Driving: Leave Early or Leave Late?

[HLAuburn]

I posted a few days ago about our drive down to DW and keeping the kids entertained, but I need some more advice, especially from some "been there, done that" parents.

The drive is about 8 hours. DDs are 11 months and 5.

We are thinking we'll either...

Leave around 4 in the morning the day we check in, hope the kids go back to sleep for a few hours then stop for breakfast, along with other stops on the way. Hopefully arrive in DW late afternoon.

...or....

Leave around 4 pm the day before check in, stop for dinner, then drive through to maybe Ocala while the kids sleep and stay the night there (1 1/2 hour from DW). Arrive at DW in the late morning.

Any suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[VillageMama]

Everyone has their own preference of leave early or drive through the night, so I can only tell you what works for us. We have five children and have been driving the 12 hours to Florida since their ages were 4, 5, 7 and 9. (The other one wasn't born yet!)

I am a big believer in leaving early. For us, early means in the car at 6:00am. Some children will fall back to sleep and some will stare silently out the window in a daze. We get a couple of pre-light hours in and then we stop for a breakfast/potty break.

My concern with through-the-night traveling is that the drivers are not as fresh... and it's pitch dark... and the children may not fall asleep, like you hope they will. That happened to us the one time we decided to drive through the night with a toddler.

Instead of him sleeping peacefully as we cruised down the highway, he fussed and whined because he wanted to be asleep in his bed!

I like early mornings because everyone is rested and more patient. Best of luck to you! I wish our drive was only eight hours! When I said ours is 12 hours... that's just the first day. It's about 20 altogether.

 

[princessmom29]

We are driving from the same place at the same time, and I am thinking that you will want to leave early rather than late. Last year the trafiic was KILLER after we left I-10 form about 3 o'clock onward, and from what I have found out talking to others who make the drive, the later it gets the worse it gets untill it all clears out about 10:30-11:00 at night. We are going to be in the car and driving by 5:00 am this year to avoid it. Another consideration is how much sleep you will have had, and how you do driving at night. I am scared we will just be too tired.

 

[HLAuburn]

Some children will fall back to sleep and some will stare silently out the window in a daze.

I know exactly what you mean...too funny!

Thank you both for the replies. Did DH bribe you guys to post that? Seriously though, leaving early is his preference, but he's a morning person and I'm a night person! It's nothing for me to stay up til 1am, but driving might be a different story...I know it can make you sleepy.

Princessmom, you've mentioned the traffic before. Is it on I-75 that it gets bad? It sounds like the key its better earlier in the day, but from what you've heard, when does the traffic start backing up? I imagine we'll have lots of stops before hitting I-75, so I want to try to time it right.

I know you told me 10 times before, but what day are you guys leaving?

 

[princessmom29]

We are driving the Wed. before thanksgiving. We were told that the traffic gets bad south of Gainesville after about 2pm when everyone who has stopped for lunch gets back on the road. Our goal this year is to make Gainesville by 2:00. DD is 6 so we will be able to take just a couple short breaks to grab fast food on the way. Last year we spent a lot of time just sitting stopped on I-75. We hit Gainesvile at about 3:00 and we got to our hotel in DTD at 7:30. We would go 100 yards and then stop for 5 min. It cleared out after we got on the toll plaza, but traffic was still heavy at times and slowed us down a little, but nothing like the I-75 traffic. I never got a clear answer as to wether there was an accident that day or not, but have been told that this is not unusual in this area during holiday travel periods like thanksgiving and christmas.

 

[3boys4me]

We have about a 10 hour drive and we are checking in the Thursday before Thanksgiving. We are heading out Wednesday at about 3 when the kids get home from school. My two younger ones sleep fine in the car. We are going to drive as long as we can and just get a room wherever we are when we get tired. Hopefully we will get to Disney by 10 or 11 Thursday morning. Last year we used Thursday as a travel day and I felt like that was such a waste of a day that we could have been in the park.

 

[momof1princess]

we prefer to drive at night. we only have one child, and we drive a minivan so she can lay down in the middle seat, still be buckled in and sleep the whole way. our drive is about 10 hours and we start between 8-9 pm, DH will drive until we get just south of Atlanta, GA, and then we switch. i drive the rest of the way while he and DD sleep. once we check in, DH will take DD to the pool for 2-3 hours and i catch a nap. i keep myself awake by keeping the car cold (both DH and DD are VERY hot-natured, i'm not) and blasting my mp3 player. i also take healthy snacks-protein bars, beef jerky (i know, it's salty, but full of protein) and dried fruit.

 

[cheerforchelsea]

I have driven from the Birmingham Alabama area to WDW many times....I don't spend any time on I-10 since I travel backroads to Tifton Georgia where I get on I-75. (My last trip was in June 2009) I much prefer to leave late in the day, stop for dinner, and then spend the night in Valdosta Ga (that is a little over 1/2 way for me). We are up the next morning and on the road by 8 - at WDW by lunch time. Even though check in is not until later, we go ahead and check in----sometimes our room is ready and if not we just call back later for room #.

I have done the leave at 3:30AM and drive straight through thing and it works too. Everyone except driver usually sleeps until about 8AM. Whatever you do try to avoid the construction area on I-75 near the Valdosta area after about 10AM - there is always a bottleneck there!!

 

[momof1princess]

I have driven from the Birmingham Alabama area to WDW many times....I don't spend any time on I-10 since I travel backroads to Tifton Georgia where I get on I-75. (My last trip was in June 2009) I much prefer to leave late in the day, stop for dinner, and then spend the night in Valdosta Ga (that is a little over 1/2 way for me). We are up the next morning and on the road by 8 - at WDW by lunch time. Even though check in is not until later, we go ahead and check in----sometimes our room is ready and if not we just call back later for room #.

I have done the leave at 3:30AM and drive straight through thing and it works too. Everyone except driver usually sleeps until about 8AM. Whatever you do try to avoid the construction area on I-75 near the Valdosta area after about 10AM - there is always a bottleneck there!!

amen to that! the road construction on I-75 in southern GA is a nightmare and it's been going on for YEARS! i don't think it's ever going to be finished.

 

[wmharley]

i left at 4am to NC a few years back when DD was 2. She never went to sleep until we were 45 min away from the cabin (Tampa Bay area was the start point).

I had to down energy drinks yet she was wide awake..

 

[Rental01]

We live here in Raleigh, have a lot of family in Florida and as a result we usually pack in at least one or two trips in per year. That said, we believe in driving straight through. On our usual trip, the first destination is Vero Beach it's only 12 hours. We swap drivers at every four hours and if we feel the need to stop and rest we take it. Our trip to Disney is on 11/17 and we're going to leave at around 3:00 AM. We have some things we need to do on the 16th until 9:00 PM with the Young Marines, but I'm going to use that time to pack the van and get all of our incidentals taken care of (wiring the DVD player screens, making sure that the chargers are strapped in place, . Then pick up my wife and the boy and head home. I usually only average six hours of sleep a night so it's not a big deal for me.

If I push straight through and we don't stop for food I can make it in less than 10 hours, but I plan on taking my time so we don't get burnt out.

 

[smkiya]

My vote is leaving early. We left late going at about 9:30pm (after I worked that day) and it was exhausting! Yes the kiddies slept through the night, but I had to make several extra stops just to stretch and open my eyes. So our 16 hour drive turned into 19.5 hours. Coming back home we left at 5am. Soooo much better! We were rested and driving in the morning hours when you know the sun will be up soon is great! The kids slept/rested until 9 or 10 am. We hit some traffic that night when we got through Virginia (we were headed back to NJ), but not too bad. We managed to get back in 16.5 hours and that included stops for quick meals, bathroom, and gas.

 

[cmaee]

I vote for leaving early too. We live 12 hours away. On our trip in 2008, we left our home at 2:30 am. My DH went to sleep the night before at 7:00 pm, while I did our normal evening routine. After the kids were asleep, I packed the van, cleaned, last minute whatevers and then took my shower at 1:30 am. I woke my DH up at 2:00 and we were ready to leave at 2:30. We loaded our kids up in the PJ's. Everyone stayed asleep..they were 5, 4, 15 months. They slept until 8:00. I fell asleep once we were on the road and woke up when they did around 8:00. We stopped four times on the way down and we made it to WDW around 3:30. The kiddos and I napped quite a bit in the car. We had snacks, drinks, DVD movie players, toys, etc for the drive down. When we got to WDW, we swam at the pool, had dinner at the resort, took the boat to Downtown Disney for an hour, and then back to the hotel for an early night. We were rested for the next day. Our last trip, we took the train...an experience that I don't want to do again!

 

[DisneyGerry]

i like being the early bird

 

[VillageMama]

amen to that! the road construction on I-75 in southern GA is a nightmare and it's been going on for YEARS! i don't think it's ever going to be finished.

Hubby and I were just talking about that! We've been making the drive down for years and there is always construction traffic around Valdosta. There is nothing built up around there... and the roads don't get potholes from freezing/expanding... so why the need for constant construction??

We usually stay at the Hampton Inn in Valdosta, which is a really decent hotel. But I highly recommend that you avoid Valdosta's hospital emergency room. It was so unpleasant that we left before we were even seen. (Two children had horrid coughs.)

 

[Stargazer]

Our drive is a little over 14 hours, so we break it up -- we leave about 4:00pm the day before check-in and drive until we reach the Georgia/Florida border and spend the night. Then, we're up and out no later than 9:00am.

DH does all the driving, so this way he gets to sleep and we're all refreshed and ready to hit the parks when we arrive early in the afternoon!

 

[disykat]

I'd leave early and get there at check in time. If you leave the night before, you may not be able to check in until later anyway. I like to check in, get settled in, and then I feel like I can really start enjoying vacation.

I'd also prefer to save the extra night's expense, packing, reloading the car, etc.

 

[PrincessBetsy]

I think you should leave early. We always find that traffic is so much better in the morning and there is not very much construction going on either.

When we lived in NY, it was a 23 hour drive to WDW. We usually left at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, stopped in SC for the night, then got up at 4:00 or 5:00 the next morning and drove to WDW.

We live in VA now, so it is still a long drive (13 hours). Now we leave at around 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and usually arrive in WDW around 6:30. When we get there we check in and we can finally say we have offically arrived "home"! Since we leave so early, we usually don't go to a park that night. Instead we head over to DTD, eat dinner, then go to bed early.

I hope this helps you in your decision and have a magical trip!

 

[MissLiz]

Our drive is about 7 hours and we've done it both ways.

We usually get up early and leave around 5am, stop for breakfast at about 6:30 and usually get to the resort between noon and 1pm. All of the times we've done that, our room has been ready, so we've been able to get into the room, freshen up and hit MK by the time the 3pm parade is on Main Street. (yes, every time...it's been a tradition)

Well, last year, I was pregnant, so we thought it would be better to leave after work and then get a hotel for the night in Orlando so that we'd get a good night sleep before hitting parks.

We left during Atlanta rush hour...not as bad as I thought, but it took forever just to feel like we were on our way. We left at about 5 and got to the hotel at about midnight. It wasn't bad either because we got to sleep in a bit and then went to our resort to check in, but the room wasn't ready (of course, because it was way too early) so we left our stuff in the car and headed to MK anyway.

I liked not having to get up in the middle of the night to get ready to go, but I didn't like the idea that we were on our way....but not really on our way because we weren't going to "get there" until the next day.

DD7 is up on the way to WDW no matter when we leave. I keep thinking she's going to take a nap, but it never happens.

 

[mupt02]

We do all of our driving during the day. Our kiddos don't sleep for long periods in the car, so I think we would end up with very cranky children driving over night. Plus, I know that I couldn't stay up to drive at night. Hubby would probably be able to since he works overnight, but I know if you ask him, he would still prefer to spend the time sleeping.