driving from Dallas to WDw???

[cinder1]

We are driving from Dallas area to WDW in March with a 3, 6 and almost 8 yr old. Has anyone done this? How long was the drive without stops? We will have a DVD player and 2 moniters in the car for some entertainment. Any other advice?

Thanks.

 

[RhondaS]

It's about a 20 hour drive.

Stop at places like McDonald's with Playlands to eat or snack, so the kids can play off some steam.

About every 2 hours, stop somewhere to get out of the car and stretch your legs.

Pack each kid a seperate backpack filled with things like little toys, crayons, coloring books, a blank notebook, books, pipe cleaners, etc.

Maybe surprise the kids with a couple new DVD's along the way.

Travel with a pair of slip on shoes/sandals. When you're on the road, everyone can slip them off for comfort and when you make those quick stops, everyone can just slip them on and jump out.

Little pillows and throw blankets can be life savers when Dad is too hot and everyone else is chilled.

Don't allow yourselves to continue driving if the driver is too tired. It's about like driving drunk and it's just not worth the risk of an accident.

 

[m&m's mom]

I have the same question.
We are driving in July for the first time and I am already semi-dreading.
We will have my DH, D MiL, DD 7, DD 3, a 10 YO cousin and me. We have a Yukon XL w/ VCP etc so room should not be a problem.
Oct. 2001 we had airfare for 6 of us but DH was nervous about being at WDW for 2 weeks w/out a car (1 month post 9/11) so 3 of them drove and 3 of us flew and DH said drive was not bad. The airfare stinks and we want to go to the beach on the way to and from so we are driving.
I LOVE the slipon sandle idea. We are forever trying to find shoes and a pain to get them on 2 squirmy kids.

 

[VickiVM]

Drove from San Antonio this past Sept/Oct. We left around 5pm on a Friday. Spent the night in Lake Charles and arrived Sunday morning at 1am. We stopped very often. We made better time coming back though.

We did everything RhondaS suggested and truthfully the children were troopers. However, my husband can't relax when someone else is driving so he wouldn't let me help him except for about an hour or so on the way there and back. He said that this was the last time we drive (we also drove in '97).

May I add another suggestion. Make a lot of small day trips before the "big" trip. It gives the children a chance to get used to being in the car for long periods of time and also used to the kind of behavior that will or will not be tolerated. After a few trips under their belt, the novelty of being in the car wears out and hopefully they will be less likely to push all your "buttons". BTW, not once did my kids say "Are we there yet?". They did however ask frequently "How many more miles?"

 

[cinder1]

Thanks for the suggestions. My 2 oldest kids are girls and they mostly wear slip on shoes already so that's not a problem. My middle one takes stuff (usually art stuff) with her wherever we go so we are used to packing up lots of things. I am also going to look at the travel games for the older kids and maybe a new DVD or 2.

We used to drive places we were kids and I HATED it. I am hoping this is better. My DH and I are certainly more willing to stop every couple of hours than my dad was. But this may be the 1st and last time we do this. If it works out, though, we will be so much more free to go places. Airfare for 5 plus a rental car when you get there is too much money to make more than 1 or 2 big trips a year. Besides, the last time we flew (3 weeks after 9/11 to WDW), my youngest was so horrible on the plane that my then 6 yr old (now almost 8) said she would never fly with him again. Out of the mouths of babes! My DH and I just quietly agreed with her. I'm sure the other passengers did too!

Thanks for the update on the amount of time to drive. I can't wait!

 

[HunnyPots]

We are driving from the Ft Worth area in June. We plan to leave around 3 am and drive as far as Pensacola. Should be around 10-11 hours. We plan to relax on the beach and then get an early start to Orlando the next day.
The nice thing about leaving so early the first day is that by the time the kids are awake and ready to stop for breakfast we should be well into Louisiana, cutting out about five hours of boredom.
That's the plan - we'll see how it goes!

 

[margiemc]

Bring or borrow a Walkman or Discman!!

We drove from Philadelphia to WDW last year with our DD 4. After hearing "Mambo No 5" about 30 times, I was kicking myself for not bringing them! We are driving down again in March and thankfully, Mom-Mom bought her a discman for Christmas that will be coming with us.

Sticker books and colorforms were good. I don't bring crayons because they can melt in the car. Colored pencils seem to work best. We also had the Disney Guesswords game that we would play without the board that helped pass the time. We left around 2 am last year (DD slept in her clothes that night) and by the time she woke up at 8am, we were already well into Virginia!

 

[slimplaw]

We have done this 3 times from DFW area. We go to Jackson Ms. and then down to Mobile Al. and stay there the first night. We have also cut down to Lafayette from Shreveport, but we like the other way better. It seems there is always construction on I-10 in La. and they don't give advance warning of when it is closed like the time we reached I-10 only to find it closed and had to go back north 40 miles to go east.