Driving from NY- Straight through or stop to sleep?

[crabmeal]

I want to get opinions on what to do. We will be driving me DH DS 5 DD 13mos and my parents. It will be about an 18 hour trip. My DH wants to leave at night, around 8 and drive straight through only taking littlle stops. My Dad and myself want to leave earlier in the day but stop to sleep at a hotel. Im looking for any experiences you can share with driving. TIA.

 

[Bill From PA]

We drive from North East Pa to Myrtle Beach each year, 700 miles, 11 1/2 hours with a quick pit stop. I do it in one shot also starting 8 pm or so and hitting the beach early next day. This distance is about my limit. The first year, 10 yrs. ago, I turned the driving over to my wife at the NC - SC border and fell asleep in the passenger seat. I awoke to find my wife alseep at the wheel, drifting into on-coming traffic! I wouldn't push myself past this distance and I wouldn't trust the wheel to someone who slept while I drove. Such 'sleep' is not of the quality one gets in a bed. Also, after 700 miles straight, I'm OK for a day sprawled on the beach, but I wouldn't be up to our usual 'Commando' style of park hopping. I hate wasting a day to travel, but I'm with you and Dad on this one.

Bill From PA

 

[punkin]

I've driven down from Washington DC area by myself (no swiching drivers) with two little girls (10 and 4). That's 14 hours including rest stops. That's my driving limit and the last two hours begin to get VERY difficult (I'm basically OK 'till Jacksonville) I would not do this trip from NY in one day. I did this once with my parents as a teenager (mom and dad drove-I was too young) and it was hell. It took all of us another 3 days to recover from that trip. Never again.

 

[Mickey Fan in PA]

Myself, DW, DS 11, DS 4, DD 4 months recently drove down from Phila, PA. We left at 4am to avoid DC traffic and I drove for 12 hours straight. (Stopped a few times for breaks) We spent the night in Savannah, GA. You owe it to yourself, and your family, to stop and get a good nights rest. WDW is only 4 hours from Savannah.

 

[drewc]

We made the drive straight through this past spring, in about 22 hours each way with a few stops.

I think if you can switch off with your spouse or partner its not too bad. I took the overnight driving. I popped a caffeine pill and washed it down with a couple of Mountain Dews, and sang along to the cd player. Never felt sleepy.

We did this with 3 kids (5, 4 and 1) and they slept soundly through the night.

My wife's brother and sister-in-law made the same trip (we all live in upstate NY), and made it straight through also without incident.

I think it also depends on the length of your trip. We had to fit ours into a week's vacation (with the monday-friday workweek off), so doing the 22 hour trip gained us a day on each end. If you are going to be staying for two weeks, I would suggest an over night, since you won't be scrimping on your vacation time.

If doing the drive straight through, plan on a rest day when you arrive. We spent our first day by the pool and got to bed early and were ready to hit the parks the following day.

We're going to drive again next winter, this time in the motor home we bought this summer. This should make things easier for the non-driving spouse, as we'll be able to get some real sleep hopefully.

 

[CamColt]

Weve done it from MA 3x now and we always go straight through. 5 out of the 6 times DH and I switched off. I slept first say 10:00pm-4:00am, then I took over for a few hours while DH dozed off. However this last time, coming home, DH kept going and didnt want to switch off.
We have never been tired when arriving in WDW, we are usually wired. While we dont hit the parks full force that first day, we do have an enjoyable day in WDW, spending time at the pool, dinner at BW, ride on the monorail, stuff like that.

 

[CarolA]

This won't be a popular statement.

But for my sake I hope you stop. I really don't want to be on the road near Orlando with someone who has been driving basically non stop since NY. I don't buy this whole nonsense of "I am just as alert as I was when I started". To me it sounds just like "I can drive just fine after I drink a lot". There is a reason they have mandatory limits on long haul truck drivers. Awake and alert and responsive are not always the same thing. If you are relying on Caffine pills and stuff you are NOT well rested and you probably should not be on the road. LOOK at what Bill posted about his wife drifting into oncoming traffic.

I really fear that someday I will come to this board and read about the family that was going to Disney driving non stop and had a major accident.


(Putting my fire retardant suit on now for the flames that I will get for this one.)

 

[mark & sandra]

I think, and hope by straight through you mean stopping for food and gas AND to change drivers. If for no other reason then for CarolA's sake. That being said, I driven the NY- Disney trip about 10 times. I now fly. With flights out of Long Island, and Kennedy and Laguardia costing less then 100.00 each way, why would you drive? In the time it takes you to fly from NY (2 1/2 hours), you're lucky to be out of Jersey. If you have your hearts set on driving though, leaving at night is a good idea. You'll miss all the NY- Metro traffic as well as miss the DC area rush hour traffic. A hotel stop isn't really needed if drivers get to sleep, not just rest, when their not driving. Just curious, 18 hours from NY ?? You guys aren't big fans of speed limits. Where's are you starting from?

 

[Cyndiu]

DH & I do this drive from New Haven, CT area every summer with DS (11) and DD (14). We switch every 3 hours or so and stop in Walterboro, SC. Even though we each nap while the other is driving, by then we're toast.

Besides, who wants to drive straight through, exhausting all your reserves of energy and then have to crash for an entire day when you arrive? By stopping, we have a swim at our hotel, a relaxing dinner and to bed by 8 - 9 pm. Thus, we arrive in Orlando by noon (with an early start on day 2) and we can do something relatively short (like Seaworld).

I'd rather be safe!

 

[tardin1964]

A questions for those of you that have driven straight through. I am going to be doing this drive next week.

One of my concerns is finding 24hr. gas stations/rest stops once you get south of the Washington D.C./ Virgina area on I95.

Since this is my first time driving to FL. Can any one give me some good 24hr rest stops "down south".

Thanks.

 

[Jynohn]

I drove straight through from MA on my last trip, and I'd never do it again. We were so excited to get there that we kept pushing ourselves, and realized later it was a BIG mistake. By the time we arrived in Orlando, we were suffering so much from sleep deprivation that we couldn't figure out how to find our hotel room!

Looking back, it was definitely not a safe situation, and we never should have put ourselves, and as another poster said, others, at risk. We thought we were saving time by making the drive in one day, but in reality the next day was pretty much ruined for us because we still hadn't caught up on our sleep and were too tired to really enjoy the day.

I agree with the others who suggested breaking the trip up into two days, and arriving well rested and ready for fun!

 

[Belle1962]

tardin1964: here's alink for I-95. You'll be able to look up almost anything you want know.

http://www.usastar.com/i95/homepage.htm

 

[April in Disney]

We've driven the NJ- WDW trip twice straight. DH and I both drove. We took breaks for gas and food. We left around 8 A.M. each time and did not have problems with rush hour traffic in DC.
I made sure we had plenty of sleep before we left. We did not leave after spending a day at work, and we would take turn driving and napping. We would do an early morning check-in, "as early as 5 a.m. in poly con". We would usually end up sleeping in our room until early afternoon. That being said I will not do that again. You will lose one day each way anyhow you look at it. If you can take the easy way out. There are lots of great airline deals available to MCO from NY area. If you want to have your car around check autotrain. I know you probably have been thinking long and hard about this and it seems from your post there are plenty of drivers in your party, but take your time when driving. 18 1/2 hours is really pushing it.

 

[ncbyrne]

We live in north New Jersey and always stayed over one night when we drove to FL. A long time ago DH and I tried to make it straight thru and I was a basket case by the time we got to north Florida, even with switching drivers ever couple 100 miles! I was so tired and wired! Six people will be rather cramped in standard seats on such a long drive. So, a lot also depends on the type of vehicle you are driving. NY is a big state...where are you driving from? Also, take into consideration the # of drivers? Will all four adults take turns at the wheel? If you are basing the 18 hours on a mapping program, remember that those programs do NOT take heavy traffic jams into consideration! We have family in northern Virginia and drive down several times a year. Mapquest says we should make it in 4 hours. Maaaaybe we've made it in that amount of time, once out of the last dozen trips. The traffic on Rt. 95 can get very heavy around Baltimore, DC and other cities along the route and slow you down to a crawl. My recommendation is to drive till your parents or the kids have had it. Stop for the night, get up early the next morning and you'll be in WDW before you know it!

 

[ducklite]

Fifteen years ago I traveled a lot for business. It was both by plane and car, and I was used to driving eight, twelve, even sixteen hours at a time. Now, I seldom drive for more than an hour or two, and I know I couldn't safely make the drive straight through, even switching drivers. When you are a passenger in a car, you really aren't sleeping soundly, especially if you also need to take care of children in the process.

Overtired drivers are actually as dangerous as drunks behind the wheel. An overtired driver will begin to hallucinate and see things in the road that aren't actually there. Their reaction time is drastically reduced. And all it takes is one second of falling asleep at the wheel for a tragedy to happen.

I'd rather stop for the night even if it's only for six hours. it's amazing what five hours of sleep and a shower will do for your alertness level.

You'll arrive fresh and ready to start a vacation rather than wanting to spend the first day in bed and the next couple of days playing catch up if you break on the way.

Anne

 

[AspiringCindy]

We drove last summer with our 15 month old(at the time)! We left in the morning and stayed over night in central SC. We live near GW Bridge...so our trip was about 18 hours total driving. I think about the 11th hour, the baby started to lose it!...Which made me close to Lose it! The bad thing about driving straight through is: you'll arrive at WDW and need to sleep! On our way back to Jersey, we drove straight through(not by choice) and would NEVER do it again!

 

[walt's assistant]

Trying to drive straight through with a 5 & 13 mo old plus parents is way too much, IMO. Make an overnight stop...your crew will be a LOT happier upon arrival.

Oh, and it is also a LOT safer!


WA

 

[crabmeal]

A lot of you seem to think we will be zooming through the highway all night long no stopping. That is definitely not going to happen! We decided to leave at 12pm on Friday. We'll stop for dinner and to rest after about 10 houirs. Then we'll continue. Our check in isn't until 4pm so there is no rush.I'm bringing a list of hotels in a few states so we can decide where we want to stop. Thanks for your input, it was helpful.

 

[AspiringCindy]

A word of caution: you may want to set up some possible stops...especially if you are traveling on a Friday or Saturday. When we drove home from WDW, we anticipated stopping just over the NC/SC border. We didn't have reservations, were very tired, and couldn't find a hotel in NC or even VA. The nearest available room was Wash. DC! It became a joke after the first 4 stops. I would enter the hotel carrying the baby in blankets and would return to the car(and family) saying, "No room at the Inn".

 

[Brother Smith]

Sorry to take this thread off at a tangent but it has left me totally gobsmacked! Coming from a small (by US standards) country I just cant get my head around the concept that anyone would drive from New York to Orlando which seems a real long way to me. Out of curiosity I looked on Mapquest & checked the distance involved - it is nearly 1100 miles including a 784.8 miles stretch on the I95! I just cant imagine driving that distance. If we have to travel to our relatives in Birmingham (170 miles away) we consider that a very long drive!!