Driving from Toronto

[nathansmom]

We are thinking of driving to WDW from Toronto in May I know the weather will be ok and the directions. We have a laptop with a DVD player. My DS will be 8 at that time. The longest he has been in a car is for the 8 hours when we drove to New York in May. Am I crazy to think that I can do this as I will be the only driver as my DH does not drive.

Can any one who has driven this tell me if it is as bad as I think it is going to be.

 

[MommaBear]

We drove in 2002. It was the first time for my DH and 2 DS's (ages 13 and 9 at the time). I had driven several times as a child with my parents.

We decided to try I75 down and back. It is great for rest stops, food, gas and lodging - bought the book on I 75 which was a tremendous help. But the transport trucks tend to roar past at the speed of light. DH did all the driving down even though I am fully capable to drive. He was tired but we did it in 2 1/2 days which allowed us to check into hotel just after 2 p.m., rested, swam and relaxed. Had an early night and then off to WDW in the morning.

On the way back we did it in 2 days. He again did most of the driving but allowed me (such a wonderful guy) to drive from Windsor to our front door in Mississauga. He spent those 4 hours sitting in the back seat of the van with our younger son but ontinued to "back seat drive".

Anyway next year we plan on trying the other route down. I think they call it the 77/79/95 route. My parents will only drive this route (they have a condo in St. Petes Beach and go down every year for 8 weeks). They say it has less traffic and is most scenic.

As for your son, he should be just find. I had both my boys bring their own pillows from home. Each had a knapsack (these came in handy in WDW) with comics, crosswords, Disc man's and CD's and books. They were so excited by the countryside and the fact that we were going to Florida that I never heard once "when are we going to get there!"

 

[maryliz]

You'll be amazed at how that DVD player can keep their attention, for such a long drive. When you plan to stop for a bit, make sure you all take a breather ... in other words, don't make it a "you have exactly 6 minutes to go to the bathroom and then back in the car" type of stop It's a long drive for one person to do all the driving, but as long as you don't mind, I say go for it. We take 2 days to drive from London ON, but that's with 2 drivers. If you can work in a 3rd day, you'll feel much better. And if you make good time, you'll be checking into WDW first thing that 3rd morning !

Have fun.

Mary-Liz

 

[PrincessKate]

Hi nathansmom; my husband and I have been driving down to Fla almost every year for 10 yrs. When we had our daughter 5 yrs ago, we didn't change our habits. Every year, my husband does all the driving and every year my job is to make sure DD doesn't drive us mad!!! I always put a lot of thought into the driving part of the trip because it sets the tone for the vacation, I think. I always have a shopping spree at my local dollar store for a bunch of stuff that DD might like to play with in the car: crafts, travel games, books, activity books (puzzle, crossword, etc). And the most important part is that DD does not get to see it before we go and she only gets one thing at a time. We alternate between a surprise from the "fun box" with a movie, a snack or a game (license plates, "I spy", etc). For snacks, I pack lots of fruit, veggies and water but also some of the pre-packaged treats they sell at the grocery store nowadays - this is pretty much the only time she gets them so it's a big treat! The other thing we've done is leave around midnight. We let DD stay up until we leave so she sleeps in the car for a few hours. That works well but only if that works for the driver as well. Anyway, good luck and have fun!

 

[GrannyEv]

We drove to Disney in Sept 2003 from London, ONt. Took us 21 hours. We left 6am Saturday morning, stopped off in Kentucky the first night, and then stayed the night at a hotel almost near the border of Georgia and Florida on Sunday night. On Monday morning we got up early and were at our resort by 9:30 am. So we were able to spend our first day viewing Wild Animal Kingdom. On the way back we(well my brother did)drove straight through. Much more exciting driving to Disney than away from it . Four adults in the car so no, "are we there yet's". Took my DGD and DD in May and we flew. Beautiful scenery on the way down.

 

[LisaSt]

We drive every trip from London Ont and we have 3 kids. Our oldest is 7 and the youngest is almost 2. We went this past Dec and we never take a DVD player or tv/vcr the kids don't use it. I took my laptop with us a few years ago and it was never touched. Our kids quite enjoy the drive mind you we have been driving long distances since they were born. We drive to Niagara falls routinely and Sarnia and Toronto and Hamilton about every other month. We leave at night usually around 7 PM that way our kids sleep for a fair bit of the drive. We drive I75 and make very few stops. We will stop at the border for a bathroom break at about 9 PM and that is it till we hit the Timmies at Dayton Ohio. We then stop just in Kentucky for gas then not until the Georgia welcome centre for breakfast we take an electric cooler with us it makes breakfast a snap as we bring our own milk and cereal for them in the AM. We will then driv to the Macon bypass and stop at the rest area for lunch and let the kids run around for a bit and get rid of some pent up energy. We always stop for the night in Valdosta at the Fairfield Inn you can get a good coupon off roomsavers.com for the place. We then get up and eat they serve a free breakfast at the hotel and we head out arond 9 AM and make a quick stop at the Florida Welcome centre for the free OJ and some Disney park ma[s and weekly guides for the parks. We get to Disney about lunch time and check in and go for a swim then to DTD for the evening and some dinner. Hope this helps.

 

[CindyAnn]

Hi Nathansmom. We've driven the last 2 years to WDW from Toronto, both times leaving on December 27th and returning two weeks later. We've chosen I-75 both times, and I agree with MommaBear that Dave Hunter's book "Along the I-75" is a valuable addition to any trip to WDW. We chose I-75 over I-95 because it's (apparently) a more protected route in the winter months, but that obviously shouldn't be an issue in May.

DS was 10 and DD 7 on our last trip. We have the car TV, but the kids still spend lots of time reading, playing games, and listening to music.

We started early in the morning, around 6:30 a.m. and then changed drivers every 4 hours or so. At our dinner stop we bought fast food for the kids and then got them changed into their PJs. Their favourite part of the drive down was to have a PJ dinner, snuggled in their blankets, while watching a video. They fell asleep and we stopped driving by about 11:00 p.m. or so, so that the adults got a fairly normal night. Last year that took us just a few miles over the Georgia border.

The second day we were up early again, and we arrived at our resort by around 5:00 p.m. (traffic in Florida was very slow). That gave us time for settling in, dinner (although we didn't plan anything special in case we were delayed) and an early night.

We have the advantage of 2 drivers, though. I would think that the drive would be saner and safer if you could manage to stretch it to 3 days.