Driving to DW ?

[SlightlyGoofy]

NCRedding, would you happen to know of a similar site for the I-75 route?

Would take some of the guesswork out of where to stop. We have had many favorites through the years but things change all the time and not necessarily for the best.

Thanks. SG/Linda

 

[amcnj]

Well DisneySteve, that is why I said you have to evaluate your own drving habits. By that I meant what works best for your family. While driving through the night does not work for you, I know many people who do drive through the night and get good sleep doing so, except the driver of course! I know my kids would be logs the whole way down! But I would be too tired to ever try this. I start dozing once it gets to nightfall. Others think we are crazy for driving at all! That is why a really early morning leave time works for me. I am only getting up a few hours earlier than usual and hacve no trouble driving the whole way and still being lucid! Everyone has to evaluate what works best for them.

I have to agree that South of the Border is rather seedy and all, and to be honest the billboards are not even as good as they were years ago. But it is a place to stop and the kids look at all the low cost toys and souvenirs and get to pick something out. I have no desire to stay there overnight, but a 20-30 minute stop is one of the highlights for the kids.

 

[Jon99]

We leave the Chicago area around 3:00 PM on Fridays, when my wife gets off work..I normally do all of the driving and we go straight thru to WDW, usually arriving around 10:00 AM.... In the past we have planned our stops on when we needed fuel, gribing a bite to eat and potty breaks all at the same time.. This trip we will plan our stops around when our 7MO DD needs a break.. Works out very well and even though I don't sleep, a quick shower when we check in gets me refreshed and I feel fine..

On our last day at the parks, we pack the Jeep bright and early in the morning, head to the parks until about 4:00 PM, have dinner at the Yachtman and try to be on the road by 6:00 PM.. Then drive until about 12:00 and stop for the night somewhere in southern Georgia, giving us a 12 hour drive, instead of a 17 hour drive, on our drive day...

 

[roadtripper]

Someone already posted the fact that wdwinfo's home page has a great link for exit-by-exit stops on I -95. Read it! Print it! Parts of VA can get scary when you're looking for gas, and a AAA trip tik is great, but doesn't tell you what is coming up at the next exit when you're craving Cracker Barrel or Subway, etc...

We used to drive when I was a kid, so maybe it's in my blood, but here's what we do from central MA:
School and work on Friday--leave around 5 PM (we're both teachers)
drive till we get over the Tappan Zee-- stop for dinner in NJ
Set up sleeping bags and pillows for the kids (7 and 9), then they crash
Drive all night (actually, DH LIKES to drive at night-- go figure)
(I bought him the Lord of the Rings audio CDs for Christmas to motivate him to pull the overnight shift )
Kids wake up in SC-- we stop for breakfast
Drive like crazy-- check into the hotel around 3 Pm, swim, early dinner, asleep by 6 or 7, and ready for the MK the next day.
We are DVC members, so we don't check into our home resort until Sunday anyway. I usually get a good deal on Priceline for Sat night, and we hit the parks fresh on Sunday.
I should mention that Santa brought a portable DVD player this year, but we have done 3 trips without it, with minimal problems. It's part of the adventure, and we tell the kids we wouldn't be able to go to Disney if they couldn't cooperate in the car (which is the truth). I guess my username says it all! Have fun!

 

[from Canada]

I have to agree about the time of flying vs driving. We will be driving for the first time in Feb. The last 2 times we've flown. Part of our reasoning for driving this time was #1 money- its quite a bit for 5 of us to fly from Toronto, we don't get as good of deal as there are available in the states (don't get me going on that). #2 the last time we flew, we left our house at 6am for a 10:00 flight, the flight was delayed due to weather (thank god it wasn't cancelled) and when we should have been at our hotel at 2:00, we got there at 6pm! So 12 hours later we arrived. That is a little more that half of the driving time from here. So we are going to try the drive. Our van has a DVD, and Ive bought a few new movies for the kids. Also, today at CAA (AAA) I found some neat travel activity books for the kids. They were only about $5 each and are packed with activities including licence plate game and car bingo. TTFN
Karen

 

[2d_star_to_the_right]

We drive yearly from Massachusetts with 3 children now 6, 3 and 1. We have toys, books and other stuff in the car for the kids to do and we have lists of things to spot- like the Welcome sign to each state and counting how many South of the Border signs we see and bridges and stuff. We also have a TV/VCR- we play disney movies which helps set the atmosphere. Our kids think tv watching in the car is a big treat and loads of fun. We generally only take the tv on trips longer than 4 hours-but reality is- sitting for 20+ hours over 2 days is tough and I enjoy watching the TV when it is my shift off driving as a way to destress!

As for overnight stops- forget SOuth of the Border- it is fun for a rest stop but not where you should spend the night. If you aren't planning on going the whole way in one day- then I would stop somewhere in South Carolina mid way/top of Georgia- lots of hotels at every exit of every chain and of every price.

I also don't like driving at night- while I know the traffic is less- I just have a hard time staying awake- plus the kids sleep and then when we stop they are ready to go and we are exhauted. We try and stop at a reasonable hour at night so that everyone gets well rested for the next day- saves on family fights!

 

[pjshaff]

We found a great stop last trip. It ws Acworth, GA 1-75 exit 278. A small shopping mall with a nice clean motel in the back and several eating places there. Fast food and otherwise. Saw a country bar and grill, Arby's Taco Bell etc. but we tried out a place called His and Hers and it was a good deal. Good southern cooking and it was only about $5 for all you could eat. We will stop there again.

I live near exit 277 and it has a Publix, Domino's, Zaxby's chicken, and this little Italian place behind Chevron called Stromboli's that is TO DIE FOR. Reasonably priced, too.

There's 3 hotels on this exit also.

His and Hers does have good food, doesn't it?


Pam

 

[Belle1962]

I live off of Exit 277--small Disworld isn' it?.

If you can make it a few more miles down the road--about five minutes--there's the entire Barrett Parkway area. (Kennesaw GA)

The Town Centre mall (complete with Disney Store)
tons of restaurants (TGI fridays, Chilis, Macaroni Grill, On the Border, Golden Corral, Bahama breeze, Steak n Shake, Burger King, Chick Fil A, Starbucks, Olive Garden, red Lobster, Three Dollar Cafe, McDonalds, in the mall: Ruby Tuesday, Food COurt, American Cafe, Piccadilly Cafeteria
and hotels (Hampton Inn, holiday Inn Expres, Motel 8, Red Roof Inn, Days Inn, Wyndham Inn, all I can think of right now).
Plus two sets of movie theaters--if you're in the mood for a movie and not just crashing in your hotel.

It's the most builtup area for shopping and entertainment in our neck of the woods.

 

[skiwee1]

Originally posted by disneysteve
Absolutely. That's always my reasoning. Plus the cost of a rental car for the week when we get there, we save about $800 by driving. Of course, the downside is we lose a couple of days of vacation, but we enjoy the ride so that's part of the trip too.

Steve

We have the opposite problem. It costs us more to drive down the to fly! We can fly for the 3 of us for abour $500. When we drive we take 3 days to get there and 3 days to get back. It doesn't cut into our vacation time at WDW though as we always stay 10-12 days which we feel is good for us. We spend almost $400 alone just on the hotels to get there and back. Add another $200 for gas, another $300 for food and we are talking a lot more then airfare! We drive because we like the experience better. We love to stop at the Cracker Barrels so we can eat and shop. Oops! Add another $100 for shopping! LOL! DD also loves those hotels we stop at since we get one with an indoor pool. We also like the feeling of getting one state closer to WDW. We make the whole driving a part of our vacation. DD would much rather drive then fly. She also loves to stop at South of the Border to shop in their junk shop. It makes a good place to let her unwind, do a little walking, and so on. I would never spend the night there though. Too unsafe I think. There are plenty other stops that are much nicer and safer. We also pack a huge back of play things for her to do. I've found that we rarely use our TV/DVD in the van. She prefers the new books and activities I surprise her with. Just make sure you have enough for both ways and not just the way down! We are going back in April and I have already started buying stuff for the Disney bag for her to do. I also get her some new little toys that she doesn't see until we are on the road. I love driving down.

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

We drove with a 4 year old and just turned 2 year old this past June from Austin, Texas. My "tips":

1. We don't do much TV at home (no cable--2 half hour PBS shows daily--and one of those is Between the Lions--(former first grade reading teacher here) But on the road trip I say, "BRING ON THE MOVIES!!!!" We brought lots of Disney movies which also helped the kids "know" the characters.

2. I brought a "secret" bag of toys and pulled out new ones every hour or so. Examples:---plastic slinkies, spinning light up Disney toys; travel magna doodles; pipe cleaners to make into shapes, necklaces, etc.; silly putty; fruit loops and yarn to string; small cookies sheets with magnetic letters and shapes (all from Dollar Tree); attached to the cookies sheets--crayons in an altoid can with a magnet on the back for coloring; Color Wonder markers and paper; stickers and paper; felt kids sets; colorforms/window clings to stick on the windows. I guess that's all I recall, but they LOVED having new things to do.

3. We don't drive through the night, either. My kids have never been car sleepers--they just catnap. So we left at 4:00 am. With frequent stops, lunch at Cracker Barrel in Lafayette LA and a tropical storm from the Texas/LA border all the way to Orlando, we made it to Pensacola the first night. Checked in to a Courtyard Marriott by 7:00pm. Then up early and arrived at WDW by 2:00pm next day.

4. For hotel stops, we have always gone with Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn, and Courtyard. They are less than $100 and all seem to be fairly new and very clean. And, free continental breakfast which easily saves us $20 or so.

5. My other tip that will make some of you cringe. The secret to keeping my 2 year old happy on such a long car trip is an ENDLESS SUPPLY OF CHEETOS!!! We don't "do" junk food at home, so he thought that was the best treat ever!!

6. My four year old who has been reading for a while was also very interested in following our route along on the map, looking for the next state sign, miles to next city, etc.

We really did enjoy the drive as we both hate to fly. And, we were able to pack that van full!!! Brought our own stroller (savings of over $100 versus renting); ice chest, water, groceries, pack n play, you name it!!!

HTH

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by skiwee1
We have the opposite problem. It costs us more to drive down the to fly! We can fly for the 3 of us for abour $500. When we drive we take 3 days to get there and 3 days to get back. We spend almost $400 alone just on the hotels to get there and back. Add another $200 for gas, another $300 for food and we are talking a lot more then airfare!

I'm curious about your numbers. It takes us 17 hours to drive from NJ. Why does it take you 3 days from Maryland, or do you just go slow on purpose to make it part of the vacation?

If you stop 2 nites each way, you must be staying in some nice hotels to spend $400 in 4 nites. We've never spent more than $50/nite on the way down.

Your food budget is a lot higher than ours too. We usually pack snacks in our cooler and sometimes pack lunch also. We'll do dinner somewhere casual like Dennys or Sbarro. Breakfast the 2nd day is usually included at the hotel and we'll be in Orlando in time for lunch.

We definitely enjoy the ride, as do you. A lot of people just don't seem to get that when we tell them we're driving.

Steve

 

[skiwee1]

Originally posted by disneysteve
I'm curious about your numbers. It takes us 17 hours to drive from NJ. Why does it take you 3 days from Maryland, or do you just go slow on purpose to make it part of the vacation?

If you stop 2 nites each way, you must be staying in some nice hotels to spend $400 in 4 nites. We've never spent more than $50/nite on the way down.

Your food budget is a lot higher than ours too. We usually pack snacks in our cooler and sometimes pack lunch also. We'll do dinner somewhere casual like Dennys or Sbarro. Breakfast the 2nd day is usually included at the hotel and we'll be in Orlando in time for lunch.

We definitely enjoy the ride, as do you. A lot of people just don't seem to get that when we tell them we're driving.

Steve

We stop two nights because we don't like to drive 14 hours in one day. So we split it up doing the most driving the first two days and just having 3-4 hours the last day. We spend around $85 a night on a hotel not including tax so that is about $400 for 4 nights. We stay at the Marriot properties mostly but sometimes stay at Country Inn and Suites. Sometimes we get a good deal as low as $69 a night but using our AAA or my mom's AARP discount it is more like $85 a night at the Marriot. We stay at the nicer hotels because we like the interior halls, feels safer with just us girls, and must have a nice indoor pool. As far as food, we stop for breakfast at a restaurant like Bob Evans on the first day out as we don't have the free breakfast yet. On the other mornings we grab a quickie breakfast in the hotel and then stop at Cracker Barrel for decent lunch. Dinner is always at some place nicer like Outback or a local seafood restaurant. We chose our hotel locations based on the indoor pool and also being close to nicer restaurants. So we are talking about 2 breakfasts, 6 lunches, and 4 dinners I think. Somewhere around that anyway! LOL! So that adds up since we don't do fast food. I do that enough at home with DD's favorite food being the McDs happy meal! We add the driving part as an added extra to the vacation. If we had to take away nights spent at WDW to drive then we would fly instead. We also do not rent a car at WDW but lire a driver. Once at WDW we like to take the monorail or buses to the parks. Even when driving down we park the van at the Poly and don't use it again until we leave 10-12 days later. I am sure we could do it cheaper but just don't want to so driving for us is not a way to save money. We would get away cheaper by flying.

 

[Phrank40]

We usually fly from NC to Orlando, but have driven 3 times in past 8 months. Perhaps just times of the year - around Easter, October and after Christmas - but Interstate traffic terrible. Last April we spent a good portion of time on I-95 going from 60 mph down to 20 back to 60 down to 20. Not just for a few miles but all along the highway. Finally got 30 miles from WDW and thought trouble was past then spent next hour trying to get through Orlando area on I-4. I think this was a Saturday.

Going down after last Christmas, on a Saturday, was even worst. I don't know how many times we just came to a stop on the Interstate in SC, Ga and Florida. Luckily I had a AAA flip map which showed side roads which ran parallel to interstate. We finally got on some of these, several which were 4 lanes or good 2 lanes and made good time.

Part of the problem is the amount of traffic at holiday times and the large amount of construction along the interstates. Of course, there was also the time that someones luggage fell off or out of their car into the middle of the interstate and backed traffic up for 20 miles. My brother flew over this area of the interstate at 11am in the morning in his small plane on his way home and noticed traffic backed up for miles. In my car I hit this area at 7pm and traffic backed up, no one got the luggage/debris out of the interstate the entire day.

Phrank

 

[skiwee1]

We time it to travel to WDW usually on a Tuesday or Wedneday. We do the same on the way back. I would never travel 95 on a Friday-Monday! I'm sure it is a parking lot! We also make sure we are not in a crowded city during rush hour. We also don't go to WDW during the holidays. Our trips are the 2 weeks AFTER Easter and two weeks at the beginning of October. Thankfully we have never hit any traffic and always go at a good pace even on I-4.

 

[momof2inPA]

That GA exit 277 sounds like where we stopped a couple weeks ago. There were plenty of newer hotels, so we stopped and asked for a few prices. We stayed at the Comfort Inn for $49, but if I had to do it again I would stay at the Wingate for $59. The Comfort Inn was pretty much a dive, but the breakfast was good. It took us 5 hours to get from Universal to there.

Twice on the way down, when we hit stopped traffic on 95, we exited and used roads that parallelled the interstate on the coast. The scenery was lovely, and it only added an hour to the trip. Don't know how long we would have been in the stopped traffic.