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

[bluezy]

When staying overnight while traveling on 95 to/from WDW, do you prefer Hampton Inn or Fairfield Inn? Other favorites?
Reasons why?
Thanks!

We don't have a specific chain that we look for but we have stayed at both of the ones you've mentioned many times and I don't remember having any issues at either one. What we do when we're traveling to and from Disney is we drive until about 5:00-6:00 pm and then exit the highway at an exit with several hotel options. We pull in a parking lot somewhere and start checking travel websites like hotels.com, orbitz, etc. to find what hotels have the best rates. We quickly look at pictures and reviews and then book the best deal for us. We literally only shower, sleep, and eat the free breakfast at those hotels (we're typically only there for 12 hours), so we're not looking for something super high-end -- just comfortable and clean.

 

[hmsTigger]

We prefer Hampton Inn all along I-95
Competitive pricing, nice bfast options, free parking, ease of making reservations,
We are in and out, low maintenance/expectations shower, sleep only and no extras needed. Staff for the most part are friendly, efficient, well trained.

 

[DSLRuser]

After a 10+ year run of only flying, we are driving down Friday 8-4-23. Dropping oldest stuff and car off at college, then driving down for a last week before school. Last minute, there were dvc points and an open spot..so we are going.

St. Louis > Richmond KY > Disney. 1,200 ish miles and 18 hours.... straight thru....

cool thing now is....we have 4 drivers. girls are 22 and 16....but I will end up doing all 18....it doesn't bother me and I just let them sleep

 

[hmsTigger]

Rest Up! WE've done that drive many many times 16 hours for us. Tiring but always happy when we arrive.
Enjoy!

 

[Mikeb1892]

Leaving Thursday night from upstate NY, picking up my 10 yo from visiting his Grandparents in SC on Friday, and arriving on Saturday. 81-77-26-95-4 1,250 miles.

 

[dvczerfs]

Hello all!! I did return from my short trip to Pennsylvania. Had a great time meeting up with some old friends and getting together with the family. We are all kind of spread out anymore so it’s not often we are all in the same spot at the same time. Both flights, Sanford to ABE, ABE to Sanford were both ahead of schedule arriving early by a half hour.
Pennsylvania was just as I remembered it, cold, grey and rainy. Lol
Couldnt wait to get back to blue skies and palm trees.
Driving in Florida for two years then going back to Pa is a little ruff. Narrow, wavy and a lot of bumps. Lol.
Anyway, everyone driving down, take it easy and arrive in one piece. There are no plans to remove the welcome to WDW arch anytime soon, it will be here when you get here, promise.

 

[DSLRuser]

So it finally happened. We had a road trip that was not ideal at all.

My daughter(22) left St. Louis Friday morning to drive 400 miles to her school in eastern Kentucky. My wife and daughter (16) and I left after work to picker her up and then continue the drive to Disney.

Arrived at 11pm, picked her up from school, drove 4 miles to Buccees for some food and gas. 11:30pm, started to get on I-75 south near Richmond KY. My newish f150 accelerated onto the highway and at 75mph, we had a loud THUNK... and lost all forward gears in the transmission. Got onto the far shoulder, had no park or reverse.

Ford roadside assistance picked us up at 12:30am and flat bedded my truck to a dealer 4 miles away. What do we do....we had a vacation to get to. My daughter ubered back to her apartment, and picked up her car, and came back to the dealership.

we then unpacked 4 persons luggage and a weeks worth of food and crammed as much of it as we could in a little vw gti. left some things in the truck, and started to drive to Disney by 1:30am. Arrived at boardwalk by noon Saturday and started vacation.

The truck lost its transfer case, $3-5k worth of repairs thankfully covered under warranty. The dealer is going everything it can to have it ready for my when by Friday at 8pm.

We were so lucky the truck broke so close to my daughters house, and we had her car. If not we surely would have lost 1-2 days of our trip and typhoon lagoon glow party tix.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

So it finally happened. We had a road trip that was not ideal at all.

My daughter(22) left St. Louis Friday morning to drive 400 miles to her school in eastern Kentucky. My wife and daughter (16) and I left after work to picker her up and then continue the drive to Disney.

Arrived at 11pm, picked her up from school, drove 4 miles to Buccees for some food and gas. 11:30pm, started to get on I-75 south near Richmond KY. My newish f150 accelerated onto the highway and at 75mph, we had a loud THUNK... and lost all forward gears in the transmission. Got onto the far shoulder, had no park or reverse.

Ford roadside assistance picked us up at 12:30am and flat bedded my truck to a dealer 4 miles away. What do we do....we had a vacation to get to. My daughter ubered back to her apartment, and picked up her car, and came back to the dealership.

we then unpacked 4 persons luggage and a weeks worth of food and crammed as much of it as we could in a little vw gti. left some things in the truck, and started to drive to Disney by 1:30am. Arrived at boardwalk by noon Saturday and started vacation.

The truck lost its transfer case, $3-5k worth of repairs thankfully covered under warranty. The dealer is going everything it can to have it ready for my when by Friday at 8pm.

We were so lucky the truck broke so close to my daughters house, and we had her car. If not we surely would have lost 1-2 days of our trip and typhoon lagoon glow party tix.

Wow that’s scary! Glad you are all ok

 

[bluecastle]

So it finally happened. We had a road trip that was not ideal at all.

My daughter(22) left St. Louis Friday morning to drive 400 miles to her school in eastern Kentucky. My wife and daughter (16) and I left after work to picker her up and then continue the drive to Disney.

Arrived at 11pm, picked her up from school, drove 4 miles to Buccees for some food and gas. 11:30pm, started to get on I-75 south near Richmond KY. My newish f150 accelerated onto the highway and at 75mph, we had a loud THUNK... and lost all forward gears in the transmission. Got onto the far shoulder, had no park or reverse.

Ford roadside assistance picked us up at 12:30am and flat bedded my truck to a dealer 4 miles away. What do we do....we had a vacation to get to. My daughter ubered back to her apartment, and picked up her car, and came back to the dealership.

we then unpacked 4 persons luggage and a weeks worth of food and crammed as much of it as we could in a little vw gti. left some things in the truck, and started to drive to Disney by 1:30am. Arrived at boardwalk by noon Saturday and started vacation.

The truck lost its transfer case, $3-5k worth of repairs thankfully covered under warranty. The dealer is going everything it can to have it ready for my when by Friday at 8pm.

We were so lucky the truck broke so close to my daughters house, and we had her car. If not we surely would have lost 1-2 days of our trip and typhoon lagoon glow party tix.

Wow, that sounds very scary, but glad you were still able to get to Disney. Somehow just being on property lowers the stress level so much. (We had a tire blow out once and I remember that feeling of finally getting to the hotel very well) But I’m sure having it be under warranty lowered the stress even more!

 

[bluecastle]

Our round trip from NoVA is 1800 miles. Can I still participate in this thread?

 

[Mikey15]

So it finally happened. We had a road trip that was not ideal at all.

My daughter(22) left St. Louis Friday morning to drive 400 miles to her school in eastern Kentucky. My wife and daughter (16) and I left after work to picker her up and then continue the drive to Disney.

Arrived at 11pm, picked her up from school, drove 4 miles to Buccees for some food and gas. 11:30pm, started to get on I-75 south near Richmond KY. My newish f150 accelerated onto the highway and at 75mph, we had a loud THUNK... and lost all forward gears in the transmission. Got onto the far shoulder, had no park or reverse.

Ford roadside assistance picked us up at 12:30am and flat bedded my truck to a dealer 4 miles away. What do we do....we had a vacation to get to. My daughter ubered back to her apartment, and picked up her car, and came back to the dealership.

we then unpacked 4 persons luggage and a weeks worth of food and crammed as much of it as we could in a little vw gti. left some things in the truck, and started to drive to Disney by 1:30am. Arrived at boardwalk by noon Saturday and started vacation.

The truck lost its transfer case, $3-5k worth of repairs thankfully covered under warranty. The dealer is going everything it can to have it ready for my when by Friday at 8pm.

We were so lucky the truck broke so close to my daughters house, and we had her car. If not we surely would have lost 1-2 days of our trip and typhoon lagoon glow party tix.

What an awful thing to happen on your trip! But I guess if it was going to happen one way or another, the where / when/ how worked out about as well as it possibly could.

Hope you get to enjoy the rest of your vacay!

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

So it finally happened. We had a road trip that was not ideal at all.

My daughter(22) left St. Louis Friday morning to drive 400 miles to her school in eastern Kentucky. My wife and daughter (16) and I left after work to picker her up and then continue the drive to Disney.

Arrived at 11pm, picked her up from school, drove 4 miles to Buccees for some food and gas. 11:30pm, started to get on I-75 south near Richmond KY. My newish f150 accelerated onto the highway and at 75mph, we had a loud THUNK... and lost all forward gears in the transmission. Got onto the far shoulder, had no park or reverse.

Ford roadside assistance picked us up at 12:30am and flat bedded my truck to a dealer 4 miles away. What do we do....we had a vacation to get to. My daughter ubered back to her apartment, and picked up her car, and came back to the dealership.

we then unpacked 4 persons luggage and a weeks worth of food and crammed as much of it as we could in a little vw gti. left some things in the truck, and started to drive to Disney by 1:30am. Arrived at boardwalk by noon Saturday and started vacation.

The truck lost its transfer case, $3-5k worth of repairs thankfully covered under warranty. The dealer is going everything it can to have it ready for my when by Friday at 8pm.

We were so lucky the truck broke so close to my daughters house, and we had her car. If not we surely would have lost 1-2 days of our trip and typhoon lagoon glow party tix.

Yikes! Sorry that happened. Must have been very scary and stressful.

As others stated, glad you were eventually able to continue on your trip.

Have a wonderful vacation and safe trip back!

 

[bluezy]

So it finally happened. We had a road trip that was not ideal at all.

My daughter(22) left St. Louis Friday morning to drive 400 miles to her school in eastern Kentucky. My wife and daughter (16) and I left after work to picker her up and then continue the drive to Disney.

Arrived at 11pm, picked her up from school, drove 4 miles to Buccees for some food and gas. 11:30pm, started to get on I-75 south near Richmond KY. My newish f150 accelerated onto the highway and at 75mph, we had a loud THUNK... and lost all forward gears in the transmission. Got onto the far shoulder, had no park or reverse.

Ford roadside assistance picked us up at 12:30am and flat bedded my truck to a dealer 4 miles away. What do we do....we had a vacation to get to. My daughter ubered back to her apartment, and picked up her car, and came back to the dealership.

we then unpacked 4 persons luggage and a weeks worth of food and crammed as much of it as we could in a little vw gti. left some things in the truck, and started to drive to Disney by 1:30am. Arrived at boardwalk by noon Saturday and started vacation.

The truck lost its transfer case, $3-5k worth of repairs thankfully covered under warranty. The dealer is going everything it can to have it ready for my when by Friday at 8pm.

We were so lucky the truck broke so close to my daughters house, and we had her car. If not we surely would have lost 1-2 days of our trip and typhoon lagoon glow party tix.

Yikes!!! That's very scary!! I'm glad no one was injured and that you were still able to get to Disney fairly close to your anticipated arrival time. I'm surprised Ford Roadside Assistance doesn't have the resources to provide a rental car (either free or at a reduced rate for a warranty issue while traveling). We had a coolant system fail on the way home from Disney several years ago along I-95 (lot's of fun breaking down along that road!). We called AAA and they had a truck on the way in no time and were ready to set us up with a rental car if needed (free for the first day, reduced rate for additional days). We were traveling during the day (this happened at 8:30 a.m.), so that probably makes a difference with getting a rental car. We didn't end up needing the rental car because our awesome tow truck driver found us a mechanic who could repair the car that day (the first 2 places we went said it would take 2-3 days). We lost about 6 hours of time, but at least we were heading home instead of heading *to* Disney. Ever since that trip we absolutely do not travel after about 6-7:00 at night *and* we take 2.5 days to make the 16 hour drive to Disney just in case something goes wrong -- we could still make it there on our planned arrival day. I know it's not possible for most people to spread out their drive over several days when they don't need to, but DH has more vacation days in a year they he can often use, so we're fortunate that we can take our time for the drive.

 

[DSLRuser]

Yikes!!! That's very scary!! I'm glad no one was injured and that you were still able to get to Disney fairly close to your anticipated arrival time. I'm surprised Ford Roadside Assistance doesn't have the resources to provide a rental car (either free or at a reduced rate for a warranty issue while traveling). We had a coolant system fail on the way home from Disney several years ago along I-95 (lot's of fun breaking down along that road!). We called AAA and they had a truck on the way in no time and were ready to set us up with a rental car if needed (free for the first day, reduced rate for additional days). We were traveling during the day (this happened at 8:30 a.m.), so that probably makes a difference with getting a rental car. We didn't end up needing the rental car because our awesome tow truck driver found us a mechanic who could repair the car that day (the first 2 places we went said it would take 2-3 days). We lost about 6 hours of time, but at least we were heading home instead of heading *to* Disney. Ever since that trip we absolutely do not travel after about 6-7:00 at night *and* we take 2.5 days to make the 16 hour drive to Disney just in case something goes wrong -- we could still make it there on our planned arrival day. I know it's not possible for most people to spread out their drive over several days when they don't need to, but DH has more vacation days in a year they he can often use, so we're fortunate that we can take our time for the drive.

I am sure I could have gotten ford to provide a rental if I pressed it. But I didn’t want to wait until Saturday morning for ford to open. The. Wait for the nearest rental car place. We would have for sure lost a day of vacation.

 

[bluezy]

I am sure I could have gotten ford to provide a rental if I pressed it. But I didn’t want to wait until Saturday morning for ford to open. The. Wait for the nearest rental car place. We would have for sure lost a day of vacation.

Yes, having to wait until the next morning for a rental would definitely have slowed you down by a good 8 hours. It's great that you had your daughter's car to use and didn't have to lose all that time waiting for a rental place or dealership to open. Unfortunately most people won't have that option of having a family member's car be just a few miles away *and* be available to use. It's definitely something to consider when traveling overnight -- having a vehicle break down during the night leaves you with far fewer options than if it happens during business hours. I totally understand that some people need to travel over night (including some of my family members), but there are things people need to be prepared for when traveling overnight.

 

[thegame310]

My wife and I are 2 weeks out from our adventure! We are traveling with our 2 dogs and are currently planning to do the bulk of the driving during the overnight hours (assuming our airbnb comes through with the early check-in lol)

Last time we did the majority of the trip on 95-S and encountered awful traffic making it a 20 hour trip.

This time around we're doing the famed 81-77-26-95 route and are hoping for much less than that.

2032 miles round trip! Can't wait!

 

[justreading]

My wife and I are 2 weeks out from our adventure! We are traveling with our 2 dogs and are currently planning to do the bulk of the driving during the overnight hours (assuming our airbnb comes through with the early check-in lol)

Last time we did the majority of the trip on 95-S and encountered awful traffic making it a 20 hour trip.

This time around we're doing the famed 81-77-26-95 route and are hoping for much less than that.

2032 miles round trip! Can't wait!

I'm in NJ and I learned quite a while ago to avoid 95 south and enjoy the "inland route". On paper, 95 is shorter but in real time, that is never true. Safe travels and have fun!

 

[pmdeve]

I'm in NJ and I learned quite a while ago to avoid 95 south and enjoy the "inland route". On paper, 95 is shorter but in real time, that is never true. Safe travels and have fun!

Very interested. We took 95 last time and it was a nightmare What route do you take.
Did you stop overnight. Thanks

 

[justreading]

Very interested. We took 95 last time and it was a nightmare What route do you take.
Did you stop overnight. Thanks

The exact route you are describing. I take 78-81-77-26-95. I actually stop twice (retired!!!) I wake up and have a 10 minute drive to WDW.

 

[Stratman50th]

My wife and I are 2 weeks out from our adventure! We are traveling with our 2 dogs and are currently planning to do the bulk of the driving during the overnight hours (assuming our airbnb comes through with the early check-in lol)

Last time we did the majority of the trip on 95-S and encountered awful traffic making it a 20 hour trip.

This time around we're doing the famed 81-77-26-95 route and are hoping for much less than that.

2032 miles round trip! Can't wait!

81 can have its own problems, trucks and traffic wise. That being said, it's a beautiful drive. You're lucky coming from Harrisburg. You really have the option of going 81 or 95. I was in MD and we were too far east to make 81 a reasonable option. We fixed it by moving to Florida permanently!
I've driven 81 to Tennessee and it was a nice drive. We did it in a 45' motorcoach towing a Tahoe. I'm pretty sure doing it in a car is much easier! It used to take us about 14 hours on 95 all the way to get to Jacksonville.
Be safe and enjoy!