Driving from Detroit to Disney

[katied718]

We are having a bit of a quandary deciding what time of the day to leave.

We are checking in at ASMo on Sat, 9/21. We planned on leaving Detroit around 3:00 pm or so after we pick up my oldest from school. We have 3 kids-ages 9, 4, and at travel time, 20 mos. After reading another thread, we are thinking of leaving around 4:00 am Friday morning instead of afternoon.

Here are the details:

Plan A: Leave at 3:00 Friday afternoon.

The kids know that we are going to Disney, but they have no idea when. So we were going to use that as an advantage, and have them stay at grandmas on Thursday night & when we pick them up, the car is loaded and we announce we are going to Disney world. Same thing to pick up my son from school-might get him around 2:00 or so-just a tad early.

We drive thru the night and be at ASMo around 11:00 am Saturday. My husband starts work at 4 am, so his normal schedule is to come home & take a nap, so essentially we would be leaving after his daily nap (he is not going to work on Friday). I would drive from around 9pm-2 or 3am, when my husband usually would be getting up for work.

The downside is that, although I know the adrenaline will carry us thru the night, I'm afraid of what our first day at Disney will look like-particularly in the evening. With 3 kids. AND-to top it off, Mickeys Backyard BBQ was a "must-do" for us and the only night we could do it is on arrival Saturday-Loooonng Day. Maybe we will be able to catch a nap, maybe not.

Plan B: Leave at 4:00 am Friday morning.

My son will miss another day of a school (I don't think it will be a big issue). We won't get to do the big announcement-well maybe "wake up kids, were going to DisneyWorld". I think it would just be a funner announcement picking up from school/grandmas. Plus now, we are packing/loading on Thursday night with 3 excited kids under our feet. Getting on the road is going to be more stressful cuz we won't have Friday to prep (bonus without kids!). It will ALL have to be done Thurs after work.

But if we leave at 4:00 am, that should put us in Atlanta around 4:00 pm. Rush hour. We were thinking we could stop for dinner and let the kids run while the traffic is crazy. Then our plan is to be around the Florida border around midnite. We will stop at a hotel for the night and then get up, eat a good bfast, and be at Disney in 2-3 hours. And (hopefully!) we will have had a decent nights rest and be ready for the first day in the parks on Saturday.

So....is there anything else we are not considering? What would you do? Are there any other traffic areas we should be aware of? Where is a good place in the Atlanta area to stop and let the kids run around?

Thanks for reading my book!

 

[JimboCh]

Sounds like a long ride with kids. Any trains travel from Detroit? Do they have cots at Mickeys Backyard BBQ? That is going to be a very long day.

I like plan B better then Plan A if you have to go that way.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Plan B looks somewhat better. The biggest variable is the exact time you wil hit Atlanta. Can you leave at 3am? If you make it here by 4pm you should be able to get through here with only moderate difficulty. If you get to the outskirts at 5pm, it will be very painful.

Can you afford to gamble one night's hotel fee? You could make a reservation in both Macon and Valdosta and see which destination makes more sense as you examine the "live" conditions. Macon is about 5.5 hours from WDW. If you make it to Macon and get a good nights rest, you could hit the road at 6am and arrive at WDW at about noon.

Part of me questions the true value of killing 3-4 hours when you could drive a little farther and have that 3-4 hours in a hotel where you guys could get a good night's sleep and depart at the crack of dawn the next day.

Or.........if you breeze through ATL you could stop in Valdosta as per your original plan.


Tune to WSB radio at 750am or 95.5fm for traffic updates.

 

[GaBelle]

I'm gonna go against the majority here and say A.
And here's why:
* you mentioned packing and loading without kids. That would be huge for me, too.
* of course, the surprise element. I'm a sucker for surprises.
* everyone can (and must) nap in the car.
* traffic on Fridays in Atlanta is miserable. I cannot stress this enough! It can start as early as 2-2:30 and last well beyond 7. Even if you stopped for a leisurely dinner, that's precious driving/ vacation time. Why?
* make your arrival day a rest day. By all means still go to Mickey's BBQ. But rest, swim, etc for the rest of the day.

Of course if your family, including you and your husband, are not car nappers this plan gets thrown out of whack. In that case- go with B.

 

[LadyBeBop]

Although I like B better (with the good night's sleep), I do see another problem with it.

You'll be hitting Dayton at the beginning of morning rush hour. Get through that, and you'll be hitting Cincinnat at the tail end of morning rush hour.

That may even work out worst than Atlanta. At least, in Atlanta, there's the far left carpool lanes. We don't have that here in Cincinnati.

If you decided to go through during rush hour, I'd keep my car radio tuned in to 700, WLW on your AM dial. I don't think early rush hour is too bad in Dayton, and it's usually not horrible in Cincinnati. You could take I-275 around if necessary. I'd take the western route. It's a little longer; however the eastern suburbs around I-275 are much more congested. Don't freak out when you see the "Welcome to Indiana' signs. Yes, I-275 goes that far west, but you'll cross the bridge into Kentucky in about 3-4 minutes. It's about 45 miles on I-275 going from I-75 in Ohio around to I-75 in Kentucky. Adds about another 15-20 miles; staying on I-75, it's about 30 miles.

Good luck. I don't really like to see y'all drive straight through. i hate that first day burn-out after lack of sleep.

 

[FiggyFan]

I suggest Plan B too. I drove down to Disney this past Dec; stopping only when I needed gas, it still took me 14hrs to get to Macon. And I too left on a Fri morning. Got to WDW about noon Sat after a nite in Macon.

Check out this web site for info on I75 road conditions
www.i75exitguide.com

Watch your speed in Ohio and Ga, the locals love to pull over out-of-stste speeders.

 

[maxiesmom]

I would be worried that you wouldn't be able to get into your room at 11am. Then what would you do?

Not to mention, I am not a fan of driving all night AT ALL. After one trip out East where my brother in law almost drove off of the road (my sister screaming woke him back up!) we have a rule that 2 adults must be awake at all times during night drives.

Do plan B.

 

[ktate82]

I would say Plan B as well. That will give you time to sleep and be better rested before you get to WDW. If you could leave a little earlier like PP said, that would help Atlanta traffic.

 

[kydisneyfans]

The problem with leaving earlier in Plan B is noted above, Dayton/Cincinnati morning rush. I believe Cincinnati rush hour rivals Atlanta. The Western bypass is a viable option though.

I would not consider Atlanta between 3:00 PM and 6:30-7:00 PM on a Friday, go either before or after. If hitting the northern suburbs at 5:00, I honestly would make that my stop for the night and drive the remaining 7 hours Saturday. We hit DT Atlanta at 7:00 last year and it was just a tap of the brakes, until we got south and had stop and go for almost an hour.

As for speed, Ohio is notorious for cops. KY likes out of staters, and late mornings seem to be prime time for cops in the Lexington area. We've seen a TN trooper just around the sharp curve where it drops from 65 to 55 entering Knoxville, then often midway between Knoxville and Chattanooga. I'm not a super speeder anyway so don't worry much about it.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I live in the Toronto, Ontario area....approx. 4hrs away from Detroit.

We've done the drive many times but we go the 77/79 route. I agree with a PP that 2 adults/drivers should be awake through the night driving. We follow this rule. Anyway, when we drive our plan is very similar to the OP's plan B. We leave home at 3am and drive until approx. 9pm then stop for the night leaving a very short second day drive. It works very well for us and we arrive at WDW feeling great and can make use of that day.

OP....could you not pack and prepare everything a little each night, in secret, over the week leading into your trip? The kids wouldn't know and it would be easier on you. I did this a couple of years ago when I was surprising my DD. I packed 4 days ahead of time while she was out of the house....funny, I packed her fav jeans and she kept asking over those 4 days where her jeans where.

 

[SEA333]

We drove from Chicago to Orlando last year (I grew up and lived in the Detroit area for the first 35 years of my life! had to finally get out and find a city that offered jobs....sigh)

We left at 7pm and drove through the night. I recommend this because it's dark at night and the natural circadian rythem helped my kids sleep longer than they probably would have. I like to sleep early and wake up early (I wake up at 5am for work every day) while DH is a night owl, so he drove first until about 2AM, and I got to sleep from about 8:30pm until 2am, which gave me about 6 hours of sleep, so to me, it was just like sleeping pretty much all night and waking up really early. DH was tired enough by then to fall asleep until about 7am, when I woke them all up to see the beautiful hills of Kentucky with the sun just coming up (I apologized to DH for waking him....couldn't help myself - it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!)

After that, we switched off every few hours so the other could rest. We were tired when we arrived, but not so much that it ruined our day.

The best advice I got for long trips was to make sure we did the after-normal-bedtime leg of the trip first, because that is when you will be most alert. We didn't want to be 17 hours into the trip at my normal 10pm bedtime and still have 5 hours to go.

Good luck!

 

[LadyBeBop]

...when I woke them all up to see the beautiful hills of Kentucky with the sun just coming up (I apologized to DH for waking him....couldn't help myself - it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!)

I agree, the sunrise over the hills of Kentucky and Tennesse are breathtaking. Hoping we have that for our trip going down in late October. Unfortunately, we're going down the last weekend before the end of Daylight Savings, so sunrise will be very late (almost 8 AM here). We plan on leaving here about 4 AM, and it's a four hour drive to Knoxville. We will see.

OP, another thought, but this will cost extra.

Leave Thursday night about 3 PM. Drive the 4 1/2 or 5 hours to Northern Kentucky (where I live; just south of Cincinnati). Sleep at a relatively cheap motel (there are a ton of motels in the Florence area). Leave your motel about 6 AM, and you'll easily pass Atlanta by early afternoon. That way, you'll miss both Cincinnati and Atlanta rush hours.

I guess you could try to leave about 3 AM; however, you'll still hit early rush hour here, and you'd probably hit early rush hour in Atlanta.

You did ask about things to do in Atlanta while waiting for the end of rush hour. This is Chattanooga, but if you make Chattanooga by 2 PM or later, you'll hit Atlanta during rush hour. You could explore the Lookout Mountain area for a few hours (Rock City, etc). Leave Chattanooga at 4 PM, make it to Atlanta by 6 PM (end of rush hour), and hopefully Macon by 8 PM and southern GA by 10 PM. Someone suggested staying overnight in the Northern Atlanta suburbs; however that would still make a fairly long Saturday for you.

Good luck.

 

[lweisenb]

Unless you have absolutely ruled out flights, i would compare costs. We just booked directs out of Flint through southwest for under $200/per. Your gas costs of a fully loaded car with luggage is likely going to be over $500 unless your vehicle gets REALLY good gas mileage. Plus the cost of snacks with every bathroom break, meals, lost day, crappy day after a 14 hour day in the car and a potential for a hotel room on the road (especially on the way home after a long vacation).

In my opinion its worth the price for being there in 3 hours.

 

[JimboCh]

You only need 4 airline tickets also the 20 month would be free on Southwest.

 

[SEA333]

Unless you have absolutely ruled out flights, i would compare costs. We just booked directs out of Flint through southwest for under $200/per. Your gas costs of a fully loaded car with luggage is likely going to be over $500 unless your vehicle gets REALLY good gas mileage. Plus the cost of snacks with every bathroom break, meals, lost day, crappy day after a 14 hour day in the car and a potential for a hotel room on the road (especially on the way home after a long vacation).

In my opinion its worth the price for being there in 3 hours.

That is true - and if you are closer to Metro, Spirit is another option. A lot of people hate Spirit, but we don't mind, and we paid $628 out the door for 5 people, one 60" checked bag ($20 each way - prepaid and included in the $628) and a free backpack-type carry on per person (and I think that a diaper bag is an additional freebie - you would have to double check). If you are not a $9 fare club member, it would be an additional $59 on top of the $628. We are members and paid the annual $59 on a previous trip.

We are flying from Chicago O'Hare, but Spirit flies out of Detroit Metro, too. We have flown from Metro to O'Hare and back again several times!

 

[SEA333]

Unless you have absolutely ruled out flights, i would compare costs. We just booked directs out of Flint through southwest for under $200/per.

OT:

We lived about 15-20 minutes south of Flint for 10 years - then we finally had to move to Chicago for my work - we go back as much as we can - we still love that area! Soooo peaceful. Linden/Fenton/Holly area

 

[katied718]

Hi-OP here!

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions!! I think we are leaning toward the option of leaving at 3 or 4:00 am and stopping around the Macon area.

I did check flights and the cheapest I could find was $242/person. I also just checked southwest out of flint and it was $420/person. I even tried the +\- 3 day window pricing. And-when we have flown in the past, we always seem to lose a day because of airport stuff, like delayed flights, waiting for magical express, etc. I know one year, our flight was at noon & we didn't get to the park til 8:00 pm, plus we had to be up early to be at the airport by 9:00 am. And then, on the way home, our flight was bumped up by 3 hours, so that left us with about 1.5 hour in the park on our last day. and it seems like on return flights, we can't get anything later than 6 pm.

We figure we add 00 to the gas price and that would aprox be our cost. When we went up north (4.5 hours away) with a fully loaded van and 160 lb dog, we got 24 mpg. So we are thinking if gas is $4.00/gal, it should be about $400. But-I will definitely plan on using that as a minimum.

Thanks so much!!

 

[JimboCh]

What is your check out date?

 

[katied718]

What is your check out date?

We check out on 9/28

 

[JimboCh]

It would cost you more $$$............same amount of time though and you would have 2 more days in Disney instead of 2 days in a car.

Total Price: $879.20 for 4 people round trip non stop tickets, plus you would need a place to stay Friday Night (20th) and Saturday Night( 28th)

Itinerary
Air Itinerary
Depart
Sep 20Fri 01:35 PM Depart Flint, MI (FNT) on Southwest Airlines

04:15 PM Arrive in Orlando, FL (MCO)
Flight
#4923 Operated by Southwest


Friday, September 20, 2013
Travel Time 2 h 40 m
(Nonstop)
Wanna Get Away
Return
Sep 29Sun 07:00 PM Depart Orlando, FL (MCO) on Southwest Airlines

09:35 PM Arrive in Flint, MI (FNT)
Flight
#767 Operated by Southwest


Sunday, September 29, 2013
Travel Time 2 h 35 m
(Nonstop)