For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only! (II)

[dvczerfs]

What is more accurate for gas prices...gas buddy or AAA fuel cost calculator?

from pa to florida i seen gas from 3.68 in ga. to 3.25 in va.

 

[MamaJessie]

What is more accurate for gas prices...gas buddy or AAA fuel cost calculator?

I am curious about this too. I tried both and there is almost a $200 difference

hi all!!! we made it in 16 hours!!!!! got in at 2:30 on sat. talk to you soon!!had no traffic, we went 81-77-26-95-4. aloy of smoke in ga but went well.

 

[BC1836]

We just arrived minutes ago in Lake Buena Vista. We stay at an off-site hotel prior to our first night's reservation at the Grand Floridian in order to maximize our first day at WDW (and not paying for a night just to sleep at the Grand).

We departed at 1:31 a.m. and had an uneventful 17 1/2 hour drive with no traffic of note and just a bit of rain in northern, VA. A brief half-hour nap in VA. Two on-the-road tanks of gas in our 2011 CRV ($92.75). Best mileage: 34.1 mpg at times.

All the best.

Lots of highway patrol activity in GA (speeders beware) ...and lots of smoke (brush fires) from about 25 miles from the FL border in GA.

Time to exit the Holiday Inn Express and check in somewhere else.

All the best.

 

[blondietink]

from pa to florida i seen gas from 3.68 in ga. to 3.25 in va.

Wish I lived in a cheap state ..... gas went "down" to $3.95 here over the weekend.

 

[Guzzi]

hi all!!! we made it in 16 hours!!!!! got in at 2:30 on sat. talk to you soon!!had no traffic, we went 81-77-26-95-4. aloy of smoke in ga but went well.

Thanks for the info, we will be doing 81 to 77 to 26 t0 95 in a few weeks, little nervous about the first drive from syr to wdw, but my dtr is looking at it as an adventure

 

[C&G'sMama]

To all of you that just got there. Thank you for the reports and glad you all made it safely. Have fun!!!

 

[julluvsdisney]

only a few more weeks until our first road trip to disney. Love this thread alot of helpful hints! Thanks for the live updates!!!!!!

 

[dvczerfs]

Thanks for the info, we will be doing 81 to 77 to 26 t0 95 in a few weeks, little nervous about the first drive from syr to wdw, but my dtr is looking at it as an adventure

you will have a great time!! dont get nervous, 81-77-26 is a great way. we had no traffic. we hit charlotte around 7am on a sat. and there was nothing.

 

[dvczerfs]

ok, some how, and it was not planned, but sharadoc and i are both in the contemporary and our rooms are side by side. what would be the odds of that!!

 

[angelat]

ok, some how, and it was not planned, but sharadoc and i are both in the contemporary and our rooms are side by side. what would be the odds of that!!

That is so funny and totally awesome!

 

[sharadoc]

That is so funny and totally awesome!

I was wondering who those rowdy noisy people were - up all night!! No, we are NOT stalkers, LOL.

We must have been put into the AP discount wing!

Contemporary MK view is awesome. The resort itself is great, but we're ready to move to a 1BR villa. This 2 beds, one chair and sofa that doesn't face the TV is pretty claustrophic for us. We're moving to OKW tomorrow. We'll miss the Contemporary for sure. I'll be meeting PamJB for a G&T at the Gurgling Suitcase soon.

Hopefully I'll have time to take what I've written so far and make it into a full blown trip report. Got some awesome photos, hung out yesterday with one of my besties from college who I haven't seen since the 80's, and finally got to be one of those people who get off the monorail at the Contemporary for something other than Chef Mickey's.

 

[dvczerfs]

I was wondering who those rowdy noisy people were - up all night!! No, we are NOT stalkers, LOL.

We must have been put into the AP discount wing!

Contemporary MK view is awesome. The resort itself is great, but we're ready to move to a 1BR villa. This 2 beds, one chair and sofa that doesn't face the TV is pretty claustrophic for us. We're moving to OKW tomorrow. We'll miss the Contemporary for sure. I'll be meeting PamJB for a G&T at the Gurgling Suitcase soon.

Hopefully I'll have time to take what I've written so far and make it into a full blown trip report. Got some awesome photos, hung out yesterday with one of my besties from college who I haven't seen since the 80's, and finally got to be one of those people who get off the monorail at the Contemporary for something other than Chef Mickey's.

must be talking about the people on the other side of you.

 

[BC1836]

Dvczerfs and sharadoc: Keep your cell phones on today!

All the best.

 

[Guzzi]

you will have a great time!! dont get nervous, 81-77-26 is a great way. we had no traffic. we hit charlotte around 7am on a sat. and there was nothing.

Thanks Dv, Im just nervous due to the 5 other people in the car with me, Dw, s, dtr, SiL and niece all having to go to the bathroom at different times turning a 19 hour trip into a 10 day trip

 

[BC1836]

Earth calling dvczerfs...Earth calling dvczerfs: Tomorrow afternoon, we expect to cross paths with sharadoc at HS. Be there or be square.

All the best.

 

[dvczerfs]

Earth calling dvczerfs...Earth calling dvczerfs: Tomorrow afternoon, we expect to cross paths with sharadoc at HS. Be there or be square.

All the best.

keys to the kingdom in the morning and crystal palace for diner. we were at spirit of aloha tonight, great show.

 

[BC1836]

keys to the kingdom in the morning and crystal palace for diner. we were at spirit of aloha tonight, great show.

An early afternoon (?) meet and greet w/sharadoc and then dinner at Narcoossee's. Maybe we'll cross paths on Thursday?

All the best.

 

[dvczerfs]

Thanks Dv, Im just nervous due to the 5 other people in the car with me, Dw, s, dtr, SiL and niece all having to go to the bathroom at different times turning a 19 hour trip into a 10 day trip

what you do is stop every two hours or so. tell them to go now even if you dont have to. ive driven with 4 women and a 10 year old little girl already and it worked out. also, tell them if you cant hold what you drink for two hours, dont drink it!!!! trust me, the will only try it once!!!i dont drink much when im on the road, you just never know when your gonna hit that traffic jam.

 

[Laurabearz]

Thanks Dv, Im just nervous due to the 5 other people in the car with me, Dw, s, dtr, SiL and niece all having to go to the bathroom at different times turning a 19 hour trip into a 10 day trip

what you do is stop every two hours or so. tell them to go now even if you dont have to. ive driven with 4 women and a 10 year old little girl already and it worked out. also, tell them if you cant hold what you drink for two hours, dont drink it!!!! trust me, the will only try it once!!!i dont drink much when im on the road, you just never know when your gonna hit that traffic jam.

I have a one pee all pee rule which I enacted after it took us 9 freaking hours to drive from Chicago to Columbus Ohio.... sigh... we learned a lot that trip...

We are just back from our drive from Chicago to Orlando and things went fairly smoothly.

Got on the highway around 9pm and my husband drove until 11pm, then I took over from 11-5am. I had managed a 2 hour nap in the afternoon so I felt pretty good, but I bought a 5 hour energy and drank it in 3 stages lol

From 1am until 5 I found myself clicking off time in 15 minute intervals... Ok 1 ;15,,, Now it's 1:30... 1:45... etc and honestly it really helped. 15 more minutes is easier than 4 more hours, at least to my dinosaur brain 6 hours of comedy cds on my ipod helped a bunch too... (kids even complained I was laughing too much and woke them up a couple of times)

We hit some late morning traffic in Atlanta and I tried to get DH to stop before Atlanta to have breakfast, but he wanted to just get past it, then eat. I still think we should of stopped, but it was nice to have time to see the architecture styles of downtown... (we took 75 thru, used the carpool lanes and maintained 10-15 miles per hour)
Everyone is thrilled as you can see lol

I forget exactly when we arrived at Royal Pacific Resort, my guess is around 5 or 6pm... we checked in, changed, and went to Margaritaville for dinner! Nothing like a couple of nice Margaritas to help sooth road nerves lol We ate, Drank and all got Balloon Hats/swords etc

Family voted and we decided to NOT get up early to do Wizarding World Of Harry Potter and slept in, cruised to the park in the afternoon and found Forbidden Journey to have only a 20 minute wait at 7 pm...

Having two days to decompress at Royal Pacific was wonderful. No worries about getting up early 'for the golden hour' like at WDW.. Front of the Line access makes sleeping in CAKE!

Two thumbs up for driving straight through

On the way home we decided to split the drive into two days. We left around 11 am on Saturday and drove until 9 or 10 that night, then left at 5 am Sunday to finish the drive. Lucky us, drove through those storms

Saturday we hit nasty traffic in/near Atlanta....

Yup.. all four lanes merging into one... We hit the detour option on the GPS and took Routes for a while... it was slow going for a while.... so we didnt get as far as we wanted too on Saturday....

We got an early start on Sunday

Then the storms moved in..

The red pin is us...

Fun day of driving lol

Got home around 5 or 6 that night.

Other than that big traffic issue on the way home, both DH and I said it wasnt as bad as we thought it would be...

I have already started planning Road Trip 2012 Cedar Point/Niagara Falls/Hilton Head Island/Atlanta

 

[Guzzi]

Laura,
thanks for the advice, I may try the two hour rule but would like to strech it out a little longer. We will be leaving at 4-4:30am on Sat morning from syracuse, I'd like to try to get pretty far before the first stop, hopping DW and Sil and the kids dont get anything to drink right off the bat, everything will be closed at that time, (im gonna put a big coffee in the fringe overnite and nuke it in the am) and drive at least until I have to go....

The DW prefers to sit in a rest/stop/urant to eat, so there will be a pause for breakfast someplace, if i can only get them to sleep right off the bat.

but if I can get pretty far south into PA before breakfast, that would be cool

the plan is to get to Richmond HIlls Ga sometime, 15 - 16 hours (trip tick says 14:38 hours)depending on the # and lenght of stops and then sleep in a Best Western with free full breakfast for only 90$.

then its up sunday morning and a 4 hour drive to AKL, its gonna be interesting