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

[ddluvsdisney]

Here I was thinking I was the only who called the retreads alligators, glad to know I'm not alone

Lol I get it now. I had to reread to understand. Never heard of that before.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[chepic]

Cheryl!!! Where have you been hiding? Lol I wouldn't go the inland. It's the pits!!! Traffic, people speeding. Just rotten. Stick to 95. Lol

just lurking around!!! Glad to know I was missed.

We drove 95 in April and actually did not stop. We left a bit earlier than our usual 3 am, left around 1:30 and went straight to Disney. Got there around 7pm and it was the easiest trip down we have ever done. No real traffic and able to unpack and wake up in the morning in our home for the week.

That is most likely what we will do. Dave hates to stray from the norm.

cheryl

 

[disneynanacat]

On the road already! Foggyyyyy

 

[dvczerfs]

just lurking around!!! Glad to know I was missed. We drove 95 in April and actually did not stop. We left a bit earlier than our usual 3 am, left around 1:30 and went straight to Disney. Got there around 7pm and it was the easiest trip down we have ever done. No real traffic and able to unpack and wake up in the morning in our home for the week. That is most likely what we will do. Dave hates to stray from the norm. cheryl

Lol. What? I'm adventurous!!! I stayed at Saratoga springs in June and not old key west. Lol we did the leave at 1am in September. Got there at 5 pm. It seemed to work out real good for us. The only time I had to hit the breaks was on the west side of Orlando on i4 but that was it.

 

[dvczerfs]

On the road already! Foggyyyyy

That's just Georgia mist!!!! Head south and don't stop!! Lol

 

[chepic]

Lol. What? I'm adventurous!!! I stayed at Saratoga springs in June and not old key west. Lol we did the leave at 1am in September. Got there at 5 pm. It seemed to work out real good for us. The only time I had to hit the breaks was on the west side of Orlando on i4 but that was it.

We stayed at Beach Club......never do that again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My lips are sealed, but I have to say that OKW just has the right relaxed atmosphere for this RI family.

che

 

[THERESA522]

Driving down from NJ Nov. 1 and am thinking of trying the 81-77-26-95-4 route. Would like to stop for the night somewhere after about 11-12 hours of driving. I'm thinking this would be either NC or SC.

Does anyone have hotel recommendations that aren't far from the highway?

 

[dvczerfs]

Driving down from NJ Nov. 1 and am thinking of trying the 81-77-26-95-4 route. Would like to stop for the night somewhere after about 11-12 hours of driving. I'm thinking this would be either NC or SC.

Does anyone have hotel recommendations that aren't far from the highway?

not sure where you are at in new jersey but, I live about 10 min. from i78 on the pa / nj state line. at the 11 hour/ 45 min. mark, im on i95 crossing into Georgia.

Georgia to florida state line = 1hr/44min.

fl. stateline to i4 = 1hr/42mn.

i4 to exit68 = 54 min.

 

[dvczerfs]

We stayed at Beach Club......never do that again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My lips are sealed, but I have to say that OKW just has the right relaxed atmosphere for this RI family.

che

they call it the retirement village...... we will take it!!!

stayed at okw at least once a year since 1999. we love it!

 

[pwdebbie]

Driving down from NJ Nov. 1 and am thinking of trying the 81-77-26-95-4 route. Would like to stop for the night somewhere after about 11-12 hours of driving. I'm thinking this would be either NC or SC.

Does anyone have hotel recommendations that aren't far from the highway?

We've stayed at the St. Matthews Rd. exit (Orangeburg, SC). There are quite a few hotels to choose from there and it is not a busy congested area.

 

[loveysbydesign]

Driving down from NJ Nov. 1 and am thinking of trying the 81-77-26-95-4 route. Would like to stop for the night somewhere after about 11-12 hours of driving. I'm thinking this would be either NC or SC.

Does anyone have hotel recommendations that aren't far from the highway?

We live near Allentown, PA and last time we stayed here on the drive down:
Country Inn & Suites Columbia, SC
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re..._Suites_Columbia-Columbia_South_Carolina.html

$103 with tax

and here on the drive back
Comfort Inn & Suites
19521 Liverpool Pkwy., Cornelius, NC,
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re...fort_Inn_Suites-Cornelius_North_Carolina.html

$99 plus tax for the night

I am very picky and am happy to say that both places were clean and very nice(also have to have queen size beds, no full). The free breakfast and ease of getting back on the road were a plus as well!

 

[hebbynan]

I always wonder, is that total driving time or does that include rest stops? In other words is that from your door to Disney total time?

Even if I exclude our overnight rest stop we have never gotten from PA to Disney that fast. Wondering what all of you are doing different.

The 15 hours was from our driveway to Disney. We don't stop much for breaks...having boys is a blessing that way! Also to save time (and since we left at 2am) we had donuts and juice in the car for breakfast on the go once they woke up. Lunch was at a rest stop - took bread, lunchmeat and condiment packets. Made sandwiches, ate, potty break, some Frisbee (to move our legs) and back on the road again. DH is a cop - so the most we did was about 8 over the speed limit. And let me tell you....there were cop cars EVERYWHERE! The boys lost count after a while. For the most part we stayed put in the left lane (until the occasional crazy person doing 90 got behind us). All of our stops were short and leaving at 2 am helped immensely - by missing the Baltimore/DC/Richmond mess.

 

[amcnj]

At least gas prices are still trending downward. Though the frequency and amount of each cut seems to have slowed, at least they are not going up!

 

[Wcpedorc]

My wife and I are considering driving down from NJ( union county) in February. Our ds is over 2 now so paying for 3 tickets, and renting a car is looking expensive. I guess 95 is our best bet, that's how I went in 2000, when I was single and we only stopped for gas. My wife wants to stop once on the way down, and twice on the way back so we don't over do it with ds. In the spirit of happy wife happy life, can anyone recommend a stop about 9 or 10 hours in? Or 2 stops on the way back? Any sites not to miss? Thank you in advance.

 

[nono]

My wife and I are considering driving down from NJ( union county) in February. Our ds is over 2 now so paying for 3 tickets, and renting a car is looking expensive. I guess 95 is our best bet, that's how I went in 2000, when I was single and we only stopped for gas. My wife wants to stop once on the way down, and twice on the way back so we don't over do it with ds. In the spirit of happy wife happy life, can anyone recommend a stop about 9 or 10 hours in? Or 2 stops on the way back? Any sites not to miss? Thank you in advance.

Well, two ways to cut it going south if you want to go I 95:

1. You could leave Union, NJ at 9 a.m., and get to Fayetteville, NC around 5:30 - 6 p.m. Then you could leave early on day 2, say by 6:30 a.m., and be at WDW by 3 p.m. That figures in brief rest stops every 3 hours.

2. You could leave Union, NJ at 3 a.m., and get to Savannah, GA around 3:45 p.m. Next day, you could leave by 6:45 a.m., and have lunch at your hotel or elsewhere in The World! Same idea with brief rest stops every 3 hours.

 

[mikek]

My wife and I are considering driving down from NJ( union county) in February. Our ds is over 2 now so paying for 3 tickets, and renting a car is looking expensive. I guess 95 is our best bet, that's how I went in 2000, when I was single and we only stopped for gas. My wife wants to stop once on the way down, and twice on the way back so we don't over do it with ds. In the spirit of happy wife happy life, can anyone recommend a stop about 9 or 10 hours in? Or 2 stops on the way back? Any sites not to miss? Thank you in advance.

couple thoughts- I'm assuming your kid is 3 (or 4) now?

A1= DO NOT BUY A TICKET THAT EXPIRES for your child- most of the time they dont actually bother you for tickets until the kid is much older than 3. We have three kids at home with us and I can't tell you how many times i stood there with a ticket for one of them in my hand and the CM looked at me like i was nutz to suggest to them they scan the kid in. I still have a complete 7 day non-expiring from when my daughter was 3- i tried every day of the 7 days to use it and they never took it.

We've driven from NJ to disney many times with the kids. Every kid is different, but in our case until they were 5-6 they were not having 7-10 hrs nonstop in the car. Potty breaks, mcdonals breaks, playland or a place to "run them" breaks and some years it seemed like we stopped every 30 miles.

Because of that- later night/early morning worked best for us when the kids were young. So they could sleep a good portion of the drive. Keep in mind going near baltimore or DC in evening rush is a major headache. We would typically leave hunterdon county around 4-6pm and accounting for the nightmare traffic that is Baltimore/DC I'd usually get to about fayetteville, NC before I, myself, was toast and we'd stop. (Lumberton if Traffic at DC didn't stink). Then we would try to get up early so they would nap in the car again- with all the stops usually got to disney around dinner.

My kids are all older now- but still we just drive until we are done for the day (it's so hard predicting traffic from NJ past the mess that is DC on 95 that we always just grab a hotel on the fly. When i get to a point where I have about an hour left (or in the past the kids got to be toast) then my wife would look on her smartphone and book a room. Never had a problem- and it's a pain since we need a suite with the 5 of us- so it's even tougher to get a room. The couple times we made reservations in advance we found ourselves hating the last hour or two- or conversly thinking we could have gone another hundred miles or more without a problem.

I'm a little south of 78- but I'm debating taking the "inland route" this next time. I've honestly never done that, but my neighbor swears by that way. Our next trip we happen to be leaving after school/work on a friday so I think that's probably best to take another ~70 miles that is the inland route but avoid DC. I figure 70 miles is about an hour. Plenty of times the nightmare that is DC has absorbed more than an hour of our drive and aggravated me more than that.

If we were leaving in the morning and could easily avoid DC traffic I'd probably charge straight down 95 for sure.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[chepic]

they call it the retirement village...... we will take it!!!

stayed at okw at least once a year since 1999. we love it!

wish we were ready to retire, I would buy so many points I could snow bird there!!!!!


che

 

[Wcpedorc]

Thanks for the quick responses, and I welcome even more opinions. Are there any recomondations for motels, near Fayetteville, or lumberton?

 

[mikek]

we used to stay a bunch at holdiay inn in lumberton- but it started getting not as clean a few years ago so lately we have been staying at comfort suites next door a few times.

But besides those I dont know that we've stayed anyplace more than once lately that i can remember- lol- sorry

We used to stay one or two brands a lot for their rewards programs but then found hotels.com - you dont get that chains reward points when you purchase through hotels.com instead you get 'welcome rewards' - basically 10% from any brand hotel to use at any brand hotel after 10 nights. For us, we prefer that since we aren't tied to any one brand. So rather then hunting for a holiday inn or whatever at 11pm, we just use the hotels.com app to find any brand that's nearby that fits our needs.

 

[dvczerfs]

Thanks for the quick responses, and I welcome even more opinions. Are there any recomondations for motels, near Fayetteville, or lumberton?

we had luck in both areas at Hampton inns. we don't stop to often but when we do, we hit Hampton inns. just never gave me a reason to look around.