Driving to WDW - when do you leave?

[Pdollar88]

I'm looking at a 9.5 hour drive from NC to get to Florida at the end of this month. I was thinking about leaving by 2 am so that I can get to the resort somewhat comfortably by 11:30. My goal is to catch the 12:30 holiday storyteller in France (Uber-ing to YC/BC to enter through IG), then heading to DHS.

I did that late night/early morning drive once, but that was right out of high school. I very much want to get there early - but the bouncing between Epcot and DHS might just be too much.

Any thoughts? What does your drive look like, and how early do you leave? Again, I have the benefit and drawback of being solo this trip.

 

[bbak30]

South Louisiana. We leave at 3am and make it in 10.5 hours with stops. It's awesome. Girls and I sleep for the first 4 hours or so. First stop is bathroom/breakfast/driver switch. Only one more stop for bathroom and gas and we are there for 2ish local time.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

We drive from NC often. My preferred pattern is to leave around 1pm and get into WDW around 10-11pm. Alternatively I like to leave at 6am and get there by late afternoon. I’m not much on leaving in the middle of the night because it leaves me worn out

 

[si-am]

Driving from North Atlanta. It's about an 8 hour drive since we like to stop every few hours. We usually leave at 6am and arrive at 2-3pm. It's nice because our room is always (knock on wood) ready by the time we get there, and we can leisurely unpack and settle in before dinner, usually at the food court. Then an early night before parks the next day!

 

[Pdollar88]

Driving from North Atlanta. It's about an 8 hour drive since we like to stop every few hours. We usually leave at 6am and arrive at 2-3pm. It's nice because our room is always (knock on wood) ready by the time we get there, and we can leisurely unpack and settle in before dinner, usually at the food court. Then an early night before parks the next day!

My initial thought was to get there around 2 pm and go straight to DHS.

If I was staying for a longer trip I wouldn’t rush to the parks, but I’ll only be there for two full days. And two partial days (afternoom arrival at DHS and departure morning at AK).

 

[fbarker]

Driving from North Atlanta. It's about an 8 hour drive since we like to stop every few hours. We usually leave at 6am and arrive at 2-3pm. It's nice because our room is always (knock on wood) ready by the time we get there, and we can leisurely unpack and settle in before dinner, usually at the food court. Then an early night before parks the next day!

We drive down from Chicago and stop north of Atlanta to visit family. We leave Atlanta after b'fast and drive down to around Gainesville. We are then only an hour or so from WDW and will arrive there on Saturday and drive right into a part around 9am

 

[Tomh]

We drive from NY every summer. It is about an 18 hour drive, as long as traffic isn't horrible. We always make the drive in two days. We start around 6 am the first day, and drive into Manning, SC where we spend the night. That usually takes us about 12 hours. The next day we try to get back on the road around 7 am. If we drive straight through to Disney, we figure we will be there by 1 in the afternoon, though the last couple of years, we have been stopping in Daytona for lunch before driving into the Orlando area.

 

[KenHutch]

We drive from Kansas City with 3 drivers on the car. We always break ip up a little by spending a day or two in Daytona Beach (so us middle of the country people can see the ocean) it takes around 20 to 21 hours. We always pack up the car the night before (except of the toy/snack bags I make up) and we leave at 05:30 hours. What I find interesting is we have done this enough that we seem to find ourselves refueling in the same places each trip. This does make meal and the short driving breaks we take much easier to plan.

 

[fla4fun]

If you could driver swap, it would be a no brainer, but I know I would not have the stamina to hit two parks after a drive like that. Are you spending any other time in Epcot where you could see the storyteller, and just hit DHS that first day?