Driving from Pigeon Forge to WDW

[mousefan73]

We are doing one crazy trip that goes from landing in DC and a few days to driving to Dollywood and then heading to WDW..

My kids saw that Atlanta has some "awesome" Aquarium and they really want to see the Georgia Aquarium. I would prefer the coastal route via Savannah.

Anyone from TN? how would you drive? where would you overnight? Seeing we are doing enough on our trip, we really dont need to see any more sites.. a cheap, clean motel will do, though the more we think about it, actually seeing something would be nicer than some old truck area in the middle of no where. We plan a one night rest stop. between Pigeon Forge and WDW.

is the Georgia aquarium worth it? driving then via Atlanta? The rest of the route seems really boring, where east coast offers more to see??

 

[Cindy Cooper]

I live in Chattanooga, TN. We will be driving to WDW in October. We are going to drive through Atlanta and stop at Valdosta, GA to spend the night. Nothing there but it is about 5 hours so from Pigeon Forge it is about 7. Then only 3 to WDW.

We go to Pigeon Forge and Dollywood all the time. We have season tickets. Such a great place!!

The Georgia Aquarium is great! Especially if you haven't seen one much, but there is also the aquarium part in Epcot!

HOpe this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[mousefan73]

Ok thanks! One question. Is driving piguon forge to aquarium too much for one day?? How many hours did you spend there?? The aquarium is the only we dont know thing. We'd prefer getting to WDW earlier than later. So a 3 hour drive sounds good.

 

[AngiTN]

Whew, you know about Atlanta traffic right? We are also in Chattanooga (well, just outside of it) and we NEVER, EVER, drive to Atlanta, if we can help it.
Have you considered going to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg since you'll be there anyway? Though I'm partial to our own TN Aquarium over either the one in Gatlinburg or the one in Atlanta. I think ours rocks.

Anyway, whatever you do, avoid Atlanta between the hours of 5:30 AM and 9:30 AM and again from 3:00 PM to about 7:00 PM. It's the 7th layer of hell.

We quit driving to Disney a couple years ago (see how bad Atlanta traffic is) but when we did we stayed in either Valdosta or Perry, depended on what time we left home and how far we wanted to make it that night. We always wait to leave here till we are plenty late enough to get in to Atlanta after 7:00. And late enough to avoid our traffic on the Ridgecut, though coming from Pigeon Forge you won't go through that.