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

[pilferk]

Some questions for the group:

What kind of GPS do you all use? Does it have traffic service on it? How well does it function on your ride to Florida (especially down 95)?

We have a nuvi 255WT, lifetime traffic...which we almost never get the chance to use, since we're in the NW corner of CT where it's not usually much of an issue.

Last trip that we drove down, we had a trusty Tom Tom (which is now in my car, actually), which did great at the directions, but had no traffic service.

I'm wondering if the nuvi is going to try to route me around DC (to avoid the traffic headaches) or not.....

 

[RH22]

I noticed that you said "stay away from driving on Fridays" so maybe you can give me some advice. We have made the drive a few times (we live in Bergen County) but, never in the summer, we tend to go in Jan. Feb. March or April. We have planned a trip for June and were thinking about leaving on Friday June 24th and have tossed around different departure times. Some departure times we are considering are (1:30pm-right after DS gets out of school, it's his last day, 7pm or 9pm - we decided to eliminate leaving during 3pm-7pm because we figured there would be alot of shore bound traffic). We are planning to drive straight through. So, my question to you is: which of the above mentioned departure time would be best to avoid traffic (not just here in NJ but also along the way) or would it be better to have DS9 miss the last day of school and depart a day early on Thursday June23rd in the early evening (DH works until 4:30pm). Thanks in advance. Any other tips about driving down in the summer would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I prefer leaving later at night. For us, it's just better to avoid any rush hour type traffic around NYC. We drove down in May of '08 and left from in-laws place in NJ at about 8PM or so and drove straight through, arriving at WDW at about 1PM. We're going again in August and planning on leaving from LI at about 8-9PM.

 

[dvczerfs]

I noticed that you said "stay away from driving on Fridays" so maybe you can give me some advice. We have made the drive a few times (we live in Bergen County) but, never in the summer, we tend to go in Jan. Feb. March or April. We have planned a trip for June and were thinking about leaving on Friday June 24th and have tossed around different departure times. Some departure times we are considering are (1:30pm-right after DS gets out of school, it's his last day, 7pm or 9pm - we decided to eliminate leaving during 3pm-7pm because we figured there would be alot of shore bound traffic). We are planning to drive straight through. So, my question to you is: which of the above mentioned departure time would be best to avoid traffic (not just here in NJ but also along the way) or would it be better to have DS9 miss the last day of school and depart a day early on Thursday June23rd in the early evening (DH works until 4:30pm). Thanks in advance. Any other tips about driving down in the summer would be greatly appreciated.

hi mousebymarrage, like you, we generaly go non summer times. the times we did go, dd danced in the mk. we are going june 18th this year and leaving on a friday. i would head out as early as you can. just like the garden state pkwy, the entire east coast (i95 etc...) gets very crowded from about 2-3 pm or so with shore traffic. also, i95 from about south of the boarder north can get very busy also. im going 81-77-26-95-4 and leaving around 2pm. im staying away from the shore for as long as i can. your best bet, if you can do it, leave nj shore around 9pm and drive through the night. have a good trip.

 

[dvczerfs]

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I prefer leaving later at night. For us, it's just better to avoid any rush hour type traffic around NYC. We drove down in May of '08 and left from in-laws place in NJ at about 8PM or so and drove straight through, arriving at WDW at about 1PM. We're going again in August and planning on leaving from LI at about 8-9PM.

sorry rh22, didnt see your reply. good advice.

 

[sharadoc]

I'll conserve posts space by answering both of these:

I noticed that you said "stay away from driving on Fridays" so maybe you can give me some advice. We have made the drive a few times (we live in Bergen County) but, never in the summer, we tend to go in Jan. Feb. March or April. We have planned a trip for June and were thinking about leaving on Friday June 24th and have tossed around different departure times. Some departure times we are considering are (1:30pm-right after DS gets out of school, it's his last day, 7pm or 9pm - we decided to eliminate leaving during 3pm-7pm because we figured there would be alot of shore bound traffic). We are planning to drive straight through. So, my question to you is: which of the above mentioned departure time would be best to avoid traffic (not just here in NJ but also along the way) or would it be better to have DS9 miss the last day of school and depart a day early on Thursday June23rd in the early evening (DH works until 4:30pm). Thanks in advance. Any other tips about driving down in the summer would be greatly appreciated.

Oh boy - don't drive on Friday evening or Saturday morning/afternoon at all. Traffic becomes a parking lot from Washington DC to Richmond VA, starting early afternoon on Fridays and 9:30-10:00 am on Saturdays. We experienced it in 2009, hitting DC on Saturday at 10:30 and took 5 hours to get to Richmond. Last year in 2010, we left on Saturday morning and hit DC around 9:15. We did okay, just a little bit of stop and start traffic for the first 40 minutes or so, but we were ahead of the main traffic.

Some questions for the group:

What kind of GPS do you all use? Does it have traffic service on it? How well does it function on your ride to Florida (especially down 95)?

We have a nuvi 255WT, lifetime traffic...which we almost never get the chance to use, since we're in the NW corner of CT where it's not usually much of an issue.

Last trip that we drove down, we had a trusty Tom Tom (which is now in my car, actually), which did great at the directions, but had no traffic service.

I'm wondering if the nuvi is going to try to route me around DC (to avoid the traffic headaches) or not.....

We use a Tom Tom, mostly to check speed limits, timing to arrival and other extraneous info. Otherwise, it's "get on 95, get off at I-4, get off at Disney World." The biggest tip I have learned with a GPS is to use a machine-generated voice, not a pre-recorded human. The machine-generated voice can actually pronounce the names of the streets, rather than "make the next right" which can be confusing if there are more options.

Never paid for the traffic service - probably would use the Droid phone for that.

 

[disneymam]

Leaving from PA in the morning gets us to Santee around 8 PM with short bathroom breaks. We are looking for a decent place to stay along 95 at Santee or even a little farther south along 95. Any suggestions? TIA!

 

[PrincessMom4]

Not sure how clean the places are but there are some Days Inn in Santee/Manning area. There is a MIcrotel in Walterboro which is super clean that our family likes.

 

[pilferk]

We use a Tom Tom, mostly to check speed limits, timing to arrival and other extraneous info. Otherwise, it's "get on 95, get off at I-4, get off at Disney World." The biggest tip I have learned with a GPS is to use a machine-generated voice, not a pre-recorded human. The machine-generated voice can actually pronounce the names of the streets, rather than "make the next right" which can be confusing if there are more options.

Never paid for the traffic service - probably would use the Droid phone for that.

We "end around" 95 through NYC (going Rte 8, to 84, to 684, to 287, to the Garden State Pkwy)...otherwise it's pretty much the same for us. I'm just wondering if the traffic service is any good and/or if it will route us around traffic in DC (assuming we hit it...we should hit DC around 10-11 AM on a Wednesday morning).

Lifetime traffic CAME with the GPS. I wouldn't have paid for it either, since most of our traveling is pretty local, and traffic isn't usually a problem (never mind that our area of the state doesn't get it, anyway).

 

[BC1836]

I noticed that you said "stay away from driving on Fridays" so maybe you can give me some advice. We have made the drive a few times (we live in Bergen County) but, never in the summer, we tend to go in Jan. Feb. March or April. We have planned a trip for June and were thinking about leaving on Friday June 24th and have tossed around different departure times. Some departure times we are considering are (1:30pm-right after DS gets out of school, it's his last day, 7pm or 9pm - we decided to eliminate leaving during 3pm-7pm because we figured there would be alot of shore bound traffic). We are planning to drive straight through. So, my question to you is: which of the above mentioned departure time would be best to avoid traffic (not just here in NJ but also along the way) or would it be better to have DS9 miss the last day of school and depart a day early on Thursday June23rd in the early evening (DH works until 4:30pm). Thanks in advance. Any other tips about driving down in the summer would be greatly appreciated.

Ah, finally getting back to your question, but as usual the excellent participants on this thread have already provided you with useful info.

Now then, when we say we leave "very, very early," we mean just that: no later than 3:30 a.m. (even earlier on a Friday because of the traffic in southern MD-northern VA on I-95).

All the best.

 

[dvczerfs]

Leaving from PA in the morning gets us to Santee around 8 PM with short bathroom breaks. We are looking for a decent place to stay along 95 at Santee or even a little farther south along 95. Any suggestions? TIA!

we stayed at the hampton inn in walterboro, it was clean.

 

[mousebymarriage]

Thanks so much for all your help everyone. Hubby and I will be discussing the Disney Driving Plan again tonight, we like to plan things way ahead, planning is half the fun of vacation. I am kind of leaning toward leaving early evening on Thursday (not just to avoid some of the weekend traffic but, to get that extra Disney day).

 

[dvczerfs]

Thanks so much for all your help everyone. Hubby and I will be discussing the Disney Driving Plan again tonight, we like to plan things way ahead, planning is half the fun of vacation. I am kind of leaning toward leaving early evening on Thursday (not just to avoid some of the weekend traffic but, to get that extra Disney day).

thats all ways the best reason to leave early!!

 

[PrincessMom4]

We are just waiting for a closer, hopefully more accurate picture of the weather when we leave. I am terrible excited and can't wait to escape this cold.

 

[dvczerfs]

bring your gas credit cards!!! gas is trading for 2.73 today. if that sticks, that will put gas in the $3.40-$3.50 range on i95. it went up 12 cents alone today with no end in sight!

 

[BC1836]

bring your gas credit cards!!! gas is trading for 2.73 today. if that sticks, that will put gas in the $3.40-$3.50 range on i95. it went up 12 cents alone today with no end in sight!

Gas prices in that $3.50 range shouldn't be a major concern in the short-run considering the percentage of gas costs to the price of an overall WDW vacation. But if crude oil prices top the $120 ppb mark then the retail price at the pump breaks the $4 ppg level nationwide, and that's when real concerns emerge across the board. And there's a chance that a $4 ppg at the pump may seem like the "good old days" if the Mideast chaos continues. [And we only get 2% of our oil from Libya!] Flying to WDW as a cheaper alternative won't work due to the increased fares and surcharges. And then the price of everything goes up due to transportation costs. The subsequent impact on the already bad unemployment picture could be devastating. A little stability in North Africa translates to less-stressful 2,000+ mile round-trip drives to WDW.

All the best.

 

[mmwood68]

I'm joining the club! We leave for our big drive from Michigan to WDW on April 1st. We plan on leaving around 4 am, heading down 75 to the other side of Atlanta for the night. Gas prices are starting to scare me but I'll tighten up the budget a little bit over the next few weeks to save up for it.

 

[dvczerfs]

Gas prices in that $3.50 range shouldn't be a major concern in the short-run considering the percentage of gas costs to the price of an overall WDW vacation. But if crude oil prices top the $120 ppb mark then the retail price at the pump breaks the $4 ppg level nationwide, and that's when real concerns emerge across the board. And there's a chance that a $4 ppg at the pump may seem like the "good old days" if the Mideast chaos continues. [And we only get 2% of our oil from Libya!] Flying to WDW as a cheaper alternative won't work due to the increased fares and surcharges. And then the price of everything goes up due to transportation costs. The subsequent impact on the already bad unemployment picture could be devastating. A little stability in North Africa translates to less-stressful 2,000+ mile round-trip drives to WDW.

All the best.

from what an oil dealer told me this morning, as you said, we only get 2 percent from lybia but the problem is coming in were the u.s. can refine sweet and dirty crude oil into gas and diesel. most of the rest of the world can only refine sweet crude. the rest of the world is trying to lock the $ for sweet crude and its driving the price up. lybia is a big supplier of sweet crude. its up another 5 cents again today to $2.77. he told me we are lucky that the supply is up in the u.s. or it would be alot higher than what it is. algeria is another big supplier of sweet crude and its starting to boil up over there. i use 100 gallons to drive down and back so for every dollar a gallon it goes up, it cost me $100 more. i wont stay haome for 2-300 dollars more.

 

[patclairesmom]

What is the traffic like around Jacksonville @3-4pm during the week? Is it better to use their beltway around and if so, which way-east or west?

 

[dvczerfs]

What is the traffic like around Jacksonville @3-4pm? Is it better to use their beltway around and if so, which way-east or west?

ive been lucky over the years, i never got stuck in traffic through jacksonville. the construction is finaly done, unless they started something since december. i would stay on 95, it will start getting busy but you should be ok. that beltway takes you waaaaaaaaaay out of your way.i did the beltway one time. no traffic but its like driving to alabama and back.

 

[BC1836]

What is the traffic like around Jacksonville @3-4pm during the week? Is it better to use their beltway around and if so, which way-east or west?

It is our pleasure to follow the wise words of the experieneced dvczerfs: There's a big difference between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. in and around Jacksonville. And, to be sure, it's the same siutaion in and around any city or metro area. The 3 p.m. time is definitely better; however, you'll be hitting the end of rush hour by the time you drive through Orlando on I-95.

All the best.