driving from WI

[Momma Kanga]

My family and I are planning on going to WDW July 5-12. I am having a hard time with trying to find a low airfare and also with the holiday, some airlines already sold out. My husband today talked about driving down, leaving a couple days earlier and starting back sooner. Are we nuts? I would much rather fly and save time and sanity (our boys are 12 and 6), but he talks about saving money and not having to deal w/rental car. Help!

 

[We4mickey]

We do it all the time usually pulling our camper. Where in Wisconsin are you from? It's about 21 hours or so from here. We have done it since our DS's were babies (now 15 and 19). We just got back again on the 2nd. We do it in 2 days. We usually stop somewhere around Atlanta depending on how the day is going and leave early again on the second day and we are there by 10 or 11 in the morning. Gas is a lot cheaper as you go south.

 

[Momma Kanga]

We live down near Madison. My husband thought about leaving at 6am on Sat. July 2 and driving for 12-14 hours, stopping for the night and then getting up early Sunday am to get to WDW. I am starting to think more about going this route.

 

[Becky2005]

Don't really have any advice for you other than to say we will be there at the tail end of your vacation (we are coming July 10-17)
and driving down from the Chicago area with our 4 kids (11, 8, 5 & 1).

We will be taking 2 days and stopping somewhere north of Atlanta.

 

[Trekker]

Momma Kanga

I'm in Sun Prairie - you anywhere nearby?

We have driven 1 time and vowed never to do it again - but that is just us. it was a 9 day vacation and 4 of those were spent in the car.

My DW will not travel straight through so we used Nashville area as our goal for the first day each way.

Good Luck Planning!

 

[We4mickey]

If you live near Madison, drive down through Rockford. We go the hour out of our way because there is so much less traffic and not as caotic because there is only one or two tolls. It takes us 8 hours to get through Illinois and we drive between 12 and 14 hours total. We usually leave around 3am. Your kids are on the younger side. If you drive the earlier hours, then when you stop you can have something to eat and let the kids burn off energy in the hotel pool while the DH sleeps.

 

[Momma Kanga]

Trekker

We live in Brooklyn-south of Oregon. My family had traveled to North Caroline Dec. 24th in 1996. It took us 20 hrs. I swore I would never drive like that again. But DH has said we would stop for a night at Nashville or Atlanta then go to WDW. So it may not be too bad.

 

[robinb]

Originally posted by Momma Kanga
We live down near Madison. My husband thought about leaving at 6am on Sat. July 2 and driving for 12-14 hours, stopping for the night and then getting up early Sunday am to get to WDW. I am starting to think more about going this route.

I'm also from Madison. We drove once and it was really long. We stopped on the other side of Atlanta on the way down and Nashville on the way home. It is exhasting. July is still 8 months away, so I would keep on looking for good airfare. I'm going over Christmas and New Year's for $235 including taxes. I was watching pretty closely and ATA had a fare sale and I jumped on it . You should be able to do about the same, even over July 4th. You can also consider leaving from Chicago or Milwaukee and doing a park-n-fly from one of the local hotels.

 

[rav4lcrv]

We booked a flight on Midwest at about $197.00 each for a direct flight from Milwaukee from June 30th to July 5th- might be worth looking into

 

[jho]

Another Madisonian here. We have driven many times and usually stopped in Nashville or Chattanooga. The past 4 years we have flown because I changed jobs, have less vacation and don't want to use the extra vacation days to drive.
I wouldn't give up on airfares - keep watching from either Madison, Milwaukee, or Chicago. (Be careful with United from Madison through O'Hare to Orlando, though - they have had problems with timeliness this year and lots of people have missed connections, us included)

 

[Mandalou]

We're from outside of Milwaukee and we've made the DRIVING trip to WDW SEVEN TIMES!!! On one of our trips, our youngest DS was only 4 months old, and we had my neice with us (who was 18 months old at the time) and our oldest DS (who was 3 at the time). We also had my sister and her hubby with us. (I know, it sounds pretty crazy, but it really wasn't that bad.) We've gotten so used to the trip that we know the best hotels to stay at and restaurants to eat at on the way. (If you want any suggestions, just let me know.)

We've also taken two different routes and have come up with our favorite (I-39 to I-57 down the center of Illinois -- just to miss Chicago traffic).

We, too, look into flying, but end up eliminating it because of the cost. Besides, we love having our van down with us at WDW -- we drive to the parks instead of using the WDW transportation.

I think you'll do just fine!!!