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

[Goofygirl17]

Really hope that storm moves out to see and doesn't come up the coast. I really don't want to have to figure out alternate routes or drive through driving rain.

 

[java]

ok for the I81 77 drivers- anyplace to stay along that route- I am thinking we would be ready to break for the night near the kick off to 77. The hotels are all over the place- we are a family of 6 so a suites hotel would be great but I would do 2 rooms if the price was right.

 

[justakrazymom]

We are thinking of taking 95 thru NYC ( from w.mass) verses the nonsense route our GPS took us last year ( ended up in almost town traffic in NJ in the rain in the middle of the night..sucked)..any input?

 

[poohmom715]

ok for the I81 77 drivers- anyplace to stay along that route- I am thinking we would be ready to break for the night near the kick off to 77. The hotels are all over the place- we are a family of 6 so a suites hotel would be great but I would do 2 rooms if the price was right.

oops.

 

[nono]

We are thinking of taking 95 thru NYC ( from w.mass) verses the nonsense route our GPS took us last year ( ended up in almost town traffic in NJ in the rain in the middle of the night..sucked)..any input?

Well, if you go at off-hours, you may run into the GWB work that's supposedly going on until next year on the Bronx side. I am not in the area though, so I don't know how disruptive it is.

Alternately, you can take Rt. 84W/684S to Rt. 287. You would follow that across the Tappan Zee Bridge and then pick up the Garden State Parkway (Exit 14A!). You follow the GSP south to the NJ Turnpike and across the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which puts you without a doubt on I-95 South. Just much further south than picking it up in the Bronx. (Also, just noting that the whole I-95 designation in NJ is well, messed up).

I've done this route so many times over the last 25 years, and there's a lot of alternates, but overall, in off-hours, it's a pretty good bet. I ran these directions from Holyoke, and the travel program I use is predicting a 20 hr. 42 min. ride with 15 min stops every 3 hours. So, leaving at 7 pm would get you there in one shot at 3:42 pm in a perfect travel world. Total mileage: 1277.

HTH

 

[dvcville]

We been DVC members and have always hopped on a plane but this year we are driving from western Montgomery county PA. We have 3 kiddies 11, 9 & 5. We are not to sure how long the kids will last on such a long ride. Our plan is to leave some where between 9pm -11pm on a Monday and hopefully they will sleep for a good part of the drive. We want to get the bulk of the driving done the first day, hopefully into Fl. My question is has any one travel recently down I95 and if there is any overnight construction that we might run into.

18 Days till we launch our journey for The Villas @ Disney’s Wilderness Lodge!

 

[AuntRoeRoe]

We been DVC members and have always hopped on a plane but this year we are driving from western Montgomery county PA. We have 3 kiddies 11, 9 & 5. We are not to sure how long the kids will last on such a long ride. Our plan is to leave some where between 9pm -11pm on a Monday and hopefully they will sleep for a good part of the drive. We want to get the bulk of the driving done the first day, hopefully into Fl. My question is has any one travel recently down I95 and if there is any overnight construction that we might run into.

18 Days till we launch our journey for The Villas @ Disney’s Wilderness Lodge!

We just finished a 2000 mile round trip down I95 and did not notice any major construction. We did start out at 5:00 am and drove during the daylight hours, but we did not notice any signs about night time construction. We actually made it to Orlando in 14 hours, leaving at 5:00am on a Thursday morning. On the trip home, we left the AKL at 5:30 am and made it to Aston by 9:30pm. Traffic was really slow in VA and MD. Hope this helps!

 

[dvcville]

We just finished a 2000 mile round trip down I95 and did not notice any major construction. We did start out at 5:00 am and drove during the daylight hours, but we did not notice any signs about night time construction. We actually made it to Orlando in 14 hours, leaving at 5:00am on a Thursday morning. On the trip home, we left the AKL at 5:30 am and made it to Aston by 9:30pm. Traffic was really slow in VA and MD. Hope this helps!

Thanks Roe, that’s good to hear. I hope our tip down is smooth sailing. You made it down there in good timing. We would be real happy to make it there and be able to get in a hotel off site before we check in the next day.

 

[pwdebbie]

ok for the I81 77 drivers- anyplace to stay along that route- I am thinking we would be ready to break for the night near the kick off to 77. The hotels are all over the place- we are a family of 6 so a suites hotel would be great but I would do 2 rooms if the price was right.

Not sure where you are starting from but we like to get past Columbia and found that the Orangburg exit "St. Matthews Drive" off of I-26 had a lot of hotels and was easy off and on.

Oops, just re-read what you wrote and saw you want to stay close to 81 / 77 area. My answer won't help.

 

[sharadoc]

We been DVC members and have always hopped on a plane but this year we are driving from western Montgomery county PA. We have 3 kiddies 11, 9 & 5. We are not to sure how long the kids will last on such a long ride. Our plan is to leave some where between 9pm -11pm on a Monday and hopefully they will sleep for a good part of the drive. We want to get the bulk of the driving done the first day, hopefully into Fl. My question is has any one travel recently down I95 and if there is any overnight construction that we might run into.

18 Days till we launch our journey for The Villas @ Disney’s Wilderness Lodge!

HI Neighbors Are you Spring-Ford or Perk Valley? I have an 11 yo in SF, just wondering if we knew you!

There is a lot of construction in Washington DC that they do overnight. Usually Georgia too.

Don't forget to stop at the Florida Welcome Center on your way for the free OJ!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Only delay on our trip was Chattanooga which we hit at about 5:00 p.m. on the way down. Looked like 2 out of every 3 vehicles on the road was an 18-wheeler, and there is a NASTY steep hill heading East out of the city just before I24 ends that just killed all the trucks and it backed up like crazy. We crawled for 45-60 minutes. Also a 55-60 MPH stretch on I75 in GA from marker 127-102, but no biggy. Flew through STL, Nashville, & Atlanta in both directions

 

[dvcville]

Hi Neighbor, We are PV. Thanks for the heads up on the road work. I hope it won't slow us down to much.


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[dvcville]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvcville

We been DVC members and have always hopped on a plane but this year we are driving from western Montgomery county PA. We have 3 kiddies 11, 9 & 5. We are not to sure how long the kids will last on such a long ride. Our plan is to leave some where between 9pm -11pm on a Monday and hopefully they will sleep for a good part of the drive. We want to get the bulk of the driving done the first day, hopefully into Fl. My question is has any one travel recently down I95 and if there is any overnight construction that we might run into.

18 Days till we launch our journey for The Villas @ Disney’s Wilderness Lodge!

HI Neighbors Are you Spring-Ford or Perk Valley? I have an 11 yo in SF, just wondering if we knew you!

There is a lot of construction in Washington DC that they do overnight. Usually Georgia too.

Don't forget to stop at the Florida Welcome Center on your way for the free OJ!

Hi Neighbor , We are PV. Thanks for the heads up on the road work. I hope it doesn't slow us down to much.











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[dvcville]

HI Neighbors Are you Spring-Ford or Perk Valley? I have an 11 yo in SF, just wondering if we knew you!

There is a lot of construction in Washington DC that they do overnight. Usually Georgia too.

Don't forget to stop at the Florida Welcome Center on your way for the free OJ!

He Neighbor, We are PV. Thanks for the heads up on the road work. I hope it doesn’t slow us down to much. How many times have you driven to WDW? How long does it take you? Do you drive straight through or do you have someplace you stop for the night?

 

[Goofygirl17]

Aaagghhh! We leave 3 a.m. Saturday and I'm not done packing!!!

DH said as long as I have sunblock and bathing suits we're all set.

Guess I should go finish packing. Got the recall work and an oil change done on the car today. Went to the car wash yesterday and just need to vacuum the back seat (the dealer vacuumed the front only?).

 

[sharadoc]

He Neighbor, We are PV. Thanks for the heads up on the road work. I hope it doesn’t slow us down to much. How many times have you driven to WDW? How long does it take you? Do you drive straight through or do you have someplace you stop for the night?

Hi there! We have driven around a dozen times, 7 times since Jan 2009. In the beginning, we stopped in Florence SC, which is around halfway. We found we got bored just sitting at the hotel, so next time we decided to drive at least 12 hours, then stop. That takes us to Walterboro SC. Much better schedule, the second day driving is only 5 hours so there's still plenty of Disney day left.

In June 2011 we decided to drive straight through, so we left home around 4:00 am. Hit a TON of traffic in DC, sat for 2 1/2 hours to go around 9 miles. It was heartbreaking. But we still kept driving and checked in to WDW around 10:30 pm when we should have gotten there around 8. Driving home was okay, but pretty long.

January 2012 we tried the straight-through again. We happened to leave on the one snow day of the year, and spun out on 422 around Oaks where we hit a pole. Luckily we only dented the front passenger door and under it so we could still go on the trip. Lost about 2-3 hours on that trip because we could only go around 25 mph until we got out of the snow area.

So, we talked about it and we are going back to stopping overnight. For the next trip, we're going to leave around 9 am on a Monday. That will put us in DC around lunchtime, so the traffic shouldn't be bad. We'll go to Walterboro, should get there around 10-11 since we'll stop for lunch and dinner. Take it easy instead of rushing. Then we'll get up by 7-8, hit the road and check in by 2 pm.

I would never recommend straight-through if you don't do a lot of road tripping. There are many folks on here who are pros at it and do it all the time. We tried it both ways and we prefer to do the overnight stop. We don't mind the driving but we hate that extra fatigue that comes with the last 4 or 5 hours, so we're not going to do it any more.

We love taking our time, finding nice local restaurants and enjoying the trip.

We have tried 202 to 95 and Blue Route to 95. We found the Blue Route is easier, as long as you're not driving during any sort of traffic/rush hour time. 202 gets annoying after a while with too many lights in southern PA into Wilmington.

 

[java]

Today is the day leaving at Noon! I'll try to post some road updates if there is nothing to report long the 81 77 26 95 route! We hope to make it to NC today. We'll see how that goes. Dh had to be at work this m and I drove him in at 4:30! Wish us luck!

4 kids 1600 miles!

 

[Buckeye Bob]

Today is the day leaving at Noon! I'll try to post some road updates if there is nothing to report long the 81 77 26 95 route! We hope to make it to NC today. We'll see how that goes. Dh had to be at work this m and I drove him in at 4:30! Wish us luck!

4 kids 1600 miles!

Good luck on your upcoming trip and thanks in advance for any updates you post along your route as we're taking a similar route from Cleveland, Ohio later this month (77, 26, 95, 4).

Have a safe trip!

 

[Goofygirl17]

Today is the day leaving at Noon! I'll try to post some road updates if there is nothing to report long the 81 77 26 95 route! We hope to make it to NC today. We'll see how that goes. Dh had to be at work this m and I drove him in at 4:30! Wish us luck!

4 kids 1600 miles!

Have fun!! We're going the same route tomorrow starting at 3 a.m.!! Maybe we'll see you there!

 

[nono]

Go Java go!