Driving to Disney---13+ hour drivers

[boxer]

Rather than respond to posts made on a different thread, I figured I would start a new one to discuss my 'thoughts' about driving down. I just map-quested a trip to Disney, and came up with 1000 miles which I figured to take 14 hours and change (driving conservatively at 70mph, lol).

Does anyone try to tackle this driving straight thru? If so, do you switch with your signifigant other at the half-way point? The drive down wouldn't be so bad since you have anticipation, BUT that drive home must be brutal.

I'm thinking this because even with a recent DING offering, we'd still be paying $180/ea for round-trip tickets. Call me spoiled, but it wasn't long ago that I was getting DING fares for $44/each way, so I can't see spending more than $150/pp round-trip. Times that by (5) people, and you can see that airfare is pretty hefty for me.

 

[stky6]

We just drove back last weekend 1010 miles and 17 hours with stops. I like driving and drove the whole way, not to terrible. Going down you have the "I wanna get to Disney" anticipation...coming back you get the "I just wanna get home" anticipation so you get a boost both ways

 

[ChristaDeVil]

I love the drive! Ours is about 12 hours (with stops, of course), and I think that's part of the fun!

 

[delmar411]

it's 970-ish for us each way to WDW and it took us 18hrs to get down and 20 to get home. That's at/slightly above the posted highway speeds & combining stops for gas/food/potty breaks. Few stops for stretching legs. That was straight through both ways. I was the only driver and DH attended to the kids as needed.
Getting down was ok but getting home was really hard. Being awake and driving for almost 24hrs was extremely difficult to do and I don't plan on doing the full ride home in one day again.

ETA~ you said you map quested but you might have missed the part where it told you how many hours it will take at perfect speeds. 1000 miles will take you 16-17hrs with no stops at perfect traffic flow. 95S is rarely perfect traffic flow.

 

[boxer]

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!!!

 

[TessieA]

We normally drive, which is about 21 hours. We start very early in the morning, and drive around 17 hours, stop in a hotel, then get up early the next morning and arrive at WDW around lunch time. I enjoy the drive. 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.

This year, we are flying because we are going in September and can't be gone any more days than necessary. Honestly, I will miss the drive.

 

[baby1disney]

We drive down and it takes about 16-18 hrs, depending on the traffic and construction that maybe going on. We also stay over night in GA, closer to the FLA line. I think this time we're going to be driving for about 12-13 hrs, then stopping somewhere in GA. I guess from where we'll be spending the night at, it's only about 3-4 hrs from Disney!!!!

I love driving down!! We play games along the way and just generally have a good time.

BTW, what/who is DING?!?!? Never heard of this/that/them before

 

[boxer]

it's 970-ish for us each way to WDW and it took us 18hrs to get down and 20 to get home. That's at/slightly above the posted highway speeds & combining stops for gas/food/potty breaks. Few stops for stretching legs. That was straight through both ways. I was the only driver and DH attended to the kids as needed.
Getting down was ok but getting home was really hard. Being awake and driving for almost 24hrs was extremely difficult to do and I don't plan on doing the full ride home in one day again.

ETA~ you said you map quested but you might have missed the part where it told you how many hours it will take at perfect speeds. 1000 miles will take you 16-17hrs with no stops at perfect traffic flow. 95S is rarely perfect traffic flow.

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.

 

[boxer]

We drive down and it takes about 16-18 hrs, depending on the traffic and construction that maybe going on. We also stay over night in GA, closer to the FLA line. I think this time we're going to be driving for about 12-13 hrs, then stopping somewhere in GA. I guess from where we'll be spending the night at, it's only about 3-4 hrs from Disney!!!!

I love driving down!! We play games along the way and just generally have a good time.

BTW, what/who is DING?!?!? Never heard of this/that/them before

A DING is a special offer from Southwest where they give discounted rates on flights they are having trouble filling......used to be a VERY good deal with rates as low as $44 each way from Pitts/Baltimore. Now they are getting progressively higher, and nearing $180/round trip which to me isn't that great of a deal---hence my thoughts on driving down.

Just go to the Southwest site, and download the DING program, and you will get notified of these types of fares.

 

[Experiment_626]

My drive is only about four and a half to five hours, but I like the driving at night plan. Any time I can, I get everyone in the car at two or three in the morning. It gives us the whole day once we arrive, and traffic on I-10 and I-75 is at its lightest.

I usually wind up driving back late at night as well, because we can't stop ourselves from staying at one of the parks until closing on the last day. Going down and coming back, my wife and little boy are both usually asleep for most of the trip. On the drive back, I can get pretty sleepy if I'm not careful, especially on I-10 because that stretch is so boring. I usually load up several Disney-related podcasts and play those on the drive; because they are never exactly the same, they are more stimulating than music I already know by heart.

SSB

 

[Tynk13x]

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.

 

[ArrJay74]

We've made the drive a couple of times now. Its around 15 hours from our home to WDW. We've always split it in two days though. We stop in GA near the FL border. That way when we get to WDW we pretty much still have half the day.

 

[boxer]

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.

that's my thinking on the cost....I'll have a MINIMUM of $900 for flights, plus parking at the airport $100, plus rental car at Disney $250, plus food/misc at the airport $60 for a total of $1310.

My gas to get down and back would be around $400, plus misc food and novelties (got to stop at South of the Border) at say $200. I'm driving down for basically 1/2 what I'll fly for.

Let me know if I left anything out........

 

[Praying Colonel]

Our trip was 905 miles and took us 13 1/2 hours total time. We drove it straight back. I drove the entire way--DW and DD19 could've helped and offered a few times, but I was feeling OK so I just kept rolling.

I don't mind the drive home as much because we do it during the day. Driving straight down is tough because (a) a large part of it is in the middle of the night, and (b) we do it at the tail end of a long work week, so I'm already pretty tired. We definitely split that into shifts. I sleep as much as possible for the first leg of the trip and take over around 2:00 a.m.

I know what you mean about airline tickets being crazy expensive. Last year 4 of us flew non-stop from Indy to Orlando and back for $500 total. This year, the cheapest airfare we could find was more than double that. No thanks. We don't care for the hassle of flying, anyway.

 

[blondemom]

We drive, but we take breaks. However, we have an 18.5 to 19 hour drive. This year, though, we did a 12-hour drive to Myrtle Beach straight through (minus the bathroom breaks). We had everyone up and in the car by 3:30 a.m. When I tell you that there was NO ONE on the road until about 7 a.m. It was just plain weird. Our goal next year when we drive down to WDW again will be to wake up at 3 a.m. and go. We do plan on stopping for the night though. If we didn't, we'd be far too exhausted to do anything on arrival day. The parks are tough enough to manage when you are fresh and rested. After being on the road for almost a day straight, we'd all be miserable and at each other's throats!



Lisa

 

[kimsuenew]

Rather than respond to posts made on a different thread, I figured I would start a new one to discuss my 'thoughts' about driving down. I just map-quested a trip to Disney, and came up with 1000 miles which I figured to take 14 hours and change (driving conservatively at 70mph, lol).

Does anyone try to tackle this driving straight thru? If so, do you switch with your signifigant other at the half-way point? The drive down wouldn't be so bad since you have anticipation, BUT that drive home must be brutal.

I'm thinking this because even with a recent DING offering, we'd still be paying $180/ea for round-trip tickets. Call me spoiled, but it wasn't long ago that I was getting DING fares for $44/each way, so I can't see spending more than $150/pp round-trip. Times that by (5) people, and you can see that airfare is pretty hefty for me.

We are in NW Ohio, I think straight it is about 16 hours (I-75). We stopped about 1/2 way down last year. Coming back, we stayed at WDW until evening, drove to the Florida border, stayed overnight, got up early, and drove straight home from there. We got home around 2AM last year, and DH had to be up at 6:00 to get ready for work and I had to be up as well... to pick our dog up from the kennel and to go to college!

This time we decided to drive straight coming home again, but since we cannot leave until a bit later than initially planned to drive down to WDW, we plan on driving about 10-12 hours, stopping when DH is exhausted, getting a little comfy sleep in a nice hotel, and then being back on the road early (we would like to arrive at WDW by noon).

The drive back was looooong last year. My husband drives, he will rarely relinquish the wheel to anyone. For me, as I am the planner... the car's "navigation system"... I can take brief catnaps so it (the long drive) is not so bad. DH hardly ever drinks soda at home (and would not touch coffee or tea), but always take Mt. Dew with us for the trip down and back (full of caffeine)! We also do make a point of stopping to stretch our legs often (at nice rest-stops) or to get a quick bite to eat!

 

[vcgirl925]

First my opinion on driving down. I've done it every single time we've gone to disney except once and this up coming trip we will fly. It takes us about 17hours from NJ. I don't care to drive. It takes up two whole days out of your vacation and you are tired afterwards. So i much prefer to fly. However economically it's cheaper to drive even now with the gas prices so high if you have a family.

When we drive we bring drink and snacks in the cooler. We ALWAYS drive through the night. We'll leave at like 6pm and drive straight through. Stopping for potty breaks and mybe a meal. When the kids awake in the mornings we take more breaks so they can get out and run around. I rarely drive, maybe 2 or 3 hours out of the whole trip, my dh likes to do the drive himself and who am i to argue?

 

[delmar411]

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.

We took what map quest told us for 970 (15 hrs) and I est 18hrs. I pulled into the hotel 17hrs and 58mins after we left the house. We had no traffic, no delays either.

We drove during the day. We left the house around 4am (after 2hrs of sleep for me) and got to the hotel at 10pm. I would have preferred to drive at night but DH had to work until 2am so I had the kids all day & night and then had to clean the house and finish packing on my own. (can't stand coming home to a messy house )

My *perfect* way of doing it would have been... Sleep in the afternoon into the evening while DH watched the kids(take a mild sleeping pill if necessary). Then get up about 7pm, get the car loaded, the kids in pjs and take off. That way DH and the kids would sleep from about 8pm until 7-8am and then we be most of the way there and arrive just after lunchtime. With plenty of caffeine I'd have been able to do the rest of the day at the parks and crash for an early evening.

 

[srwarden1928]

I have driven 14 hours to Orlando nonstop alone. As my BIL says, when we were young and stupid. I was 20 at the time.
We drive 8-9 hours and stop for the night at an inexpensive place that we find in the AAA tourbook. Then we get to Orlando early afternoon the next day. We do what we want that evening, usually DTD, then hit a park at rope drop the next morning. We ALWAYS stay one MORE night in Orlando than we have park days. We dont do a park on arrival or departure day. Of course a minimum of four park days.
Last time, we did Cirque on arrival day and the Disney store on departure day. It was nice.

 

[PEANUT1]

I don't think you can do it in that short of time..let us know.

We are about 1000 miles to disney and I think it says it would take around 17 hours. We have never driven but are doing the autotrain in January. It is 900$ for us and we will have our car when we get there.