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

[BC1836]

Preparing for the four-hour return flight home from Austin.

Veteran members of this thread understand that my scheduled "four-hour flight" is only part of the time investment when flying: the careful packing of luggage, the drive to the airport (and the early arrival), checking in, the security lines (oh, yeah, the "shoes!"), boarding, the scramble/battle for the overhead bins, the taxi-to-the-runway journey, the flight (no food or snacks on the flight from Newark to Austin), arrival at the gate, the slo-mo passenger exit, reclaiming baggage (please don't let them be lost!) and the drive home. Oh yeah...but it was only a "four-hour flight."

Next month: I-95 and I-4 here we come!

All the best!

 

[Befferk]

We've both driven and flown, and in May 2010 we will be driving again. Several reasons. First, the airport we fly out of is a 3.5 hour drive one way. So that must be added onto the "flight" timetable along with the other usual time considerations. Also, this time there are 6 of us going so roughly $2000 for tickets vs. $600 for driving, a no brainer. My parents have a nice van that we will be taking, so we will have plenty of room and be on our own schedule.

ETA: We'll be driving from central Wisconsin, so the drive is roughly 24 hours.

 

[awaldo]

Preparing for the four-hour return flight home from Austin.

Veteran members of this thread understand that my scheduled "four-hour flight" is only part of the time investment when flying: the careful packing of luggage, the drive to the airport (and the early arrival), checking in, the security lines (oh, yeah, the "shoes!"), boarding, the scramble/battle for the overhead bins, the taxi-to-the-runway journey, the flight (no food or snacks on the flight from Newark to Austin), arrival at the gate, the slo-mo passenger exit, reclaiming baggage (please don't let them be lost!) and the drive home. Oh yeah...but it was only a "four-hour flight."

Next month: I-95 and I-4 here we come!

All the best!

We've both driven and flown, and in May 2010 we will be driving again. Several reasons. First, the airport we fly out of is a 3.5 hour drive one way. So that must be added onto the "flight" timetable along with the other usual time considerations. Also, this time there are 6 of us going so roughly $2000 for tickets vs. $600 for driving, a no brainer. My parents have a nice van that we will be taking, so we will have plenty of room and be on our own schedule.

ETA: We'll be driving from central Wisconsin, so the drive is roughly 24 hours.

I'm with both of you. We are from Northern Indiana, but unless we want to fly out of South Bend, which is prohibitively expensive, we have to go Indy or Chicago, which is 2-3 hours one way. Add in all the before/after, airport sitting, etc., driving takes just twice as long roundtrip that flying roundtrip. It's right at 19 hours to drive, we leave after work around 5, drive straight through, kids eat supper, then sleep in their carseats with a movie on, wake up and have breakfast in Valdosta, GA. Then a short "kick it in" drive with a late lunch at Planet Hollywood!

Plus, I like the feeling of being in control of our trip. Flying just doesn't, especially with a DD4 and a DD1.5!

 

[Befferk]

I'm with both of you. We are from Northern Indiana, but unless we want to fly out of South Bend, which is prohibitively expensive, we have to go Indy or Chicago, which is 2-3 hours one way. Add in all the before/after, airport sitting, etc., driving takes just twice as long roundtrip that flying roundtrip. It's right at 19 hours to drive, we leave after work around 5, drive straight through, kids eat supper, then sleep in their carseats with a movie on, wake up and have breakfast in Valdosta, GA. Then a short "kick it in" drive with a late lunch at Planet Hollywood!

Plus, I like the feeling of being in control of our trip. Flying just doesn't, especially with a DD4 and a DD1.5!

Plus, for us, when we fly, we usually start our "trip" a day earlier anyway, as we do the park and fly, which means we are heading to the hotel the night before anyway, so we're taking the same amount of time off work, etc. Flying was nice when we would've had only DH and me for drivers (that was hard to go straight through) but this trip we will have 5 drivers, so it will be a breeze!

 

[awaldo]

Plus, for us, when we fly, we usually start our "trip" a day earlier anyway, as we do the park and fly, which means we are heading to the hotel the night before anyway, so we're taking the same amount of time off work, etc. Flying was nice when we would've had only DH and me for drivers (that was hard to go straight through) but this trip we will have 5 drivers, so it will be a breeze!

Exactly. We do the Park n Fly too, so arrive roughly the same time we would if we flew, and leave the same time too. We will have 4 drivers this time as well, since we are traveling with another family.

 

[mrodgers]

Can I join in?

Haven't actually ever been to Disneyworld, this is our first time for all as well as my girls first trip ever.

I'm up north of Pittburgh nearly on I-80. Google maps tells me it is 16 hours and 1090 miles. The longest I have ever gone on vacation was to Myrtle Beach 12 hours back as a teenager. I drove by myself from PA to Indiana last year which was an 8 hour trip, but that was for work and I was being paid. Thus, it was a slow driving trip with lots of stops .

We are doing a 2 day trip both ways. We have plenty of vacation time and only limited funds for spending in Disney, so it doesn't really matter if we take 3 days driving, or 4 days, whatever.

We want to drive at least 12 hours according to google maps, which should put us 4 hours from Disney in Georgia somewhere (Savannah or something like that I think.) This way we won't be forced to leave at some early hour and can drive at our leisure, especially on the way home. We may do some southern sight seeing on the way home.

My wondering mind wants to know, when you plan a 2 day driving trip, do you schedule the stop and get a reservation for a room, or do you just decide it's time to stop and look for a room? The overnight stay would just be for recoup from the driving, so a cheapie motel somewhere would be perfectly fine. Should I plan the exact stop and look at motels and make a reservation?

 

[Becky2005]

My wondering mind wants to know, when you plan a 2 day driving trip, do you schedule the stop and get a reservation for a room, or do you just decide it's time to stop and look for a room? The overnight stay would just be for recoup from the driving, so a cheapie motel somewhere would be perfectly fine. Should I plan the exact stop and look at motels and make a reservation?

Are you just a family of 4 (you said "girls" in your post but wasn't sure if that was just 2 or more)? The reason I ask is because if you just need a basic standard holds 4 hotel room, you can do it either way.

For us, being a family of 6, we feel better having a reservation ahead of time.

My favorite way to do things & now with cell phones is even *easier* is to to make a reservation on the road, know where we are at & how we are feeling, figure "Ok, we want to get in another 100 miles, what hotels are there". This started when a long time ago, which I'm sure has changed but we stopped at a very nice rest stop that had those coupon books but in addition to that, they had a phone set-up with pre-sets for hotels father down on the interstate, so basically you called from that rest stop to get a reservation for a hotel that could have been anywhere from 50 to 300 miles away but were off that interstate.

I know growing up my parents never had reservations but you did have to start looking for a hotel around 4 pm or else you took the chance of them all being booked up. DH didn't believe me when we first got married & then we ended up driving straight through from NJ because, by the time he wanted to actually stop, the hotels were booked up. His family always had reservations, ours never did -- so I got to do a "told you so" for that one.

The being able to call while on the road is the best of both worlds for me if you just need 1 basic hotel room. You aren't tied into a specific hotel if you get a later/earlier start but you know you definitely have a room by the time you are ready to stop.

That's just my opinion.

 

[FreezinRafiki]

We've been back from out trip for just over a week now. We left South East Wisconsin at 5:15 on a Thursday night. Unfortunately that had us hitting Chicago during rush hour, but we didn't want to sit around and wait. Chicago traffic was pretty bad, but bearable.
We had never made the drive before and didn't know what to expect. Both kids had DVDs, toys, books and snacks to entertain themselves. DW took over driving south of Indianapolis and I napped in the passenger seat until somewhere in Kentucky. I took over and she slept all the way to just north of Atlanta. It was about 9am, and we took I75 straight through downtown. We used the HOV lanes and never slowed below 50mph. She drove again for a few hours in southern GA while I caught a few more zzzs. I finished off the drive and we pulled into our parking spot around 2:45pm.

The trip home took about an hour or so more, mostly because we weren't as excited to be going that way, and were more tired from the last 2 weeks.

Grand totals:
2521 miles
45 hours
0 children, dogs, or spouses thrown out of a moving vehicle!

Good trip!

 

[FINFAN]

Flying is by far our first choice for traveling to FL. We have direct flights that get us there in 2.5 hours. Driving takes 24. However, given that there are now four of us requiring seats--and traveling during peak times--we are talking upwards of $2000 to fly--then rent a car on top of that! Driving is where we'll be in April unless some terrific rates drop out of the sky--I'm not holding my breath! Load up the movies, snacks, games, pillows, etc. We haven't driven in probably 8 years or more!

Right there with you....if we have a car payment ( as we do now) we do not fly unless we have to due to time constraints. We are a family of 4, heading from Chicago to Orlando over Christmas, and need a car to drive to see family after our WDW trip. Our youngest is in HS so not leaving early due to finals, so no break on airfare for us! We even had to pass pn the FD since we oculd not be sure we could check in on 12/17. We also have the 3rd adult fee for the room, so our areas for saving are limited and using the car we are paying for is the place to save right now. Fortunately, DH actually has almost 3 weeks off due to how his company closes down between Christmas Eve and NYD, so that is a huge help. Not crazy about having the lack of daylight traveling in December, but it looks SOOOOOO nice to gradually see greenery and color in the landscape as you get closer to Florida. The drive back stinks, nothing to look foreward to but work and school ( hopefully no snow to shovel) but to best thing is if we want to stay longer, we can, no airline penalties, no insane rates for the changed airfare...got hit with that already when DD had to change her return to college due to illness... man , those fees hurt....almost $1000 in total cost for the last minute changes.

 

[disneyfan55]

Can I join in?

Haven't actually ever been to Disneyworld, this is our first time for all as well as my girls first trip ever.

I'm up north of Pittburgh nearly on I-80. Google maps tells me it is 16 hours and 1090 miles. The longest I have ever gone on vacation was to Myrtle Beach 12 hours back as a teenager. I drove by myself from PA to Indiana last year which was an 8 hour trip, but that was for work and I was being paid. Thus, it was a slow driving trip with lots of stops .

We are doing a 2 day trip both ways. We have plenty of vacation time and only limited funds for spending in Disney, so it doesn't really matter if we take 3 days driving, or 4 days, whatever.

We want to drive at least 12 hours according to google maps, which should put us 4 hours from Disney in Georgia somewhere (Savannah or something like that I think.) This way we won't be forced to leave at some early hour and can drive at our leisure, especially on the way home. We may do some southern sight seeing on the way home.

My wondering mind wants to know, when you plan a 2 day driving trip, do you schedule the stop and get a reservation for a room, or do you just decide it's time to stop and look for a room? The overnight stay would just be for recoup from the driving, so a cheapie motel somewhere would be perfectly fine. Should I plan the exact stop and look at motels and make a reservation?

Well, for most early trips we drove straight though from NJ, about the same distance. During the past few years we have stopped. Yes, we did make reservations. One time while driving home from WDW we tried to get a room mid way. ALL the rooms were booked on 95; we started looking around 8:00 pm. If you really want a room in a particulr place, make a reservation that you can cancel with no fees. That's actually what we do now. It won't hurt and at least you have a room. I don't know your route, but my guess is that you will be on I81. It's not as crowded as 95, but less motels.

 

[mommy2paris]

We are getting ready for our first road trip from the eastern shore of MD in January of 2010. We are going on a DCL cruise then spending a few days in Disney before heading home. The trip is just around 2000 miles for us... we have a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old. We have always flown with them, so it should be an interesting trip, lol. But like a lot of you have said, flying isn't always easy either. We have a 2 hr drive one way to the closest major airport, park, take shuttle, get through security with 2 kids, strollers, carseats, wait for flight, 2 hr 15 min flight, unload, get luggage, rent car... It really makes for a long day as well! We are planning on having grandmother keep the girls for the afternoon on the day we leave so that hubby and I can try to get a little rest before getting on the road around 8pm... We are planning on driving as long as we are comfortable, maybe the whole way... with just a few breaks for gas, meals, potty inbetween. If we need to stop to sleep, we will, safety of course comes first, but it would be awesome to be near the port by noon the next day!
Any tips or advice?

 

[digskat]

we are off 4 am Saturday!!!

 

[ShelShelsmommy]

We are leaving at 4:00pm November 17 and one way is around 1030 miles so round trip is over 2000 for us. Our tickets start on the 18 so we are happy that Epcot has EMH that day. It will be a long drive though with a 6,4, and 1 year old.

 

[ktaggie]

We Drive from Houston every year. I don't know exactly how far it is but the drive is not too bad....

 

[SurfinTX]

We had driven to Heber City, Utah from Dallas, TX this year which was about 1600 miles via Kansas. That took about 24 hours including a 2 hour dinner at Casa Bonita in Denver. I find that Google's estimates to be very conservative especialy if there are highways with 75 or 80 mph speed limits.

Right now I'm hoping for a good sale to fly in early June but looking at the state of the airlines I have little hope that I could get lucky on both the arrival and departure dates. Flying for $800 for 5 would be worth it considering $2.50 gas and 1200 miles (16 hours no stop). I also would figure in an extra day both ways and needing a hotel...so that would run us about $500 to drive. Seeing how few days are being offered for sale fares in the low season makes think it will not happen early summer '10. At best it will cost us $1100 if one date hits a sale and that makes driving worth it.

With all of the fees and taxes I guess it will never be economical for a family of 5 to fly anywhere short of 2000 miles each way and then only during a sale.

 

[Tanooki]

Hi!

Well, I've done my homework and read every page of this thread

I don't know if I'll remember everything so forgive me if I ask questions that have been answered before...

We will be making our first drive to WDW next February, leaving on the 26th and coming back on March 6th (hoping to be home on the 7th).

We flew there in August 2008 and again in August 2009 and we are becoming seriously addicted to the House of the Mouse but we just can't pay for 6 airplaine tickets at the outrageous prices they are asking for at that time of year

The more I read this thread, the more interested I got to driving the 1500 miles it takes from our house to Orlando. I think we can make this a fun family trip

I was a little worried about the drive back, since we all know what it's like to leave this magical place but I can tell you that the last time we flew there, it was the flight going IN that was miserable , we were actually all glad to be going home and the return flight was a real breeze compared to the other one!

I've been reading just about anything I can get my keyboard on about the easiest drive from home (Montreal suburb) and I'm guessing we'll have to see if the weather will co-operate before deciding between I-95 and the alternate route (84-81-77-26-95-4 if I read right). We have to leave on a Friday morning to make the most of our time (I know it's better to wait for a weekend but...) but we'll be coming back the next weekend so here's to hoping

Keep the good tips coming in!

 

[marius97]

Hi!


I was a little worried about the drive back, since we all know what it's like to leave this magical place but I can tell you that the last time we flew there, it was the flight going IN that was miserable , we were actually all glad to be going home and the return flight was a real breeze compared to the other one!

I'll agree with you on that point...Whether it be the 20 hour drive to WDW or the three hour drive to visit family, we always find the drive home to go much faster. I think that it boils down to if you had a fun, fullfilling trip, then you will be excited to get back home. Our first trip to WDW was poorly planned and was way to short. We left with a dread of going home. Last time, we stayed longer and planned much better and were able to enjoy the week. The drive home straight through over night was a breeze...well except for that last two hours or so. At that point, we were ready to kick the kids out the door.

 

[SurfinTX]

I'll agree with you on that point...Whether it be the 20 hour drive to WDW or the three hour drive to visit family, we always find the drive home to go much faster. I think that it boils down to if you had a fun, fullfilling trip, then you will be excited to get back home. Our first trip to WDW was poorly planned and was way to short. We left with a dread of going home. Last time, we stayed longer and planned much better and were able to enjoy the week. The drive home straight through over night was a breeze...well except for that last two hours or so. At that point, we were ready to kick the kids out the door.

That was our problem coming back from Utah. It's best to get the kids thoroughly exhausted before the drive back. Push as far as you can go before they start getting antsy. Take breaks after that to keep your sanity.

 

[BC1836]

We Drive from Houston every year. I don't know exactly how far it is but the drive is not too bad....

Not a bad drive. We drove from the Jersey Shore to San Antonio twice, once via Houston. (I write for a Houston book publisher).

Your route: I-10 to I-95 (Jacksonville) to I-4 and EXIT #67! You certainly qualify in mileage to be on this thread!

All the best.

 

[cruisingkat]

Not a bad drive. We drove from the Jersey Shore to San Antonio twice, once via Houston. (I write for a Houston book publisher).

Your route: I-10 to I-95 (Jacksonville) to I-4 and EXIT #67! You certainly qualify in mileage to be on this thread!

All the best.

Why would you go all that extra way east to I-95 from Houston?. We drove from Disney to Houston in June (part of our "visit Disney and the grandkids Chicago to Disney to Ft Myers to Disney to Houston to back home to Chicago" trip) the route we took was the Florida Turnpike to I-75 to I-10 so going to Disney from Houston is I-10 to I-75 to the Florida Turnpike to Disney.
I have to agree with the poster from Houston - the drive is not bad at all - much quicker than Chicago to Disney - as long as you have great weather and I-10 bridge over the bayou is clear in Louisiana. Unfortunately, we had heavy rain most of the way until Mississippi which slowed us down.