Driving from Clearwater, FL?

[purplebelle]

Hello: I hope I've chosen the correct board for my question.

My husband, 9 month old and I are headed to Clearwater, FL at the end of this week (flying). We plan to spend the majority of our vacation in Clearwater, but we are making a day trip to Magic Kingdom on Monday, August 31st. Our plan to leave Clearwater between 7:00 AM-7:30 AM and drive to straight to MK (about 1 hr 40 minutes without traffic), and then are staying the night at one of the Disney Value resorts as we don't want to drive all the way back that same day.

Now that we are getting close to the traveling, I am wondering if that 1 hr 40 minute expectation is realistic. Is there a lot of traffic from Clearwater to Orlando as it's during rush hour? I am not familiar with Florida in this regard.

I was thinking it might be better to add a night beforehand so we drive in Sunday night instead, but I highly doubt my husband will agree to it. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks.

 

[melificent]

I grew up in Clearwater and used to have annual passes. There should be some traffic--I'd probably factor in about 20-30 minutes.

If it were me, I'd stay the night before on site in order to bypass the parking/tram/TTC stuff and worrying about traffic delays, and then drive back at night, since you wouldn't have traffic to deal with then. Just my 2 cents.

Have fun! (I'm so jealous!)

 

[tobikaye]

When my cousin lived in the Tampa area, it would generally take us, on average, 2 hours to get to from where she lived to the WDW parks. Many times it was during the week around 7-8 am when we would head out and it would usually take us an extra 10-20 minutes to get to I-4 due to extra traffic backing up at various lights. I would allow 2 hours travel time at least to get there at that time of day.

When we would drive back at the end of the night we could usually make it back in 1.5 hours due to lack of traffic.

 

[goofy4tink]

I would agree with the two hr time frame. I would also consider driving in the night before, busing to MK first thing in the morning, then heading back to Clearwater that night. As already mentioned, there will be a lot less traffic later in the evening.
Now....the only issue with doing it this way is that you won't have a room after 11am. If you think you'll need access to a room that full day, you might want to do as you originally planned, or boom two nights.

 

[purplebelle]

I appreciate everyone's thoughts, thanks!!