Driving from the Mid Atlantic area

[gofenmom]

On all previous trips to Disney we have taken the AutoTrain. This year we are thinking about driving from the Mid-Atlantic area to Orlando. Has anyone driven to Disney from this area? We are looking for any suggestions. How long does it take? Do you drive straight through? Where do you stop? When do you leave? Thanks.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

We made the drive less than a month ago. It's a pretty straightforward drive -- I-95 south to I-4 east. From Richmond, Virginia, it's about 12-13 hours. Once you pass Petersburg, you don't really have any major metropolitan areas to drive through except for Jacksonville until you reach Orlando.

We left late afternoon, stopped in South Carolina for the night, and finished the drive the next day. Going home, we left DTD around 11:30 or so and made it home around midnight.

 

[Chuck-PA]

We live in Philadelphia. We drove down last August.
We estimated the drive to be approx 16 hrs.
We drove as far as Fayetteville, NC (this is considered 1/2 way point) approx 8 hrs stayed overnight
then drove the addtl 8 hrs to Disney
We did the same on the way back.

Make sure you stop at the Florida Visitor's Center
once you cross the Ga/FL border, they hand out freshly squeezed orange juice and grapefruit juice.

 

[kellymonaghan]

My standard recommendation to anyone making this drive is to stop for a meal at the Summerton Diner in Summerton, SC. I can virtually guarantee that you'll love it.

There's a review at http://www.intrepidtraveler.com/travels/summerton.html

 

[Pat Marlton NJ]

We make the drive twice a year from S Jersey to Tampa and WDW, we drive to St Mary's, Ga. stay overnight and then about 5 hours more to WDW. Once you clear DC the drive is a breeze.

 

[Cindy B]

We do it as well from the Philly/Wilmington DE area.. I'm about a 1/2 hour from Wilmington in PA..

We leave at 4 pm on a Friday, drive straight through the night, and get in Florida about 6 am the next morning...

We have stayed overnight in NC and all, and it just seems that it takes too long, and would rather be driving...

Its not bad, I start the drive from our house, and I make it to NC, DH takes over from there, and then we do another switcheroo in Florida at the welcome center...

95 is a breeze, and only about $4 in tolls, including the DE turnpike..

 

[buffy]

We've done it twice from New Castle, DE.

The first time, we left about 1:00 pm and drove to Fayetteville (9:00pm or so) and got a cheap room in a crummy hotel. Got up in the am and drove the rest of the way, hit bad traffic in Jaxville due to construction and accidents and got to Disney about 3pm.

Last summer, got the kids (9 and 14) up at 3:30am and took off. We drove straight through to VA/NC border for breakfast around 8am. Drove past Savannah Georgia for a big late afternoon meal and then back on the road to Disney. We were checked in to ASSP at 8:30pm and were sitting by the pool drinking from our mugs shortly after.

We were beat, but happy to have made it in same day!!Just don't plan a major park-hopping day for the day after, we were a bit slow after all that car time.

Coming home, we left at 4:30am. Stopped at the same places to eat (CrackerBarrel) and gas up and were home by 9:30 pm.

We figured that actual driving time was about 15.5 hours.

If your kids can be entertained in the car for the time, I'd definitely go for it. We have great memories of the drives.