Driving from Ontario... Aim to drive 13 or 17hrs the first day?

[GoofyCdn]

We planned on taking two days when we did this last year for the first time. We have four kids - 15 and 13 year old boys, 9 and 6 year old girls (last years ages). We were all so excited that we left literally one hour after finishing work and drove straight through. When we were considering stopping, it was our kids that wanted to keep going. We too had the van loaded with new DVD's, new Nintendo DS games, coloring books, Sudoku, etc. But we left at 6:20pm from Hamilton, Ontario, and arrived the next day at Disney World at 7:30pm-ish. We stopped only for breakfast and snacked in the van until we got to Disney. Our only two rules were: don't ask if we're there - you'll know you're there when you see the Welcome to Disney sign and know you're close when you see "Disney this far ..." types of signs. They never asked! Second rule was for the boys mostly .. everytime you fart rudely, you lose a $1 of an allowance mom held onto until arrival in Disney. One figured he had $10 in freebies to start and used them up real fast. The other kept all his! Guess which is the saver! LOL And ... because they never got a solid good sleep on the drive, their minds (even when awake) kept wanting to sleep so they were quiet as gold the entire way. They viewed only 3 movies on the way down - playing Nintendo and trying to sleep most of the remaining time. It was a perfect drive and a treasured part of our memories! And we're doing the exact same thing this year! Drive all the way through, I say! Enjoy every moment of it!

 

[Leafs Fan]

When we drove we would leave about 5 am, cross at Windsor, go around Cincinatti and be in the holiday inn at Corbin Kentucky by dinner and then finish the next day. Long drive with kids though. Have also done it in 22 hours to Florida welcome centre straight from Ontario

 

[North7]

Like GoofyCdn, we are doing the "drive straight through" plan for our next trip in March. We have done this for over 10 years since our kids were 3 and 2. For our March Break trip, we are leaving when school gets out at 3:00 on Thursday and should arrive between 2:00 and 4:00 Friday afternoon depending on the number and length of stops.

We also have a 5th wheel trailer that we pull to WDW in the summer and camp at Fort Wilderness. When pulling the trailer, we do the trip in 2 days with the first day usually being 16 - 18 hours. I'll head to bed around 8:00 for 4 to 5 hours sleep and then we usually pull out between midnight and 1:00 am for those trips.

We find travelling at night makes the trip seem a lot shorter for the kids as they will sleep through half of it. Being an RV'er, we know where the Flying J's are located on the way and usually stop at these for fuel and I'll grab a shower in the morning... it's amazing how a hot shower refreshes you

If driving through the night, just make sure you get to bed at a decent time your first night at WDW and you'll feel great the rest of the trip. Good luck!!

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

From Oakville 14 hrs to Orangeburg NC. Then 6 hrs to Disney from there. Thats what we did the last 2 trips.

Peace bridge. I-190. I-90. I-79. US-19 DO NOT SPEED. I-26 / I-77. Orangeburg is on I-26 about 30 mins from the I-95. Then straight down I-95 to I-4.

 

[brighteyes]

I would love to do this! Except driving where I am not farmiliar is NOT my strong suit. It stresses me out waay too much, and I am a little fraidy cat. A single mom with no sense of direction driving alone with her son in the US.

As much as I would love to go to Disney for a quickie 5 day stay, I sadly do not see this happening!

As much as I want to pay cheaper airfairs from BUF to fly to disney I haven't been able to bring myself to do THAT yet. Baby steps I tell myself.