Driving to WDW from Philly. Any advice?

[mtquinn]

Anyone here make this drive before, and fairly recently? About how long does it take? I know we will need to stop overnight. Any location and/or hotel suggestions? Traveling with my DH and two DD's (ages will be 6 and 10). Yes, they are not terrific in the car.

But we have all the "stuff" to try and make it as comfy as possible for them: DSI's, in-van dvd player, coloring books/reading books, Mad Libs for the older DD, etc.

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Kathi OD]

Anyone here make this drive before, and fairly recently? About how long does it take? I know we will need to stop overnight. Any location and/or hotel suggestions? Traveling with my DH and two DD's (ages will be 6 and 10). Yes, they are not terrific in the car.

But we have all the "stuff" to try and make it as comfy as possible for them: DSI's, in-van dvd player, coloring books/reading books, Mad Libs for the older DD, etc.

Any advice is appreciated!

While we haven't driven in a number of years, we used to drive all the time with 3 kids. We always made sure to leave in the later part of the evening, around 9PM, so as to get through DC a little after midnight (less traffic, but not always). We also packed a cooler with fruit, juice, jelly, etc. A bag with cookies, bread (don't forget the knife), peanut butter, granola bars.

We never stopped at a motel, but would stop along 95 in a rest area and take turns sleeping, so a couple of pillows. We always stopped somewhere and had a big breakfast. We lived in lower Bucks County, and with stopping for several hours, it usually took us around 21 or 22 hours. One time we hit a lot of traffic and it took 24 hours.

 

[ArielRae]

We live in Medford, NJ. We have driven down twice and just recently in Nov. It takes us about 20 hours to complete the drive down. Definitely get a room for the night. DH and I drove it straight thru this last time home. Left at 3am got home about midnight and we where practically basket cases from being in the car so long.

We pick hotels just by grabbing a hotels discount book at a rest stop in the state we plan to stop in and then look up the hotels on trip advisor before calling to tell them to expect us. It has worked well so far.

Pack your favorite drinks and snacks as they are really expensive on the road. Besure to take turns driving every few hours. You may not think you need it yet but take it anyways. You'll be happy once the hours add up.

 

[Mousermom]

Hey There!

A few years ago, my husband and I drove down with our DS. He was 8 years old at the time. We left around 1 a.m. and we arrived at South of the Border around 8 a.m. Our son slept from the time we left Philly until we got to SOTB. We had breakfast there and drove to a Days Inn in Savannah, GA. We stayed overnight there. It was right off of I-95. We left Savannah around 10 a.m. the next morning and got to Disney around 2:30-3:00. Of course, there were several bathroom stops and fill-ups on gas.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Have you thought of Amtrak's Autotrain?

You have to get to Lorton, VA (two exits South of the Capital Beltway) on I-95 around 2:00. The train leaves about 4:00 with dinner and breakfast provided. About 9:00 the next morning you arrive in Sanford and they drive your car from one of the carriers. and you are about 40 miles from WDW.

Schedule is basically the same in reverse. When we lived in the DC suburbs, if we did not fly we would sometimes drive one way at take the Autotrain the other or Autotrain both ways.

 

[mtquinn]

Have you thought of Amtrak's Autotrain?

You have to get to Lorton, VA (two exits South of the Capital Beltway) on I-95 around 2:00. The train leaves about 4:00 with dinner and breakfast provided. About 9:00 the next morning you arrive in Sanford and they drive your car from one of the carriers. and you are about 40 miles from WDW.

Schedule is basically the same in reverse. When we lived in the DC suburbs, if we did not fly we would sometimes drive one way at take the Autotrain the other or Autotrain both ways.[/QUOTE

THanks for the advice, but it is close to flying once you factor a round trip. For four of us and an oversized vehicle, it's $430...even with AAA. It is a nice way to travel, though, if you don't want to fly.

 

[mtquinn]

We can't leave in the middle of the night. Our kids simply won't sleep well in the car. They will be way too excited. Plus, we are heading to the burbs of DC to pick up my DH's niece and husband. Gotta stop for the night at a hotel somewhere.

 

[gillenkl]

We leave from Delaware around 3:30am (most recent trip August '10) and spend the night at Springhill Suites in Savannah GA (clean, nice pool, free hot breakfast, and Cracker Barrel is right out the door). Our kids do not sleep in the car either and we don't have any issues. We usually get to the hotel, swim, eat and go to bed early. We are up at 6AM the next morning, eat the free breakfast at the hotel and are back on the road again - get to Disney by noon.

We did the autotrain once when they were young and frankly the cost for us was equal if not more than flying.

 

[simonsmom]

rent dvds from redbox and look up return locations for where you plan on stopping(usually walmarts have them). that way you can entertain them with never before seen movies. also when we stop for gas I always treat them to something- like an ice cream, candy bar,etc

 

[pc1234]

The family and I drive everywhere. We normally rent a driver for the week we are out and have him or her do all the driving. We have a motor coach we travel in with full kitchen, full master bedroom, full bathroom, satellite TV, full Internet service, and we pull our suburban behind the motor coach. as far as we are concerned it could take a month.

The tree hugers hate us but who cares.

I would suggest taking I95 stright through or jump over to I77 to I26 to I95 if you want the mountain scene.

 

[rock_doctor]

If you want you can look ahead of time for a hotel using their website but get the book once in the state because you will have to turn in the coupon. http://travelcoupons.com/

 

[tlh0726]

We can't leave in the middle of the night. Our kids simply won't sleep well in the car. They will be way too excited. Plus, we are heading to the burbs of DC to pick up my DH's niece and husband. Gotta stop for the night at a hotel somewhere.

Gettysburg PA area here, we are driving straight through for our April trip.

Would it be possible to drive to DC spend the night with the people you are picking up and then going the straight through from that point?

 

[Donnainnj]

We are in central Jersey and like to travel about 14 hours the first day, usually start at about 5:30am, stay around Darien Ga. We then only have about 4 hours left. You should be able to leave a little later (we leave then so DC is usually done with rush hour when we go through) and cut off a bit of time from ours. After DC the ride is usually pretty easy.
Donna

 

[5forDiz]

OP I am so glad to read you want to stop overnight, we have done this trip with our kids (youngest is now 14) more times then I care to think about since early 1990's and in our opinion it is not worth the stress and being over-tired (and that will happen even with several drivers) to push all the way through to WDW without an overnight stop. It is well worth it to unwind, get a nice dinner & sleep in a bed ( I know people stop to sleep in rest areas but sorry, just our humble opinion, even if it has security and someone stays awake it is a situation that can be risky )

Our favorite stop both southbound and homeward bound is Hilton Head Island - - it is a longer first day drive from NY but we love the island and then it is just 5 - 6 hrs to WDW; we have DVC so sometimes we will stay at Disney resort but often I will bid Resort Category on Hilton Head with Priceline and will get either Westin, Marriott, Hilton or Crowne Plaza resorts ( all oceanfront ) for $85 per night & sometimes less depending on time of year; you just need to be sure that you will make it to HH Island for night you book when using Priceline because that reservation is non refundable. We leave home at 4 - 5 am and reach the island between 4 and 7 pm.

We try to stay in Hampton or Hilton Garden Inns or Marriott properties when on the roadtrip; they are usually cancellable up to 4 pm or even 6 pm on day you are supposed to arrive so in case you find you want to drive less or more than you anticipated the cancellation policy can be important.
We find Hampton/Hilton/Marriott to be consistent in quality and we earn points with their frequent guest clubs.

Here is some mileage and overnight stops by I95 we pefer; mileage is from our home here in southern most part of NY state :

Driving south :

Rocky Mount, NC Exit 138 / Highway 64 East / Winstead Ave. (near medical center) 460 miles *** we prefer this stop when we are driving back home, Hampton Inn / Marriott Residence Inn, Outback & Highway 64 diner; there's a mall nearby but we've not gone to it.

Dunn, NC Exit 73 520 miles : Hampton Inn, Sagebrush Steakhouse

Fayetteville, NC Exit 49 550 miles (our midway point to WDW) Hampton Inn / Marriott Fairfield, Cracker Barrel

Florence, SC Exit 160-A / David McLeod Blvd. / Radio Road by Magnolia Mall 640 miles Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton, Springhill Suites, Chili's & other dining across David McLeod Blvd. by Magnolia Mall

Hilton Head Island, SC Exit 8 775 miles *** it is approx 25 miles east from this exit out onto Island itself
as mentioned, we stay at Disney resort or bid Resort level category on Priceline or there is also a Hampton Inn on island and Holiday Inn on beach too OR closer to exit 8/just off I95 is town of Bluffton. SC which has Hampton, HI Express & plenty of dining & shopping too. Savannah, Georgia is just a bit further south (maybe 30 minutes) and also offers plenty of good hotels, dining etc.

Have fun planning & feel free to pm me if I can answer any more questions you may have

 

[sarah4770]

You can make the drive in about 16 hours from philly.
We've done it straight through, and we have also stopped over night.
If we stop overnight, we usually just stop when we are tired, there are plenty of hotels along the way. I wouldn't overplan it. Unless you are traveling over a holiday weekend, then it might be a little harder to get a room at the first place you want.
The one thing I would warn you about is traveling through DC. Time it so you are not passing through at am or pm rush hour, or you could sit in traffic for a long time( if there is an accident), and that is very frustrating.
From Philly if you left at 2-3 am or 7am you would miss the rush hour.
If you left that early (2 or 3) , you can make it to wdw before midnight, but it is tiring.

 

[mjbaby]

We drove down last summer from Chester County. It was a great experience!

We took the inland route, down 81S. As I recall, we left just as Friday morning rush hour was ending (after a nasty, nasty storm - thousands had no power). We stopped in Harrisonburg, Virginia for lunch at 1ish and then drove on to Appomattox Court House. We stopped there to look around a bit and do the tour, taking about two hours, and then continued on to Cary, NC to stay over a the Residence Inn.

The next day we drove to St. Augustine. I don't remember where we stayed - a Fairfield, maybe? We let the kids swim after dinner and the next day visited the Spanish forts before heading to Orlando (a two hour drive, maybe?).

Coming home we once again used 81 as our primary highway. We did a gonzo run from Orlando all the way to Harrisonburg and stayed at a place called The Village Inn. It's an independent, quirky place that had a neat pool for the kids (you can find it on TripAdvisor if you're interested). The next morning we woke up at the crack o' dawn and were walking through our front door before noon.

For me, the trip was a perfect mix of driving productivity and interesting "content". I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[PittPantherfan]

We live in Erie but take our dog to the grandparents in Gettysburg for a doggie vacation. We leave at no later than 5 am for a weekend or 4:30am for a weekday to get around DC before traffic is a nightmare. We take I95 all the way to Florida. (We lived in Philly for 3 years and we were so excited to see Wawa's all the way down through Virginia!) We always stop because we miss the Philly pretzels they sell. We stock up and usually that is our breakfast stop that morning.

We travel to Santee, SC and stay at a Howard Johnson's (believe it or not they are still around). This one is small but clean and has a decent continental breakfast. Price is usually cheap especially when you get the discount books from along I95 rest areas or the South Carolina welcome center. It is not the Taj Mahal but is good for a quick overnight. I am a clean freak and it passes for me. Last time we stayed was in 3/2009, things could have changed but we have stayed there at least 3 over the last 7 years and it has been good everytime.

We usually get there around 4-5 ish. Just in time to relax a little. We usually go next door to Pizza Hut for dinner which is right beside the hotel.

It is a shorter drive the second day to Orlando. I think it is a little less than six hours. We don't usually get up that day really early -probably on the road by 9am and get there at check in. We like to stop at Sonney's BBQ for lunch in Jacksonville. It is a basic family style BBQ restaurant but has good BBQ.

We have done these long drives with three kids as babies, toddlers and now they are 10, 7 and 4. They have all done well on the trips. Just stop regularly and bring a soccer ball or something that the can get out and do at the rest stops. I did the trip twice pregnant as well at it was fine. When I think of dealing with 3 kids flying and dealing with the airport, driving seems more pleasurable for us at this time.

We are going again May 1 and the kids can't wait until we get to the Florida welcome center - they are always giving samples of fresh squeezed Florida OJ and grapefruit juice. For us it always says, goodbye winter!!

 

[disneymarie]

We can't leave in the middle of the night. Our kids simply won't sleep well in the car. They will be way too excited. Plus, we are heading to the burbs of DC to pick up my DH's niece and husband. Gotta stop for the night at a hotel somewhere.

I am a gramma that does not do well in the car, dd has a real problem with anxiety. Actually split it up,

Auto train down with a room, AAA discount and had the car there did not have to rent, cut out some gas and had a nights sleep. The best part, ds and grandson just love trains. Slept well even with trains flying by. There was an excellent supper, great breakfast.
For 5 with two rooms, and the oversize van it is under $900 with AAA discount.

The return we drove back (dh, dd, and I flew down, they did auto train)

I dreaded the drive back but surprisingly did not do bad. We left a reasonable time, stopped in Daytona and another race track on the way. Before South of the Border, in Florence, I think S. C. right off the interstate we called with a AAA code and they honored the internet price.

It was about 8 pm. we had a great night sleep, on the road in the AM. My the 13 that gets car sick and anxious had to switch to the front seat of the Odyssey van. DH and I rode the rear. It was a bit cramped but we stopped at great shops, unusual shops, roadside areas. Drove through DC at night, and got to NE pa about midnight.

If I do that again, i think I would like to stop somewhere on the way back for an extra night, just to see the USA and have another nights rest.
If I ever get a chance to go, if flight cost is $$$ not the $70 deal we had I would love to take the train,
have a wonderful time.

 

[nyc mouse]

my suggestion is stopping at a holiday inn or a comfort suite with an indoor pool. Its a little pricey but well worth it. We did it 3 times in the past year and a half. my DGs are 7,6 and my DS is 2 we leave about 5-6 am we get to florance sc about 6 pm with the normal kid stops. We give the kids a break from the car and an extra fun day. we eat dinner after we check in the get our suits and go in the pool for about 2-3 hours then go to the room and wind down. we leave the hotel around 9-10am and we r in orlando about 5pm with the normal stops and the official fl welcome stop. My wife and i were thinking of leaving at midnight but same thing the kids wont sleep good in the car and when u get to va,nc,sc all the trees and no lights make me so tired. our first trip i told her we can keep driving till i get tired but the down side of that is that the kids have been sleeping so when we have to wake them up to go to the room they wont want to go to sleep. remember the kids have been sitting in the car all day so why not let the pool tire them out. if you stop in nc for anything pick up the hotel guides for sc and they always have coupons for the hotels they r usually around 70-80 a night. I hope this helps and keep in mind the vacation starts as soon as you leave your house not when you get to disney. good luck and have a great vacation

 

[chellewashere]

This August will be our 3rd trip down driving with my DD (5). She is good with sleeping in the car. We get her up early the day we are leaving and then no naps..we leave Philly around 10PM at night when she is good and tired and will sleep for the majority of the trip. We always stop in Kingsland GA on the drive down. Very easy on/off I-95. Hotels are nice and pretty cheap (around 50-70). We get up early in the AM to head for Disney. Its only about a 3 hour drive from there to the front door of our resort. We check in, get our parking paper and head right to the park so we are at our first park of the day around 9AM and fully relaxed.
Have a safe trip!!