Driving - How far is too far?

[theduck619]

We live in central Indiana and are considering driving to WDW when we go next year. From what I have calculated it will take about 15 hours. Has anyone made this drive on here before? Should we leave in the day and stay somewhere along the way for the night or drive straight through? We have four year old twin girls.

 

[koolaidmoms]

It depends on you and your family. We drive about 21-22 hours and split it over 2 days as we find that 12 is about our maximum. We drive just about every year from NY to WDW. Our children have been doing since they were each 18 mo. old.

There are many threads about driving, what to take, some places to stop cheaply or fun places to stop along the way with the kids. Highly suggest taking a soccer ball or playground ball and letting the girls run at rest stops to get the energy out. Lots of snacks, fun new books, movies and toys. We LOVE to drive and for us it is part of our vacation. We all get treats along the way - We don't have DQ in Western NY so I have to stop for a Blizzard along the way.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

We live in Indianapolis and have driven twice. While I prefer the quickness of flying, there are some benefits to having a car in Disney.

When we drive to Disney, we split it. Neither my DH and I sleep well in the car, so we don't want to be exhausted the first day.

On the way home we usually drive it without stopping getting home around 1 in the morning. This is how we do our beach trips to North Carolina also.

The last time we drove we left after my oldest two were done with the school day. We didn't want to take them out early because they were already missing the next week! That drive we split it in half.

My favorite way was driving to Tifton, GA. I think it was about four hours the next day which wasn't too bad. I can't remember exactly because that has been awhile.

 

[SandrA9810]

I grew up in Miami, and my grandparents would take me on road trips to indiana to visit my family. I did it since I was a year old, and loved it. I love driving on vacations, I find flying is way too much of a hassle.

It would probably be best to stop half way with the kids that young. Especially since you'll probably be making more stops than you anticipate. And definatly decide before hand if you don't mind peeing on the side of the road.
I didn't mind doing it... well we had a pee pot (a little yellow plastic pot with a long handle on it). And then my g'mother would dump it on the side of the road. Made it easier than pee running down the leg.

Sorry I know it's gross, but there can be some long stretches in the country. And kids never need to go before hand... just 10 miles into that long stretch.

 

[meanmom121]

I'm driving from Texas to Disney - about 16 to 17 hours for us. We have done several different kind of road trips and we usually try not to ever drive over 12 hours especially with the kids. - Keeping it less than 12 hours just keeps everyone in a better mood.

I also find that if we push to make a long drive like that in one day , then it generally takes a day to recovery from the drive and I certainly don't want to waste any o my Disney time.

I'd say take it easy. make it a 2 day trip, stop for meals and any fun things along the way.

 

[dana1003]

always wanted to try driving but cant seemyself in the car for 20 hrs with
( 2) 5 year olds...cant possibly see them being distracted by movies ,games etc...for that long the interest doesnt last too long. anybody do it once and never will do it again??

 

[wishtdream]

We drive from the Jersey Shore. It takes about 17 hours. I just can't justify the cost of flying and renting a car. Our kids will be 6 and 2 going down this year. They will sleep most of the trip.

 

[bradfol31]

We also live in Central Indiana and will be driving down to WDW in 14 days for the first time. I have 9 year old twins and am trying to figure out what will keep them occupied that long in the car. We have to stop in Greenville, SC to pick up my son from Taekwondo camp on the way so we will be breaking up the drivng on the way down.
I think it will be very convenient having our car there though. And I don't have to stress about packing and the issue of paying for baggage with the airlines.

 

[TinaLala]

We drive from MA to Disney in about 24 hours. I would recommend you break the trip up between two days and sleep in a hotel. You don't want to be exhausted when you get to Disney. USE BONINE!!! It so helps with any kind of motion sickness you might have!

Our last trip April 2008 we drove 20 hours straight using Bonine helped us get through to Savanah, but it was a long drive that I would NEVER do again.

Usually we do two days and drive to South Carolina and then we drive early in the morning and get to Disney by 10am.

We usually start the night before at 10pm and drive through the night or start in the early AM so you can sleep by dinner but then start up early the next morning. Figure it out if you're going to be able to go to the park the day you arrive, maybe you don't get tickets for that day so you can enjoy the pool.

 

[powellrj]

We also live in central Indiana and did the trip in March of this year. I recommend doing it in 2 days and we also like to stay in Tifton or Macon GA. It will take longer than 15 hours. It always takes us about 17, but we are north central if that makes a difference and plus we always seem to have some kind of road slow down weather its construction, weather or an accident.

I recommend reserving your room before you leave because we had trouble finding vacancies this year. It was spring break, but still we had to try several places before we found something.

Last year we went a different way and spent a few days in Savannah which was a nice change of pace!

We have always flown in the past, but the last 2 years have been last minute trips so airfare was really expensive, plus we have 3 drivers which makes a huge difference.

 

[susykt4]

We drove from central Illinois in January with our kids ages 8 and 6. It was about a 16 hour drive and the kids' first long car trip. I LOVED it! On the way down we stopped at Ruby Falls in Chattanooga and spent the night in Macon. On the way home we stopped just north of Atlanta and then stopped at the Nashville Zoo on the way home. The kids loved driving through the "mountains" in Tennessee and having the car gave us the freedom to drive to the gulf coast and visit a state park with manatees. It was my favorite vacation ever. However, we had two weeks off and spent four full days driving/stopping at the zoo and Ruby Falls.

The kids had a dvd player with headphones as well as their ds games. My oldest read some and my youngest played with Hotwheels some, otherwise they mostly watched videos.

 

[delmar411]

we drove last May from Indy. Straight through there and back. The drive down took 18hrs door to door. The drive back 20hrs. The drive down was fun and not too bad. The drive back was horrible as I was exhausted from being at WDW for 10days.

We are driving back down again in July. Straight through going down and we'll decide during the drive if we need to stop on the way back.

I can't be a passenger so it will be just me driving and DH's job will be to deal with the kids.

The plan is to leave out of Indy at 2am and then take a few hour break right around noon and let the kids run around to burn off some steam (kids should sleep until 8am). We should get near Orlando around 7pm and we'll stop for a dinner break and then head into Orlando and check in the cheapy motel for the night(DH will take the kids out to play and burn off energy while I crash). In the morning we'll head over to WDW and check into our room for the week.

We don't have a DVD player or anything but I'm thinking it might be a good idea to get one now. They were ok on the 10hr drive (each way) to my parents a couple weeks ago but they were definitely very bored.

 

[veraletta]

We drive about 13 to 14 hours, I don't mind the drive at all.
Some times we stop off on the way down, but most the times we drive straight thru.

I know a few years back I got sick, so we had to stop over night, and 2 years ago I took my oldest grandson, he wanted to stop as he was tired of sitting in the car so we stop over night.

Its not a bad drive just plan that if you get tired you will stop over night.

 

[PaDisney02]

We drive from Pa. It's about a 16 hour drive. We split it up between 2 days. Last year we left home around 10 am and drove until 7 pmish (we stopped along the way for breaks) and then we stayed in a hotel and left the hotel at 9am and got to Disney around 4 pm. Our kids are 2 and 6 and they did ok with the drive. I would prefer to fly but its a little cheaper to drive. Good Luck!

 

[PrincessNana]

It takes us about 24 hours to drive to Disney World and since were not young anymore, we break it up a little bit more. We bring our grandkids ( 2 and 7). We drive about 9 hours a day for the first two days and always stop somewhere where they have a pool and things for the kids to do. Our last day is only about 4 hours and takes us into Disney rested and ready to go.

 

[LuvMy3Monkeys]

We have drove (driven??) from Ohio, about 17 hours. We stayed one night in Wythville, VA and night then in Atlanta, GA. I was pregnant at the time and doctor recommended the breaks. I think we could have pulled it off with one sleepover on the way, but definitely would not have gone straight through. My best friend and her husband live here too and went down last year and left around 8pm and drove all night and got there around 1pm the next day. I couldnt have done it, but her DH works swingswift and usually can alter his sleep schedule. My husband couldnt do that and I'd be afraid he'd fall asleep driving. Also, you have to consider if you drive straight through you are wasting a day down PLUS the day you get there because whoever drove will likely need the rest of the day to sleep. And then may not be able to sleep through the night since they slept all day, which will throw off the next day... URGH! Don't do it... just fly if you can... LOL

 

[Kriddlet]

We live in NH, and originally we were planning on driving for our first family trip to WDW. But we recently just won a trip and have no choice but to fly.

But when we go down again, we will do the drive, and probably split it up between 2 days.

 

[dzneelvr]

I'd advise you to do the drive to see how your family handles it. We did it once years ago after a couple years of delayed flights at Ohare that took us the better part of an entire day to get to FloridaDH said enough is enough and we drove. Straight through--21 hours--DS and DD were little and we took out the middle seats in our van and had a TV/VCR. As we were used to driving to East Tennessee and Dollywood (12 hours) we thought we'd be prepared for Florida. Wrong! DH and I arrived at the resort with "jet lag" and needed a full day to recover. The drive home was REALLY long. We decided driving wasn't for us because you basically add 2-3 days of driving time to your actual vacation. Luckily the regional airport in Rockford Illinois added Orlando at that point and we've been flying out of there ever since. $79 base price, free parking, never a flight delay yet, 30 minutes from our front door--you get the picture We leave Friday for another magical trip and will be happily settled in our ASMo room 6 hours from the time we leave our house.

 

[RahRah573]

We haven't yet driven to FL, but our DS4 is a great road-tripper - first trip he was just a week old (six hour drive) and now we routinely drive to do what we call the "grandparent tour" to visit my parents (NY), DH's parents (NJ - but they just moved closer) and my sister (DC) and her family. Going from the Missouri to DC is about 15-hours, here to NY is about 18.....I've now done the round-trip three times and one one-way (bumped off a flight and just took the rental car and drove back - it was faster than the flights the airline could get us on to get us home!).

Personally, I wouldn't dream of driving straight through - that's way too much butt-time in the seat for anyone, kids or adults! Plus driving does fatigue most people, so safety is my main reason to do no more than 10-hours in a day, split up with good breaks.....so to do MO-NY or MO-DC, we do take one night overnight somewhere in-between.

I try to schedule breaks specifically to give DS something to look forward to - mostly stopping at Children's Museums to play for a while and have a meal....or finding a good park to let him run around for an hour or so. If you wanted to locate museums to stop at, the Association of Children's Museums website is a good resource - and if you're a member of your local CM, you can use the reciprocal pass benefit to get in free to whatever museums you stop at if they're members of ACM!

I try to get out the day we start our trip very early - like 6:00AM or 7:00AM - so we can clock 4-5 hours and then stop for lunch.....usually take at least 1.5-hours downtime out of the minivan and then hit the road again (if we stop around 1:00) 2:30-3:00 and do another 4-hours, stop and have dinner and then do the last two hours before stopping for the night - once we did call it a day after dinner - I was pooped (I do these drives without DH since he has to work and it's me that takes DS to see the family!)

What started our "road-trips" wasn't so much that I like driving - I do, I don't think it's all that bad as long as you're not stuck in traffic! - it was cost....I much prefer to fly and rent a car, and if an airfare + car combo make financial sense, we fly. But a few times now either the airfare was outrageous or the car rental was outrageous.....after sitting down and calculating my cost to drive (including getting oil change before and after type costs), it made sense to drive since we weren't just saving a couple of hundred dollars, but well over a thousand!

I'd almost resigned myself to driving to Disney in September when airfares wouldn't budge, but finally found a good deal and the car rental out of Tampa...out of our regional airport for less than one of the major airports that take us two hours to get to and we have to pay to park at! So, what I save driving to the airport at home, I do when we arrive in Tampa - no biggie.

For our upcoming Christmas trip - I'm already pretty sure, if not with DH going, DS and I will drive.....airfare right now is nuts - like $900/person round-trip out of our regional airport and $500/person out of either major airport....add to that the car rental fees are outrageous - over a grand! - OUCH - so all totaled, it's way less expensive to drive DH's car (a good winter car) than flying and renting a car. Since he can't take off the day we'd need to leave by, I'll probably bite the bullet and fly him down O/W and then we can drive back together --- or just fly him RT (still don't know his schedule he needs to be back by) if needed. Paying that much for one ticket still saves a considerable amount of money overall!

 

[cassandrap83]

When I was younger, we would always drive.

Now that I have children of my own, I wouldn't even consider it! (we live in Pittsburgh, PA)

To me the $620 in airfare is too close to the $500 in gas we'd end up paying. PLUS, we don't waste 2-3 days of our vacation time driving, and get there 12 hours sooner!