Driving from Michigan tips

[drifter442]

We will be driving from around Ann Arbor, Michigan to Orlando. Wondering if anyone has tried this nonstop without spending a night in hotel. I have a six year old, four year old and 14 month old. Thinking of leaving around 3 pm on a Friday and driving through the night to make it go faster for our kids. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. We still may fly but it would save about $1000 driving.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Welcome to the boards!

Mapquest says about 11.5 hours to Atlanta.

If you stay on the south side, your next leg will about 7.5 hours and is a pretty easy one.

Whatever you do, try to avoid Atlanta during rush hour.

The AM radio station at 750 has frequent traffic updates.

Sorry.............no experience driving straight through.

We used to live in Plymouth

 

[Mommee]

We stopped over night on the way down last year; drove straight through on the way home. I will likely never drive again, but if I do it won't be straight through. DD got car sick.

My best tip: The speed limit in a construction zone in Ohio is 55, whether it's posted or not and whether workers are present or not. At least that's what the officer told DH as she handed him a ticket

 

[carol-lamb]

I have driven straight through once and it was brutal. It was on the way home and my husband did all the driving but I was miserable just the same. My kids were probably about 16, 11 and 6 and they were fine, it's just a long time to be in the car and I was just exhausted.

I have driven many times from Troy and we drove the first day to Calhoun, Georgia and get up really early the next morning to avoid Atlanta rush hour. We usually arrive at WDW around 1:00 or so in the afternoon. I haven't driven in several years after flying down about 6 or 7 years ago and getting there in about 2 1/2 hours. My husband always wanted to fly and I resisted for so long. I don't know why because I'm not a nervous flyer. Finally one year he convinced me and once was all it took. Road trips are fun though and I always look forward to going up north in the summer with my car loaded up with picnic food, snacks and pop!!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

My family and I may not be from Michigian but we drive through there when using Interstate 75 and on our 1st day of driving we stay in Cleveland, Tennessee.

 

[wdwgypsy]

I would vote for trying to fly but if drive you must don't do it straight through. Have driven from Detroit down I can tell you it is a rough trip straight through. Driving at night isn't a bad idea if your kids can sleep in the car safely. I would drive at night and take a stop in the morning. Have the Driver go to sleep and let the kids play in the hotel pool until good and tired then once the driver is rested finish up the trip.

We stopped between Chattanooga and Altanta for the first break and often ended up at the hotel in time for the driver to take a nap and be ready to hit the park by early afternoon. Once we learned to vary our travel days a bit and get good air fare deals the driving stopped. We had more time to spend at the parks or a day of rest after we got home. We cut our travel days down from 4 to 2.

Of course flying vs driving could include more cost if you wanted a rental car or not. When we stayed on site we didn't bother with a rental car since we were able to navigate the places we wanted to go with free transportation.
Drive or fly hope you have a safe trip and a fun trip!

 

[maxiesmom]

Where have you checked for airfare? Air Tran flys out of both Flint and Grand Rapids, and you should be able to get tickets around $200 a person or less. Allegiant flys out of GR as well.

I'm just going by my family, but if we drove straight thru we would all be too exhausted to have much fun the first day in Florida. Not to mention my butt would be sore from sitting in the car all day!

 

[marius97]

We will be driving from around Ann Arbor, Michigan to Orlando. Wondering if anyone has tried this nonstop without spending a night in hotel. I have a six year old, four year old and 14 month old. Thinking of leaving around 3 pm on a Friday and driving through the night to make it go faster for our kids. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. We still may fly but it would save about $1000 driving.

As a former Detroiter, now over in southwest MI, I'll say that a straight through drive is perfectly doable. (Check out the thread in the transportation forum titled something like "For 2,000 mile roundtrip drivers". It is a great resource.) We were in the same boat as you. It is just sooo expensive for a family of five to fly. You should be able to make it in about 20 hours. That is counting gas stops, drive through meals, and bathroom breaks. My number one tip is to plan out your drive so that you miss big cities during rush hour...most importantly Atlanta. Last year we left at 7pm and the kids slept most of the drive. This June we are leaving at noon. Just have the nondriver sleep as much as possible. We weren't that exhausted when we got down there. The adrenaline rush of going to WDW kept us going. Coming home was much worse. You just want the drive to end. We discovered too that the rest stops in Georgia were nothing like the ones we are used to in MI. These were nice and clean. And there were a TON of people in their cars sleeping at 2am. The place was just about full. We stopped for a quick cat nap.

 

[2DisPrincesses]

We are driving from MI too with DD's 5 and 1. We have the exact same thought as you- we are leaving around 4:00 pm and are planning to drive straight through while the girls sleep (hopefully).

We have done the drive a couple of time- just never with kids. I am going to bring food, drinks, etc to minimize stops and we have DVD players, DS, new toys, etc.

We are planning a stop around 7:30 or 8:00 pm at either a rest area or McDonalds if I can find one with a playplace. We are going to let the girls run for a while and then put on pjs and hope they are worn out enough to sleep. Only one nap for DD(1) that day too.

Good Luck!

P.S. Definitely make sure you miss rush hour in Atlanta- we forgot to plan for this once .

 

[dzorn]

We have done the drive several times. We usually leave later in the evening around 7-8pm. I drive the first shift and DH sleeps. When I get tired he takes over. We have a DVD player for the kids and a selection of movies(at least 1 new) if they are not sleeping. They usually sleep pretty well in the van. All food stops involve play places if they are awake. If you are not use to being up at night STOP if you feel at all sleepy not worth the chance of an accident. I have a hard time sleeping in the car when not driving so I am pretty exhaused when we finally get there. DH could sleep through a tornado.

We found the drive easier leaving at night if and only if the kids would sleep in the car. Otherwise just stop for the night. If I have to keep the kids entertained I would rather do it with them not so crabby from lack of sleep.

If restless we will stop at a 24 hour walmart or similar and let them each pick a new movie.

They also have DS but your kids may be too young for that. Books on tape may be a good idea if they like listening to stories.

Given the choice we now fly. DH will not drive if we are staying less than a week. I do not like to come back from vacation tired.

Denise in MI

 

[wdw/family]

I made the drive from Northern IL straight thru a few times. We now settle for staying just north of Atlanta and getting an early start to miss traffic. Stay the night you will feel better the rest of the trip. The times we went straight thru took a day or so to recover from.

 

[drifter442]

Thanks for all the good tips. My kid travel pretty good and are able to sleep in the car. We have made the trip to Myrtle Beach with great success. I am just worried about adding another 6-8 hours.

When you say rush hour in Atlanta, does that include the weekends?

 

[maxiesmom]

Thanks for all the good tips. My kid travel pretty good and are able to sleep in the car. We have made the trip to Myrtle Beach with great success. I am just worried about adding another 6-8 hours.

When you say rush hour in Atlanta, does that include the weekends?

The weekend traffic is a bit better. But I would try to get thru during the day, instead of at night.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I would try to miss the Cincinnati rush hour also.

 

[maxiesmom]

I would try to miss the Cincinnati rush hour also.

And Indy traffic too, if you go that way from Ann Arbor. They have horrible traffic jams during rush hour.

 

[brivers222]

Welcome fellow Ann Arbor area native!!!

I have driven to Disney Several times starting from Canton, Mi....

For the time we stopped overnight we stayed past Atlanta, GA only about 7 hours outside of Disney World. My best recommendation would be make sure to Hit Atlanta late at night... anytime during the day that place is a mad house on 75.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Weekends are not as "rush hour sensitive" as the weekdays.........but, sometimes we have ball games, festivals, and/or contruction that can snarl things on the weekend too.

 

[My_3_Mi_Princesses]

I am so glad I found this thread. We are driving from South Lyon to Florida in June for the first time. I was wondering how bad is Atlanta traffic compared to say the current construction traffic on 96/696 area or perhaps 75/696 area? We were planning to stop just before Atlanta for the night, but if morning rush hour delays us to much (no way can I get three girls + wife out the door early enough to avoid rush hour) I may try to push it to right after Atlanta the first night.

I do wish we could fly but now that my youngest is 2, I have to buy 5 tickets and its just too much. We did drive to Arizona for Christmas break (30 hours each way) so hopefully this won't be as bad

 

[marius97]

I am so glad I found this thread. We are driving from South Lyon to Florida in June for the first time. I was wondering how bad is Atlanta traffic compared to say the current construction traffic on 96/696 area or perhaps 75/696 area? We were planning to stop just before Atlanta for the night, but if morning rush hour delays us to much (no way can I get three girls + wife out the door early enough to avoid rush hour) I may try to push it to right after Atlanta the first night.

I do wish we could fly but now that my youngest is 2, I have to buy 5 tickets and its just too much. We did drive to Arizona for Christmas break (30 hours each way) so hopefully this won't be as bad

I'm very familiar with the 96/696 mess. Atlanta is that bad on a good day. Any problem and it will get really ugly really fast. Your best bet is to go through early morning or in the evening. If you don't hit the worst of the rush hours, than it is livable. Just stay in the car pool lane and you should muddle though.

 

[skiingfast]

I made this same drive during college. Two cars 7 guys. We made good time because we only got off 75 when we needed gas and with the two cars we were more or less racing while talking on walky talkys from time to time. We didn't leave Ann Arbor until mid afternoon on a Saturday I remember because one of the guys went to a cousins wedding that morning.

Now having small road trip all things have changed on road trips. The 14mo isn't going to tell you when (s)he needs the bathroom or wait 50 more miles. So you will proabably need to stop for ten every four hours.

Also I would work the trip backwards from when you want to arrive. If you get there at 5am or even 11am you may have trouble checking in and one of the drivers may want to sleep and you may want to change, take showers ect. It may be best to leave at midnight, and arrive at 10pm so your first day in WDW is more normal.