driving in overnight - how do you handle the next day?

[maman_et_fille]

Long story short, we are considering driving from VA (Google maps says 14 hours, so probably about 13). Our big hang-up, though, is that we would be driving in overnight (arriving at WDW in the wee hours of the morning), so DH and I will be tired, but our kids won't be. Tips for the first day?

Driving would save about $250 over flying, as flight prices stand right now, but we're only planning 4-5 days; is being exhausted the first day (and then having to drive through the night to get home, even more exhausted) worth it over flying?

Thanks!!!

 

[Alesia]

I would fly - no question.

I can't imagine being dead tired the next day and having kids that are absolutely raring to go, but the drive home would be even worse.

There are other costs to factor in when you're driving too. You're talking about 25ish hours round trip, which means 3 or 4 extra meals. You also need to factor in wear and tear on your car. You may also need to take an extra day or two off from work.

 

[Chelley00]

We hate the overnight drive, so we usually leave really early in the morning (around 4am) The kids sleep the first few hours, we have breakfast then drive the rest of the day. This way we aren't exhausted and it's not as dangerous for us to drive while tired. We arrive late the night before we hit any parks so we have a full nights rest before getting to play.

 

[maman_et_fille]

I would fly - no question.

I can't imagine being dead tired the next day and having kids that are absolutely raring to go, but the drive home would be even worse.

There are other costs to factor in when you're driving too. You're talking about 25ish hours round trip, which means 3 or 4 extra meals. You also need to factor in wear and tear on your car. You may also need to take an extra day or two off from work.

Thanks so much. These are all really good things to consider, but for our situation, most don't apply. Driving overnight is our best option (driving-wise) with our toddler. Twice or three times a year, we drive overnight to visit family in New England, so it's not a totally foreign experience. And I don't think it would require extra meals, but I could definitely be wrong there.

It's not ideal, I know, but I would love to hear if anyone has made the overnight drive work!

 

[bear_mom]

We have driven overnight to visit our in-laws, arriving at 4am'ish. The only way it was doable for us was, dh's parents would get up with the girls while dh and I slept in. Even if dh drive 80% of the trip, we were both exhausted.

I don't think I could drive all night and then do the parks the next day, especially with little ones who will be raring to go-go-go.

Emily

 

[dawnn12]

When we did drive we used to leave around 4am...... if thats not a good fit for you why dont you let the kids swim or can you handle them at downtown disney while your husband takes a nap?

 

[Halle]

Will your room be ready when you arrive? Or will you be roomless?

 

[2DisPrincesses]

For $250 I would drive.

We have driven many times and it takes up about 19 hours. It's definitely doable. My DH and I take turns sleeping/driving. On arrival day, we take it easy and hit the Parks hard the next day.

However, when we drive, it's when we are saving $600 or more.

 

[Ed J]

How old are you guys?

When I was in my 20's and 30's I'd pull all-nighters and not give it a second thought. Now in my 40's I'm not as inclined to do it. I understand asking for advice, but you are a better judge than us.

As far as the cost factor, I'm in the camp that like a previouse poster said its more than just gas money. I expense about $.50 a mile for mileage at work, and that is a more accurate estimate of what it costs to drive. So in the end flying might not only be easier on you, but also your wallet.

 

[musicluvr40]

Thanks so much. These are all really good things to consider, but for our situation, most don't apply. Driving overnight is our best option (driving-wise) with our toddler. Twice or three times a year, we drive overnight to visit family in New England, so it's not a totally foreign experience. And I don't think it would require extra meals, but I could definitely be wrong there.

It's not ideal, I know, but I would love to hear if anyone has made the overnight drive work!

We recently did an overnight drive from Southern Ohio (Dayton) to Orlando. We left at 11 PM Saturday night and arrived at 3 PM Sunday. Our girls are 13 and 8, so ours are at the age where we can pop in a movie or give them a video game/IPOD and they are entertained. My husband and I drove in three hour shifts, and one slept while the other one drove. My girls were asleep 15 minutes into the trip and did not wake up until Georgia!

We stopped for gas as needed as well as breakfast and lunch. So we felt good about 16 hours for our time - approx. 950 miles. We were not tired when we arrived, however, we had only planned to go to Downtown Disney that evening, so we had nothing overwhelming planned. I will say that our first night in our hotel we were in bed by 10, and we all slept soundly!

On the way home we did it in two days - left at 10:30 in the morning, drove halfway, stayed in a hotel, left early the next morning, arrived home at 4:30 PM. I much preferred the overnight driving to the two day stint.

I will say that we were lucky. There was very little construction and no traffic to speak of since we traveled on weekends and on the way there overnight. You have to evaluate what will work for your family. We had lots of people tell us how awful it was going to be, and we found the drive to be enjoyable. Our decision to drive was a cost factor - it would have been well over $1200 to fly, and we drove for around $300 including gas and meals.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I would fly - no question.

I can't imagine being dead tired the next day and having kids that are absolutely raring to go, but the drive home would be even worse.

There are other costs to factor in when you're driving too. You're talking about 25ish hours round trip, which means 3 or 4 extra meals. You also need to factor in wear and tear on your car. You may also need to take an extra day or two off from work.

I agree. No way is $250 worth that much of my time & sanity, esp with a toddler. As pp stated, it's around 25 hrs RT which works out to $10/hr for both of you or $5/hr each. My vacay time off work is worth much more than that. With short trips it's even more worth it to fly, making the most of every minute. If you had a month to kill, that's a different story.
We like to fly down Fri night after school, crash at an airport hotel, and wake up well rested in FL & ready to start having fun w/o having to get up at the crack of dawn for an early morning flight either.
jmho.

 

[kydisneyfans]

We have made 13 trips of 865-1000 miles each way and are about to do trip 14. Each one is driving due to cost and convenience. We have moved away from all nighters though and now leave around 2-3:00 AM. Day 1 is DT Disney and rest time, day 2 is park time. We just seemed overly tired after the all night trip, and then our room wasn't guaranteed to be ready.

You need to justify all the flying costs involved:
-how far from the airport, then 2 hours early for security.
-parking costs at the airport, or finding someone to take you and pick you up.
-rental car if needed in FL.
-Layovers if flight is not direct-expensive airport food if meal time.
-Baggage fees
-Buying overpriced necessities since you can't take everything on the plane.

For our Dec trip, Airtran is around $176 for each of us RT. Add airport fees, baggage fees, and parking, and we're over $1,000. For around $225 in fuel, we can do the same thing even though it takes 6-7 hours longer.

 

[kerplop]

We were looking at a similar dilemma minus the kids and in the end we decided to drive. It didn't save us as much in the long run - only about $300 after gas, a rental car, 2 hotel room stays because we won't drive overnight, food - but a lot of it was:

- the convenience of then having my own car at the hotel/parks
- being able to stop on the way and sightsee
- DP wanted to go to the Georgia Aquarium, which we couldn't have stopped at if we'd flown
- stress of flying and we both like driving a lot
- in the end it actually wasn't that much shorter a trip. it's about 16 hours total and we had the time off to stop each way

One of the other things you have to keep in mind is that you have to be at the airport early and once you're home you have to factor in getting luggage and getting home. So there's transport time there. Plus the flight time each direction. For us personally flying would take a total of about 7-8 (closer to 8) hours and yes driving would take longer, but it has the perks I mentioned above. And we'd still be exhausted because the cheapest flights are always really early at like 7am so you'd be up super early either way to get loaded up and drive to the airport or catch a shuttle (in our case).

Judging by the ages in your signature, maybe you could have a group nap time once you get into your room? Even a couple of hours would be good and get you some energy. Then get an early night's sleep and get up early for Disney!

 

[maman_et_fille]

Thanks for all the feedback. It has given me a lot to think about. (Mostly I'm typing this here to help myself think it through and also for anyone who might be considering a similar plan).

We are both in our very early 30s. For this trip, $250 is about 1/6 of what we are hoping to spend ($1500*), so it's not an insignificant amount, although we would certainly prefer to fly. We could save the $250 altogether or put it toward more TS meals. The goal of this trip would be mostly to relax and just enjoy being at Disney World - no need to rush around or try to fit in "everything."

Our flying scenario has us flying out at 1:25 (packing lunch to eat at the airport) - we would have to leave for the airport NLT than 11 am; we figure it would be 5 - 5:30 pm by the time we take DME from the airport to the resort, so we would probably just eat, relax, and go to bed on the first night. We'd stay 4 nights, and fly out on the evening (it's a 6:45 flight) on the 5th day. Total for RT airline tickets is a hair under $500, plus $60 to park at the airport for 5 days, and of course I forgot to add in paying for water once we're through security (let's call that $15). So total cost to fly is around $575.

Driving down we would leave home around 1:30 (eating lunch at home) at about the time the baby would nap, driving as far as we could stand before stopping for dinner/PJs, and then finishing the trip. Realistically, we'd probably do about 4 hours before dinner, then the other 9ish after. We would make reservations for that night so that our room would be ready when we arrived, even though we wouldn't be in it for the whole night (I hope this is even possible!). Our hypothetical plan is to depart WDW sometime in the afternoon of that 5th day, and again drive until dinner, then finish the trip after dinner. Round trip, we figure we would need roughly 6 tanks of gas at about $45/tank, so $270. I rounded down to a cost difference of $250 because you just never know. Wear/tear is a minor factor for us.

So minus sleeping in our room for the first night of our reservation, it works out to almost the same amount of time at Disney. Having our car would be a bonus - the "extra" TS meals we'd do would probably be at resorts, so being able to drive ourselves would be a major plus.

*we've never budgeted for a Disney trip before, but we're hoping to keep costs down for this one: using our APs right before they expire, renting points for an OKW studio to keep our lodging under $500 for 4 nights, and only doing 1 character meal and the rest QS meals. I'm really hoping the price of the airline tickets comes down, but again, I'm really grateful for all the feedback and ideas about driving and the next day. We'd probably rest/sleep, eat a good breakfast, do a park for a couple of hours, come back for naptime, and then maybe do something else in the evening.

 

[bear_mom]

Thanks for all the feedback. It has given me a lot to think about. (Mostly I'm typing this here to help myself think it through and also for anyone who might be considering a similar plan).

We are both in our very early 30s. For this trip, $250 is about 1/6 of what we are hoping to spend ($1500*), so it's not an insignificant amount, although we would certainly prefer to fly. We could save the $250 altogether or put it toward more TS meals. The goal of this trip would be mostly to relax and just enjoy being at Disney World - no need to rush around or try to fit in "everything."

Our flying scenario has us flying out at 1:25 (packing lunch to eat at the airport) - we would have to leave for the airport NLT than 11 am; we figure it would be 5 - 5:30 pm by the time we take DME from the airport to the resort, so we would probably just eat, relax, and go to bed on the first night. We'd stay 4 nights, and fly out on the evening (it's a 6:45 flight) on the 5th day. Total for RT airline tickets is a hair under $500, plus $60 to park at the airport for 5 days, and of course I forgot to add in paying for water once we're through security (let's call that $15). So total cost to fly is around $575.

Driving down we would leave home around 1:30 (eating lunch at home) at about the time the baby would nap, driving as far as we could stand before stopping for dinner/PJs, and then finishing the trip. Realistically, we'd probably do about 4 hours before dinner, then the other 9ish after. We would make reservations for that night so that our room would be ready when we arrived, even though we wouldn't be in it for the whole night (I hope this is even possible!). Our hypothetical plan is to depart WDW sometime in the afternoon of that 5th day, and again drive until dinner, then finish the trip after dinner. Round trip, we figure we would need roughly 6 tanks of gas at about $45/tank, so $270. I rounded down to a cost difference of $250 because you just never know. Wear/tear is a minor factor for us.

So minus sleeping in our room for the first night of our reservation, it works out to almost the same amount of time at Disney. Having our car would be a bonus - the "extra" TS meals we'd do would probably be at resorts, so being able to drive ourselves would be a major plus.

*we've never budgeted for a Disney trip before, but we're hoping to keep costs down for this one: using our APs right before they expire, renting points for an OKW studio to keep our lodging under $500 for 4 nights, and only doing 1 character meal and the rest QS meals. I'm really hoping the price of the airline tickets comes down, but again, I'm really grateful for all the feedback and ideas about driving and the next day. We'd probably rest/sleep, eat a good breakfast, do a park for a couple of hours, come back for naptime, and then maybe do something else in the evening.

I find it odd that you are counting paying for water in the airport (you could bring empty bottles through security and then fill them up instead of buying water though) but you aren't planning on buying anything when you are driving. No coffee, no pop, no snacks?

Personally, I would still fly. Getting to the resort and being able to relax the first night versus not arrving until 3 am and then getting up going to the park. But then again, I don't do well on little sleep.

Emily

 

[bigbabyblues]

We drive 15-ish hours through the night and arrive about 6:30-7:00 in the morning. We take turns driving, and DH sleeps while I drive from about 10:00 pm until 4:00 am or so (the stretch from around Columbia, SC, to the FL line). That leaves him pretty good to go for awhile, but I am the one who is dead tired because I cannot sleep in the car at all, never have been able to. We check in when we arrive, get our tickets, have breakfast and head to a park. We stay there until our room is ready (if it's not when we check in, but it has 4 out of 6 times), then we head back to the room and nap. Our boys are usually ready for a nap by then, if not, they can watch tv, play games, whatever. We go back out in the evening for a little while and usually have an early night that night. It works well for us. My DH is a paramedic who works 24 hours shifts, so being awake for the drive is not different for him.

 

[krisnchris]

We drove from MD to Orlando straight through last Nov. We leave Thursday and are considering an overnight in SC/GA to break it up. Last year, we left around 4 pm, stopped for dinner and arrived at the CR by 6:30 am, I think. It was pretty brutal on me and DH. Our room wasn't ready till 4 and we were walking zombies all day - looking for rides that we could sleep in, like Carousel of Progress, etc. . .

I'm pregnant this year, so the idea of being dead tired to start does not appeal. We will drive all day during the day to get home, though, just because of timing of having to be at work and not being able to cancel the last day of our DVC reservation (rented points).

This is a helpful thread!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I find it odd that you are counting paying for water in the airport (you could bring empty bottles through security and then fill them up instead of buying water though) but you aren't planning on buying anything when you are driving. No coffee, no pop, no snacks?

Personally, I would still fly. Getting to the resort and being able to relax the first night versus not arrving until 3 am and then getting up going to the park. But then again, I don't do well on little sleep.

Emily

I thought this too. Also we have 2 teen boys and have never spent $15 in an airport for water.

Whether you fly or drive, you will need to eat & drink just as often.

 

[maman_et_fille]

I thought this too. Also we have 2 teen boys and have never spent $15 in an airport for water.

Whether you fly or drive, you will need to eat & drink just as often.

What can I say, we drink a lot of water; buying two of the biggest size available is barely enough . . . I have never noticed water fountains in the departure areas. Maybe I should look harder!

Regardless, I think food/water/coffee/whatever cancels out as equal for both options.

 

[Port Orleans fan]

For the sake of $250 I would fly. What would happen if you end up breaking down on the way to Florida? I'm sure it will cost you a lot more than $250 to get your vehicle repaired (plus towing, plus a room for the night if the repairs take awhile, etc).

In my opinion, flying takes all the worrying out of traveling. Yes, there is always the chance of having your flight delayed, but I would rather take my chances at the airport.



Good Luck!