For 2,000+ mile round-trip drivers only!

[Nik's Mom]

I road traveled that area for five years and my advice is drive on through Atlanta to Macon. I never had a good experience in a hotel on the West or South side of Atlanta, but Macon is great! It's not much farther time-wise and it's a world of difference in every other way.

O.k. Thanks for the suggestion. I will check out Macon.

 

[kristytru]

Hi to marcyinPA and rotlex!

We also plan on a new route this trip - the 78-81-77-26 route - at least for the trip down. We thought we'd try a change of scenery. Can't wait!!!

We are hoping to take this route in April for our first time driving down in 24 ft RV. Please let me know how the ride was especially throo the mountains...I'm a little nervouse

 

[huskies90]

Actually, I left from the Danbury area down 684 to Tappan Zee to GSP to 95. And actually I am in route right now in the back seat taking a break from the driving as my wife drives though Northern FL. We are about to hit the I4 turn off.

Quick live recap:

Left CT at 4PM. We hit a snag on the Tappan Zee for emergency construction which cost us about 45 minutes then the volume through NJ was way higher than I expected. We arrived in Newark DE for dinner about an hour later than I planned. We switched drivers and my wife drove though DC and into VA. We swapped back in Ashland VA at 12:15 and I drove straight thru to Savannah GA while everyone slept. I made up the time we lost. I had no problems at all and this was a great way to go. We switched back at 7:30 AM and she drove to Brunswick for breakfast while I power napped. We ended up stopping at an IHOP - couldn't bring myself to try a Waffle House. We hit no delays at all in GA. I am about to switch back when we hit I4 and assuming no problems on I4 we should get in around our 2PM scheduled time. I shouldn't jinx myself because I have seen two wicked accidents going north on I95. Coming back next week we'll be stopping over and doing the trip in two days. Should be interesting to compare.

Well, it is Sunday 2/22 around noon EST and we are back I can't believe the week is over already but we had an amazing vacation (as always). Along with the live updated I provided last Saturday 2/14, here are the remaining details. We had no problems on I4 and we arrived at our resort at 1:30PM so it took 21 1/2 hours from the Danbury, CT area.

On the return, we decided to drive straight thru coming back and we absolutely flew home with no traffic problems anywhere. We made it back in 19 ½ hours but my wife and I were both pretty tired by time we got to DC so, the last 5 or 6 hours we had to switch off quite a bit. Here is the return recap:

We spent the day (2/21) at EPCOT and left at about 3:30. I drove non stop to Savannah, GA where we stopped for dinner. My wife picked it up from there and drove to Selma, NC and then I took it to the last rest stop in VA. That was about 5AM and where we were getting tired. We traded off every hour and a half from there until breakfast in NJ, where daylight kicked in. We were fine after that and I drove the last 150 miles or so.

My take – if you are gonna drive, driving straight through and through the night is the way to go (assuming you have multiple drivers). We hit no traffic and made great time. My kids loved it because they slept just about the whole way. Upon arrival, we checked in, hit the pool (temps in the 80s), relaxed then, took showers and we were off to the Magic Kingdom and then to our Chef Mickey’s ADR. We took it slow obviously only doing a few attractions but it was great strolling around the Magic Kingdom instead of being held up in some chain hotel off i95. Obviously, I started getting loopy by the time we turned in but I had no problems the next day and we stayed out for the late EMH the next night.

Coming back was a bit tougher because we didn’t sleep as well in the resort the night before and we had a full day at a park but I am home now and have plenty of time to prepare for work tomorrow instead of getting in at 11PM tonight and have to get up early the next day.

Would I do it again? I would say I would still much prefer flying but it wasn’t that bad driving and there were several obvious advantages and flexibilities I liked...but a good airfare would still win out.

 

[BC1836]

Thanks, huskies90, for the informative driving reports. Alas, you're back home...but think of the WDW memories!

All the best.

 

[FidlMom]

Hey Huskies 90 -

We drove back to Connecticut at almost the exact time, same day, and we drove straight through also! Were you the minvan with the CT plates - either a Honda or Toyata?

We did DHS on Saturday the 21st and left the area at 4PM. We had to drive all the way to Hartford - and it wasn't nice hitting that snow as soon as we crossed the border into CT! It took us 21 hours to get back - but only 20 hours to get down. Like you, we were more tired on the return trip, so we had more coffee stops and driver switches.

Glad you had a safe trip.

 

[huskies90]

Hey Huskies 90 -

We drove back to Connecticut at almost the exact time, same day, and we drove straight through also! Were you the minvan with the CT plates - either a Honda or Toyata?

Nope, we were the ones in the Maroon Honda Pilot with CT plates and two kids sleeping in the two back rows. You weren't in the Grand Cherokee that kept changing lanes for no reason the whole way, were you?? just kidding.

Have you driven before? If not, would you do it again? (that is what everyone is asking me). Anyway, I hope you had a great week down there, too.

 

[FidlMom]

No, we were in the maroon Buick with 2 kids watching movies in the back seat. Have you tried Redbox for traveling? Fantastic! We picked up 2 movies in Georgia, returned them in Virginia and picked up another one, which we returned at home (all with free codes, too!).

Yes, we would drive it again. We do a lot of travel for my kids' music, and driving lets us carry the instruments we need, as well as being more economical. Our next trip is to western Texas.......

 

[pilferk]

Well, it's officially official:

We're NOT driving in September.

We'd been hemming and hawing, because for this trip there are SEVEN of us. Our family...and my parents are joining us. We just can't all fit in one car...either on the WAY there or WHILE we're there. It makes the drive "caravaning" that much more problematic (combined with the fact my parents are NOT good distance or night time drivers). We'd talked about them flying and us driving, but really wanted to do the trip together.

Air fare prices were not being real cooperative, though. Granted, we had 7 - 8 months til we traveled, and we were waffling anyway.

Then, today, I found VERY cheap round trip ($168) fares, through Delta, right out of Bradley....and we booked 'em for all 7 of us. I'll be kicking myself if we see something crazy like $99 RT fares in a couple months, but...well...we're flying for under a grand, which has long been our "worth it" metric between driving and flying.

But NEXT trip....we'll be back to the car!

 

[huskies90]

Have you tried Redbox for traveling? Fantastic! We picked up 2 movies in Georgia, returned them in Virginia and picked up another one, which we returned at home (all with free codes, too!).

Nah, we had a very streamlined set up which enabled each kid to sprawl out in their own row (Pilots have three rows of seats). The only thing my kids brought was their laptops which had all the movies preloaded on the hard drive as well as several PC games. I set up a broadband wireless connection with my 3G phone (on Verizon - never lost connection at any spot on i95!!) and a peer to peer wireless connection in the car so they both could be online. They each had there own power inverters (they are awesome!!) that made use of our 12 volt outlets to keep their pc's charged. For those of us up front, we had the car's XM radio to keep us truckin' along and a GPS to countdown the miles...

 

[FidlMom]

You are quite high-tech. We made the kids share a laptop PC and watch the same movie. In the same seat.

 

[Lucy6]

Four weeks from today, we will be taking our first drive to the world We plan to leave around 6PM after kids get home from school, dh sleeps for a couple of hours after getting home from work, and mom has packed the car. We are driving straight through from the south burbs, mapquest says to expect at least 18 hours. We can't wait!!!

 

[FamilyGuy]

Four weeks from today, we will be taking our first drive to the world We plan to leave around 6PM after kids get home from school, dh sleeps for a couple of hours after getting home from work, and mom has packed the car. We are driving straight through from the south burbs, mapquest says to expect at least 18 hours. We can't wait!!!

The one thing that was helped us alot on our first trip was simply 2 different familes setting straight our expectations in regards to 'arriving in the south.'

The bottom line is this. GA is a very very long state. Make sure to avoid getting the feeling that you have almost arrived when you get to the northern part of GA. IIRC, it takes about 7 hours just to get through GA!

Another tip, if you already do not own one, think about investing in a portable GPS - A good one can be had for around $100 these days, and are helpful in many ways. I remember paying $1000 for one back in '04, and that unit is less sofisticated that the $100 units today.

Have fun and drive safe!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Even though on paper Georgia is a long state do to drive through, when my family and I drive through it on I-75 we don't think it takes that long because a lot of the exits are close together and we see a lot more billboard signs. So we think those factors makes that days drive go faster compared to other states where a lot of their exits are more far apart and we less billboard for hotels, restaurants and etc.

 

[Nik's Mom]

We're just 15 days away from our trip now! Today I went out and bought little trinkets for the kids. I bought coloring books, crayons, slinky, stickers, some new dvd's. Next week I will start loading up on snacks. I was kind of dreading the long drive at first, but now I'm really looking forward to it!

 

[friskygal95]

Four weeks from today, we will be taking our first drive to the world We plan to leave around 6PM after kids get home from school, dh sleeps for a couple of hours after getting home from work, and mom has packed the car. We are driving straight through from the south burbs, mapquest says to expect at least 18 hours. We can't wait!!!

Just a FYI, I don't think mapquest calculates stops for gas, food, etc... we live in Northwest Ohio and it takes about 20 hours to drive to WDW. We usually stop over for the night in southern GA.

 

[mookie]

Four weeks from today, we will be taking our first drive to the world We plan to leave around 6PM after kids get home from school, dh sleeps for a couple of hours after getting home from work, and mom has packed the car. We are driving straight through from the south burbs, mapquest says to expect at least 18 hours. We can't wait!!!

Lucy, I am really excited to see how this goes...please post when you get back...we are doing the same drive in May and are anxious too with 3 kids under 5!! We are stopping overnight in Macon GA but I'm curous to see how the overall drive goes. Good luck and have fun!

 

[Lucy6]

Familyguy, thanks for your input.
I will use your tip regarding GA and will make sure the family has realistic expectations about this. My kids are 13 and 9, and have never done a drive like this before(neither has dh or I). This will be good to keep in mind so they don't burn out in what they think is the home stretch...
Also, thanks for the gps tip. We don't have one but have been thinking about getting one before the trip. I think we definitely will now.

Friskygal95, thanks for your input...
I am thinking realistically at least 20 with stops for us. Just curious, how long did mapquest say it would take you from OH? You said it ended up taking you 20 hours with stops?? We are about 1150 miles from our house to Pop per mapquest.

Mookie, I will definitely post when we get back! The Disboards have been such a great source of knowledge for me while planning all of our trips, I feel I need to give back.

Thanks for all the comments regarding my post!

 

[friskygal95]

Mapquest says a little over 16 hours for us...1060 miles

 

[BC1836]

Mapquest says a little over 16 hours for us...1060 miles

Remember: Mapquest (and every other drive-assisted web site) assumes a straight drive through without stops (among other assumptions, like traffic delays, etc.).

We did our first and only straight drive through in May of 2008; our mileage is 1,080 miles, not much different than yours. We departed at 4:45 a.m. and made it to Exit #67 on I-4 at 10:27 p.m.. Total time of trip: 17 hours and 42 minutes. The only stops we made were bathroom breaks and gas; we ate our prepared food in the vehicle. The drive is one figure; the trip (all other time-consuming activities) is another. So add another 90 minutes to your planned trip; add more time if you plan to have any sit-down meals.

All the best.

[BTW: The next post will be #1,000 on this thread!]

 

[nappingbeauty]

Driving from the Philadelphia area this summer and would like to get to the Palm Coast area... I am very finicky about hotels... had a bad experience once with "extra guests" running across the night tables. Prefer Marriotts and Fairfields. Anyone familiar with any in that area??