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

[busymama224]

We are driving from Michigan next month. I am very nervous thinking about it but there are 5 of us so driving will give us the flexibility of having our own car thus allowing us to stay off site and have much more room at a much lower cost. We are planing to leave after school and drive through the night hoping that the kids will sleep. Kids are 6, 6, and 7. We will stop often for breaks and take plenty of shacks and things to entertain the kids. My husband is excited about the drive...I am apprehensive...wish us luck! I will be keeping an eye out for tips from all you veterans

 

[LadyBeBop]

When do you begin your next 2,000+ mile round trip drive countdown?

There are many interpretations: some folks have counters on their posts; some folks begin a month ahead of time. Of course, when it's a week to go, the countdown is truly on.

So, when do you begin your countdown? [Ours has just begun....]

Well, we've had our counter since we made our reservations. The drive actually begins the day before we check in. So subtract a day from our counter, and that's when our drive begins.

I'm undecided about where we'll stop yet. The first time we drove from Michigan to Kentucky day one and had a long day two; the next time we did a long day one (just north of Fl border I think) and short day two. Not sure which was best. Then, of course, there's the option of not stopping as we'll have 3 drivers this time

Hmmm. We live in Kentucky. We've never made the trip down in one day. Closest we've come was stopping in Gainesville. This upcoming trip, I'm hoping to make it to Valdosta the first day. Coming home, I'm hoping Knoxville.

We are driving from Michigan next month.

Are you taking the I-75 route?

My husband is excited about the drive...I am apprehensive...wish us luck! I will be keeping an eye out for tips from all you veterans

Have you ever driven overnight? My first bit of advice is; don't be afraid of getting a motel room. Even with two drivers, driving 20 to 24 hours straight and 1,200+ is hard. We'll actually a little under 2,000 miles round trip (about 1,850, but we justify 2,000 miles by a lot of side trips around Orlando), and we still take two days going down and coming home.

 

[pwdebbie]

When do you begin your next 2,000+ mile round trip drive countdown?

There are many interpretations: some folks have counters on their posts; some folks begin a month ahead of time. Of course, when it's a week to go, the countdown is truly on.

So, when do you begin your countdown? [Ours has just begun....]

All the best.

Well, 28 days from now we should be settling into our hotel room after ten hours on the road. Hopefully we will be in Orangeburg, SC.

 

[Happy 2 B Me]

In 1993 My husband, daughter and I made the Drive to WDW (Fort Wilderness) from our home in Washington. Not the Capital --Washington the STATE. This trip was 3080 miles +. Round Trip from PDX to Honolulu--HNL is only 2603 air miles. What were we thinking. Young and dumb I guess-- no wait we were old and stupid. Naw we had a wonderful trip not counting the ER visit in Salt Lake or the "I am turning this thing around and going home" Yep said that when the highway bypassing Houston was flooded. Husband says just keep driving-- sigh-- I did and made it just fine. I did get lost in Dallas when my navigator-- husband fell asleep with the road map in his hands. I ended up in a part of the city that well I never should have been in . Needing gas since I had to drive around as I was not stopping and unhooking the van in an unsafe area. We have what is called a self hook-up for van one thing is you can not back up with it hooked to the car. I got gas but when trying to make the turn to get back on the road to get back on the freeway I could not make the turn. Some lady was honking her horn so much as I was trying to unhook and move Motorhome and car seperate. I had had enough I get the keys for the motor home take them to here and say I will sit and honk your horn if you would go move the motorhome. Well after 5 mins or less of quiet i was back on 35 going south. Someone told me they read one of this Funniest stories in the Readers Digest not to long after I had mentioned the my experience to her-- wonder if the person was talking about me?

We took I-5 to 84 out of Portland, Ore. We then took 84 to 80 near Cheynne where we caught 25 to near Denver. 25-70 the 70-Houston. 35-10-75. Drove 75 to Orlando.

I had no idea how long to book the camp ground for since we had only been to DL. There was not even DCA back then either. Well I thought 3 nights 4 days would be plenty. Oh and it was first part of July Ya like the 1 2 and 3 leaving on the 4th. Was I mistaken about how much time we needed to see and enjoy all that WDW had to offer. Just enjoying the camp ground was 4 days worth of fun. Well I was combing my hair -- opened one side of the mirror to see how the back of hair looked and bammmmmmmm- I was in so much pain -- I could not move-- I some how got to the couch layed downing thinking that would help. Oh heavens could not even get back up-- We were doomed. Husband is wheelchair bound so can not drive-- daughter is only 9-- and well I cannt move. No cell phone for us back then-- did they even have them then? Well husband gets to the comfort station where he gets ahold of the welcome station at the fort they send a gentleman out to help us. Poor guy was the mamager and was just getting off work -- I was his last task-- well I still had a sense of humor so when he asked what happened i explained I had fallen over a huge branch that was in the middle of the path to the comfort station. His face said it all -- Oh no -- more paper work-- I am going to be here all night taking care of this mess. LOL-- I could hold a straight face I told him what really happened-- He lol so hard that I thought we would ned to call EMT's for him. Bless his heart though he called hospital and let them know that Disney was going to be bringing me to the ER. After I got a Shot and meds Disney even picked me back up. How wonderful they were to me. They even let us book another 4 nights on the park full 4th of July holiday. ( I did end up having back surgery over my bad back).

I hope I have not bored you with our trip.

PS. We did end up ungrading our passes to AP and as such we made a trip back to WDW in June'94. Oh and we flew -- takes all day but so worth not driving 3080 miles then would have been 3080 miles back. We took our time making memories as Husband had been diagnosed with ALS-- Lou Gherigs. 2-5 years was what the Dr gave him to live. Happy to say although he is in wheelchair-- and needs hospital bed he is still with us. Dr. now say that some people can live up to 20 years with ALS, not many so he is one of the lucky ones as he does have ALS-- 3 different Dr. say so anyway.

I wanted to share this----- We had a motorhome so the drive was not to bad-- tired I just pulled over to rest. The drivers that make the drive to WDW in cars with little kids are the hero's. Anything over 4-5 hours with little ones is the same as driving 3k miles in a motorhome.

Patty

 

[BC1836]

Well, 28 days from now we should be settling into our hotel room after ten hours on the road. Hopefully we will be in Orangeburg, SC.

Twenty eight days, eh?

See ya at the Magic Kingdom!

All the best.

 

[pwdebbie]

Twenty eight days, eh?

See ya at the Magic Kingdom!

All the best.

You'll be there the same time? We are at POFQ from 4/15 - 4/26. If I recall, you drive straight through, right?

 

[BC1836]

You'll be there the same time? We are at POFQ from 4/15 - 4/26. If I recall, you drive straight through, right?

4/14-4/21 for us at the GFR; however, we'll be arriving a day early at a Lake Buena Vista hotel where we spend time at DTD. No straight-through drive this time, although it will be drive #29.

All the best.

 

[pwdebbie]

4/14-4/21 for us at the GFR; however, we'll be arriving a day early at a Lake Buena Vista hotel where we spend time at DTD. No straight-through drive this time, although it will be drive #29.

All the best.

We will hit the road 4/14 after church and hopefully be checking in 4/15 between noon and 2:00. I've got Raglan Road ADRs for 4:30 that day.

 

[Disneyholic]

4/14-4/21 for us at the GFR; however, we'll be arriving a day early at a Lake Buena Vista hotel where we spend time at DTD. No straight-through drive this time, although it will be drive #29.

All the best.

We will be leaving on 4/14 on the AutoTrain. (Sorry, the older we get the harder to do the drive both ways. I still like to read all the other peoples trips since we have done the round trip a few times and probably will again.) We will be staying at AKL Jambo in a 1 bedroom DVC Club level till the 18th. We are then going on the Disney Dream for 3 nights and will be at BLT on the 21st, leaving for the drive home on the 22nd. So it looks like a few of our days down there overlap.

 

[pwdebbie]

We will be leaving on 4/14 on the AutoTrain. (Sorry, the older we get the harder to do the drive both ways. I still like to read all the other peoples trips since we have done the round trip a few times and probably will again.) We will be staying at AKL Jambo in a 1 bedroom DVC Club level till the 18th. We are then going on the Disney Dream for 3 nights and will be at BLT on the 21st, leaving for the drive home on the 22nd. So it looks like a few of our days down there overlap.

I really wanted to be on that 4/14 train but dh doesn't want to be confined to a train, and the cost (we'd do a deluxe bedroom in order to have our own commode) was about triple what it will cost us to drive.

 

[Disneyholic]

I really wanted to be on that 4/14 train but dh doesn't want to be confined to a train, and the cost (we'd do a deluxe bedroom in order to have our own commode) was about triple what it will cost us to drive.

We will be doing the Deluxe sleeper car one way (down). It is $662 for the 2 of us, the room & an SUV. Cost for the SUV is the same as a regular car on the way down at this time of year. Coming north a week later is $1300 for the same and round trip was over $2000. That is why we are driving home. By taking it down, we will be relaxed when we get there. The past few times we have driven, we ended up going straight through even though I had planned enough time to stay at a hotel for 1 night. The adrenaline is pumping on the way, but when we get there we are exhausted and can't enjoy our first day. We enjoy the ride on the train & having the engineer do the driving for us. We can enjoy a nice meal with wine and not worry about driving under the influence (not that we drink that much, but enough to be too relaxed to drive.)

For our November 2013 cruise we will probably be doing the 2000 mile roundtrip again, because we will be going over the Thanksgiving holiday time & I'm sure the train prices will be crazy then.

 

[hebbynan]

Subscribing to this thread!! We just FINALLY decided how we're getting there this September.....plane tix are just so expensive so driving it is. This will be our 2nd time driving to WDW, but 3rd drive to Florida overall. I can't believe it saves us so much money to drive as opposed to fly....not to mention that it doesn't matter how much each bag weighs, how many souveniers we bring back and how many times one of the boys needs the restroom! LOL DS's will be 13 and 9 when we go, so they should be able to keep themselves occupied for the drive.

Now we just need to decide what time we're leaving on Sunday 9/15 - really early or after 2 when all the drunks will not be on 95 anymore. (last time we drove to WDW a drunk slammed into the side of our travel camper and delayed us 3 hours on the side of I95 right at Baltimore) Either way we hope to get almost to the Georgia/Florida line before we stop for the night. Fingers crossed for smooth driving!!

Good luck to all you other drivers headed south this spring and summer!~

 

[Hasil72]

All knowing DIS drivers, I need your help, please. We're heading to my happy place next Thursday and AAA, Google and MapQuest are all giving me different routes. Typically, we just head down 295 to 95 then 495 around DC and back to 95 the rest of the way down. My concern this year is that we're leaving around 11AM and I think that will dump us in the middle of the Richmond rush. Any suggestions?

 

[NJRRK]

Use 295 around Richmond. That should help you avoid rush hour. Plus I find it quicker at other times of the day too. Less traffic and higher speed limit.

 

[hebbynan]

Use 295 around Richmond. That should help you avoid rush hour. Plus I find it quicker at other times of the day too. Less traffic and higher speed limit.

I second using 295! You don't want to be anywhere near Richmond at that time. Everytime we've driven to Florida we've found the worst part of the trip was from Baltimore to past Richmond. After that it's pretty much smooth sailing! Safe Travels!

 

[sharadoc]

All knowing DIS drivers, I need your help, please. We're heading to my happy place next Thursday and AAA, Google and MapQuest are all giving me different routes. Typically, we just head down 295 to 95 then 495 around DC and back to 95 the rest of the way down. My concern this year is that we're leaving around 11AM and I think that will dump us in the middle of the Richmond rush. Any suggestions?

Don't use 495 around DC either. Especially 495 west, it's always backed up with traffic or construction. We have found that's always a disaster so we make sure we stay on 95 through DC. If you're leaving around 11 am, you should be hitting DC between 1 and 2 so you should be fine traffic-wise there. 295 around Richmond is a good choice too.

 

[Hasil72]

Thank you everyone!

We have to have these things planned out ahead of time otherwise DS, who is on the Autism spectrum, will have a panic attack thinking we don't know where we're going. Now I just need for Thursday to get here!

 

[nono]

Don't use 495 around DC either. Especially 495 west, it's always backed up with traffic or construction. We have found that's always a disaster so we make sure we stay on 95 through DC.

Pardon my confusion. It's been some time since we've done this route on the way down, since we often take the ferry, but how can one stay on 95 through DC? Doesn't it still end at the Beltway? Or is there something new these days? Please help me understand.

 

[NJRRK]

Pardon my confusion. It's been some time since we've done this route on the way down, since we often take the ferry, but how can one stay on 95 through DC? Doesn't it still end at the Beltway? Or is there something new these days? Please help me understand.

The eastern side of the beltway is double signed as I-95 AND I-495.

I hope that quelled any confusion.

Enjoy the trip.

 

[busymama224]

Are you taking the I-75 route?

We are planning to take the I-75 route. Is there a better way that we should explore? Any tips are greatly appreciated