Driving from Mass

[Snowysmom]

I have been lurking on Disboards for a while. Everyone seems helpful and has alot of good info. I have a question for those who have driven to WDW. We are driving from Mass to Florida during the summer. Is it feasible to drive from Mass to Rocky Mount, NC and then stop for the night? The next day we want to drive from Rocky Mount to St. Augustine and stop for the night. Then, it is on to Disneyworld. We have 3 drivers but do not want to drive through. Thanks for your help.

Candy

 

[CamColt]

First off, Welcome To The Dis!!!

We have driven from MA 2x, but we drive straight through. Judging from my notes here I would say it took us about 11 1/2 hours to get into North Carolina. Im not quite sure what part though, so Im not sure if that will help you much. Also, we were into Florida another 9-10 hours later. Again, Im not sure what part.
Good luck with the drive. Its really not that bad(from someone who used to be dead set against driving).

 

[onthego103]

CamColt~
I would love to hear more details about your experience driving straight through from MA. We are considering doing the same this summer. Our motivation to drive is to save money over airfare for 5 plus car rental. But, we aren't able to go for long enough to stay overnight in each direction to break up the ride. What route did you find to be best? And what time of day did you leave? I'm wondering if leaving late in the day makes sense in order to get the overnight leg out of the way first. The overnight part of the drive is the only part that makes me nervous.
I would really appreciate your input.

 

[disneydebi]

we are also driving from MA this summer. We are planning on stopping on the way down in Lumberton, NC??? where ever that is (inlaws planning that leg of the trip). They want to try and get as far as possible the first day (leaving at 3am eeek).

They say on the ride back we can get further on the first day heading north, due to less traffic down south. I'm looking for ideas on a nice town/hotel to stop at on the way back north, that will get us a good way home on the first day. Keeping in mind, I don't plan on leaving WDW at 3 am for that leg of the trip.

Any ideas from the experts would be appreciated.

 

[CamColt]

Onthego, driving will definitely save you money. We spent about 165.00 for gas round trip.

We usually leave at 10:00am, but once we left at 3:00pm. I much prefer going morning to morning because by the time the kids wake up in the morning, and the sun comes up, we are almost there. Going 3:00-3:00 almost made it feel like we were driving for 2 days, even though it was still only 24 hours.

As for the route, I am horrible with directions. We got a trip map thing from AAA and they mapped out the "best" route for us. DH is definitely the navigator of the family (although when he got us lost, I figured out why ). For the most part DH drives. I try to sleep around 10:00pm . I get a few hours and take over for DH around 2:00 or 3:00am, then he gets a few hours of sleep. Really, going down isnt tiring at all because we are so excited, but usually on the day we return we are pretty beat.

We only stop for bathroom and gas breaks, and 1 meal(McDonalds for dinner). We bring lots of snacks for the kids to munch on and my best advice is a tv/vcr combo. Last year DS was really into the shows on Nick GAS so we taped some of those and he was in heaven.

Good luck!

 

[Snowysmom]

Thanks for the info. From what I can tell, Rocky Mount seems to be a good stopping point. It is far enough along to get to Florida the next day. We are also going to get the Trip tik from AAA. We hope to leave at 4 am!

Candy