Driving From Ontario

[8060uuz]

We are planning our trip end of Aug. Thinking about driving, with our 3&5 year old. Wondering if anyone has made the trip in 2 days? We have limited time off, so im just not sure how well they would do with 2 12 hour car days!

And what are some tips (other then frequent stops) and making it easier on them.

Last question - what is a good stop point for the first day if we are coming down the I81 then I95. We are coming basically right from the US Canada border at Alexandria Bay NY

 

[pix13dust]

We are planning our trip end of Aug. Thinking about driving, with our 3&5 year old. Wondering if anyone has made the trip in 2 days? We have limited time off, so im just not sure how well they would do with 2 12 hour car days!

And what are some tips (other then frequent stops) and making it easier on them.

Last question - what is a good stop point for the first day if we are coming down the I81 then I95. We are coming basically right from the US Canada border at Alexandria Bay NY

Hi! We have driven from Western NY 3 times. It's a 19 hour drive for us! The first time we took the kids they were 4 and 6. The 4yo slept most of the way The 6yo, was quite another story That's when we found out he gets VERY car sick, did i mention, VERY car sick. He puked for about 17 of the 19 hours

My suggestion would be to bring a small bucket or some garbage bags, just in case you have a puker tagging along I would also bring some ginger snaps and ginger ale, they work wonders on an upset tummy.

We also brought a DVD player with plenty of Disney movies, each kid had a lap desk. They can easily eat on the lap desk, color or fill out activity books. We brought a medium size kids map, this way could follow our progress - or lack there of.

And of course, SNACKS. You could easily find the snacks, they were located on the floor, between the seats, smushed into the cushions You get the messy picture. The following year we packed clear drinks and foods that don't crumble!

This year we are flying, my now 10yo can't stand to lose anymore weight form 17 hours of vomiting but i loved driving! You have your kids undivided attention and they have yours ( except when your texting and driving, trying to decipher google directions and yelling at other drivers ) I will always treasure playing ispy, singing together and spending overnight in a HOTEL on the way down ( do they forget we are going to spend 1 week in a DISNEY hotel, geesh ).

As for a stopping point i found NC to be good. The second day is only 8-9 hours of driving and then your at WDW Once we drove straight to GA, but that was too much, i was exhausted for the first 2 days of our trip. Sorry to ramble on! enjoy your drive!!

 

[3pletprincesses]

We drove from Ottawa a few weeks ago with our 4 yo triplets but we didn't stop other then pee break and breakfast. We got there in 27 hours. It's a nice drive. we left at 7pm on Friday and arrived at 10something pm saturday.

In the past we have stopped in NC to sleep but never before as we prefer to have a big part of the trip behind us on the second day.

We too had a dvd player in the van and the girls watched movies almost all the time except for bed time between 9pm and 7am. We had lots of snacks, a cooler with drinks to avoid having to stop all the time to get something to drink. We brought a few sandwiches and goodie bags for our girls. We gave them those bags on the second day after breakfast to keep them busy. the had pipe cleaners in it, coloring books, crayons, stickers, books. We also got the girls out of the van every time we would stop. the reason we left so late was simply becasue the girls would go to sleep for night time shortly after and making it go much faster for them.

 

[minnie mum]

We go the I81 rte too. In winter we take 3 days because neither one of us (its just DH and me) likes to drive unfamiliar highways at night. But the rest of the year we'll do it in 2. This year we're tentatively planning our stop around Roanoake. That's about 12 hours (driving time) for us.

If you have CAA, you can do an online triptik and you can check out the hotels near the interstate at whatever city you decide to stop at. We found a Holiday Inn that looks promising. We probably won't make a reservation ahead of time, since we're going after Labour Day, but you may want to do this.

The Transportation forum has a very long thread "For 2,000 Mile Round Trip Drivers Only". We qualify. They often have very useful info on the I81 route. In particular, there is a recent warning of heavy construction south of Harrisburg affecting the southbound lanes from exit 128-118. It is down to one lane. But there is a detour route at 128 via Hwy 11/460 thru Shawsville and back onto the I81 at exit 118. Hope this is of help to you. Let us know how the drive goes, once you get back.

As for the little ones, sorry I can't help much, since my little ones are now expecting their own little ones. But I will say this: if either of them has motion sickness: GRAVOL IS YOUR FRIEND

Have a wonderful vacation.

 

[Sprockie]

I don't know if you have your heart set on driving, but if you're crossing at Alex Bay, you might want to consider flying out of Plattsburg NY. We are from the 1000 Islands region and booked our trip for January - direct flights to Lakeland Florida (40 min. from Disney) and they were $200 each. Now with Direct Air, flights are way cheaper than that with a buy one get one free sale. Plattsburg is about 3 hours from the TI bridge and very cheap parking at the Plattsburg airport.
If time is short, I would look into flying.

 

[stayhomemom77]

We drove down from Ontario when the kids were 4 and 5 and then again the following year. We had snacks, a DVD player and a car backpack full of things to do (books, DS's, colouring books etc) and they did quite well.

We too recommend a bucket (a small sand pail works for us) as we had a tiny bit of motion sickness to deal with.

We stopped every 3 hours on average for a potty break and a bit of a stretch and on the first trip stopped at the half way point. The next time we drove to the Georgia/Florida border on the first day and then only had a little over 3 hours to go on day two.

We found that the super long first day of driving worked much better for us than splitting the driving evenly between the two days. It was so much nicer to have only one long day of driving instead of two.

Our kids did great driving on both trips and were very well behaved. They didn't seem to mind either style of driving but mom and dad thought it well worth it to get the majority of it out of the way as soon as possible.

We flew down for our 2011 trip because we went at the beginning of January (the other two trips were at the end of April 2009 and 2010) and we didn't want to drive in the winter.

I'd like to try driving straight through on the next trip but since DH does the majority of the driving and can't seem to relax enough to sleep even when I AM at the wheel, I'm not sure we'll ever actually go this route.

Bottom line...it was harder on mom and dad than it was on the kids. As long as they were entertained, they were fine.

Have a great trip and good luck!!

 

[capitalmom]

We did an unplanned roadtrip this year from Ottawa to Port Canaveral for our Disney cruise with a 6 YO and a 2YO (had to cancel flights at the last minute as the 2 YO had ear infections). We did it in about 2.5 days - left late afternoon on a Wednesday and made it from Ottawa to Scranton, PA the first night, Rocky Mount, NC the second night, and Jacksonville, FL the 3rd night (which then left another 2 hours to drive to the port on the Saturday). Given the age of our girls, we made a long-ish stop (1 hour+) about every 4 hours. On the first full day of driving, we stopped at Potomac Mills - a huge mall just outside DC (with a great Disney outlet store) for lunch and a stroll, and on day 2 we found a McD's in South Carolina that had an outdoor play place so they could run around a bit. We brought lots of toys, books, stickers and snacks, and good music on the ipod and they were pretty happy - even the 2YO! We brought the portable DVD player but actually didn't use it much at all (!!).

We kind of cheated on the way home and took the overnight Amtrack auto-train from Orlando to DC - a bit expensive but saved us at least a day of driving and a night in a hotel, and we were able to justify it as we got our flights refunded through insurance... If you can find a discount and are tight on vacation days, the train might be worth considering...

 

[dancin Disney style]

We took many road trips when the kids were little. We like to leave either at dinner time and drive all night or else about 2am and make that first day a really long one. Which ever way this gets the max number of hours driven while the kids are asleep. When we drive to WDW we leave home between 2 and 3am and drive until around 9pm. That usually gets us to the Savannah, GA area and then leaves us 3-4 hours on the next day. This really is the only way I will do a road trip now. If I thought I was going to be in the car for 2 12 hour days I'm sure I would be coocoo after.

My youngest is now 12 so when we drive somewhere she sleeps most of the time......LOL last summer we drove to Myrtle Beach and each time she woke up we were in a different state.

 

[4boyz]

We use the DVD players but I suggest you buy one with two screens. Each child likes to view from the comfort of their seat with headphones.

Lots of drinks and snacks, a supply of barf bags, small pillows or rolled up blankets for comfort.

Video games, a couple of favorite toys, frequent stops with opportunity to get out and run and play, stopping at places with stuff that will interest the kids..McDonald's Playland for food, pit stop and play works well.

We also stop in NC for the night almost to the SC border. As was said make day 1 the longer drive and a shorter drive on day 2.

Good luck and have a great time.

 

[purple hippo]

We have driven to from Brampton to Orlando twice with our kids. The first time we did it they were 2.5 and 4.5 yrs old and we left on Friday night in May and stopped Friday in PA and then Savannah the next night and then arrived on Sunday. Last time (then 4 and 6 yrs old) we went in the fall leaving on a Friday night and planned to stop around midnight, but because it was football season and a Friday night and a home game would couldn't stop until almost out of West Virginia as there was no vacancy anywhere! We planned to stop in Savannah the second night but decided to push on and stayed an extra night at Disney. We got there just after midnight. We are going back again this fall but plan to arrive the Saturday night as it was nice to have everyone get a good night sleep and then have the whole day to do something or nothing depending on how we felt. It makes for a long Saturday but with DVD players, leapsters and toys, plus a few road trip games it goes by pretty quickly. We take the 77/79 route - beautiful scenery!

 

[Cdnmommy]

Subbing, we're planning to drive for this trip for the first time. DS is 14 and DD is 8. I don't think it will be that bad, however we normally drive in our Caravan and will be driving my husband's Jetta as it's soooo much better on gas. It makes for a much tighter squeeze for the two of them in the back.....we'll see how it goes.

Looking forward to more tips and tricks. We're travelling from Kingston, ON so think it will be about 24 hrs.

 

[Dan1]

We found, from Toronto, 2 days was quite a push for us. Then again, we took I75 because it was always during March break.

One idea which we used from day 1 when our two DD's were 6 and 5 was given to me by a buddy which worked wonders to keep the kids occupied and in behaved / good spirits when ever we drove to Orlando.

1. Go to the Dollar store and buy two (assuming 2 kids) of a lot of kids stuff like colouring books, crayons, simple car games etc..
2. At work you know the boxes that photocopy paper comes in? Empty out two of the boxes and take them home (empty).
3. Cut the base of each box to a height just a little shorter than the height of the boxes' lid.
4. The weekend before you leave, have each kid decorate one of the boxes so they know which is theirs'. It could be with their name, a few pic's of their favorite Disney characters, etc.
5. Don't tell the kids why.
6. The night before you leave, place each of the items you bought from the Dollar Store into each box so they contain the identical stuff.
7. Then, at the first rest / potty / gas / etc. stop you have to make on the road, when everyone is getting back into the car/van bring out these boxes. Tell them they have been really good so they can pick one and only one item from their box.
8. Doing this will help keep them 'nice' to each other and to you and will keep them occupied with something new throughout the trip. (be sure to buy enough stuff for the ride back, including some new disney related cheap stuff that was not in the boxes on the way down).

The best thing we bout were these really cheap colouring books. They were really focused on completing every page which took them each around 5 or 6 hours.....such that they even forget about wanting to get something else from the treasure boxes for a couple of pit / rest / gas stops until they had finished!

Good Luck!
Dan

 

[ccudmore]

We do a lot of long driving trips with our kids. We usually take a dual-screen DVD player with us, but tell the kids they can't use it for the first several hours each day. That way it forces them to do something else and breaks up the monotony of just watching a screen all day.