Driving straight thru f/Chicago???

[indymom1]

We leave for Orlando in about 3 weeks and me and my DH keep going back and forth on driving straight thru from the Chicago Suburbs. Has anyone done this? What time did you leave Chicago and what time did you arrive in Orlando? Most important question....would you do it again and how bad was it really??

TIA

 

[GabbyMom]

My Mom and Aunts just did this trip they left on Sunday at about 5:00 and arrived at around 1 or 2. were planning on driving it again in August or September when the house they are buying closes. It's about an 3000 mile round trip including some touring while down there.

 

[Disneyhay]

I live in Northwest Indiana bout 20 min from the city. I drove straight thru to Disney last August by my self with 3 kids. I left at 5 pm and Arrived at disney at noon (but I got lost at the wrong exit for 2 hrs so I didnt get to the hotel till 2pm). I am going to make the trip again in Sept. but my mom will be there to help drive and its only one kid.

 

[indymom1]

Thanks for the positive words.

Disneyhay: How did you stay awake and alert being the only driver? My DH drinks coffee but I do not what tips and tricks did you use?

 

[IndianaMama]

Indymom, I'm in southwestern, IN....practically KY, really. Last year DH and I drove straight through from here and it took us about fourteen hours. We had two kids with us and had to make several stops including stopping off for breakfast at the Waffle House and then a rest area for a quick picnic lunch. We also hit some crazy backed up traffic in Kennesaw, GA where we were literally going 10 miles an hour for an hour.

Anyway, I think it's about four and a half to five hours from Chicago to my area so I would guess your trip might take you about 18-19 hours, depending on how many stops you make.

 

[wdw1014]

My DH and I live outside Peoria IL. and just did this drive 2 weeks ago. We left about 9:30 p.m. and arived at Boardwalk in 17 hours and 15 minutes. We only stopped for gas and potty breaks. I packed breakfast and lunch for us to eat in the van. I know you are a couple of hours north of us, but this drive is not hard at all. I took a 2 hour nap before we left and drove first, while DH slept. At 2:00 a.m. I woke him up and he took over from there. That took care of the night time driving, which to me is the hard part. Have a great trip!

 

[indymom1]

Thank you everyone for the positive words and the information. We have driven to Panama City Beach many times straight thru but for some reason have always stopped over somewhere on our trip to Disney. This year we were thinking it is silly to spend the money on a hotel room for just a few hours when we could keep going for just a couple more hours and be at Disney!!! We leave on Wednesday the 29th and we are really starting to think that we will go straight thru. We have two boys ages 13 and 7 so I just need to make sure that they have enough things to keep them busy in the car. We do a lot of driving anyway so I think that they will be just fine

 

[hearts8701]

drive from ohare area 6-7 times a year leave early in the morning not that i hate flying but i like the freedom to bring what i want buy what i want as much luggage as i need without a fee too many rules on a plane i use to pack all our snack i have since stopped and buy as i go if i get hungry i go to a drive thru there are millions i buy water and pop as i get gas watch gas prices if a road sign shows a few gas stations stop there so you have a choice in price and its a bigger town usually food choices are better some snacks too fresh peaches in georgia & peanuts
make the drive part of the vacation plently of rest stops so if you get tired Stop most important don't speed thru georgia you will get a ticket
enjoy let us know how you liked it
we take 294 south to 80 to 57 to 24 to 75 we do drive straight thru one driver 18-22 hours depending on traffic and stops

 

[Disneyhay]

I stopped whenever I felt sleepy and got something to drink or anything just to change the scenery a little. Driving through the night kept the kids busy since they were asleep. The hardest part is Georgia and the stretch of Florida. It seemed like we would nver get there. Once I got there though I wasnt tired and didnt go to bed till 11 cst.

 

[hearts8701]

heres a few ideas to keep the kids busy
a portable dvd player is a great way to keep the kids busy they don't cost much and make sure you get a movie or two they have never seen a new game for their portable game players puzzles you can print some disney word search located here
http://themouseforless.com/downloads/WordSearch.shtml
car bingo and other printable games located here
http://www.momsminivan.com/printables.html
uno card game or a board game

 

[geffric]

NW Suburbs here.. we are driving in July.. the boys get out of summer school at noon.. so i will pick them up and drive. to FL... they have a 2 pm appt at U of FL in Gainesville on Thursday ( Yeah ) and then on to WDW and US/IOA.

I am planning on taking 294 around the SMSA, then 65 through IN, to 75.. is their advantage to the ILL way??

 

[crazydad]

We did it last year for the first time with our three boys 2,5,and 8. left around 7pm and arrived 12:30 pm. The drive after rush hour and thourght the night, worked out very well. No traffic and Wife and I traded driving every couple hours just to keep us fresh. We had just gotten a new Caravan with the Sirius Back Seat TV (I highly recomend this feature) three channels of kids programming (Disney Channel, Nick and Cartoon Network). Also we have inputs that allow the playstation to be pluggged in to the system. The kids played that and watched TV until the fell asleep. Stopped in Southern Georga for Breakfast aroud 8 am and fininsed the stretch through Flordia. I would recomend to go through Atlanta on a weekend moring or other off traffic time. the Atlanta traffic at rush hour is susposed to be horrible. We went the I-65 through Indiania, to 24-75 route. The Indiania route seems to have more to look at while driving than the Illilois route. I would recomend driving over flying, save on airfare, have your own vehicle to use (save on rental) can travel on your own schedual and like mentioned before in this thread can bring as much and what ever you want.

 

[crazydad]

try the 5 hour engery drink..no gitters jsut a natural engery boost...but like to use coffie as well...

 

[AlternateEgo]

In 2007 I drove with my daughters who were 2, 3, & 5. We live in Southern Illinois and just got onto I-57 and basically drove through. It was an easy drive. Didn't get lost or anything lol. I was the only driver, so we left at about 4 am (tried sooner) we were going to Tampa first, and we got there right around 10 pm.

Basically the anticipation of going on vacation pretty much kept me alert. I did have some coffee, tea, or soda. I stopped plenty for the kids to excercise their legs.

The drive home was awful!! Make sure that you get enough rest the night before you leave. I think I had about 2 hours of sleep I ended up having to stop in Georgia to take a little nap at the rest stop.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

I am planning on taking 294 around the SMSA, then 65 through IN, to 75.. is their advantage to the ILL way??

We prefer 57/24/75 because there's usually less traffic and congestion.

 

[hearts8701]

we also use 57 verses 65 all though in miles its longer but traffic and congestion on 65 make the trip longer

 

[Nicole721]

We're doing the drive in a few weeks.

We drove once straight through and decided never to do it again...it was just too tiring and it's harder for us to stay alert when doing most of our driving through the night (we left around 7:30 that night and we were in Disney early the next afternoon, so most of our driving was in the dark).

The past few times we've done it, we leave around 2:00 or 3:00 am so we only have a few hours of dark and we stop in Atlanta (in Buckhead), which we can usually do in less than 12 hours (including a stop at our favorite Stuckey's in Tennessee). We get to Atlanta in the afternoon and shop, eat a good meal and sleep and finish the seven hours or so (including a stop at a peach farm just south of Atlanta) the next morning and get to Disney the next afternoon.

This works for us mainly because it allows us to rest and not arrive at Disney totally exhausted. We go a few days early so we can rest up for the week because the drive totally drains us and you never want to go to Disney already exhausted...we exhaust ourselves enough while we're there

 

[geffric]

We prefer 57/24/75 because there's usually less traffic and congestion.

we also use 57 verses 65 all though in miles its longer but traffic and congestion on 65 make the trip longer

I think we use the 65 way 'cause gas is cheaper in IN..we stop after Merrillville ( price today is $2.40) and by the airport in INdy ( price today is $2.389).. is cheap gas available in so ILL??