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

[BC1836]

Construction continues (as well as delays) on I-95 in Jacksonville, northern VA, and the southern entrance area to the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. And DTD and Poly parking lot construction projects contribute to additional traffic concerns at WDW.

All the best.

 

[deedeew80]

Hi everyone! I just found this awesome thread & read every post on every page! We (me, DH, DD5 & DS2) have a trip planned for April 28-May 5. We will be driving from South Jersey..basically directly across the bridge from Philadelphia. DH and I drove once before back in 2007. We followed my parents. I know we left in the morning, but not too early. I hated the drive. It was in August and it rained basically the entire drive down. The plan was to make it into St Augustine, FL and we did, but not till 2am!! Not fun! Anyway. As much as I don't want to drive, we can't afford the airfare & DH hates flying & wants to drive! :-/ Anyway. We know we want to leave early morning, about 4am. We want to drive as much as we can & try our hardest to make it into Florida at a decent time. Get a good night sleep & then drive to our Resort the next morning. Any suggestions on where we should aim to spend the night? Am I crazy thinking we can make it into Florida at a decent time?

 

[BC1836]

As the founder of this site (and a Jersey Shore resident) with 35 drive to WDW since 2002, please allow yours truly to offer a few suggestions if St. Augstine is your overnight goal on day one of your drive:

We did a St. Augustine stayover on our March 2007 drive. We departed home at 6:00 a.m. and crossed the VA border at 9:45 a.m. (excellent time for us near Barnegat Bay). Since rush hour in the northern VA area was ending we managed to reach NC by 12:33 p.m. and SC by 3:20 p.m. We crossed into GA at 6:10 p.m. and FL at 8:06 p.m. (a little over three hours too late to consume a courtesy glass of OJ at the FL Welocme Center). We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in St. Augustine at 9:18 p.m. (exit #318 on I-95) after a 950-mile drive. If that's pushing it, try Yulee, FL, which is right over the FL border. Remember: you have approximately a three-hour drive to WDW once you cross into FL. If you take I-95 you'll be exiting at #260B, which is I-4 W, a highway, unfortunately undergoing a 6-7 year major overhaul. The first WDW exit on I-4 is #68.

If you have any additional questions, do not hesitate to ask. There are some great folks on this site who are always willing to offer suggestions and advice.

All the best.

 

[deedeew80]

Thanks so much for your suggestions BC1936! I will definitely keep Yule in mind as well! My main reason for trying to reach St Augustine is so we don't run into rush hour traffic in Jacksonville. :-/

 

[BC1836]

Indeed...Jacksonville at rush hour is not an enjoyable experience especially with the new construction area past the overpass (a major construction project area several years ago). But Jacksonville at rush hour is no match for greater Washington D.C./northern VA at rush hour. Beware!

All the best.

 

[nono]

Hi everyone! I just found this awesome thread & read every post on every page! We (me, DH, DD5 & DS2) have a trip planned for April 28-May 5. We will be driving from South Jersey..basically directly across the bridge from Philadelphia. DH and I drove once before back in 2007. We followed my parents. I know we left in the morning, but not too early. I hated the drive. It was in August and it rained basically the entire drive down. The plan was to make it into St Augustine, FL and we did, but not till 2am!! Not fun! Anyway. As much as I don't want to drive, we can't afford the airfare & DH hates flying & wants to drive! :-/ Anyway. We know we want to leave early morning, about 4am.

BC's timing is spot on. As an alternate, if you find you are up and ready to go at 2:30 - 3 a.m., my suggestion is to GO! (I think your 4 a.m. start time is a little dicey...) And if you do start out that early, I'll put in a plug for the Lake Mary area. You'll have already made the turn onto I-4, but you'll be about an hour from WDW. It's a very relaxed area with all new hotels and plenty of places to eat. There's also a Publix there so if you want to do a bit of grocery shopping for snacks and whatnot, you can get that done too. BUT, given that this will be your first drive as a family, Lake Mary might be a bit too far. Just throwing it out there in case it's all going well, and you are looking for an alternate.

Big thing to remember when travelling with kids whose feet don't hit the floor: put a carry on bag or cooler under their feet so that they are able to sit and adjust themselves more comfortably, just as the full-sized folks can with their feet on the floor.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

BC's timing is spot on. As an alternate, if you find you are up and ready to go at 2:30 - 3 a.m., my suggestion is to GO! (I think your 4 a.m. start time is a little dicey...) And if you do start out that early, I'll put in a plug for the Lake Mary area. You'll have already made the turn onto I-4, but you'll be about an hour from WDW. It's a very relaxed area with all new hotels and plenty of places to eat. There's also a Publix there so if you want to do a bit of grocery shopping for snacks and whatnot, you can get that done too. BUT, given that this will be your first drive as a family, Lake Mary might be a bit too far. Just throwing it out there in case it's all going well, and you are looking for an alternate.

Big thing to remember when travelling with kids whose feet don't hit the floor: put a carry on bag or cooler under their feet so that they are able to sit and adjust themselves more comfortably, just as the full-sized folks can with their feet on the floor.

Lake Mary is less than an hour away, with lots of traffic 50 min.
That may be way to far to get too. It takes 45 min to get there just from Daytona.
I agree it is a beautiful area with lots of stores, gas & hotels.
I love that foot rest idea. I wish I would've known about that when my kids were little.

 

[deedeew80]

Indeed...Jacksonville at rush hour is not an enjoyable experience especially with the new construction area past the overpass (a major construction project area several years ago). But Jacksonville at rush hour is no match for greater Washington D.C./northern VA at rush hour. Beware!

All the best.

I'm aware of how bad the rush hour is in the DC area and am wondering if leaving at 4am is pushing it. We travel to Baltimore a lot & it usually takes us about an hr and a half to 2 hrs to get there. So if we left at 4am that would put us in Baltimore around 6am! About what time does the DC rush begin? Maybe we should try leaving at 3am instead.

BC's timing is spot on. As an alternate, if you find you are up and ready to go at 2:30 - 3 a.m., my suggestion is to GO! (I think your 4 a.m. start time is a little dicey...) And if you do start out that early, I'll put in a plug for the Lake Mary area. You'll have already made the turn onto I-4, but you'll be about an hour from WDW. It's a very relaxed area with all new hotels and plenty of places to eat. There's also a Publix there so if you want to do a bit of grocery shopping for snacks and whatnot, you can get that done too. BUT, given that this will be your first drive as a family, Lake Mary might be a bit too far. Just throwing it out there in case it's all going well, and you are looking for an alternate.

Big thing to remember when travelling with kids whose feet don't hit the floor: put a carry on bag or cooler under their feet so that they are able to sit and adjust themselves more comfortably, just as the full-sized folks can with their feet on the floor.

Thank you! I will keep Lake Mary in mind as well if we make it that far. I love the idea of putting something under the kid's feet!! Thanks for the tip!!

 

[amcnj]

Hi everyone! I just found this awesome thread & read every post on every page! We (me, DH, DD5 & DS2) have a trip planned for April 28-May 5. We will be driving from South Jersey..basically directly across the bridge from Philadelphia. DH and I drove once before back in 2007. We followed my parents. I know we left in the morning, but not too early. I hated the drive. It was in August and it rained basically the entire drive down. The plan was to make it into St Augustine, FL and we did, but not till 2am!! Not fun! Anyway. As much as I don't want to drive, we can't afford the airfare & DH hates flying & wants to drive! :-/ Anyway. We know we want to leave early morning, about 4am. We want to drive as much as we can & try our hardest to make it into Florida at a decent time. Get a good night sleep & then drive to our Resort the next morning. Any suggestions on where we should aim to spend the night? Am I crazy thinking we can make it into Florida at a decent time?

Hi. I am an early morning departer too. I am an hour and ten minutes from the DE Memorial Bridge. We depart 2:30 am and find we are usually in the Orlando area 6:30-7:30 PM. We have made it as early as 5:30 pm, and as late as 8:30 or 9 PM. It all depends on your stops, traffic, weather, etc. Leaving that early has us passing through the DC area around 5:30 AM.

 

[deedeew80]

Hi. I am an early morning departer too. I am an hour and ten minutes from the DE Memorial Bridge. We depart 2:30 am and find we are usually in the Orlando area 6:30-7:30 PM. We have made it as early as 5:30 pm, and as late as 8:30 or 9 PM. It all depends on your stops, traffic, weather, etc. Leaving that early has us passing through the DC area around 5:30 AM.

I'm about 40 mins from the DE Memorial Bridge! How do the kids do when leaving in the early morning/middle of the night? Not sure if my kids would go back to sleep or not. We are planning on surprising them with this trip & just waking them up to say "We're going to Disney World!" But I'm beginning to think twice about that now. They might be all sorts of confused if we wake them without notice! LOL!

 

[disneysteve]

We avoid DC by taking the Harbor Tunnel in Baltimore, then 97 to 50 to 301. That drops you back onto 95 around Richmond so it bypasses the whole DC mess entirely.

 

[amcnj]

I'm about 40 mins from the DE Memorial Bridge! How do the kids do when leaving in the early morning/middle of the night? Not sure if my kids would go back to sleep or not. We are planning on surprising them with this trip & just waking them up to say "We're going to Disney World!" But I'm beginning to think twice about that now. They might be all sorts of confused if we wake them without notice! LOL!

When they were real young we basically just carried them to the car and they stayed asleep. As they got older there were times they fell asleep right away, and other times that they stayed awake for a while in the car. But eventually they did fall asleep. I would say I was normally somewhere in NC by the time everyone was waking up. I was hitting NC around 8-8:30 AM. As they got older still, and were staying up till all hours, they did not always go to sleep at all before we left, so weren't waking up till at least somewhere in SC.

 

[deedeew80]

When they were real young we basically just carried them to the car and they stayed asleep. As they got older there were times they fell asleep right away, and other times that they stayed awake for a while in the car. But eventually they did fall asleep. I would say I was normally somewhere in NC by the time everyone was waking up. I was hitting NC around 8-8:30 AM. As they got older still, and were staying up till all hours, they did not always go to sleep at all before we left, so weren't waking up till at least somewhere in SC.

My kids are 5 & 2. They usually go to bed around 8-8:30, so maybe I will try putting them to bed earlier since we will have to wake them so early. I'm sure they will stay awake for a little while, but then fall back to sleep.

 

[sharadoc]

Hi everyone! I just found this awesome thread & read every post on every page! We (me, DH, DD5 & DS2) have a trip planned for April 28-May 5. We will be driving from South Jersey..basically directly across the bridge from Philadelphia. DH and I drove once before back in 2007. We followed my parents. I know we left in the morning, but not too early. I hated the drive. It was in August and it rained basically the entire drive down. The plan was to make it into St Augustine, FL and we did, but not till 2am!! Not fun! Anyway. As much as I don't want to drive, we can't afford the airfare & DH hates flying & wants to drive! :-/ Anyway. We know we want to leave early morning, about 4am. We want to drive as much as we can & try our hardest to make it into Florida at a decent time. Get a good night sleep & then drive to our Resort the next morning. Any suggestions on where we should aim to spend the night? Am I crazy thinking we can make it into Florida at a decent time?

We are west of Philadelphia, so our timing is very close to yours.

We like to leave at 9 am and avoid ALL the rush hour traffic everywhere. Then we drive until 11-12 pm, which puts us at Savannah GA. Then we get up, have breakfast in the hotel and leave for WDW by 9-10 am. It's around 4-5 hours from there to WDW, so we get there right at check-in. Plus we get to stop at the Florida Welcome Center and get our free juice and load up on the Disney brochures for the "excitement" build in the van for the last few hours.

Take 295 around Jacksonville. And I'd also recommend 417 off I-4 to Disney World. It's about $7 - $8 in tolls, but is so much less crowded and does not go through a major city, unlike I-4 which goes through the center of Orlando, full of idiot drivers - both locals who are annoyed at the vacation folks, and the rental car drivers.

We have tried to leave at 4 am and that has been fine, but we don't like to drive for 15-16 hours, we find we are too tired and worry about the safety of us and our kids. So we take it as far as we feel we can handle. There's nothing worse than exhaustion and knowing you still have a few hours to drive. We tried it once and my eyes were crossing, and I was in the passenger seat. I would never be able to drive that long.

Welcome to the thread! It's the best one on the DIS!

 

[amcnj]

We are west of Philadelphia, so our timing is very close to yours.

We like to leave at 9 am and avoid ALL the rush hour traffic everywhere. Then we drive until 11-12 pm, which puts us at Savannah GA. Then we get up, have breakfast in the hotel and leave for WDW by 9-10 am. It's around 4-5 hours from there to WDW, so we get there right at check-in. Plus we get to stop at the Florida Welcome Center and get our free juice and load up on the Disney brochures for the "excitement" build in the van for the last few hours.

Take 295 around Jacksonville. And I'd also recommend 417 off I-4 to Disney World. It's about $7 - $8 in tolls, but is so much less crowded and does not go through a major city, unlike I-4 which goes through the center of Orlando, full of idiot drivers - both locals who are annoyed at the vacation folks, and the rental car drivers.

We have tried to leave at 4 am and that has been fine, but we don't like to drive for 15-16 hours, we find we are too tired and worry about the safety of us and our kids. So we take it as far as we feel we can handle. There's nothing worse than exhaustion and knowing you still have a few hours to drive. We tried it once and my eyes were crossing, and I was in the passenger seat. I would never be able to drive that long.

Welcome to the thread! It's the best one on the DIS!

Yes, everyone has to know their own limits. Like I could never do an overnight drive. But leaving early AM and driving all day doesn't bother me, and after arriving there that same evening and getting a night's sleep I am good to go the next day. So the best method is definitely a personal thing!

 

[BC1836]

Our 35 round trip drives since 2002 have had departure times from home as varied as the clock itself: pre-dawn, early morning, late morning, afternoon, early evening, late night, midnight, etc. All have their advantages and disadvantages, and all are quite different from the others. Besides the time of departure, the day of departure and the season of departure make each drive different. And throw in the weather as another variable. As a result, each drive is different...and memorable.

All the best.

 

[BC1836]

Local regular gas up to $1.99. Several days ago, it was $1.95, and while we were in WDW last week it was $1.87.

"Hang on, pal. Here we go!"

All the best.

 

[Misfit]

Just found this thread! We will be driving down from Michigan in August roughly 2400+ miles round trip..I'm hoping to making the drive without stopping for the night..My DH is a OTR driver who drives at night and is used to long stretches..I have drove many 10+ hour trips traveling out east and I am more a daytime driver so hopefully it will work out.We will have our 3 kids with us 17,16, and 9 so it should be interesting Gas here went from 1.83 to 2.35 overnight then back down to 2.05 but I just received a text it is going back up so that stinks! Although, we have a long time til summer so I'm hoping it comes back down.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I'm also right across across the bridge from Philadelphia in South Jersey. I'm in Burlington County. Also 40 minutes from Delaware Memorial Bridge.

I've done the ride a few different ways.

Leaving around 6 pm, driving straight through and arriving in Orlando around 10 am. My DS was 3 at this time and slept the whole ride. It wasn't an issue at all.

We've also left around 6 pm, stopped in NC around midnight and checked into a hotel and then got up to finish the drive at 8 am. We arrived to WDW around 4 pm. This ride DD was 3 and she likes her sleep. There's no way she was going to sleep in her car seat overnight. She started having a tantrum around 11 pm. DS was 9 and not a problem.

We've also left at 4 am, drove straight through and got to WDW at 9 pm. This trip the kids were 11 and 5. They really did fine. Once we got in the car they went to sleep (after we surprised them with the trip) and woke up around 9 am. We were already into VA so we just stopped for breakfast. We never hit rush hour traffic. They stayed up most of the rest of the ride.

My plan was to fly this trip but I have some unexpected car issues. I will have to dip into my plane ticket fund so we are thinking about driving. My kids are turning 15 and 9 and constantly bicker so I'm REALLY not looking forward to it.

 

[deedeew80]

I'm also right across across the bridge from Philadelphia in South Jersey. I'm in Burlington County. Also 40 minutes from Delaware Memorial Bridge.

I've done the ride a few different ways.

Leaving around 6 pm, driving straight through and arriving in Orlando around 10 am. My DS was 3 at this time and slept the whole ride. It wasn't an issue at all.

We've also left around 6 pm, stopped in NC around midnight and checked into a hotel and then got up to finish the drive at 8 am. We arrived to WDW around 4 pm. This ride DD was 3 and she likes her sleep. There's no way she was going to sleep in her car seat overnight. She started having a tantrum around 11 pm. DS was 9 and not a problem.

We've also left at 4 am, drove straight through and got to WDW at 9 pm. This trip the kids were 11 and 5. They really did fine. Once we got in the car they went to sleep (after we surprised them with the trip) and woke up around 9 am. We were already into VA so we just stopped for breakfast. We never hit rush hour traffic. They stayed up most of the rest of the ride.

My plan was to fly this trip but I have some unexpected car issues. I will have to dip into my plane ticket fund so we are thinking about driving. My kids are turning 15 and 9 and constantly bicker so I'm REALLY not looking forward to it.

I am in Camden County! I am dreading the drive! I hate driving. My kids are 5 & 2 (almost 3) and bicker constantly while in the car!! We have a mini van & I know I can put one of them in the back but during a long drive like that I want them up closer to me in case they need something. I did find airfare for about $650 but DH is adamant about driving! He hates to fly! :-/ Keeping my fingers crossed the kids will be good!!