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

[Missytara]

Wondering about gas prices on the way down. Does anyone who just returned have any gas prices from any of the states?

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You can look for an average cost online.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Yup, we just returned last week... Home price northeast Ohio $3.79 ..... SC... $3.33 ......Fla $3.15....

We drive 1047 miles one way, gas averaged $ 3.15 for gas...

 

[ddluvsdisney]

You can look for an average cost online.

Thank ill check it out.

Yup, we just returned last week... Home price northeast Ohio $3.79 ..... SC... $3.33 ......Fla $3.15....

We drive 1047 miles one way, gas averaged $ 3.15 for gas...

Thanks!

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[goofyfigment]

I just looked back at our records for 2010 to present and funny the most expensive year for gas was 2011. Making the drive in a new car this trip hope its as good on gas as my cavalier was.

 

[AJRitz]

I figured I would introduce myself here, as I'm in the planning stages for our first driving trip to Walt Disney World. We usually fly, but with airline ticket prices continuing to rise and the kids getting older, we're going to give driving a try for this trip. It looks like our roundtrip total mileage will be about 2,500 miles, give or take.

Driving from the Kansas City, Missouri suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, it looks like we've got a few route choices:
1) Fastest Route: Just over 18 1/2 hours through St. Louis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Gainsville & Ocala. (I-64 to I-24 to I-75 to I-4)

2) Shortest Route: Just 20 miles shorter, but an hour longer, through Springfield, Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee, Gainsville & Ocala. (Roughly I-44 to I-65 to I-85 to I-75, but including lots of state highways instead of interstates)

We're planning on stopping roughly half way down, which depending on when we get on the road may be the wee hours of the morning. Does anyone have suggestions regarding the better route choice?

 

[cruisingkat]

I figured I would introduce myself here, as I'm in the planning stages for our first driving trip to Walt Disney World. We usually fly, but with airline ticket prices continuing to rise and the kids getting older, we're going to give driving a try for this trip. It looks like our roundtrip total mileage will be about 2,500 miles, give or take.

Driving from the Kansas City, Missouri suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, it looks like we've got a few route choices:
1) Fastest Route: Just over 18 1/2 hours through St. Louis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Gainsville & Ocala. (I-64 to I-24 to I-75 to I-4)

2) Shortest Route: Just 20 miles shorter, but an hour longer, through Springfield, Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee, Gainsville & Ocala. (Roughly I-44 to I-65 to I-85 to I-75, but including lots of state highways instead of interstates)

We're planning on stopping roughly half way down, which depending on when we get on the road may be the wee hours of the morning. Does anyone have suggestions regarding the better route choice?

Instead of taking I75 to I4, you would save even more time by taking the Florida Turnpike from I75 to Orlando. Granted, there are tolls, but the mileage and time saved are worth it. You pick up the turnpike south of Ocala. It runs on an angle to Orlando -think of a triangle where I75 and I4 are the legs of the triangle, the FL turnpike is the hypotenuse which is shorter than the sum of the two legs.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

gas buddy.com- very cool website

It you're wondering about gas prices this is where to go.

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[Princess Tink]

I figured I would introduce myself here, as I'm in the planning stages for our first driving trip to Walt Disney World. We usually fly, but with airline ticket prices continuing to rise and the kids getting older, we're going to give driving a try for this trip. It looks like our roundtrip total mileage will be about 2,500 miles, give or take.

Driving from the Kansas City, Missouri suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, it looks like we've got a few route choices:
1) Fastest Route: Just over 18 1/2 hours through St. Louis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Gainsville & Ocala. (I-64 to I-24 to I-75 to I-4)

2) Shortest Route: Just 20 miles shorter, but an hour longer, through Springfield, Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee, Gainsville & Ocala. (Roughly I-44 to I-65 to I-85 to I-75, but including lots of state highways instead of interstates)

We're planning on stopping roughly half way down, which depending on when we get on the road may be the wee hours of the morning. Does anyone have suggestions regarding the better route choice?

We live just North of KCMO, and will be driving in 22 days. We plan on going through STL. We typically fly, but with prices up we decided to drive this time. We haven't drove this route in 10 years. But a word of warning, plan your hotel coming and going... last time we drove we started looking for a room just south of ATL and didnt find a room until we crossed the FL border... and never found a room when heading back north. Several hotel clerks told us it was their 'busy season' with all the road trippers.

 

[AJRitz]

We live just North of KCMO, and will be driving in 22 days. We plan on going through STL. We typically fly, but with prices up we decided to drive this time. We haven't drove this route in 10 years. But a word of warning, plan your hotel coming and going... last time we drove we started looking for a room just south of ATL and didnt find a room until we crossed the FL border... and never found a room when heading back north. Several hotel clerks told us it was their 'busy season' with all the road trippers.

Thank you for this tip. I had hoped to be able to "wing it," especially on the way down. This will be the longest car trip we've taken with the kids, and we're not sure how they'll handle it. Guess we need to just make a plan and stick to it.

 

[dvczerfs]

I figured I would introduce myself here, as I'm in the planning stages for our first driving trip to Walt Disney World. We usually fly, but with airline ticket prices continuing to rise and the kids getting older, we're going to give driving a try for this trip. It looks like our roundtrip total mileage will be about 2,500 miles, give or take.

Driving from the Kansas City, Missouri suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, it looks like we've got a few route choices:
1) Fastest Route: Just over 18 1/2 hours through St. Louis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Gainsville & Ocala. (I-64 to I-24 to I-75 to I-4)

2) Shortest Route: Just 20 miles shorter, but an hour longer, through Springfield, Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee, Gainsville & Ocala. (Roughly I-44 to I-65 to I-85 to I-75, but including lots of state highways instead of interstates)

We're planning on stopping roughly half way down, which depending on when we get on the road may be the wee hours of the morning. Does anyone have suggestions regarding the better route choice?

hi aaron!!! welcome to the club.

 

[Goofygirl17]

Just ordered our tickets Will upgrade to PAPs after we go to our first park. Bummer about the price increase but we'll still save a little and will get about 4 weeks out of our passes.

42 days until we leave

 

[eisforpants]

I figured I would introduce myself here, as I'm in the planning stages for our first driving trip to Walt Disney World. We usually fly, but with airline ticket prices continuing to rise and the kids getting older, we're going to give driving a try for this trip. It looks like our roundtrip total mileage will be about 2,500 miles, give or take.

Driving from the Kansas City, Missouri suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, it looks like we've got a few route choices:
1) Fastest Route: Just over 18 1/2 hours through St. Louis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Gainsville & Ocala. (I-64 to I-24 to I-75 to I-4)

2) Shortest Route: Just 20 miles shorter, but an hour longer, through Springfield, Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee, Gainsville & Ocala. (Roughly I-44 to I-65 to I-85 to I-75, but including lots of state highways instead of interstates)

We're planning on stopping roughly half way down, which depending on when we get on the road may be the wee hours of the morning. Does anyone have suggestions regarding the better route choice?

We actually did one way going down and the other going back in January. The St Louis drive was probably a better drive. But then again we did the Memphis way on the way back so we were tired and just wanted to get home.

You'll be fine either way but I agree with taking the turnpike. So much easier.

 

[Dis_Dreamin]

Instead of taking I75 to I4, you would save even more time by taking the Florida Turnpike from I75 to Orlando. Granted, there are tolls, but the mileage and time saved are worth it. You pick up the turnpike south of Ocala. It runs on an angle to Orlando -think of a triangle where I75 and I4 are the legs of the triangle, the FL turnpike is the hypotenuse which is shorter than the sum of the two legs.

I figured I would introduce myself here, as I'm in the planning stages for our first driving trip to Walt Disney World. We usually fly, but with airline ticket prices continuing to rise and the kids getting older, we're going to give driving a try for this trip. It looks like our roundtrip total mileage will be about 2,500 miles, give or take.

Driving from the Kansas City, Missouri suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, it looks like we've got a few route choices:
1) Fastest Route: Just over 18 1/2 hours through St. Louis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Gainsville & Ocala. (I-64 to I-24 to I-75 to I-4)

2) Shortest Route: Just 20 miles shorter, but an hour longer, through Springfield, Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee, Gainsville & Ocala. (Roughly I-44 to I-65 to I-85 to I-75, but including lots of state highways instead of interstates)

We're planning on stopping roughly half way down, which depending on when we get on the road may be the wee hours of the morning. Does anyone have suggestions regarding the better route choice?

hi aaron!!! welcome to the club.

I agree 100%. Take the turnpike, then get off on 429 and come in from the west on Western Way. Of course, we usually stay on that side of Disney Proper anyway so it makes a lot more sense for us that way. Also, there's much less traffic than I-4 (from what I've heard) and you still get to go under the welcome to Disney sign. On our two drives down with the family, it felt like we were the only ones on the road once we got off the turnpike and onto Western Way.

BTW, Welcome to the 2000+ mile drivers club Aaron!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Definitely go through STL and take the FL Turnpike.

 

[mainelyj]

We leave in 2 weeks, on a Wednesday. We are driving from Maine. We plan to leave at 6am and arrive just north of Richmond, VA - where we are spending the night. It is supposed to be a 10 hour drive, but I am planning on 12 with traffic and stops. My concern, is I will hit rush hour traffic in DC.

What time is rush hour in DC? I could possibly leave at 5am instead??

Then we plan to leave our hotel by 6am to avoid the rush hour traffic going through Richmond, VA - do you think this plan will work, too?

What do you think?

 

[letthewookiewin]

Thank you for this tip. I had hoped to be able to "wing it," especially on the way down. This will be the longest car trip we've taken with the kids, and we're not sure how they'll handle it. Guess we need to just make a plan and stick to it.

I agree with the other poster about booking a hotel. We drove last year at the beginning of June. We're from North Texas, but went through Memphis due to visiting one of my DH's cousins. We started looking for a hotel for the night around Olive Branch, which is on the South-eastern side of Memphis. We didn't find a hotel until we got to New Albany. I just kept calling hotels along the route we were taking. Luckily, I had called ahead, because after I booked the room, 5 more people came in trying to book it. There were several huge baseball and softball tournaments in the area and it made it hard to get a room. We had the same problem in Tallahassee and it again was due to baseball/ softball tournaments.

We're driving again this September, and the DH just wanted to do it "on the fly" again. I reminded him about the problems with had getting hotels on the way there, and he had me start looking for hotels. It was a good thing, I ended up adding a night to the Disney part of our trip.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

We leave in 2 weeks, on a Wednesday. We are driving from Maine. We plan to leave at 6am and arrive just north of Richmond, VA - where we are spending the night. It is supposed to be a 10 hour drive, but I am planning on 12 with traffic and stops. My concern, is I will hit rush hour traffic in DC.

What time is rush hour in DC? I could possibly leave at 5am instead??

Then we plan to leave our hotel by 6am to avoid the rush hour traffic going through Richmond, VA - do you think this plan will work, too?

What do you think?

We were stuck in rush hour traffic near DC until 7 PM in February. Not sure if that's usual but it was AWFUL!!! We weren't planning on stopping yet but had to. I would leave earlier if you can.



We left at 5 the following morning just to be safe.

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[sharadoc]

We leave in 2 weeks, on a Wednesday. We are driving from Maine. We plan to leave at 6am and arrive just north of Richmond, VA - where we are spending the night. It is supposed to be a 10 hour drive, but I am planning on 12 with traffic and stops. My concern, is I will hit rush hour traffic in DC.

What time is rush hour in DC? I could possibly leave at 5am instead??

Then we plan to leave our hotel by 6am to avoid the rush hour traffic going through Richmond, VA - do you think this plan will work, too?

What do you think?

This is tough because there are numerous rush hours on your route before DC. If it says a 10 hour drive, and Richmond is around around 2 1/2 to 3 hours south of DC, then you're hitting DC 7 hours in, or 1 pm. That would be fine, but like I said, what about the other rush hours before that - NY, Philly, etc.

 

[vicki_c]

This is tough because there are numerous rush hours on your route before DC. If it says a 10 hour drive, and Richmond is around around 2 1/2 to 3 hours south of DC, then you're hitting DC 7 hours in, or 1 pm. That would be fine, but like I said, what about the other rush hours before that - NY, Philly, etc.

Rush hour in DC spans 3 pm- 7 pm, with the worst from about 4-6:30. But it's all bad at those hours.

 

[Yellowstonetim]

This may sound crazy, but consider, when going south on 95, taking 81 in New York or PA all the way to 77 south in southern Virginia, then straight south until you get back on 95. I live near Harrisburg Pa and my wife's family is in Florida so I know 95 like the back of my hand. 81 to 77 is about 30 miles longer but actually a shorter time and more pleasant trip. Its value all depends on where you would get on 81.