Driving to the World

[verge1116]

We also RED boxed a bunch of DVDS for the ride- only cost me $6 for 6 movies. We dropped them back off when we stopped for the night. Then got new ones on the way back

You can return redbox movies to a different state? I never thought of that!

 

[luvdisney00]

"We also RED boxed a bunch of DVDS for the ride- only cost me $6 for 6 movies. We dropped them back off when we stopped for the night. Then got new ones on the way back"


Awesome idea!!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Ah we drive! We are in NJ(Western Central) we are a family of 6!
Here is what works for us

I pack a bunch of new treats in backpacks.
We leave at 3AM!
Car gets packed night before.
Backpacks are not allowed to be open until after 7AM. (They usually sleep even longer than this-)
We can get a good 5 hours without having to stop. Then we do a quick gas breakfast break.
Drive another 4 hours
Break for lunch(and gas and bathrooms!)
Then drive through to GA where we stop for the night. This year we are thinking of driving all the way to Jacksonville-I read there is an Embassy suites there.

I find doing the MAJORITY of the driving day one is key! Second day nobody really wants to be in the car.

We also RED boxed a bunch of DVDS for the ride- only cost me $6 for 6 movies. We dropped them back off when we stopped for the night. Then got new ones on the way back

We like the flexibility. The ease of packing. No stress in the airport.

Sounds exactly like what we do, except we leave from Chicago and have not yet tried the Redbox thing -- but definitely will on our August trip. We drive 12-14 hours the first day, stop overnight and about 8 the next day, otherwise the trip would be unbearable.

 

[Zookeeperof4]

We drove from Pa in Nov for our trip to WDW. It took us 4 tanks of gas down and 4 tanks back(I have a Mercury Sable..same model as a ford taurus)..with a bit left over when we came home. It takes about 35-40 depending on the gas prices to fill up and we found once we were about halfway the price of gas was a bit cheaper by about 10-15 cents. We did take snacks with us for the drive to minimize the gimmes at gas stations and honestly they were so tired they slept for about half of the drive.
We had planned on getting a DVD player for the car but we ended up with a huge car repair right before we left so we did not have that.....they were ok, but it would have helped to take their minds off the drive sometimes.
Since it was Nov it was chilly til we hit about NC/SC lines and then it got warmer so we stopped at rest areas and ran around to stretch.

We had three kids with us. Ages 9,7, and 4.....I would have loved to fly but it was just to much for us.
In all we spent under 450 round trip for the traveling gas and food stops along the way. We did not stop at a hotel though, we had a family member at the halfway point so we could rest. Hope this helps.....

 

[momejay]

We drove from NJ to FL twice last Fall. We have a gas guzzler & the cost for gas round trip was about $275. Airfare cost was the main reason we drove.
We left after school on Friday & drove straight through arriving in Orlando around noon. (with short breaks for food & rest) We did stop for a big breakfast around 7AM. Sometimes just walking around the car is enough to give you a second wind as a driver. I nibbled on carrots & celery sticks all night. (The crunching helped to keep me awake, but much better than chips.)We rested in the hotel for about 3-4 hours & went to dinner. We saw some fireworks & went to bed. The kids, who slept the whole way down, woke up at dawn & we were off. The best thing about driving all night is no traffic. I recomend at least 2 drivers as doing this alone is VERY hard.

 

[tzolkin]

We also drive straight through-- it's about 23 hours for us.

My parents stopped a few times when we were little, but after sitting/napping in the car all day we never slept at the hotel so they found that stopping was a waste.

We find it much easier on the kids since they sleep through about half of the trip, so it winds up only being one day of driving for them instead of two.

Two years ago we visited DH's family in south FL for a few days before going to Disney, so we rested there. But last year we just decided to book an extra night at Disney. We got there in the afternoon and I wandered around the resort with the kids and ran to the grocery store while DH slept. We went to bed early and were out for EMH the next morning.

We slept in a bit on check-out day and left right before 11:00. We had lunch and headed home.


I'll have to look up my gas totals, but it was less than I thought it would be. (We drove a Ford minivan and a Honda). In 2008, the day we left for Disney was the day our gas prices went to over $4/gallon. I still think we spent under $300 on gas, so we saved quite a bit over the cost of 5 plane tickets.

 

[Mas17]

We have driven from Indianapolis to the World on many occasions. (family of 6) It's about an 18 hour dr. We try to make it as far as we can the 1st night. (we have even slept in our car at a rest stop or truck stop for a few hours during the night, to save on hotel. It's not that bad, if the weather is ok. (not to hot or cold).
I agree on bringing snacks, games, cooler, movies etc. We do stop at least once to sit down & eat just to break up the monotony (sp) of the drive.

I think it cost us about $300.00 round trip on gas (stop 3 times each way & once while there). I actually had a garage sale, a couple weeks before & made "gas" money from it. It was great!

How old are your kids - that could make a difference too. We have been doing it our youngest was 3 (potty trained) (14 now), on & off. We did fly once & it about "broke the bank". Try to travel early evening over night with low traffice if you can too. So the kids sleep.

Bev

 

[RachaelA]

DH and I have driven from Northeast Ohio (and will again in May). Its so much cheaper than flying (even for 2 people). We usually can make the whole trip (including driving around to all the parks) in less than 5 tanks of gas. We take a day to drive there and a day to drive back. Its a 15 hour drive for us. Once we have kids, we'll probably take 2 days to drive there and back.

 

[minniemair]

We've driven from NJ for all our trips-except the Disneyland Paris one! We usually stop for a few hours sleep each way. We've only driven straight thru once coming home, sounded like a fine idea at 9 pm, but by 3 am we were really tired and less than 2 hours from home so didn't want to stop then. Won't try driving straight thru again. When the kids were little, it was nice to have their own car seats, and they could bring whatever they wanted. We've never had a problem with the car getting broken into on Disney property. We average $300 for gas-for a Jeep or a Honda Odyssey. The worst year for gas prices we were in DW during Hurricane Katrina, and driving home, a station in Ga was charging almost $5 per gallon. That was definitely crazy!~

 

[cruiserkaren]

What are the ages of the kids when you all drive down?

 

[java]

You can return redbox movies to a different state? I never thought of that!

Yes any redbox location accepts any redbox movie. (We found one near our hotel on the website- it was in a walmart.)

 

[Gr8t Fan]

What are the ages of the kids when you all drive down?

We have 4 kids ages 13, 11, 8 and 2 and we've been driving down with them since they were about 2 months old.

 

[wgqual]

My parents always drove to Disney world from MD. As a kid it seemed like it took forever but we were going to Disney so it wasn't to bad
Now with tv's in the car and video games and Ipods it wouldn't be to bad. Sure beats looking out the window to see more tress

We would always stop at south of the border. Once we got there we knew it wasn't going to be much longer to Disney.

I now live in TX and we just drove out in Aug its about 1200 miles but it wasn't to bad. We drove thru the night so the kids would sleep. We looked at airfare for the 6 of us and its about 2k. That's a crazy amount of money so until the kids leave we will be driving.

MICKEYHEREWECOME I see you are in frederick. I grew up around there great town. Im sure its much bigger now i havent been back in 10+ years

 

[tzolkin]

What are the ages of the kids when you all drive down?

We drove the last two years. (23hr)

The kids were:
9, 4, and just under 2
10, 5, and just under 3


They have a box with a few activities in it and we have DVD players. I expected the first trip to be constant whining, crying, and puking but I was pleasantly surprised. They were well behaved and slept about half of the trip.

I was a bit worried our last trip about constant bathroom stops, since our youngest was newly potty trained. But DH drinks so much Mtn Dew while he drives that he always had to go to the bathroom before any of the kids.

My two little ones and I get carsick, but we have never once heard the "I have to go potty" cry.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

We drove down from NJ for the first time last summer. I was very nervous about how it would be. We had always flown before.

I loved it! So much so that we're doing it again this year.

This is how we did it. We left around 9:00 at night - drove straight through with DH and I doing 3-4 hour stints while the other one slept. I packed snacks and food so we only stopped at rest stops to go the bathroom or stretch our legs. We got to Orlando around 3:00 in the afternoon. I had booked a room at the Buena Vista Resort and Spa for that night (great rate) and we swam, walked over to the RFC at DTD for dinner and then rested. We were up bright and early to check into BC CL for breakfast!

On the way home we left around 6 am and drove to Hilton Head. We stayed there for 5 days before heading home.

We're doing it exactly the same way this year!

 

[arihillfarm]

We drive all the time as DH flies for a living and doesn't want to fly on vacation, LOL! Figure out how many miles you'll be traveling round trip and divide that by the miles per gallon that your car gets. Multiply the gallons needed by the going rate for gas and there's one part of your "how much will it cost" equation. If you buy snacks before you leave and pack drinks in a cooler, you'll save A LOT of money on a road trip. As you cross into each state, stop at the welcome center or any other rest area for that matter and pick up one of the hotel discount coupon books. Those are great for last minute overnight layovers. Just call one that looks interesting and make sure they have a room still available at the discount price.

-Astrid

 

[rockundergirl]

I have driven from central NJ 3 times. Its so much better in my opinion and saves you a lot and you have your own car. I'm a bit extreme in how i go about it. I make it in 15.5 hours. This is how I do it. The night before I'm Leaving I take a nap from 5pm to 9pm after packing the car. At 9pm I get up,
my son and ( x hubby or the devil as I like to call him) have eaten and are ready for sleep. I have just napped so I take shift one. My son and the other driver go to sleep, I listen to my ipod with ear phones and drive the first 8 hours ( i have food packed, only stop for gas and bathroom, my honda accord gets about 440 miles to the take of gas on the highway so I'm not stopping often) After 8 hours, We switch and I go to sleep. My son tends so sleep most of the 15 hour drive. Because we are driving over night, we hit no traffic and do a cool 5 miles over the speed limit the whole time lol. We arrive between 12 and one the next day ready to check in.

 

[wishwewerethere]

We are from central MA and we always drive. We love it! Our friends and family think we're nuts but its a lot cheaper than flying plus we have a car when there. It takes us 19 to 21 hours depending on traffic. We go straight thru stopping for gas, food, bathroom breaks(usually all three together to save time). I bring food to snack on, DVD's, music, etc.to keep the kids entertained. We leave around 1pm and usually arrive around 9am in Disney which means we have the whole day to begin our vacation. My DH and I switch about every 3 to 4 hours. The kids wind up sleeping for 9 to 10 hours of the trip so the back seat arguing is kept to a minimum! When they were younger we used to stop overnight but now that they are older its much easier to keep driving. We've done it about 17 or 18 times now and it gets easier every time. I dont even bother to print directions anymore. We can get there by memory.

P.S. Another reason why we drive is because DH hates to fly, if we cant drive there, then we dont go there!! So much for ever seeing DL.

To anyone contemplating driving, just do it, at least once. Anyone can just get on a plane or train but until you've driven thru NY,NJ, Baltimore and DC especially, you haven't lived!!!

 

[sticker231]

We have driven the past two times and since my older son hates flying, we will probably continue to drive. We drive straight through and it took us 15 1/2 hours each way. We leave around 7pm on the way down and 5 am on the way home. We pack the car with snacks, some drinks-not too many or you will have extra stops, and plenty of activities for the kids.

 

[D&DDisney]

Here is the AAA gas calculator. Will give you a general idea of cost for gas.

http://www.fuelcostcalculator.com/TripGasprice.aspx