Driving To Disney World Activities

[myhouseofmouse]

I tried looking for a thread on this topic but could not find one. We are going to be doing our First family drive to Disney world (from PA) this November. I was looking for suggestions on avtivities to do while driving down to pass the time. We will be driving down with a 13year old and 6 year old. Any suggestions would be great.

 

[bdklein]

Play the games ghost, and/or rhyme or related, and/or track license plates of out of state cars, andOr 20 questions. Should all be on the Internet

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Ghost?? Have never heard of that one.

the license plate game is a good one.

Now we are planning on surprising the kids and not telling them we are going until we are in the car. We have a dvd player in the car. I was planning on making up a dvd to tell them where we are going.

With the dvd player I was oning making up a Where in the world games by using pictures and Also making up a cd on disney songs and doing a name that Disney tune cd.

 

[dudspizza]

Our kids got a kids atlas each with cool maps, fun activities and even a page where they could keep track of license plates from different states. They really enjoyed using them.

I think we found them at Target.

Duds

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Our kids got a kids atlas each with cool maps, fun activities and even a page where they could keep track of license plates from different states. They really enjoyed using them.

I think we found them at Target.

Duds

Nice, I will have to check them out

 

[ParrotBill]

A kit of DVDs, books, drawing materials, food and drink, blankets and pillows covered it for years for us. For her tween and teen years we added a laptop PC for games and writing.

Movies really make the time pass.

 

[monorailsilver]

We just drove from ct to ft. Myers for our first and most likely last time, lol!

My kids ages were 11, well about 2 weeks from 12, 9 & 7.

We have a van and my mom drove down with us but flew home.

I got them each a container from five below-soft container, no top. In it they had a bunch of activity books.

They also had their iPods, iPad and either a lap top or DVD players to watch movies on.

I was going to print them a map but it was 35 pages x's 3 so I opted to get 3 trip tiks. There was minimal are we there yets and it was more "which page should we be on."

I printed a blank us map as well as a list of the states. I also found a scavenger hunt online. I wish I saved that link because it had everything you could thing of and more from cows to horses to an rv with a flat tire and a convoy of 10 motorcycles.

I don't mind the driving part but VA was long and NC & SC were also long but there was nothing to see other then paper mill tree farms. At least on the way back there were more cars going north so it made it go by a bit quicker.

We are opting to try the auto train next year. My Dh doesn't want to do that drive again. He said let's try the auto train so I am booked for April. It is still about a 5+ hour drive to get to Lorton and about 4 hours to ft. Myers but he is good with that short drive vs the long 12 hour day drive.

I am glad we did it because I know some people love it and like I said I don't mind taking a road trip the long states made us hate the drive.

 

[buckeev]

... Any suggestions would be great.

Fly.

JUST KIDDING!!!!
If you don't have a mobile wi-fi or the ability to tether a smartphone/tablet, you might wanna think about that.
It's a lifesaver for us. Just make sure your data allowance is pretty high...one movie from netflix can suck down a gig or more!

 

[atwmommy]

Keep searching the $5 movie bins!


We opted for the auto train, the drive does not seem like a vacation at all!

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Love the suggestions so far, even the fly ones!!!
I'm pretty sure this is going to be the "once" and done trip, but i do want to make the most of it and love the suggestions.


A. that treasure hunt sounds like a great idea, I will have to look into that.

B. the hot Spot is soemthing i can look into more, I have an old grandfathered phone with unlimited data so that could be an option.

 

[nono]

Rubberneckers game (amazon has it.)

We love the drive....hope you enjoy yourself.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Rubberneckers game (amazon has it.)

We love the drive....hope you enjoy yourself.

Rubberneckers, another good one. Never heard of it, but your right it is on Amazon, looks interesting. thank you

 

[monorailsilver]

I found the scavenger hunt list. This list was amazing. I just copied & pasted it into word & deleted things that my kids didn't have to see/look for like a drunk driver or people kissing, etc...

http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/stories/storyReader$1473

As far as the once in a life time driving trip, I hear ya on that one. DH & I have driven as far as Missouri from CT in his 2 seater Fiero. It wasn't bad because we had no kids wanting this or that plus there were no phones with internet so I did a lot of map reading/licence plate hunting & making up stuff for certain towns...like Mechanicsville is where all the mechanics live...stupid stuff like that.

So basically we took a drive from CT to Ft. Myers which was the farthest we drove this year & decided driving wasn't for us. If we had to we'd do it but we are taking the auto train in April. We will get to spend 1/2 of Saturday plus another 7 days on Bonita Beach, Ft. Myers Beach, Sanibel & Captiva...ahhh....

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My kids play Farkle (a dice game) in a shoebox lid. Obviously any electronics/movies you have. For younger ones, doodle boards for drawing.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

I found the scavenger hunt list. This list was amazing. I just copied & pasted it into word & deleted things that my kids didn't have to see/look for like a drunk driver or people kissing, etc...

http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/stories/storyReader$1473

QUOTE]

This is great thank you for the link.

 

[franluvsbubba]

A kit of DVDs, books, drawing materials, food and drink, blankets and pillows covered it for years for us. For her tween and teen years we added a laptop PC for games and writing.

Movies really make the time pass.

Books in CD are awesome too! We listened to the whole Indian in the Cupboard series(waaaay better than the movie), Gregor the Overlander series and the Ramona series when we have driven down to FL! It's amazing how the time flew.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

audiobooks, thats a good one, forgot about them. we have all of the Harry potter books on cd, I'm sure that would take a chunk of time out...lol

 

[franluvsbubba]

We just drove from ct to ft. Myers for our first and most likely last time, lol!

My kids ages were 11, well about 2 weeks from 12, 9 & 7.

We have a van and my mom drove down with us but flew home.

I got them each a container from five below-soft container, no top. In it they had a bunch of activity books.

They also had their iPods, iPad and either a lap top or DVD players to watch movies on.

I was going to print them a map but it was 35 pages x's 3 so I opted to get 3 trip tiks. There was minimal are we there yets and it was more "which page should we be on."

I printed a blank us map as well as a list of the states. I also found a scavenger hunt online. I wish I saved that link because it had everything you could thing of and more from cows to horses to an rv with a flat tire and a convoy of 10 motorcycles.

I don't mind the driving part but VA was long and NC & SC were also long but there was nothing to see other then paper mill tree farms. At least on the way back there were more cars going north so it made it go by a bit quicker.

We are opting to try the auto train next year. My Dh doesn't want to do that drive again. He said let's try the auto train so I am booked for April. It is still about a 5+ hour drive to get to Lorton and about 4 hours to ft. Myers but he is good with that short drive vs the long 12 hour day drive.

I am glad we did it because I know some people love it and like I said I don't mind taking a road trip the long states made us hate the drive.

Is the auto train cheaper than flying? We are in the Washington D.C area and depending on if we get a good deal, our tickets will run us about $550 for 3 round trip tickets.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Is the auto train cheaper than flying? We are in the Washington D.C area and depending on if we get a good deal, our tickets will run us about $550 for 3 round trip tickets.

The last time i looked into it, it was a more expensive then flying. I think it was like $300 a person. The only way I came out ahead was adding in the Car rental fee i would have had to pay if we flew, but then lossing the 2 days of travel, the cost savings were not there. ( at least for us)

 

[MOpGrad2013]

My kids (DS19, DS18, DD15 DS2) played travel bingo. You can print cards from most online sources. We had one set my mom had made that they could use erasable markers.

We had the kids atlases (rand mcnally) and those were good. Also, I ordered travel guides before the trips and then cut out places they might see. As they were older, they were just given the guides when we stopped at the state rest stops.

DD15 suffers from car sickness so had to pack benedryl for her to rest better. She can't read or color, but she can watch movies on larger screens.

Cameras for them to take their own pictures..we have had pictures of clouds, the other sibling's nose, but it was all fun to look back at.

I think you will be fine. Many folks swear by the "state line gift" and I think that will be something I will do for our next trip.

We drive everywhere..and they are all planning driving adventures when they have their families. Well, not the littlest one yet, but there is still time and he loves his car seat!

I don't know the route you are taking as we haven't driven it, but we have stopped in SC to see the giant peach water tower, Charlotte NC has a giant baseball water tower, Metropolis IL has a giant statue of Superman. I am sure your route will have a surprise along the road, even if it's "how many chik-fil-a cows can we find"

Enjoy your trip!!