Driving from D.C.

[luapgib]

My wife and I had originally planned to take the train as a change of pace to disney. However a reletive of ours recently did the same trip on the train and ran into a 7 hour delay on the way (if it had been on the way back I am sure no one would have complained) making the first day a complete waste. Since we dont want to chance a late arrival we have decided to just drive. We have to work a half day the day we leave so we would not be able to get out of town till 2:00. Since driving straight through would get us there around 3:00am our only option would be to sleep in the parking lot. I dont think this is looked to highly upon by the way. So my thought is to drive till like midnight and stop in a cheap hotel. All that being said this brings me to my
question(s). I assume we could make it to Jacksonville or St. Augustine the first day so Question number one is how long should I expect it to take to get to Disney from Jacsonville? Number two am I correct in assuming that I can find a cheap hotel at that time of night? Number three does anyone know of any quality yet inexpensive places along 95 we could stay in? Remember we would like to stay south of Jacksonville. Thanks in advance to everyones input

 

[crzy4dsny]

From Jacksonville you should be about 2 to 2.5 hours from Disney. Did you consider leaving your house at a different time? Instead of leaving after work, go to bed early and leave around 2:00 am. That would get you to Disney around 3:00 pm.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Just for comparisons sake--we live in Pa. near I-83, just over the Md/pa line. We leave the house at 4:00 AM (to beat that awful DC traffic ) and are all the way to Brunswick ga. by 4:30 PM. And that includes lots of rest stops and a full breakfast stop along the way--.
So--I think you can easily get to near Jacksonville that first day. And unless it's some sort of Holiday, etc you should be able to find a motel with a vacancy. Any of the "major" chain motels are OK--we prefer Hampton Inn, or best Western.

 

[laurabelle]

Originally posted by crzy4dsny
From Jacksonville you should be about 2 to 2.5 hours from Disney. Did you consider leaving your house at a different time? Instead of leaving after work, go to bed early and leave around 2:00 am. That would get you to Disney around 3:00 pm.

This is exactly what we're doing in 10 days! We don't live there, we're north of Balitmore, but we'll be visiting a friend who lives in Arlington, VA. It knocks an hour off our trip and we'll be lounging at the grotto pool by late afternoon!

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Richmond, VA, here. We've driven to WDW a few times. It's about a 13 hour drive for us, keeping the speed limit around 70-75 MPH tops.

We've left around 4 PM and made it just past the Savannah area around midnight. (it's about 1.5 hours from Richmond to the NC line, another 3 hours across NC and 3 hours across SC).

There's a chain with a couple of locations around Savannah called Microtel Inn. It's very much a no-frills chain -- they don't even provide shampoo in the baths -- but the ones I've stayed at have been clean and comfortable.

 

[luapgib]

Thanks everyone for your input. I am now truing to talk the wife into an all night drive. It is just a little hard with just the two of us. And when you consider that after about 1 hour of driving in the dark my wife will have fallen asleep in the passenger seat.

Laurabell: Just wanted to let you know that arlington is where I leave from and that you can expect a 10 hour drive to Jacksonville and then 2.5 from there to disney so good luck. If you dont mind let me know how the trip was when you get back cause I am a little scared that I will be so tired once we get there and that it will take a while to recoop and enjoy the wonderful world of Disney.

 

[laurabelle]

You bet! My hubby works in DC, so he has to be an early riser. That's why we'll leave about 2 or 3 in the morning, it's not that big of a deal for him, and we have nothing planned for that day except to go to the pool, eat dinner at one of the casual restaurants in the resort and go to bed EARLY!

 

[ValerieK]

I just wanted to let you know that they are doing construction on the 495/395/95 interchange south of DC. Sometimes they close lanes at night. I live West and never travel there unless I have to so I don't know much about it. But here is a website that might be able to tell you if there will be construction when you drive.

Springfield Interchange Construction


Good luck!

 

[punkin]

I've driven from DC area 3 times alone with two kids so no change of driver. I don't like to drive at night so we leave at 5 am. The kids usually sleep 'till NC where we stop for breakfast and let them run around. I am usually at the hotel in Orlando by 7 pm.
If you want to leave in the afternoon, I would drive until midnight (as you suggest). That would put you somewhere in Brunswick, GA. That's only about 3 hours from Disney. If you leave the next morning at 6 am, you could be at a park by 9 am opening.

 

[candleonwater]

To anyone who has done this drive... What is there between Santee SC and Pooler GA?

I've only done this drive once before - and drove all the way to Ormond Beach, which was WONDERFUL as we stayed in a nice clean Comfort Inn right on the beach, and only had a little over an hours drive the next morning...

However, this time, I can't leave until 3:30 in the afternoon - hope to sneak away just a bit earlier to get in front of the rush... we're leaving from Alexandria, so if I can get on the HOV lanes in time, we'll be legally at 65 all the way out of town.

Santee is roughly 7 hours from here, and Pooler is almost 9...

Isn't there a website that shows the drive, exit by exit - showing restaurants and hotels?

 

[JudithM]

Originally posted by candleonwater
To anyone who has done this drive... What is there between Santee SC and Pooler GA?

Santee is roughly 7 hours from here, and Pooler is almost 9...

Isn't there a website that shows the drive, exit by exit - showing restaurants and hotels?

Personally, there isn't much between Santee & Pooler. We tried to stay over night one time in Walterboro. It was raining hard, & we just wanted to stop. Well, the hotel had no hot water - we learned this after we checked in. We got our money back & left. Several years ago we used to stop regularly in Hardeeville, but the management changed at the hotel where we stayed & it was not a change for the better, so we no longer stop in Hardeeville.

We have stayed in Santee a few times at Clark's Inn - clean, good value, etc. They have a restaurant in front of the hotel. Or there is a Maurice's bbq that I highly recommend if you like bbq.

If we make it to GA, we usually stop in Richmond Hills (I think it is just south of Pooler) at a Hampton Inn. Last time we checked into the hotel & then drove over to Savannah (to buy pralines at River Street Sweets - yummy!!).

 

[2PRINCESSES4US]

candleonwater,
You should checkout this site, its has loads of info.

http://www.usastar.com/i95/homepage.htm

Jerry

 

[NALA 24]

Last year was our first drive to WDW. We stopped for our overnight at the exit called Savannah Getway. (NORTH). We stayed at a nice Country Inns and Suites. There were several close restaurants that you could walk to from the hotel. I think the restaurant we ate in was a Ruby Tuesday or similar.

 

[candleonwater]

For what it's worth, we ended up heading down, without ressies and stopped near Walterboro SC and stayed at a nice clean Holiday Inn Express. Got the required 8 hours of sleep... and on to WDW by 2 the next day!