Driving to Disney---13+ hour drivers

[hershey4]

For those of you who drive straight through, how do you stay awake? I mean, some of you drive through the night to be there 1st thing in the morning, and some leave in the middle of the night. I'm just wondering how sleep doesn't become an issue. Or let's take it from another perspective, say we'll stop somewhere for the night. I'm 18+ hours away, according to mapquest. By the time I pay for 2 motels (1 each direction) and gas and food, how much would I really save over flying?

 

[boxer]

For those of you who drive straight through, how do you stay awake? I mean, some of you drive through the night to be there 1st thing in the morning, and some leave in the middle of the night. I'm just wondering how sleep doesn't become an issue. Or let's take it from another perspective, say we'll stop somewhere for the night. I'm 18+ hours away, according to mapquest. By the time I pay for 2 motels (1 each direction) and gas and food, how much would I really save over flying?

My PLAN is to drive in (2) shifts.......my wife in the late evening for 7 or so hours, then myself overnight for the remainder of the trip. I'll 'try' to sleep while she is driving, and vice versa for her.

 

[BarbieGal457]

Oh my! I've done this 6.5 times already. It's 18 hours from Philly! My first time I flew down, long story, and had to drive back up since my mother was afraid. The last two times I've flown both ways, much to my enjoyment! My father always drove straight thru (with snack breaks), leaving very early in the am. Boy was it nice to see ASMu by 10:30pm!! My friends drove there this past January, while I flew and met them. They were 5 people, and switched off in varying amounts. My one friend droves 30 minutes, while my ex drove almost 7 hours! They left here around 7:30pm and arrived to our place by I believe 12:30pm the next day, around the same time I got there. They took much longer food breaks than I did on my drives (over an hour each time, easily).

My friends as well as my father would stay awake by rolling down the windows and cranking up the music. My friends would also make sure there was always one other person awake with the driver so they could talk, etc. Everyone who's driven that I know says it's harder to do it during the dark hours because you seem to fall into a trance, and there's not much traffic either (this can be good or bad!).

 

[Praying Colonel]

For those of you who drive straight through, how do you stay awake? I mean, some of you drive through the night to be there 1st thing in the morning, and some leave in the middle of the night. I'm just wondering how sleep doesn't become an issue. Or let's take it from another perspective, say we'll stop somewhere for the night. I'm 18+ hours away, according to mapquest. By the time I pay for 2 motels (1 each direction) and gas and food, how much would I really save over flying?

We have 3 adult drivers, so we broke it into shifts. DD19 drove the first shift with DW riding shotgun to keep her awake and pointed in the right direction. I got about 4 hours of sleep, then took over and drove the rest. With the sleep and some good coffee, I was fine until sunrise. We'd stop and eat breakfast, then continue on.

 

[Nik's Mom]

We're thinking of doing this for our next trip. DH wants to do it for the experience. We live in Kansas. According to the AAA website, it is 1256 miles and should take us 18 hours. I was thinking to leaving at about 4am and driving until Atlanta, Georgia. Then get up early again and head to WDW.

 

[vcgirl925]

For those of you who drive straight through, how do you stay awake? I mean, some of you drive through the night to be there 1st thing in the morning, and some leave in the middle of the night. I'm just wondering how sleep doesn't become an issue. Or let's take it from another perspective, say we'll stop somewhere for the night. I'm 18+ hours away, according to mapquest. By the time I pay for 2 motels (1 each direction) and gas and food, how much would I really save over flying?

My dh tries to rest before we leave. Then lots of music and energy drinks! Then we he becomes tired that's when we switch and i'll drive for 2 - 3 hours while he sleeps. When he wakes up he's ready to go again. There have been some times where we had to go to a rest area and sleep for a bit. We've never spent the night at a hotel though, we've always wanted to just get there! My dh has done this all his life, all his family is in Miami and they used to drive down at least once or twice a year and that is about 22 hours.

 

[Dmcuth]

We're leaving in a week or so (depends on my work, we are staying at our vacation house so we have plenty of leeway). I'm in Delaware, an hour away from the traffic nightmare of Baltimore/D.C. So I'm to go to sleep around 10pm and wake up at 3:30am with a 4am start. That gets me a little bit of sleep and out of the trouble area before the rush hour. My wife and daughter will hopefully be sleeping in the car and when they wake up we should be ready for breakfast in NC (Cracker Barrel!). I'll let my wife drive for an hour or two while I nap or watch a movie, but I'll do most of it. I hope to be at Disney around 6 to 7pm. I've joked that if we were really hardcore we'd go right to a park! But I know we'll be wiped.

What's great is we planned the trip when gas was $4/gallon. It still worked out because of flight/rental car costs. But gas here in DE just dipped below $3.50!

Wait, am I excited over $3.50 gas?????????

 

[erinsmom]

We're going to try this for the first time when we go down. We have a 12 - 13 hour drive and I'd much rather do it while the kids are asleep most of the time.

We are also planning on our first to be a relaxing day once we get to WDW, like sleeping a little, hanging out by the pool, go to DTD and eating at a nice place that night and then hitting the parks the next day.

 

[Jedi_Galvatron]

1403.44 Miles for me, so basically 1.5x all you other guys and it usually only takes us 22-26 hours tops. We'll be leaving Canada at 4 am Friday August 22nd and get to the Orlando area at around 5 or 6 am the latest on Saturday. We do it every year, with myself doing all the driving till South of the Border where my "significant other" (sorry lol, inside joke) takes over till just inside the Florida border at the visitor's center where I pick up again till Orlando.

 

[ExBellhop]

We were thinking about starting out the previous night at 7PM, which would put us at Disney early the next morning.......is that what you all did? I figured driving at night would let the kids sleep, and not annoy us with constant stops!!!

The thing we have noticed with driving straight through - when we finally arrive the next day, we are WRECKED as far as sleep goes. We often feel like we lose a whole day because of the sleep we need to make up.

Granted, we are also coming from Michigan, which ends up being about 20-21 hours done straight through. But I think the point is still valid

We always try to find somewhere to stop in the northern part of Florida (for our route, it's Lake City). That way, we can get some sleep, and we can wake up the next morning, get some food, have only 3 hours to drive, and arrive at Disney World ready to hit the ground running.

This may not apply to your situation, but I would say never underestimate the power of a good night's sleep (or a good nap, right Bawb?)

Enjoy the trip!
ExBellhop

 

[cinnderly]

This is a AAA sponsored site that calculates gas cost for your trip. I've found it very helpful:
Fuel Cost Calculator

I am driving down on the 23rd, just me and my son (and he isn't old enough to drive quite yet, being 6). We are leaving at 5am and driving as much as we can the first day, then stopping for the night. Good luck to all the drivers! I know I need it.

 

[Jedi_Galvatron]

For those of you who drive straight through, how do you stay awake?

5 hour energy drinks, they're actually more like a sip, actually work. Combine that with the usual coffee/Jolt cola routine and add in some light snacks and loud music and you've got the general plan lol.

 

[boxer]

The thing we have noticed with driving straight through - when we finally arrive the next day, we are WRECKED as far as sleep goes. We often feel like we lose a whole day because of the sleep we need to make up.

Granted, we are also coming from Michigan, which ends up being about 20-21 hours done straight through. But I think the point is still valid

We always try to find somewhere to stop in the northern part of Florida (for our route, it's Lake City). That way, we can get some sleep, and we can wake up the next morning, get some food, have only 3 hours to drive, and arrive at Disney World ready to hit the ground running.

This may not apply to your situation, but I would say never underestimate the power of a good night's sleep (or a good nap, right Bawb?)

Enjoy the trip!
ExBellhop

I'm expecting the 'wrecked sleep', hence my sponsorship for this possible trip being Stacker 3, lol.

 

[Carlyzmom]

We have a 16 hour drive. We plan on leaving at 5 am and driving about 14 or so hours. Then the next morning we only have about a 2 hour drive so that leaves us the whole day to do what we want.

I know some people talk trash on car DVD players, but with a 5 and 8 year old - it is essential!!!! We plan on watching our favorite Disney movies on the way to get us in the mood!

 

[boxer]

This is a AAA sponsored site that calculates gas cost for your trip. I've found it very helpful:
Fuel Cost Calculator

I am driving down on the 23rd, just me and my son (and he isn't old enough to drive quite yet, being 6). We are leaving at 5am and driving as much as we can the first day, then stopping for the night. Good luck to all the drivers! I know I need it.

WOW, I give you alot of credit.....I don't think I could make the trip 'alone' without another adult co-pilot.

 

[DVC Jen]

We drive every year from the Dallas area. We usually stop quite a bit on the way there - making the trip part of our vacation - therefore not rushing it. On the way back we usually stop once and break the drive up into 2 days. This past June however we did it straight - and from Vero no less (add 2 hours to the drive). It took us 20 hours and we were wiped out. Never again. Well - I say that now. LOLOL

 

[cinnderly]

WOW, I give you alot of credit.....I don't think I could make the trip 'alone' without another adult co-pilot.

Thanks! Some people definitely think I'm crazy, and some say I'll be fine. I plan to make a lot of stops at some touristy places so we can stretch our legs, and make it a bit of an adventure. Also I am getting books on tape from the library...they have all the Harry Potter books, so the little guy will love that. Then we have our music, the portable dvd player, navigation with bluetooth speakerphone, AAA trip-tik and lots of activities/road-games. I'm hoping for the best.

 

[canadianmom2three]

We do the drive a lot from SW ontario, but mostly when we are going down to the inlaws in Fort Myers, which is about another 150 miles south. We have done it in as little as 22 hours, and straight thru, but I greatly prefer the one night stop.
We are driving to disney for the first time, and google maps puts us at 18 hours, so maybe closer to 20? We plan to leave early in the a.m. and drive a super long day the first day, and hopefully make it to south georgia. We will stop for the night there, so that when we wake up, we will be a short drive from the fla welcome center, which the kids love, and not too far from orlando. We hope to make disney by noon, well rested and ready to stay for the EMH that night. I hate driving all night, it leaves you groggy for days, and imo its not the ideal way to start a disney vacation. I would sooner priceline a cheap hotel, and stop for the night so that we can enjoy our time at disney, not spend it trying to catch up on sleep! Of course, my first choice would be to fly, but we're a family of 5 too, and we are used to the good deals as well, so I can't bring myself to spend the big $$ to fly.....jmo though

 

[MissMagnolia]

We've driven twice straight through from WI!! It took about 22 hours each time. My DH, bless him, drove probably 20 of the 22 hours.

The time we drove it in a 7 person Town and Country van with me, DH, my Mom, my Dad, and my DH's two nephews AND two dogs was AWFUL! My DH is a go, go, go when it comes to driving - practically makes you pee out the car window when passing by a gas station . My poor Dad, who does not do fast food, was forced to eat sandwiches, juice boxes, and snacks in the car the whole way.

 

[kimmar067]

...My DH and I switch off driving (although he would say he drives much more than I do). To me, the drive is part of the WDW experience...

....I think they ALL say that.....