hotel. I would not have wanted to be searching for one that late at night.

I also really used the I-95 guide here on the DIS home--very helpful info about stops, gas stations, hotels, restaurants, etc. You can find lots of info at the sticky on this forum.

 

[mom2jcc]

We booked our hotel the one time we drove to WDW. We ended up getting a later start than I originally planned, so it was after 11 before we got to the hotel. I would not have wanted to be searching for one that late at night.

I also really used the I-95 guide here on the DIS home--very helpful info about stops, gas stations, hotels, restaurants, etc. You can find lots of info at the sticky on this forum.

I didn't know about this.....thanks so much!!!!! I'll check it out.

 

[MidgeD79]

We have driven to WDW about 5 times from MI and have never made a reservation. A few times we have had to make a few calls to find a hotel that accepted the coupon we had from the state visitor information magazine.

 

[pbharris4]

I would defintely book a hotel in advance especially since you'll have 2 babies with you. You know the kids best so you should have a good feeling how far they could probably go whether it's 6 or 8 hrs or whatever. You never know what might be happening in that particular town that you stop in.

I book my hotels down & back months in advance and even then they are sometimes already booked! Last year I booked a hotel in Rocky Mount, NC. We got there at 11:30pm and there were many people puling up and asking for rooms (it also started to rain) and they were turned away. Most of the hotels in the area were all booked the guy said. I walked up showed him my ressie print out and got the keys to the King study.

 

[We4mickey]

We never make a reservation. We drive until we want to stop. We leave at 3am, so we usually drive until 5 or 6 sometimes later depending on how we feel. We always stop before hotels are all booked up though.

 

[clkelley]

If I'm leaving in the morning, we drive our 11 hours straight through.

If I'm leaving after work, I reserve somewhere around Macon, then finish the drive in the morning.

Also, for driving home, we've found leaving late our last night and stopping in Ocala, then finishing the drive home the next day is much better than staying at Disney the last night. It is much easier to leave Ocala at 9-10 in the morning. If we stay at Disney the last night, we tend to linger with a last breakfast or shopping and don't get out of town till 11 or noon.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

What you can do is stop at the State Welcome Center, decide where you want to take your break, and then call ahead to make a reservation. If you are an AAA member, get tour books that include all the states you will cross and cross-reference the possible hotels with the AAA ratings. Either call the hotel directly or use the chain's central reservations office.