Driving Tips...

[merfsko]

Check out the Canadian Planning forum. Lots of people (including myself) have driven (or are planning trips).

I posted this in Disney for Famalies but was suggested to post this here so here it goes...

My aunt, uncle, their 13-yr old daughter, and 9-yr old son are DRIVING down to Disney from Toronto, Ontario in August.
The daughter and son sometimes don't get along...
Any tips on how they can survive the long ride?
**Anyone know an aprox. duration of the drive, and any suggestions on where they could stop off for pit stops?
I'll pass on any information, and wish them best of luck!
Thanks y'all,
Love,
merfsko

 

[langin]

I am anxious to see what everybody has to say!

We are driving down from New Brunswick in 2½ weeks with our 3 sons, age 12½ and twin 9 yr olds so we are most concerned with the drive also (28 hrs).

 

[Mortlives]

If they're taking the I-90/I-79/I77 etc route, the driving time is about 20 hrs. There are frequent rest areas all along the way, so they really should be able to stop whenever they need it. If they have CAA, and they should, they should get triptiks, so they will have info about tolls, and how far it is to the next rest stop. I think from the border to Erie is the worst place for rest areas, after that, they are fairly abundant.

As for keeping the peace between warring siblings, I was one myself when I was younger. Mom used to stockpile new comics (these days you might want used for the savings, look for bargain bins), and some snacks. To avoid fights, maybe a separate pack for each containing snacks and amusements so they don't get on each others nerves. Game boys or PSPs with headphones would be good. At the least, personal music devices so they can shut each other out. It might not be a bad idea, if the parents can stand it, to rotate shotgun every once in a while.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

If they take the I-75 route down to Florida get a copy of Dave Hunter's "Along the I-75" book. It's better than a trip tik as each page shows 25 miles of the route to Florida indicating what services are at each exit. The drive takes about 23 hours from Toronto.

Warring siblings -- pile suitcases between them -- my parents resorted to this one trip when my brother and I were little. Of course we had no personal electronic devices to drown the other one out.

Another suggestion is to get books on tape/cd to listen to during the drive. You can actually rent them from Cracker Barrel for about $3.50/week which is a great deal. They can each listen to their own or alternate between them picking the next book.

 

[maryliz]

Does the vehicle they're taking have a DVD player, or the space to hook in a little 9 or 13 inch tv into the cigarette lighter? Or take a laptop computer with DVD? We found this to be a godsend for us. We just got a new van last week, and it has the "stow'n'go" seating into the floor, so we can rearrange the stuff and the kids if the fighting becomes too intolerable!

Tell them to take advantage of the rest areas ... Kentucky, Florida and Georgia Welcome Centres are our favourites. And don't make the "bathroom stops" only the 5 minutes it takes everyone to do their business ... pull in and tell them they have 20 or 30 minutes. Grab some snacks and sit at a picnic table and just enjoy the fresh air.

Have a list of all provinces and states for each of them, and have them mark off the different license plates they see.

Gameboys and personal CD players also provide great distractions.

And yes, wish them lots of luck !!!


MaryLiz

 

[snoopyandpooh]

We are also driving down to WDW in August, it will be around 23 hours using I75. Maybe each kid can bring along their own MP3 players, books, gameboys or PSPs? A portable DVD player might help also. Good luck.

 

[talicskai]

We drive nearly every year and our secret is to leave around 7-8pm. The kids are generally asleep before we get to the border and they don't wake up until breakfast. At that point we are half way there! After that we stop every 2 hours for a "stretch the legs" break and trade drivers. I always stock pile dollar store items, puzzles, games etc. and give them a new toy when we get back in the car. We stop in Cordele, Georgia for the night and only have 6 hours to go the next day. Dad sleeps while the kids and I hit the pool! It makes for a pretty good trip.......Enjoy

Teresa

 

[Manon]

We did it in june with our 3 kids from Montreal and it went great! The kids did know that it would take a lot of time, and we had a gameboy, and a DVD player in the van. It took us 30 hrs. We left Montreal at 3h30 in the afternoon and arrived at 8h00 pm the day after! It went so well that we are going again this january

 

[lisaviolet]

You didn't ask for a route suggestion but the 90/79/WV 19/77/26/95 route is absolutely gorgeous!! I daydream about it sometimes. Once we decided to go back to 75 on the way home and missed the above route so much that we deteored to get back to it. It's a wonderful trip in itself. West Virginia take me home........

I am just thinking maybe more scenery.....might lessen fighting somewhat....maybe naive, eh?

 

[tink&cinderella]

The route with the I77 is actually about 21 hours and saves almost three hours vs the I75.,

We are leaving tomorrow - one boy age 11 with MS, one boy age 9 and two 7 year old girls - can't wait to get there

Tink&Cinderella

 

[Janice B]

We just returned today from driving to Disney from Waterloo, Ontario. We had a 13yr old and a 15yrs old. I would seriously look into getting a dvd player. You can pick them up typically for around $200. They plug in you lighter. Take books ,game boys and yes pillows to seperate, but be carefully becuase after awhile they might start to have a pillow fight. We left July 25th went down the I-75. In total it took us 27hrs. That is with breaks to eat, fill up and drive change as well as a 2hrs sleep break at the truck stops. I to would recommend getting that book as well. We have driven down the past two years and used that book to figure out where what exit we can stop at for gas and where to eat. The first year we left at 5pm and this year we left at 10am. When we were finished the drive we asked our son what time we liked leaving at and he said he would rather leave at 10am.

 

[cottontail]

Hi:

I used to make grab bags for my two children on long trips. Again dollar store things, stickers,snacks etc. But they would get the grab bags at certain points during the drive for good behaviour. They couldn't wait for their surprise bags.

Deb.

 

[RedRuby]

Warring siblings -- pile suitcases between them -- my parents resorted to this one trip when my brother and I were little. Of course we had no personal electronic devices to drown the other one out.

Um, actually I'd recommend *not* piling suitcases or having anything large or heavy unsecured in the car. In a high speed collision or even just swerving, those unsecured items become *very* dangerous. In our family, we resolved this (for car trips) by taking turns in the front seat, partly to contain any sibling-squabling

FWIW, we also sang a lot of songs and counted tractor trailors, licence plates, played word games

 

[jllittle999]

On our last trip (Me, DH, DD7, DS5), we took along several car games (different versions of I Spy!), lots of cd's, where everyone took turns picking the music, and books on CD (of course they were Disney books). We take the I90, I79, I77, I95 route which passes us through 8 states. As we came to a new state border, the kids got to open a gift (new game, book on cd, disposible cameras, spending money, etc). Sometimes it's a long time between gifts, but other times, it is only about 45 minutes (eg. going through Virginia). This seemed to make the trip shorter for the kids as it seemed like several short trips (until there next present) instead of one long one.
We leave at 5:00 am and get to the border in Buffalo at 7:00 am. We make several stops along the way (about every 2 hours) for bathroom breaks, gas or meals. This gives everyone a chance to stretch their legs. Sometimes we will have races to the bathrooms, or once at a rest stop there was a large hill behind the building and we ran to the top and down, just so we could run off some stored up energy. We also have on night in a hotel.
We have yet to use dvd players for the long trip. As long as the kids can find things to do (and enough drinks and snacks), they travel pretty well.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Um, actually I'd recommend *not* piling suitcases or having anything large or heavy unsecured in the car. In a high speed collision or even just swerving, those unsecured items become *very* dangerous. In our family, we resolved this (for car trips) by taking turns in the front seat, partly to contain any sibling-squabling

My piling of suitcases was not meant to be taken seriously although the suitcases were strapped in at the time. My parents had completely given up trying to separate us at that point and the trunk lock had actually frozen shut so that there was no other place to put the luggage at the time and much to my parents relief it actually worked. This was during a time that seat belts weren't mandatory so no one was worried about projectiles in an accident. Explanation in case anyone thought I was serious.

As an aside though -- depending on the ages of kids I wouldn't put any child in the front seat of a car that had an airbag on the front passenger side. They don't recommend it and I've been in an accident where the airbag went off and it hurts!!! From firsthand experience I can believe that they could seriously injure or even kill a small child.