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

[AnnaS]

@BLTtinkerbell - We stay at Hampton Inns or Holiday Inn Express.

If you don't reserve a room before leaving home, try to reserve or see if you can get a room a few hours before you plan on stopping. We used to make stops late in the evening (9-10pm or so) only to find no rooms available and had to go to the next exit. We learned a little late that it is too late. We were too tired to relax, barely slept a few hours and up very early again.

Now we stop around our dinner time (6-7 pm). We check-in, go get a bite, walk around and relax. We don't rush or set an alarm but we are early risers anyway. We usually have (free) breakfast and are back on the road before 8am.

We have stopped in Santee, SC many times and have driven as far down as St. Augustine (we learned not to push it that far either). It all depends what time you are leaving and where you are coming from of course.

 

[shafke]

Will be driving down to Port Canaveral next week from NY... most likely taking I95... we plan to start late evening to get past DC before the sun comes up. Other than the usual bottlenecks are there any other unexpected slow downs to be aware of... I am thinking construction areas or lane closures. We got hit a few years back in SC as they were doing some sort of maintenance on a bridge and had 1 lane (of 2) closed. The back up cost us well over an hour.

 

[BC1836]

Greetings to all, especially those who take the I-95...I-4 drive. Any recent traffic news to report? All the best!

 

[TheHamm]

Hello Everyone!!!

We are driving from just north of Toronto, Ontario to Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. We have driven before in August of 2018 and are excited to road trip down again!! We tried to drive straight though last time, but we unexpectedly decided to stop and this time we are determined to drive straight though!!! We have 11 kids, but since our van “only” seats 12, our oldest adult daughter is flying down and meeting us there!! We are driving the 90/79/77 route as it’s the fastest for us. We weren’t thrilled with the options for stopping last time, so if anyone has any recommendations for the e best towns to stop directly off the interstate for this route, I’d love to know! We are planning on leaving around midnight since when we left at that time last time, we had almost no traffic through the busiest cities. Are tolls still change/cash or are they tap now? Also, on the way home we are trying to drive straight though, but may have to stop near the pennsylvania border or outside of Pittsburg. What are the best/nicest/safest towns in those areas? I’d appreciate any advice or information!!

Thanks so much!!!
Cheryl

Perhaps too late to be of use, but we have stopped in Cranberry, PA, just north of Pittsburgh on east-west trips (not Disney). There were several hotels, restaurants, and it seemed plenty safe for us.

 

[canuckgirl]

Perhaps too late to be of use, but we have stopped in Cranberry, PA, just north of Pittsburgh on east-west trips (not Disney). There were several hotels, restaurants, and it seemed plenty safe for us.

Thanks so much! Not too late at all as we leave next week! I appreciate the information

Cheryl

 

[shafke]

For those travelling North on I95. The GA/SC border always seems to be a bottleneck with extended delays. When we did the drive last April, Waze rerouted us through Savannah and, according to the app, saved us close to 60 minutes. Fast Forward to this past weekend. Waze was again showing congestion/stop and go trafffic at the GA/SC border but did not reroute us. We took the alternate anyway.

For anyone looking for a way around this bottleneck get off I95 at I16-east. Stay on I16 til SR17. SR17 will bring you back to I95 at about mile marker 12 (give or take). Traffic is again moving and you just need to deal with the congestion as you approach the I26 exit.

 

[dvczerfs]

Greetings to all, especially those who take the I-95...I-4 drive. Any recent traffic news to report? All the best!

I4 traffic between exit 55 and exit 62, pending on the time of day can get a little slow. Considering the Champions Gate construction, it moves along. Lol

 

[Stratman50th]

I4 traffic between exit 55 and exit 62, pending on the time of day can get a little slow. Considering the Champions Gate construction, it moves along. Lol

Champions Gate is the Devil!
EDIT: A little slow??? HA!

 

[dvczerfs]

Champions Gate is the Devil!
EDIT: A little slow??? HA!

Lol. You can say that again.
I just came that way ten minutes ago on my way to work. Never dropped below 60.
Other days it a crawl.
I drive a 14 mile stretch just about every day and my travel time is between 26 - 40 minutes.

 

[Stratman50th]

Lol. You can say that again.
I just came that way ten minutes ago on my way to work. Never dropped below 60.
Other days it a crawl.
I drive a 14 mile stretch just about every day and my travel time is between 26 - 40 minutes.

I hate going that way! I bow to you for putting up with it. I can count on one hand how many times the travel was actually good. We came home from Key West and it was smooth sailing until we hit 417. Then it turned into pure Hell! An extra hour to get home and that was just from 417 to Champions gate. Get past that and it's only about another 15 miles.

 

[pwdebbie]

Lol. You can say that again.
I just came that way ten minutes ago on my way to work. Never dropped below 60.
Other days it a crawl.
I drive a 14 mile stretch just about every day and my travel time is between 26 - 40 minutes.

So Dave, how is the job going?

 

[dvczerfs]

So Dave, how is the job going?

Love it!!!! Should have done this years ago!!! I for the most part work in Epcot and DHS. I’m on break as I’m typing this. I look forward to coming to work every day. Well, the days I’m scheduled for. Lol

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Love it!!!! Should have done this years ago!!! I for the most part work in Epcot and DHS. I’m on break as I’m typing this. I look forward to coming to work every day. Well, the days I’m scheduled for. Lol

I looked for you the last time we were there.

 

[dvczerfs]

I looked for you the last time we were there.

Im in a yellow and white shirt, grey shorts, black sneakers. WDW name tag, should be pretty easy to spot me. Lol.
Drop me a pm next time you’re in the neighborhood.

 

[Stratman50th]

Im in a yellow and white shirt, grey shorts, black sneakers. WDW name tag, should be pretty easy to spot me. Lol.
Drop me a pm next time you’re in the neighborhood.

I told my wife that when I retire I'd consider driving boats over there. She said forget it, I wouldn't last a week commuting over and back on 4 (See previous Champion's gate conversation, LOL).

 

[dvczerfs]

I hate going that way! I bow to you for putting up with it. I can count on one hand how many times the travel was actually good. We came home from Key West and it was smooth sailing until we hit 417. Then it turned into pure Hell! An extra hour to get home and that was just from 417 to Champions gate. Get past that and it's only about another 15 miles.

I haven’t been on I4 in a while, is there still a lot of construction going on?
Last August I went to fly back to Pa. to take care of a few things. I had a 7pm flight which I should have known better. The flight kept getting delayed and delayed and finally they rescheduled it for the next morning at 9 am.
I started heading home down 417 and it came to a complete stop. They were moving bridge sections !! I sat there for 45 minutes.

 

[dvczerfs]

I told my wife that when I retire I'd consider driving boats over there. She said forget it, I wouldn't last a week commuting over and back on 4 (See previous Champion's gate conversation, LOL).

Lol. I work nights so I don’t hit traffic going home. Even when they get you down to one lane for repaving on I4. Lol.
I really don’t sit in traffic. For the most part it moves. im only 14 miles from work and it usually takes me 30 minutes. One time it took me 45 because some little Toyota thought he could move a semi out of the center lane.
I was actually hired for monorail. Went through everything and they didn’t have have a part time position open. I was wait listed. It could be 5 minutes, 5 months, so I went with something else.
The best part, if you don’t like what your doing, you can transfer. There are some rules with that but for the most part it’s pretty easy. What caught me off guard, a lot of training, a lot of reading and memorization. You got three days and the fourth is your assessment. Im lucky, I’m sure it’s like this everywhere, I worked with a lot of great college kids who helped the old man get through the computer parts. Lol
I can tell you, you will never get bored working there and just when you think you have seen it all………. Lol

 

[dvczerfs]

Lol. I work nights so I don’t hit traffic going home. Even when they get you down to one lane for repaving on I4. Lol.
I really don’t sit in traffic. For the most part it moves. im only 14 miles from work and it usually takes me 30 minutes. One time it took me 45 because some little Toyota thought he could move a semi out of the center lane.
I was actually hired for monorail. Went through everything and they didn’t have have a part time position open. I was wait listed. It could be 5 minutes, 5 months, so I went with something else.
The best part, if you don’t like what your doing, you can transfer. There are some rules with that but for the most part it’s pretty easy. What caught me off guard, a lot of training, a lot of reading and memorization. You got three days and the fourth is your assessment. Im lucky, I’m sure it’s like this everywhere, I worked with a lot of great college kids who helped the old man get through the computer parts. Lol
I can tell you, you will never get bored working there and just when you think you have seen it all………. Lol

I went to pull into work yesterday, we park at a resort so we show ID to get into the resort to a guard like everyone else. I made the turn into the resort and in front on me is a huge peanut motorhome looking thing. Lol
I pulled up to the gate and the guard was laughing. I said to him, forget it, I’m going home. Lol You never know what you will see. Lol

 

[Stratman50th]

I went to pull into work yesterday, we park at a resort so we show ID to get into the resort to a guard like everyone else. I made the turn into the resort and in front on me is a huge peanut motorhome looking thing. Lol
I pulled up to the gate and the guard was laughing. I said to him, forget it, I’m going home. Lol You never know what you will see. Lol

Went to send you a PM but your profile is blocked. Just trying to avoid hijacking this thread.

 

[dvczerfs]

Went to send you a PM but your profile is blocked. Just trying to avoid hijacking this thread.

hah, interesting. I had no idea it was blocked. Let’s see if I can figure it out.