Driving to Disney---13+ hour drivers

[trjme]

I have always driven straight during the night but always had the problem of being too tired to do anything and then our room wasnt ready by the time we get there much less looking like crap after being stuck in the van for all those hours. This trip I changed my plan a bit. We left Central Illnois around 0500pm and went straight to St. Augustine beach first. Driving at night is better for me. I plan each city as to not be there during rush hours. Some of the bigger cites tend to have multiple rush hours even at night. We stopped in Paducah for gas and burgers. The thru Nashville about 1100pm. Chattanooga at 0100am in and out of Atlanta 0300a-0400am. Gas in Macon. By pass Jacksonville then to St. Augustine around 1000am. Was able to get a room on the beach for 2 nights by just showing up and it was ready when we got there. I use those 2 days to relax and recover while the kids enjoy the beach. Out in the morning after the 2nd night at 0400am and arrive disney around 0630-700 bright eyed and bushy taled. I should note that I would nights sometimes and so it doesnt bother me at all to drive all night. Part of the plan was that the kids would sleep so they wouldnt have to stop every few minutes to potty but they stayed up the whole time and never asked to go. I think they wanted to get there faster than me.

 

[goofyernmost]

My map quest does not show getting on 95 until we're relatively far down south (shows taking 81 for quite awhile). Plus, by driving at night, I'm HOPING to avoid traffic for the most part.

I tried that once and found that the cars had disappeared but there were wall to wall trucks. After wrestling with no visibility because, as I said, nothing but trucks and getting behind some macho driver that has to prove that his truck goes an eighth of a mile per hour faster than the truck in front, passes for about 20 miles, stubbornly refusing to slow down and pull back in.

I gave up, found a motel and had a pleasant nights sleep. I would never drive straight through because when I get to Disney I don't want to be too tired to enjoy it. It's just not worth it to me.

 

[sandybobandy]

My husband and I drive from Minneapolis every year and LOVE it!!! We do stay over in Saint Louis and Atlanta though and sometimes Nashville.

Living in such a deer heavy state, I don't think I could drive all the way through-I'm too paranoid something is going to scurry across the road.

We love the drive and wouldn't change a thing!

 

[Vince3]

We drive to WDW every time we go. Non stop from Tampa to Orlando.
It usually takes about 1 hr.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Both drives are brutal if you do it non-stop. We did that several times and by the time we got to WDW, we were so tired that we didn't want to do anything except sleep.
And goofeyer is right--I 81 is a truck nightmare. It is wall to wall trucks, sometimes 15 or 20 in a row with nary a car in sight.
Plus it's "hilly"--trucks doing 30 MPH up the hills, 80+ MPH down the hills. It's "lookout" either way!!

 

[cam8n]

We drive down from cape cod mass and do the trip in about 221/2 to 23 hours and we drive straight through, the driving at night is the best because theres no one on the road so you make good time. It has become part of our disney tradition to drive it.

 

[abc999]

We used to do the drive from Central Florida to Central New Jersey a couple of times a year to visit family.. took us about 16 hours.

NJ to FL - start driving after dinner, get there mid-morning. We would alternate drivers, drive about 250 miles the first time and then 275 the second time. The speed limit is higher the further south you go, so the drive is quicker. We would stop for gas, food and other stuff when we switch driver.

FL to NJ - we would leave between 2:00-5:00PM, so that we would beat the DC area rush hour. First person gets us out of Georgia, second person gets us into north South Carolina. First person gets us into Maryland and the second person drove the rest of the way.

 

[basketlover]

Because of unusual circumstances in our lives my husband and I take a 8ish hour round trip once a month. (or did until last aug) anyway we always switch drivers frequently and will do the same thing for WDW. The drive for us with stops should be around 13 hours. we will switch every 2.5 hours approx. We both know we feel better when we arrive this way.

 

[rootbeerkid]

Coming from just west of Columbus Ohio, the trip requires ~16 hours of driving time and a little over 1000 miles. The tour takes I95 down and I75 back. Heading down near mid-day, the Allegheny crossing starts in southwest Ohio and extends for many miles down I77 through West Virginia and Virginia where we redeem some Hilton Honor points to stay overnight at a Hampton Inn. Continuing after the free breakfast, the road proceeds from the mountains out onto the rolling Carolina hills and into flatter country. The weather generally becomes noticeably warmer. If the trip is taken in the winter, the trees begin to get greener as the car moves to the south. Connecting with I95, one can catch a short glimpse of an Atlantic Ocean inlet off in the distance. Into Florida and we come to a traditional stop at the Welcome Center for orange juice. Then, on to Disney.

The return trip also typically begins mid-day but takes the more-western I75 corridor where the day ends near Atlanta for another reward stay at a Hampton Inn. Then on through the Alleghenies in Tennessee and Kentucky. Then we’re home!

 

[Aly23]

We drive from Philly about 16 hours straight through. This October will be our first attempt at driving through the night...we were thinking about leaving around midnight, but I was concerned about gas and bathroom breaks (we will have DD4 with us) in the middle of the night. For those of you who drive I-95 overnight, do you find you have enough options for gas/bathrooms that you are comfortable stopping at?

 

[cam8n]

For those of you who drive I-95 overnight, do you find you have enough options for gas/bathrooms that you are comfortable stopping at?

This will be our 5th trip down on I-95 coming from Cape Cod. We have never found a problem finding Service Stations w/restrooms available that were open and comfortable for us during the wee hours. (We use mostly large, big business service stations,(Hess, Shell, Mobil, Exxon...etc) they have been fine.)

 

[Experiment_626]

For those of you who drive I-95 overnight, do you find you have enough options for gas/bathrooms that you are comfortable stopping at?

Only related by tangent, but I find that when I drive, I have to stop at least twice during the 300 miles of our drive (a pittance compared to most in this thread, I know), sometimes three times. We live just west of Tallahassee, so our first stop is usually at either the next-to-last rest area on the I-10 leg of the drive, or at the last one on I-10, which is just a mile or so from where we exit on to I-75. Then we usually stop at Payne's Prairie, just south of Gainesville, and finally maybe at one of the service plazas on the Florida Turnpike. We always find any of these are busy enough that we feel safe.

On those rare trips where I'm not driving, I find that I'm often okay with one stop. I think it is more nerve-wracking for me when I drive, and I have to stop more just to relax a bit. But most of the time, I might as well drive -- I find it extremely difficult to sleep in the car, no matter how tired I am.

SSB

 

[Disney Spaz]

DH and I always take the strait shot down 95. If you mapquest our route it says basically get on 95 south for 900 miles then turn right onto Interstate 4 in Florida for 70 miles. We go around both the DC capital beltway and the baltimore beltway. THESE SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you have to travel them do it at night. My DH takes the day off work and sleeps while the rest of the family is at work or school. Then when we get home we load the car and have everything ready for DH. He likes doing the drive by himself despite the fact there are two additional drivers in the car.

Usually we leave around 10PM from my fathers in MD south of the Baltimore beltway and can sail at a steady pace around the DC beltway, AKA the "mixing bowl", it's called that because if you look at the roads and the exit ramps it looks like someone just threw a whole bunch of roads in a bowl, mixed them up and dumped it out. This typically works out to be a decent trip with us arriving in WDW around noon, including stops.

However, this past Easter trip I insisted that we should leave earlier to get to WDW in the moring and have a whole day in WDW. We left at 8pm, just two hours earlier and we sat for those two hours on the DC capital beltway. DH was steamed and we still ended up in WDW around noon.

We are in a similar boat at the OP we used to fly SW out of BWI and I got dings as low as $29 each way. OOOHHH those were the days. Now we are looking at a minimum of $800 round trip for my family of four and we have a DD who is 2 and requires a lot of extra's, stroller, crib, diapers, her food cause she is very picky. It is nice to have all that available and have our car with us too. I say do the drive and enjoy.

We are going back in Jaunary and I budgeted for gas at $5 a gallon just in case and even at that price and stopping for food it is way cheaper for us then flying.

 

[mickeyholic]

We always drive, and we wouldn't do it any other way. We love stopping and having a picnic along the way (13 hours), and my husband and I traded out driving every 5 hours or so. It is not bad at all.

 

[Poohbug]

We drive down every year. We usually leave home around 8pm, with stops for gas, and the occasional potty break. Both kids sleep through the night (DD8 and DS6), then watch movies in the morning. Depending on traffic, we usually make it in around 16 to 17 hours. I wouldn't have it any other way. Give or take $600 round trip for gas, vs. over $1000 to fly.
PS, DH does all the driving.

I think we are going to try this the next time we drive to FL. We used to leave early morning-5-6 a.m. but I think driving thru the night will be better with the kids. I don't like to stop for a hotel anyway because it just seems to make the drive longer for me.

 

[boxer]

wow, I come back today and see all these responses!!........Now I'm not so worried about driving, and may in fact take a break mid-trip at a hotel. I figure we can drive from 3PM-1AM and get 'most' of the trip in, and wake up early the next day and finish it off, and be at WDW by lunchtime.

Now all I need is some good AP room rates for early November and we're off....

 

[kimmar067]

This will be our 5th trip down on I-95 coming from Cape Cod. We have never found a problem finding Service Stations w/restrooms available that were open and comfortable for us during the wee hours. (We use mostly large, big business service stations,(Hess, Shell, Mobil, Exxon...etc) they have been fine.)

....'bathroom'?? 'Wee' hours?? I get it!!

 

[Lil'DisneyMom]

We usually drive too! I am close to Cleveland. Usually on the way down we drive straight through. And the way home we drive about 9 hours then get a hotel. Alot easier to drive there!! Dh does all the driving. I drove once and kept hitting the rumble strips!! LOL I was tired!! This year we are leaving around 9 pm driving all night and stopping once we get into St. Augustine, Florida! We will have a 10 month old with us this time, so we might have more stops than usual. I am hoping both kids will sleep all night, and watch some movies in the morning. Getting a hotel in St. Augustine let the kids swim, go out to Dinner, rest, and be energized for the couple hour drive we have left to WDW.

 

[Kaler131]

We always drive, and we wouldn't do it any other way. We love stopping and having a picnic along the way (13 hours), and my husband and I traded out driving every 5 hours or so. It is not bad at all.

The picnic idea sounds great! Do you stop at a rest area and do it? I think my kids would LOVE that....and it's a great way to stop and stretch your legs out!

 

[We Love Tinkerbell]

We have driven this trip frequently. It is about 1,000 or so miles. When our daughter was young we would leave about 5:00 am stop in Savannah GA area overnight. Then next trip we went alittle further and made it to Jacksonville. After that, we realized that driving thru was probably no big deal. Now we leave around 7:00 pm and drive through the night. Our daughter is older so we don't have the "are we there yet" issue to contend with. It is a long drive, anywhere from 16 to 17 hours depending on traffic; however, driving during the night does help a lot. We generally switch drivers about every 3-5 hours. The day you arrive is can be a little rough due to lack of sleep but it is still much less expensive than flying.

On one of our early night driving trips, we marked the gas stations that were open during the night. Now we have our trip mapped out with specific stops at those areas. It is almost like putting the car on autopilot. I pack food and we eat in the car, that way we only make stops for gas/bathroom.