For those folks driving!

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

It's a calculator on AAA's website. There's another sticky thread here on Transportation with a list of links and I know I included the link to that site.

 

[FourFlans]

OKAY...Last minute planning going on here. We leave Saturday for our first ever trip. Driving from Raleigh, NC area to WDW. Thanks to earlier posts from cranbiz we're stopping in Deltona on Saturday night to rest and refresh and then drive straight to AK on Sunday to start our magical vacation.

We're driving with DDs 8 & 5 and will have to build in some pit stops for potty breaks and food. I'm trying to decide when to leave, etc.

So two questions:
1. What is the drive time from Raleigh, NC to Orlando, FL (we'll be doing the straight I-95 South drive)?
2. Are the parks really easy to find once we get there? So when we drive from Deltona to Orlando on Sunday morning will we see signs for AK?

Thanks for the help!

 

[cranbiz]

I'm not much help on the drive time from Raleigh, but can tell you that it was about 10 hours from Deltona to Fredericksburg on my last trip. I was by myself so I had minimal stops, but did stop a couple of times for gas and potty breaks.

Getting to the parks is easy. Just get back on I4 and head twards Orlando. In about 45 minutes (43 miles from exit 111) you will find the exit for World Drive (exit 67). The very next exit is the Osceola Parkway (exit 65). Osceola Parkway will take you directly to AK and AKL.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

It's approx. 13 hours from Richmond to WDW, so I'd guess somewhere around 11 hours from Raleigh to WDW.

 

[FourFlans]

Thanks you guys for the help!

 

[missy]

64 is south of Staunton. Harrisonburg is about 25 miles north of Staunton.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

A little FYI regarding gas prices for anyone driving on I-75

My mother was visiting me last week. She lives in Calhoun, GA, about midway between Chattanooga and Atlanta. She said the gas prices back in GA are around $1.90 for regular unleaded, give or take a few cents depending on where you stop.

 

[Martha7]

Thanks for posting, Matt. We were considering a road trip to WDW during the first week of my DSS' winter break, but my older DS' Government teacher just assigned a whopping group project research paper and presentation that comes due after the break! Argh! Sigh...One day we'll manage it, I'm sure. I bought the Along Interstate 75 book and everything!

 

[umaangel00]

Hopefully the gas prices stay like that for when I go down in March!

 

[halld6479]

my dad lives in Ft Myres Fl and he always told us to hit Atlanta late night and you might survive the trip, still fixed in my mind is the belief that you are smarter then your parents, we didn't listen 1st time down we hit Atlanta mid day and DH driving 75 on six lanes of trafficand rain, made me think maybe good old dad was smarter then I gave him credit for, 2nd time down because of bad accidents and weather, we found ourselves south side of Atlanta on a Friday afternoon around 3:30p.m. we set on interstae bumper to bumper till finally exiting North side of Atlanta at 6:15pm. losing almost 3 hrs of traveling time and our sanity, we had two kids in the suv and DH had just quit smoking before our trip to save all our lungs. After we high open road my grand daughter said to him, if you can get through that without a cig, I think you licked the habbit.
And finally I excepted my father knew more then us. SO if you can find away around Atlanta go for it or at least hit it late at night.

 

[umaangel00]

Yeah we hit Atlanta in March at about 8 I think. It wasn't bad but it could have been better. I remember stopping in Macon somewhere to get rest. We both had food poisioning. I also remember a van being on fire too! That was awesome. But anyway, that was also around the time when they were trying to catch someone that had shot some people so it was real hectic on the way home so we went around the city. That's the best way to do it.

 

[dpayne1969]

We are thinking about driving from oklahoma to orlando in May.We will have 3 teens and hubby and I.Does anyone know a good route to take from Oklahoma.I know it is going to take about 19 hrs to drive.I am not looking forward to driving.It makes me nervous.We are leaving on a Sat.morning about 6 a.m.Thanks for any help.
Dee

 

[hAm53]

well we've been here for a week, and the day after we left MA got 3 of snow, with another 8-10" coming in the next 2 days. i think we've made the right move. here's our stats from our trip last thursday evening with a car packed with moving stuff and our cat (with her food dish, portable litter box, and a couple toys in her crate-a dog one that was waaaayyy big for her with plenty of room to walk around).
~ left Springfield,MA at 5:55PM Thur. Topped off gas at $2.02
~ Reached I95 in New Haven at 6:55 - no traffic at all until Bridgeport. 2 lanes closed for construction that I didn't see, added 20 minutes to trip.
~ Reached NY Border (our official home!!!) at 7:55 (see a pattern yet?). 111.3 mi
~ Took the upper level of the GWB at 8:18 and had touch the brakes traffic until the NJ Turnpike. Took the express lanes and breezed through the state (slowed down to wave to Giants Stadium)
~ reached the end of the Deleware Bridge at 10:14. 257.5 miles.
~ I filled up the tank at $2.09 while the wife hit the little girls room. since it was between 4 & 5 hours, we swapped drivers and I got to shut my brain off for a while.
~ reached maryland at 10:54. 257.2 mi. a little drizzle, but nothing bad.
~ Virginia arrived at 12:15AM 375 mi. i took a nap during this time, so I don't remember any of it. the Mrs. stayed on 95 through DC, and there was almost nobody on the road with her.
~ swapped drivers at the NC welcome center at 3:05am 559mi
~ stopped at exit 121 to fill the tanks. 4:17AM. gas $1.98 - still nobody around. a couple trucks, but mostly it felt like i was driving in space mountain b/c it was so dark.
~ reached south of the border at 6:05AM 740.8mi - wow this place has grown since last i saw it 16 years ago.
~ grabbed gas ($2.07) and b-fast at McD's off exit 98 7:34 AM. walked around the car a bit to get my legs working again, back on the road at 7:52 841.7 mi swapped drivers
~ GA was on our minds at 9:15 - 939.4 mi
~ filled up at exit 3 $1.95 - 10:51AM 1049.2 mi
~ reached the FL Welcome center at 11AM 1053.0 mi. swapped drivers, and started driving again at 11:14
~ got on I4 at 1PM - 1176 mi
arrived at our new apartment at 2:15 (10 minutes from WDW)

observations:
~ being behind traffic made the drive almost easy. there was only the one spot in Bridgeport where we hit any traffic.
~ USE THE EXITS SHEET HERE ON THE DISBOARDS!!! That thing was awesome.
~ It really is evil how you need to travel forever into FL before you reach FL. by the time we reached FL, I was soooooo sick of my car.
~ we picked up a flexible dog carrier at target for 20 bucks that worked perfectly. we fit her box and food in there (it helped that a golden retriever was pictured on the packaging, so we knew it would be big enough). since we were driving at night, it helped Lilo-cat sleep. and when she was up, we'd talk to her so she wouldn't feel trapped. we positioned the crate (mesh on 3 sides) in the middle seat so she could see both of us.
~ whenever we swapped drivers we would either fill up, or figure out where we would fill up next. we never let the tank get past 1/4, and most times it was only at 1/2. my 2001 hyundai elantra got great milege. we figured that at one point we could have gotten about 550 miles to a full tank.
~ we grabbed dinner at Friendly's (like anyone in Western MA would for their last meal in the state) an hour before we left. all we ate besides the McD's at 7:30Am was some Milanos and a lot of water.
~ I already miss the Christmas Tree Shops.
~ I apologize for anyone from here, but when we arrived in Delaware, I totally forgot that you guys existed. sorry!!!

would i drive again straight through . . . yes b/c i don't think i'd get in my car again after the 1st nights sleep. in all honesty it really wasn't that bad. but i wouldn't put our cat through that again. although she only meowed twice (both times were when we were on rough roads), you could tell she was soooooooooo happy to get out of the crate when we arrived.

any questions? fire away.

 

[dandee00]

hAm53
Thnaks for sharing your trip down.
We're driving to WDW from the NB/Maine border. I have a feeling I'm going to be soooo sick of our vehicle too!!!

 

[FourFlans]

Just wanted to post a quick thank you for the help on this thread. We made our trip to WDW last week with no trouble. The recommended hotel outside of Orlando for our first night and all directions were a big help!

 

[cranbiz]

FourFlans,

Glad everything went well, hope you had a magical time.

 

[Jon99]

We are making the drive from Illinois in 10 days, anyone else done this lately??? Construction??

 

[jeanadave]

from Nashville, TN to WDW. Mapquest puts it about 10 1/2 hours. Anyone that has come that way, does that sound about right?

 

[jlovesee]

Yes that sounds about right, because Georgia takes about 5 hours to drive through, Florida is about 4, and Tennessee isn't bad unless the weather is bad, realize that through Tennessee you will be driving partially through the mountains.

We usually drive from KC, MO to Orlando and it takes us about a day and a half, so I would schedule a full day of driving if you are coming from Nashville, if you take into consideration stops etc.

Jennifer

 

[SamRoc]

We are driving from NYC to Orlando on Christmas night. We drive down about twice a year, last time was Easter. Best time we ever did was 18 hours (which I hope we can do again!) but sometimes on 95 we get stuck in alot of construction. Thats why we like to drive during the night and hopefully avoid any rush hour traffic also.