Driving from oshawa/durham region to Disney - doable?

[DaniB]

Give me the cold hard (and fun) facts! Am I crazy for wanting to drive to Disney? My husband & I have always loved road trips but we rarely get to take any.

This September past there was no way in hell we were going to drive there with our kids. Truthfully, our daughter would have ruined the drive... Our son would be just fine.

Now however, we get to go back kidless this September. And I'm going nuts waiting for airfare to come out! And equally nuts trying to figure out if Canadian fare will drop low enough to make it affordable to fly out of Toronto (instead of Buffalo & 2 hotel night stays) so we would get 2 extra park days in Disney.

So... how long of a drive is it to Disney?
What about gas costs? Estimate of # of times to fill up gas tank?
Whatever else I need to know!!

Please and thank you!!! Both hubby & I drive so we can switch off.

Ohh, and another option I once heard about was renting vehicles to drive 1-way there? And/or back? Does anyone know anything about this?

 

[Ken_Breadbox]

You're looking at approximately 24 hrs. of drive time. Possibly a little more, depending on traffic, etc. With two drivers and no kids, this should be more than do-able. We went this past October from K-W, down through Buffalo and Pittsburgh. It's a gorgeous drive.
Depending on what you're driving, fuel costs are paltry. We have a 2003 Echo and it cost us less than $200 in gas there and back. Gas prices in the States are still 66-75% of what they are here.
I'd advise leaving early in the morning--I mean EARLY. A full day's driving will get you to Charlotte, NC. The second day's drive is a bit shorter. Then again, I know people who drive straight through.

 

[joandegennaro]

Give me the cold hard (and fun) facts! Am I crazy for wanting to drive to Disney? My husband & I have always loved road trips but we rarely get to take any.

This September past there was no way in hell we were going to drive there with our kids. Truthfully, our daughter would have ruined the drive... Our son would be just fine.

Now however, we get to go back kidless this September. And I'm going nuts waiting for airfare to come out! And equally nuts trying to figure out if Canadian fare will drop low enough to make it affordable to fly out of Toronto (instead of Buffalo & 2 hotel night stays) so we would get 2 extra park days in Disney.

So... how long of a drive is it to Disney?
What about gas costs? Estimate of # of times to fill up gas tank?
Whatever else I need to know!!

Please and thank you!!! Both hubby & I drive so we can switch off.

Ohh, and another option I once heard about was renting vehicles to drive 1-way there? And/or back? Does anyone know anything about this?

ABSOLUTLY!!! We did it for the first time last March. While we did travel with our kids they were older and perfectly happy with their I-pods. They never touched the DVD player or computer we brought along so this year we won't even pack it.

As you can see from my siggy that I'm from Durham Region also. What we did was head out right afterwork around 4pm DH had day off to pack the car. I don't do car rides well with a bad back so I was very careful in breaking up the ride. Stop the first night just 1 hour passed the border. This year our plan it to get to Grove City PA. First full day of driving was about 12-14 hrs(I planned our stop based on distance to travel with a 2 hrs window for traffic, meals and bathroom breaks) Day 2 took us to Daytona. I had made reservations on our way down and have done so again for this March trip...booked the hotels in June and as of right now I have saved over $100 on hotel by either finding they had reduced the price for my dates and calling to get the lower rate or by booking so far in advance I locked in that price and now the rates have increased.

We stopped every 2-3 hours for bathroom breaks where everyone had to try and were back on the road in 5 min. Had breakfasts at hotel prior to leaving and stopped for lunch and gas. Dinner was after we checked into hotel. Had plenty of snack and fruit to keep DH who did all the driving and is a Diabetic going.

Gas cost us approx $500 both ways (we kept the reciepts to see overall cost)
Hotels cost us $284 for 3 nights which covered down and back. Over all the transportation and hotels cost us alot less than if we had flown and gave us a car while down there which allowed us to eat offsite and go shopping as well as get to the parks alot faster than the busses.

We filled up 3 times per day: Once at lunch when we were stopping anyhow, once with a planned bathroom break and once before we checked into the hotel for the night. Dh was particular about never getting below 1/4 of a tank..once he and BIL ran out of gas in a not so safe area of Fl

On the way home we left about 6 am, stopped in Beckley WV, left again around 6 am and was home in Ajax by 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

Some like to just drive without stopping at hotels, I personally need to get a good nights sleep or would be dragging for days once I got to WDW. You could totally with 2 drivers leave early Saturday morning and arrive by mid-day Sunday.

Good luck with your planning!

 

[sjsjbrook]

We never drive, but I have lots of friends who do.

They have the DVD player in the car for the kids and off they go. There family of 4 go down and stay there for $2000 including gas, hotel and food. They don't go to the parks everytime so that is not included.

If I liked driving, I would totally try it. The idea of 24 hours in a car with my 4 kids not so much fun. The $2500 I paid for flights totally worth it.

 

[candielips]

We are also in Durham, well Clarington but close enough. We have driven there the last 3x. Sometimes we drive straight through and sometimes we have stopped. It takes approx 24 hrs including several bathroom and leg stretching breaks.

We have always driven a minivan and the gas the last 2x was about $120US each way, but that also included our gas that we used while there. We got gas approx 4 - 5x.

We like having our car there because we very rarely use Disney transportation and always drive ourselves to the parks.

Our upcoming trip we are thinking about trying flying as we have young kids and our last trip with them in the car wasn't the easiest.

If you are going to drive straight through, I recommend leaving just after dinner. My DH finds it easier to make it through the night, if he starts at night as he is filled with Disney excitement.
But if he starts early morning, there is no way he can make it through the night after driving all day long.
If you are planning on making only one stop, we would leave very early in the am, like 4 am, and drive as far as we possibly can. Last time we did this, we stopped at 10pm in South Carolina, I think, and then were only 6 hrs from Disney and made it there by 2 pm the next day.
Good luck!

 

[DaniB]

Thanks for the replies and information!!

I think we will fly out this time, even though we kind of want to drive. But since the drive is so long, it comes down to a choice of lose 2 park days or keep 2 park days. And since we want to spend 2 days at Epcot and 2 days at Universal Studios (never been there) - we'll fly for the extra time.

Next time however, our kids will be 13 & 8 or 14 & 9. We will plan our vacation to include 4 extra days specifically for driving there and back. Plus our daughter will be older and hopefully a lot better at car rides.

 

[ValerieP]

You asked the same questions that DH & I are wondering about. We're in Brooklin and going to Orlando in May for 2 weeks. Our problem with driving is that our cars are both 11 years old & we're not comfortable using either one of them. Anybody ever rent a vehicle to drive down there?

 

[3pletprincesses]

It's about 24 hours from Ottawa and we will be doing it this Spring. We have done it in the past where we drive 4-6 hours each and then switch. It will be the first time we will be driving for so long with our girls but I'm thinking it will be ok. They love road trips and thank god for DVD player in the van. We calculated yesterday evening that we will spend at worse about $500 for our return trip on gas. City driving,we do about 12.6l/100 km so high way speed will be even better. We will leave on Friday after work, Dh will do the first 6 hours and then I will drive overnight and then he will drive the morning and I will drive the afternoon and we should be there. The girls will most likely sleep from the moment we will get in the car at 7pm to about 7am and then it will be movies for them.

 

[scboyd]

This past May we drove from Ajax pulling our tent trailer, with our two young children 4 and 2 and it was a blast. we left Ajax around 10pm and drove to Knoxville Tennessee. Rested for 8 hours (hotel) and then drove to Valdosta Georgia (camped) and spent the night. The next morning we arrived at Disney's Fort Wilderness around 1pm and were in Magic Kingdom by 3pm. All of us were well rested to enjoy our 10 days at disney

Round trip the gas was only $420 american (minivan pulling a tent trailer). We expected our children to sleep through the night in the car but our 4 yr old was awake most of the night. But we couldn't have asked for better behaviour out of your children. DVD with a v-tech game system hooked to it helped and we planned in-car games for each state that we passed through.

We are going back in September and doing a very similar itinerary except we will be travelling with Grandparents and other relatives.

 

[joandegennaro]

Thanks for the replies and information!!

I think we will fly out this time, even though we kind of want to drive. But since the drive is so long, it comes down to a choice of lose 2 park days or keep 2 park days. And since we want to spend 2 days at Epcot and 2 days at Universal Studios (never been there) - we'll fly for the extra time.

Next time however, our kids will be 13 & 8 or 14 & 9. We will plan our vacation to include 4 extra days specifically for driving there and back. Plus our daughter will be older and hopefully a lot better at car rides.

My DD gets cars sick so I feel you pain so to speak. But for us stopping every two hrs or so seemed to work for us.

 

[Soul Brother]

We live in Brooklin and have driven once (it was in March). Left early morning (4 a.m.) and got to Rock Hill, SC at about 8 p.m. and arrived at DW about 4 p.m. the next day.

It is doable but we personally wouldn't do it again unless stopping to see other sites and making a longer vacation out of it. Flying from Buffalo is a really small amount more for the convenience and time saving. The road seems to never end and the drive back is depressing after the "magic" is over.

We kept track of license plates which did make the time go by faster. Can't remember how many different ones we came across but did see one from Alaska.

Either way, enjoy your vacation!

 

[cslittle999]

You asked the same questions that DH & I are wondering about. We're in Brooklin and going to Orlando in May for 2 weeks. Our problem with driving is that our cars are both 11 years old & we're not comfortable using either one of them. Anybody ever rent a vehicle to drive down there?

There are definitely people who have done it. If you search you should find threads about renting minivans. I rented an SUV to drive to our company's head office in Wisconsin in early December. I recommend Hertz because their unlimited mileage works out of province.