Driving to HH from NJ, do you drvie straight through or stopover somewhere?

[lat]

thanks for the reply.

For us to get to DC, it probably will take 4-5 hours, so we are now thinking about doing an overnight drive. Get off from work around 5pm, start driving around 7pm or something. Maybe we can get to HH in the morning on a Saturday.

Currently we have a reservation at Disney HH for 1 night before we check into Mariott's Grand Ocean. Contacted Chef Gordon and will have a Private Affair dinner!!! He seems very very nice. Can't figure out the menu though, too many choices.

HH just sounds better and better!!! Only this drive scares me a little........

 

[JVL1018]

Originally posted by lat
thanks for the reply.

For us to get to DC, it probably will take 4-5 hours, so we are now thinking about doing an overnight drive. Get off from work around 5pm, start driving around 7pm or something. Maybe we can get to HH in the morning on a Saturday.

That's a good plan-you'll be hitting Baltimore and DC at off peak times. .
We also are about 4 hours away from DC, so if you ever decide to leave in the morning, I can tell you what works for us. )
We live right outside NYC, so we leave here at 6 am(no traffic) hit Baltimore at 9am(no traffic) and we are usually getting off the Beltway in No VA at 10 am(no traffic)...where we stop and have breakfast.
It's worked like a charm every time(knock on wood!)
I cannot sleep in the car at all-so unfortunatly we can't drive at night or leave in the wee hours like 3 am.

 

[lat]

We just moved from Hoboken to central Jersey. I think Bergenfield is close to it, right?

So do you get into HH at 8pm or so? The thoughts of having kids in the car asking me "are we there yet" a thousand times scare me I hope to drive overnight while they are sleeping but I may be extremely exhausted (I do almost all the driving and cannot sleep in the car at all).

 

[Ksp]

Looking for some driving advice:
Does anybody driving from NJ on down to Maryland...have a good way to go around DC area?
Is there a better way than 95 and it's bypass....can't remember the route number...495 maybe?? to get around DC?

 

[JVL1018]

Originally posted by lat
We just moved from Hoboken to central Jersey. I think Bergenfield is close to it, right?

So do you get into HH at 8pm or so? The thoughts of having kids in the car asking me "are we there yet" a thousand times scare me I hope to drive overnight while they are sleeping but I may be extremely exhausted (I do almost all the driving and cannot sleep in the car at all).

Bergenfield is farther north than Hoboken,maybe a half hour, we're near Paramus(aka mall central ), if we drove straight though we'd arrive in HH around 8 or 9 pm when leaving at 6 am.

 

[disvaclub92]

Originally posted by Ksp
Looking for some driving advice:
Does anybody driving from NJ on down to Maryland...have a good way to go around DC area?
Is there a better way than 95 and it's bypass....can't remember the route number...495 maybe?? to get around DC?

You are correct - it is 495 - what a nice break and trucks cannot use it too. Also, in Delaware you can use 495 Port of Wilmington - to get around traffic there too.

 

[Judique]

Originally posted by disvaclub92
You are correct - it is 495 - what a nice break and trucks cannot use it too. Also, in Delaware you can use 495 Port of Wilmington - to get around traffic there too.

I am afraid that trucks CAN and do use 495 around DC. Perhaps you were thinking of 295- The Baltimore Washington Parkway? 295 is not a route I would recommend - best to stick to the beltway. Getting by DC itself is not really the biggest problem - it's when you try to cross into Virginia and go on down I-95 from Alexandria to Potomac Mills that you may hit traffic and congestion. Avoid this by travelling at off peak times.

 

[mbw12]

We drive to WDW alot,. so driving to HH would be a piece of cake for us. We travel at night, and also have one of those portable tv/vcr players they are a GOD-SEND!!!!! It makes for traveling with our kids, now aged 4 and 6, very easy! They do great to WDW!!!!

Bobbi

 

[Ksp]

Originally posted by disvaclub92
You are correct - it is 495 - what a nice break and trucks cannot use it too. Also, in Delaware you can use 495 Port of Wilmington - to get around traffic there too.

Thanks! I'll check it out on the map.

Has anyone ever come down another way instead of 95??

 

[Par8hed]

My driving advice is to wake up around 7:00 A.M. and drive to the nearest airport. Even allowing time for security and the drive from the airport to Hilton Head you should reach the resort a little after 1 P.M. rested and relaxed. Besides airfare can be had for next to nothing these days. 12,14 hours in a car? No thanks. Drive to Florida? I'll do it once. When I retire and move there.

 

[TW1]

From Philly we drive on Saturday leaving 5am-ish and make it to South Carolina late afternoon, where we spend the night.

We get up early on Sunday and finish the trip. This brings us to the resort by late monring on Sunday. (Stopping on Saturday saves DVC points )

On the trip home we often drive straight through.

What I can't find is the cut-off for the HOV lane just south of the DC beltway

It's just after the 495 - 95 interchange and I know it's in the left lane, but we miss it everytime. Any clues as to how to get in these lanes?

Thanks

 

[AEN]

Originally posted by JVL1018
Bergenfield is farther north than Hoboken,maybe a half hour, we're near Paramus(aka mall central ), if we drove straight though we'd arrive in HH around 8 or 9 pm when leaving at 6 am.

JVL:

I'm surprised that it takes you that long. We drove down last year (from Parsippany) and it took us about 12 hours. However coming home did take 15 hours. We got stuck in traffic for over 2 hours at the construction in DC. Thank god we had a VCR.

My recommendation for anybody driving is get a DVD player. We just got back from WDW and never heard a peep. Even better was that we were able to plug in the Nintendo game cube so it broke up the movies with some games.

Next time I will take Rt 78 out to 81 and cut back in on 64 by Richmond. It is worth a try. When we drove this time we left at 10:00 in the morning on a Friday. We made it straight through DC with no problem. However immediately after it took us 2 hours to go 20 miles. No accidents just mid afternoon Friday traffic. Real treacherous on the driver. After Richmond we did not hit an ounce of traffic and made it straight through to Daytona by 3:45 am.

Just some thoughts.

p.s. Yes, we were so tempted to stop at HH on the way down.

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

We usually drive from Central Texas to WDW. Now that DD (2 months ) is here, we will only drive since airfare for 5 is not cheap.

It takes us 17 hours or so. We always have made it to Pensacola which takes us 12-13 hours.

Our strategies:

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

OOPS!

Our strategies (continued)

1. Leave early! (We pack up and head out around 3:00 am so the kids will still sleep many hours)

2. Bring the DVD player!!

3. An unlimited supply of Cheetos seems to help!

4. Pack a grab bag of toys. I hit the dollar tree and bought lots of toys to bring out a new one every couple of hours. Ideas--plastic slinkies, stickers and paper, Koosh balls, magna doodle, spinning lollipops, etc

I think 12-14 hours is very doable in one day if you are prepared

Good luck!

 

[crazyaboutdisney]

we leave at about 4 am and drive to columbia, sc , about 12 1/2 hours. we then have only 2 1/2 hours the next day. we like to enjoy the whole day when we arrive. we drive thru erie, pa, pittsburg, pa, charlotte nc. we seem to not hit real heavy traffic. we leave in 24 days with 4 children, can't wait to make the drive. this is our 4th trip to hh (our favorite of all disney resorts, wish that it was our home resort)

 

[jmminarik]

Originally posted by Ksp
We've also taken the auto train - will be taking it for two of our trips this year - buying tickets 6-12 months ahead made the cost reasonable. When I compared the cost of gas and our hotel room both ways, the auto train was only 50.00 more....and we don't have to stay awake to drive. I'll let you know how it goes this time.

Do you get a sleeping compartment on the train? We've never been able to justify the cost of the train, but that's because we can't sleep in any position but horizontally. My other beef with the autotrain is it starts below DC. Philly to south of Richmond is the only part of the drive that really bytes. I like NC, SC, GA and FLA...usually empty roads, nice greenery to see.

For us, so long as we avoid northern virginia during rush hour, we can make the trip to/from WDW in about 16 hours with minimum stops. Of course, we don't have kids and having hours and hours to be alone and talk is a nice break from having to pay attention to other people and their problems.


-Joe

 

[Ksp]

Originally posted by jmminarik
Do you get a sleeping compartment on the train? We've never been able to justify the cost of the train, but that's because we can't sleep in any position but horizontally.
<snip>
-Joe

We are trying coach for these trips...as long as we have to be in a seat in a car, we thought that sitting in a seat in the train w/out having to drive (other than about 3 hours to get to the Virginia station) would be the next best thing.

We have used sleeping compartments for other trips and really enjoyed the whole journey. Verrrry relaxing, actually. (It's my personal favorite way to go.) Cost-wise it doesn't really work out too cheaply, though. Even flying occasionally works out to be much cheaper...and that's including car rental during our stay!!
Now that our oldest is in college, we just can't justify the cost of the sleeping compartments....tuition costs really have to come first.