Driving from Maine to WDW:suggestions please

[baileybelle]

My husband and I are driving down to WDW in mid October from Maine. The last time we took 84-81-66-17-95. Would 84-81-77-26-95 be better? We'll probably leaving on an early Sunday afternoon or around 4am on Monday and arriving on a Tuesday. Any suggestions? We are trying to avoid NY, NJ, Baltimore, Washington. Thanks.

 

[PaulaW]

Hi BaileyBelle,

I don't have any suggestions...but I'm very interested in the topic. We are planning to drive from central Maine to Walt Disney World this August. We have never driven before. My husband thinks our daughter need to experience the trip.

I'm tentatively planning the 84, 81, 77, 26, 95, 4 route for the trip down. We are planning to take two and a half days for the drive. The first day we would like to make it as far as Lexington/Roanoke, Virginia. The second day we will go grom Roanoke to Savannah. The third day we will travel to WDW.

On the way home we are planning to take 95 till Virginia and then experience the Chesepeake Bay Bridge.

How long are you planning to take for the drive?

PaulaW

 

[baileybelle]

Hi paulaw...We're thinking of leaving at around noon on Sunday and driving for about 7-8 hours. I was hoping we could leave earlier but I have to work Sunday morning. That should bring us somewhere around Harrisburg,PA. Monday we'll do the majority of our driving and hope to get to Kingsland, Georgia. On Tuesday we should get to WDW in about 4 hours I believe.

Last year we drove it in 2 days and we were extremely tired. We had no choice because my children (all in their twenties) were only able to take off a limited amount of days from work. This year it's just me and my DH, so we can go at a more leisurely pace.

 

[cranbiz]

If you are leaving at noon on Sunday, The Rt 95 way won't be bad and will shorten your trip considerably. The traffic is only really bad during the week. If you can drive a little longer than 8 hours, you can make the Fredericksburg area and be past all of the traffic.

I had just done the 495, 66, 81 route to Ashville and it was a long drive around. To Ashville I should have done the 81 thing the whole way until Rt 26. 81 to 66 is just a long way around IMHO.

I normally leave about 5pm from the southeastern MA area and we hit the GW bridge around 9pm and are through DC by 3am. With your times you are about 2-3 hours from me.

You can be in the Fredericksburg area around midnight, grab a room and continue Monday morning. Richmond is about an hour to an hour and a half from there, time it right and you should not see any siginificant traffic the trip.

My only other advise is to avoid Jacksonville in the afternoon. Traffic is terrible from about 2:30 to 6pm.

I'm leaving tomorrow for Deltona with DS (he's going to school in Daytona) and I'm doing 95 again.

I'll post when I get there (and get the highspeed internet finally connected at the house) and let everyone know how the ride was this time.

 

[Mac and Us]

BaileyBelle,

We live in NH in the Dartmouth Lake Sunapee area. We just got back from Disney Saturday night.

First of all we have a Class A motorhome and drive approx. 57 MPH so if you have a car you can drive faster.

We too wanted to avoid traffic in the cities. We drove I91, I84, I81, I66, RT 17 to I95.

We left Enfield, NH @11:45am on Friday 4/1. We stopped for approx. 1 hour in NY for dinner and at a Walmart in Hagerstown, MD. to sleep from 11:30 pm to 2am.

We drove until approx. 8am stopping at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast. (approx. 1 hour stop). We stopped again in the mid afternoon because of the winds whipping the motorhome around. We took a nap and had a late lunch (approx. 2 hour stop). We arrived at Disney at 12 midnight Saturday 4/2. We also stopped for gas 4-5 times.

We didn't hit any traffic in Richmond because it was too early in the morning. The other city we hit (missed the 295 bypass) was in Jacksonville. It was 9pm and the traffic wasn't bad at all. No traffic on I4 through Orlando to speak of -- as it was 11-12 pm.

We figure the driving rain/winds that started in southern Virginia all the way through South Carolina delayed us 2-3 hours. We also hit winds through South and North Carolina coming back.

The trip back we left Disney at 4am Friday 4/15. Took 295 bypass through Jacksonville around 7:15am (low traffic). We stopped for dinner and gas only and arrived at the same Walmart in Hagerstown, MD around 12 midnight. The next morning we were on the road again around 8am and arrived home at 7pm. We made more stops (15-20 min) during the later part of this drive as our 3 year old had enough. We stopped about every 2 hours so she could run around at the rest areas.

Total time 36 hours down and 39 hours back.

We considered the other route you mentioned but when I mapped it out on Good Sam trip planner it was actually more miles. I can't remember how many more.

hope this helps. Probably more info than you wanted!

 

[baileybelle]

Mac and us...We'll be driving a minivan. The difference is less than 100 miles total and the drive in October is spectacular with all the fall folliage. Thanks to you and cranbiz for your info.

 

[LegoMom3]

We drove last fall from southern NH and did the "84-81-77-26-95" route. It was very easy and we didn't miss the NY/NJ/DC driving one bit! Will plan to take the same route next time, too. We were very pleased with it.

 

[baileybelle]

Thanks legomom3...We are about 99% sure we're taking that route.