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

[sharadoc]

I am thinking our trip will be about 22hrs with stops (mapquest says 19.5). I just assumed I wouldn't be able to get up as early as 3am and stay awake the entire trip, but now I am rethinking things especilly since we will have 2 drivers. Hmmmm, I never thought we would be able to drive straight through, but now I am thinking it might be possible.

I don't recommend a straight through drive right off the bat. The last 5-6 hours when you go straight through are really tough for us. Plus then we arrive really tired and end up sitting around the resort and watching TV until the evening or even the next day.

Our next trip we will stop on the way down after about 12 hours, then we'll have about 5 hours the next day. We'll sleep, arrive refreshed and ready to attack the day. We have the vacation time to do it, so we'll go Monday through the following Thursday and go at a leisurely pace.

Unless you have a sense of how that drive feels, you could end up starting your trip off miserable!

If you listen to DVCZerfs, it's a piece of cake! But he's a machine!!!!! For us normal humans, it's a little harder than he makes it out to be.

 

[BC1836]

On This Day In "For 2,000+ Mile Round Trip Drivers Only!" History:

July 12, 2010: The second thread of this site begins.

[See the first post on page 1 for more info.]

Happy Driving....

All the best.

 

[marmalade]

We have tried driving straight through once and it was really hard. We now plan overnight stops so we don't start our trips exhausted and cranky. We were gonna stay off sight right outside Disney once and wound up getting a room only ressie on site and switched the next day when the package started; we thought why spend the money elsewhere.

We are leaving from MI Aug 5 and just booked a room in Savannah for the night.

Good luck with the planning.

My original thought was we needed to stop in Savannah for the night and have a shorter drive the next day. My first thought if we did drive straight through was to stay off-site somewhere outside WDW, but now I am thinking of trying to get a room onsite. That is if we even make it.

I don't recommend a straight through drive right off the bat. The last 5-6 hours when you go straight through are really tough for us. Plus then we arrive really tired and end up sitting around the resort and watching TV until the evening or even the next day.

Our next trip we will stop on the way down after about 12 hours, then we'll have about 5 hours the next day. We'll sleep, arrive refreshed and ready to attack the day. We have the vacation time to do it, so we'll go Monday through the following Thursday and go at a leisurely pace.

Unless you have a sense of how that drive feels, you could end up starting your trip off miserable!

If you listen to DVCZerfs, it's a piece of cake! But he's a machine!!!!! For us normal humans, it's a little harder than he makes it out to be.

My initial plan was to try to make it to Savannah and stop for the night, then my DH starts with we should just drive straight through. We are still leaving at the same times as we would if we were going to stop, so if we can't make it all the way through we will not be thrown off schedule at all. I guess we will just have to see how it goes, this is our first drive down.

 

[marmalade]

After subscribing and reading this thread what you think is impossible becomes possible. The tips, suggestions, live drives are the best to be found.

This is our 1st attempt at driving, I am excited! This board has been useful so far. Who knows? We may become regular drivers.

 

[dvczerfs]

I don't recommend a straight through drive right off the bat. The last 5-6 hours when you go straight through are really tough for us. Plus then we arrive really tired and end up sitting around the resort and watching TV until the evening or even the next day.

Our next trip we will stop on the way down after about 12 hours, then we'll have about 5 hours the next day. We'll sleep, arrive refreshed and ready to attack the day. We have the vacation time to do it, so we'll go Monday through the following Thursday and go at a leisurely pace.

Unless you have a sense of how that drive feels, you could end up starting your trip off miserable!

If you listen to DVCZerfs, it's a piece of cake! But he's a machine!!!!! For us normal humans, it's a little harder than he makes it out to be.

rookies!!!!

i should put a disclaimer in there. im an outside rep. for a hvac supply company. i drive around 40k a year for work so i spend alot of time behind the wheel. on most days, im on the road by 4am so leaving at 3am, staying awake till 7pm driving, is no big deal for me i do it everyday. family wise, my wife can read, sleep in the car with no problems and when our dd was little (her first trip was at 9 months) is a great traveler. dd is now 19 and she has made the trip 26 times. she has been itching to do some driving but i dont trust her.
so yes, if your not use to driving long distances, hours on end of looking at black top and white lines zipping by you, you may want to have a plan b when making your first attempt. if you have little ones, only you know how they are in a car.

 

[crzy4dsny]

Driving is great everyone should do it at least once! You just have to know your limits!! I can drive the whole way straight thru with no problem at all. Some people can only drive a couple of hours at a time. I just got back from my 5th drive last week. I drove down by myself towing a 33ft trailer. I left at 7:30pm on Thursday and got there at 5:45pm on Friday. The night roadwork, an accident and rush hour thunderstorms on 4 slowed me down a lot. The trip took 22 hours, straight driving. I didn't get tired,drowsy, nothing. But that's me, I'm not saying I'm better than others, it's just what I'm capable of doing. With my job I routinely work overtime for long periods of time. I may go to work at 5am and work straight thru until 2:30pm the next day. Ive been doing it for 18 years and I'm used to staying up for long periods of time at all different hours. On my way home I saw a driver that I assume was falling asleep at the wheel. I assume that because it was 7:30 in the morning and I figured they weren't drunk, but I could be wrong. She hit the rumble strip 3 times in about 15 min. I slowed down and backed off and got far away from her. Shortly after that I see a car ahead of me fly up into the air and start spinning around in circles. Then I see the car that was swerving all over the road spinning the other direction and goes off the road into the center median and hits a tree. The other car spun off the road to the right side and went about 40ft into the woods and hit a tree. So you really have to watch the cars around you to, you could be fine but the person in the car next to you could be falling asleep and crash into you. I felt real bad for those people who were just driving along and got taken out by this woman who was over her limits for sure.

 

[Goofygirl17]

We've been having a blast at Disney. We head back home to CT on Sunday. I'm not sure what time we'll leave or if we'll hit a park first.

We took the inland route down but I'm not sure if we should do that on the way back or if we should take 95. We saw 2 MAJOR back ups on either 81 or 77. I would hate to sit there for hours where there aren't even any exits to get off for a break.

Anyone know if there is construction going on?

Thanks!

 

[sharadoc]

rookies!!!!

i should put a disclaimer in there. im an outside rep. for a hvac supply company. i drive around 40k a year for work so i spend alot of time behind the wheel. on most days, im on the road by 4am so leaving at 3am, staying awake till 7pm driving, is no big deal for me i do it everyday. ... so yes, if your not use to driving long distances, hours on end of looking at black top and white lines zipping by you, you may want to have a plan b when making your first attempt.

And have callouses on your butt!!!

 

[dvczerfs]

And have callouses on your butt!!!

 

[LoriC1964]

Goofygirl17: try this website!

http://itravel.mobi/i81/pc/

 

[LoriC1964]

Goofygirl17: found this one too. Hope it helps.

http://itravel.mobi/i77/pc/

 

[monymony3471]

With all the wonderful information posted here my husband and I are considering a new route on our drive to WDW.

Here are our quesitons:

We will be traveling 75S from Detroit until Corbin and exiting on 25E to Asheville, what is the better route from this point, 26 to 95 or getting on 40 to 77 to 95?

They both lead us to Savannah where we have a planned stop. These are places we have never traveled before and we are looking forward to the new sights.

 

[LadyBeBop]

With all the wonderful information posted here my husband and I are considering a new route on our drive to WDW.

Here are our quesitons:

We will be traveling 75S from Detroit until Corbin and exiting on 25E to Asheville, what is the better route from this point, 26 to 95 or getting on 40 to 77 to 95?

They both lead us to Savannah where we have a planned stop. These are places we have never traveled before and we are looking forward to the new sights.

26 to 95 would be shorter.

You do realize you pick up I-40 from 25E well before Asheville, right? Like Newport, TN. You pick up I-26 in Asheville.
,

 

[buzz5985]

I swore I wouldn't do it - but I am considering the "inland" route on our drive down in August. We will be leaving on a Saturday from Boston - have not nailed down times as of yet. But I have a question for all of you - is there a reason why nobody takes route 64 off of route 81 in VA back over to 95?? I want to get back on 95 as soon as possilbe and 64 looks like a great solution for us. We miss all the major Northeast cities and can pick up some speed on 95. Our first destination is Hilton Head Island, SC, where I look forward to hearing "Welcome Home". (DVC reference - whenever you check in they Welcome You Home)

Thanks for opionions!!!

Janis

 

[dvcville]

It’s almost time to make our journey to WDW. We are planning on a 10pm departure but before we go, we must have a much needed repair to our van done. We had a friend of ours who is a mechanic take a look at our van and of course he found something that should be repaired before our trip. So we will drop our van to him today and then pick it up Sun. morning. Then last minute preps, some sleep before our trip down I-95. I will try to post trip details when possible. The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge he we come!

 

[cruisingkat]

Booked our thrid trip to Disney this year for October - well actually our fourth but we had a stay in Ft Myers between the two in June (home/Disney/Ft. Myers/Disney/home). Still have two more to book for this year - one for Nov and one for Dec. On our June trip, our car hit 100,000 miles and the starter started acting up. Just replaced it. Looked at the new Chrysler convertibles, not as much leg room in the back seat and definitely not as much trunk room - but do love the looks. Hopefully we can keep our Sebring convertible working well enough to continue driving to Disney for a couple of more years.
Looking forward to MNSSHP and Epcot Food & Wine in Oct. Nov we will drive down to watch our son run in the F&W half marathon, and then drive down in Dec for MVMCP & Candlelight Processional & decorations.

 

[sharadoc]

I swore I wouldn't do it - but I am considering the "inland" route on our drive down in August. We will be leaving on a Saturday from Boston - have not nailed down times as of yet. But I have a question for all of you - is there a reason why nobody takes route 64 off of route 81 in VA back over to 95?? I want to get back on 95 as soon as possilbe and 64 looks like a great solution for us. We miss all the major Northeast cities and can pick up some speed on 95. Our first destination is Hilton Head Island, SC, where I look forward to hearing "Welcome Home". (DVC reference - whenever you check in they Welcome You Home)

Thanks for opionions!!!

Janis

Depending on when you are driving. In teh summer, that is a major route to the Virginia beaches, so it will be as busy as 95 from Friday to Sunday. If you go in the "non-beach" time of year, you can do it. Folks on here have, it brings you to Richmond area and from there 95 is usually smooth sailing.

 

[dvczerfs]

It’s almost time to make our journey to WDW. We are planning on a 10pm departure but before we go, we must have a much needed repair to our van done. We had a friend of ours who is a mechanic take a look at our van and of course he found something that should be repaired before our trip. So we will drop our van to him today and then pick it up Sun. morning. Then last minute preps, some sleep before our trip down I-95. I will try to post trip details when possible. The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge he we come!

have a good trip!

 

[WIDisneyFan]

With all the wonderful information posted here my husband and I are considering a new route on our drive to WDW.

Here are our quesitons:

We will be traveling 75S from Detroit until Corbin and exiting on 25E to Asheville, what is the better route from this point, 26 to 95 or getting on 40 to 77 to 95?

They both lead us to Savannah where we have a planned stop. These are places we have never traveled before and we are looking forward to the new sights.

We just made the drive down 75-26-40-95 last week and really liked the route. It was nice to avoid some of the cities and the mountains were beautiful. i would be happy to answer any questions so feel free to ask

 

[jrw118]

Can anyone give an approximate cost to drive from Long Island to WDW? We have a 2007 Honda Odyssey minivan. I would also like to know what to expect in tolls.
Thanks