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

[mi*vida*loca]

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!!

 

[deedeew80]

FYI: My profile picture is at Houlihan's in Cherry Hill. lol

I'm divorced but my XH loved to drive to WDW. I don't know why but he preferred it and he doesn't even hate to fly!!! He flies other places with no issues.

My BF now doesn't care either way. He says he will drive if we have to or fly if we can. I was actually thinking aout cancelling the whole trip because we can't fly but he told me I was crazy.

I'm seriously dreading the drive if we have to go that route.

Haha! Too funny! We're neighbors!! I was just at Wegmans there the other day!

DH & I just had a little argument yesterday about flying! LOL! To be able to get there in 2 & a half hrs vs like 16 hrs!!! So not looking forward to it!! However, on the drive back home we are stopping over night twice! Once in NC to visit cousins & once in VA to visit more cousins! So I guess it will be beneficial in the end!

 

[BC1836]

Haha! Too funny! We're neighbors!! I was just at Wegmans there the other day!

DH & I just had a little argument yesterday about flying! LOL! To be able to get there in 2 & a half hrs vs like 16 hrs!!! So not looking forward to it!! However, on the drive back home we are stopping over night twice! Once in NC to visit cousins & once in VA to visit more cousins! So I guess it will be beneficial in the end!

Although the flight itself may be just under three hours, don't forget to add the drive time to the airport, checking in, the TSA examination, the cattle car-like boarding experience, waiting and taxi-ing on the tarmac, the flight (assuming it's on time and not delayed or cancelled), the landing, the baggage wait and the drive to WDW.

All the best.

 

[LadyBeBop]

Not Disney, but close to it. We're taking a Royal Caribbean cruise this April. (Hey, there is a RCI forum on the DIS boards).
Freedom of the Seas; leaving Port Canaveral on Sunday April 26, and coming back Sunday May 3.
We're driving to the dock from the Cincinnati area. Mapquest gives us two options. The first one is our normal route to WDW (I-75 to Turnpike ; once we reach Orlando, take 528 to port). The second route takes us through the Carolinas; we pick up I-95 in SC. The route through Orlando is 14 hours, 5 minutes while the route through the Carolinas is less than ten minutes longer. I think we'll go through the Carolinas. At least going. We're familiar with both routes.
Going down, we have several options:
1) Leave Friday after work (about 6 PM), drive three hours to Southern Kentucky (9 PM), sleep for eight hours, then get back on the road about 6 AM Saturday morning and arrive at the port about 6 PM. (I'm allowing a couple of hours for gas, rest and meals.)
2) Leave Saturday morning at 4 AM, drive to Georgia/Florida border (probably Kingsland). Arrive there about 5 PM. Spend the night in Kingsland, then leave about 7 AM the following morning. Arrive at port about 10:30.
3) Leave Saturday morning at 4 AM and drive straight to the port, arriving there about 8 PM.

All three has its drawbacks. With the first one, I don't think we're saving that much time, and we're certainly not saving money.
The second one: Seems the best, but we don't have much wiggle room if we run into car trouble or bad traffic. Latest we can get to the port is about 2 PM. Ship sails at 4:30.
The third one: May be feasible. We have never done an Orlando straight shot (and this is a little farther). Closest we've done was home to Gainesville, and that was 15 years ago. We're not any younger. Although there will be three drivers.
Tempted to add a fourth option.
4) Leave Saturday morning at 4 AM, drive until we want to stop. If it's the Georgia/Florida border, that's fine. If it's the port, that's fine. We'll be travelling with no hotel reservations; however we never make reservations for the road anyway.

Coming home, we may be stuck with one option.
1) Leave the port and drive straight home.
Due to an unexpected emergency, DD 25 (who is riding with us) will have no additional vacation time. So she may have to go into work the following day. If that happens, I'm hope to leave the boat about 8 AM. That will get us home about midnight. I'm already dreading that scenerio.
Fortunately, she may be able to come in to work a half day, getting in about noon. So we may look at this:
2) Leave the port about 10 AM, drive to Knoxville, arriving about 9 PM. Leave Knoxville the next morning about 6 AM, getting home about 11 AM.
Well, what do y'all think? I don't want to do the straight shot going home, but we may have to. DH and I will have Monday off, so we can use it to rest. But it's something I don't want to think about.

 

[nono]

For the way down, with 3 drivers, you may be able to do the straight shot leaving early Sat. morning...but I'd make sure everything was packed in the car the night before. Whomever is first driver, if they wake up at say, 2 a.m., the other two have to be willing to get into the car...because having someone who's awake and ready to go sit around and stew...well, that's just wasting good travel time.

Even cat naps of 30-45 minutes caught along the way will be refreshing enough for this one day trip for most folks. If at least one of the three of you are good at sleeping in the car, then you're golden. Plus, you'll have daylight all the way once the sun comes up, due to time of year.

Worst case, you decide to stop and sleep (which is not really a worst case at all), but I would stay flexible with 3 drivers...so pretty much your fourth option.

For the way back, good luck!

 

[disneysteve]

My profile picture is at Houlihan's in Cherry Hill.

We're neighbors!! I was just at Wegmans there the other day!

To be able to get there in 2 & a half hrs vs like 16 hrs!!!

Hi neighbors! We're in Cherry Hill too! I'll be at Wegmans in a few hours actually . We should have a local meet. Actually, I belong to a Disney club that used to be a chapter of the NFFC but is now independent. We have meets a few times a year in the S. Jersey/Philly area. I'll try and remember to invite you guys to the next one.

Anyway, we drive to Disney every year. I totally agree with BC1836. Yes, the flight is 2 hours from take off to landing but the whole experience is way longer than that. Door to door can easily be 6-7 hours, and that's if there are no flight delays.

 

[disneysteve]

P.S. You local folks should come to the NJ DIS MEET for GKTW. It's in Bridgewater which isn't too far away. It's easy to do just for the main event on Saturday if you can't come up for the weekend.

 

[LadyBeBop]

For the way down, with 3 drivers, you may be able to do the straight shot leaving early Sat. morning...but I'd make sure everything was packed in the car the night before.

That's a given. Which might shoot down option 1 even more. We're taking DH's work car down. We will have to unload his work parts before packing. Meaning, we probably wouldn't get on the road until after 6 PM. And that's not even including supper.

Whomever is first driver, if they wake up at say, 2 a.m., the other two have to be willing to get into the car...because having someone who's awake and ready to go sit around and stew...well, that's just wasting good travel time.

That's true. On that trip where we ended in Gainesville the first day...our original plan was to leave at midnight and drive as far as we could. Both DH and I were wide awake at 11 PM, so we left then.
I'll probably be the first driver. I'm used to getting up at 5 AM to be at work at 6 AM. Plus, I can take off early on Friday afternoon, so I will take a nap. The other two can't.
But I don't think I'll be wide awake at 2 AM. 4 is pushing it.

Even cat naps of 30-45 minutes caught along the way will be refreshing enough for this one day trip for most folks. If at least one of the three of you are good at sleeping in the car, then you're golden. Plus, you'll have daylight all the way once the sun comes up, due to time of year.

Good to hear. Just wish we'd have daylight all the way home, if we have to drive it all in one day.

Worst case, you decide to stop and sleep (which is not really a worst case at all), but I would stay flexible with 3 drivers...so pretty much your fourth option.

For the way back, good luck!

Thanks. Not looking forward to it.

 

[rotlex]

Although the flight itself may be just under three hours, don't forget to add the drive time to the airport, checking in, the TSA examination, the cattle car-like boarding experience, waiting and taxi-ing on the tarmac, the flight (assuming it's on time and not delayed or cancelled), the landing, the baggage wait and the drive to WDW.

All the best.

Hehe. Just about all the reasons, other than of course the added savings, we continue to drive from PA each year. Well those and the fact the drive time has become our "get into vacation mode" time after what is usually a very hectic work and school year.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

P.S. You local folks should come to the NJ DIS MEET for GKTW. It's in Bridgewater which isn't too far away. It's easy to do just for the main event on Saturday if you can't come up for the weekend.

I would love to do a Disney meet but can't this weekend because I'll be out of town for a wedding. Let me know for the next time!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Although the flight itself may be just under three hours, don't forget to add the drive time to the airport, checking in, the TSA examination, the cattle car-like boarding experience, waiting and taxi-ing on the tarmac, the flight (assuming it's on time and not delayed or cancelled), the landing, the baggage wait and the drive to WDW.

All the best.

Another plus is packing what you want and not having to worry about the weight of your luggage. There are things we buy down there at inflated prices (Garden Grocer or on site) because we don't want to weigh down our luggage. When we drive we will take a couple bottles of liquor, maybe a pack of beer, our own food for the room (non perishables) just to name a few. We also take an extra luggage to bring back souveniors or just for the dirty clothes.

They both have pros and cons but I do prefer to fly because I don't like to drive.

 

[disneysteve]

I would love to do a Disney meet but can't this weekend because I'll be out of town for a wedding. Let me know for the next time!

I don't want to hijack the thread so let me just give a link to the NJ DIS meet info. It is a lot of fun, well worth attending, and you'll get to meet most of the podcast team and be there for a live recording of the show.
http://www.disboards.com/threads/gk...5-april-24-26-full-details-announced.3318728/

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I don't want to hijack the thread so let me just give a link to the NJ DIS meet info. It is a lot of fun, well worth attending, and you'll get to meet most of the podcast team and be there for a live recording of the show.
http://www.disboards.com/threads/gk...5-april-24-26-full-details-announced.3318728/

Great! I thought it was this weekend. I can probaby make it.

 

[disneysteve]

Another plus is packing what you want and not having to worry about the weight of your luggage.

Absolutely! We stay offsite in a rented condo or house and there's no way we could pack the same way if we flew. Plus we often go for 2 weeks. We bring a cooler of perishables. We bring a couple of cartons of food. We each use different hair care stuff so we bring 6 bottles of shampoo and conditioner (and not 3oz bottles). We bring a drying rack for the laundry. Just lots of stuff we couldn't bring by plane. Plus, if we need supplies while we're there, we aren't stuck buying little packs or throwing out what doesn't get used. We can buy the normal size and bring home the extra.

 

[deedeew80]

Yes, I understand there are ton of benefits of driving, but I hate driving in general! However, I am looking forward to being able to pack everything we need & want! Me also have a mini van, so ton of space!! Never thought of bringing our own booze! Great idea! Super expensive in Disney!!!

 

[disneysteve]

Never thought of bringing our own booze! Great idea! Super expensive in Disney!!!

Another advantage of driving is that you don't have to pay Disney's prices for everything while you're there. Even if you're staying onsite, you can hop in your car and drive off site and pay pretty normal prices for restaurants, groceries, toiletries, alcohol, whatever.

 

[Dirt65]

Hi guys I'm a long time lurker.
So I've read all the threads on the drive to Disney. The only question I haven't seen an answer to is, how to you prepare for the straight through drive? (sleep wise)
I live in Northern NJ. I have made several drives down but never a straight through one.
We always left at 3:30 am down the Parkway to the ferry, then over the Bay Bridge Tunnel over to 95 and down.
This time we are planning straight down 95 and straight through.

 

[amcnj]

Hi guys I'm a long time lurker.
So I've read all the threads on the drive to Disney. The only question I haven't seen an answer to is, how to you prepare for the straight through drive? (sleep wise)
I live in Northern NJ. I have made several drives down but never a straight through one.
We always left at 3:30 am down the Parkway to the ferry, then over the Bay Bridge Tunnel over to 95 and down.
This time we are planning straight down 95 and straight through.

Hi. I am up kind of early for work every day anyway, so what works best for me is getting up a few hours earlier and leaving 2:30 AM. I just try and go to sleep like normal the night before, though sometimes the trip causes you to have a lot on your mind and drifting off is not so easy! As long as I didn't have any unusually late nights the days leading up to the trip I am OK.

Are you planning on an early departure this trip, or an overnight drive?

 

[disneysteve]

The only question I haven't seen an answer to is, how to you prepare for the straight through drive?

We've driven straight through from south Jersey a couple of times. I didn't really do anything special to prepare except getting a good night's sleep the night before.

 

[BC1836]

Overnight, the price of regular gas at our nearest Wawa station increased six cents to $2.05.

All the best.