For those folks driving!

[nanalisa]

I would hate to pay for a motel if I stopped at 3:00 am. Plus what always happened to me was my kids slept while we drove, then they were rested and raring to go and we would be dead on our feet. I would stop at a decent hour and let everyone get a good nights sleep.

 

[kerry34]

If it were possible could you leave around say 6pm? If you did that you could drive until around 11 and stop then to get a room. That way you would get a decent night sleep. Also just FYI you can bypass Richmond by going 295 which takes you right around Richmond. We have done this at times when traffic was heavy.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

My sister is over an hour from me and can't even leave her house to head this way until 6pm, so 8pm would be our earliest leave time. Believe me, if I can get her to leave work early, we will leave much earlier for sure, make it to GA or southern SC at least.

 

[eagle0112]

My DH and I are driving down to WDW in January. We are in need of new
furniture and have heard that there are many manufactures outlet stores
and large warehouse type stores. Does anyone know exactly where? Does
anyone have any dealings with them and shipping costs? I am worried
that any savings might be offset by delivery costs. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Mary in NY

 

[cranbiz]

Splashmom.

I drive the I95 route all the time. It's not really a problem as long as you try to avoid the major cities at the rush hour times. New York City and the DC area are your worst problems. I would not arrive in NY between 5 to 9am and 4 to 8pm. The same goes for the DC area. Also try to avoid Jacksonville for the afternoon rush hour.

 

[SplashMom]

Thanks Cranbiz! We'll have to do some planning to make sure we avoid those areas at busy times. Hopefully, we will be doing the bulk of our driving between 8am-6pm and may have to reroute if we hit busy times. Any good places you can recommend to stop overnight? Most likely somewhere around Bangor, Richmond, and Savannah--we'll have three overnight stops. We want to arrive fairly early on our fourth day and we would like to limit the driving to 10-11 hours per day. Thanks for any advice!

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

My DH and I are driving down to WDW in January. We are in need of new
furniture and have heard that there are many manufactures outlet stores
and large warehouse type stores. Does anyone know exactly where? Does
anyone have any dealings with them and shipping costs? I am worried
that any savings might be offset by delivery costs. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Mary in NY

Hi, Mary. I'm thinking the furniture manufacturers are based in the Winston-Salem/Greensboro/High Point area, which is about an hour+ west of Raleigh, which in turn is about an hour west of I-95. They may have outlet stores along I-95 (I think they'd be crazy if they didn't!) but not sure where.

Have you tried asking this on the Community Board? It may get noticed better there as a separate thread rather than buried in this one.

 

[dznymom1]

Hi Splashmom We periodically drive from NH down to Orlando or SC. I want to mention that Bangor to Richmond is probably closer to 12 hours than 10 hours, and that is not taking traffic into account. That is definitely the toughest leg of your trip, and I can't imagine you won't run into a slowdown in at least one of the cities on that leg - you will be hitting Boston, New York, Baltimore and Washington DC, all of which are potential problems. 95 through CT and NJ can be slow as well. It would be hard to avoid peak traffic times in all of those places!

I am not trying to sound pessimistic, but you may want to reconsider where you break up your trip. I have only done the drive to Nova Scotia once (what a gorgeous place to live!) , and that is a long stretch, but so, so different from the congested mess you will find on Route 95 from Massachusetts to Washington, DC! Personally, I think I would try to get at least to Portland, Maine on that first night if you can.

Good luck! We enjoy the drive, but it can be challenging!

 

[SplashMom]

Thanks dznymom1! I think you are right. We will try to make it to Portland on our first night. I hadn't thought about hitting all those major centers in one day. I assume if there is a lot of traffic that you can take an exit and reroute around the trouble areas if necessary. It's hard to imagine all that traffic. We live in a rural area and heavy traffic here is more than three cars at the one set of traffic lights that we have!! We did have a taste of it last year though. We went to Daytona Beach for a day and on the way back to Disney we were delayed for an hour or so in heavy traffic. It didn't even occur to us that this may happen! We will be driving through on Saturday and Sunday, the weekend of August 12-13. Hopefully, the weekend traffic will be lighter although vacation traffic may have an effect on it. Any more advice is appreciated!

 

[cranbiz]

SplashMom,

The weekends are definately better than the weekdays. I can't suggest anywhere to stop because when I drive from MA to FL, I don't stop.

Portland does have several places close to I95 or just a short side trip up I395. From Portland, you should be about 23 to 24 hours out (at normal highway speeds) I would recommend just going thru Boston if you are there on the weekend. The trip around using I95 (128) is longer, you can take I95 to I93 back to I95 in Canton and then I95 the rest of the way. I normally save anywhere up to an hour going that route. Don't take I495 to I95, that is painfully longer.

A lot of people stop in Fredericksburg, VA as a halfway point from MA to FL. If you feel like pushing it, try for Santee, SC. I have heard several not to good things about Lumberton, NC. so I would most likely avoid there. Obi-Wan Pinobe can probably give you a better idea on the VA stops.

There is not much going on in your time frame, you should have a good trip with minimal traffic.

 

[HunnyPots]

Where do you stop on the way home? We are driving as far as Tallahassee on the way down but can't seem to figure out a good stopping place on the way home. We will be leaving WDW on Saturday, July 15 and going up to St. Augustine to look around and visit the lighthouse before we start heading west. I'd like to stop someplace that has something worth seeing the next day before we leave for home but I'd like to avoid anything too over-priced and touristy like the gulf coast towns. Maybe just scenic or historic?
Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

SplashMom,

....

A lot of people stop in Fredericksburg, VA as a halfway point from MA to FL. If you feel like pushing it, try for Santee, SC. I have heard several not to good things about Lumberton, NC. so I would most likely avoid there. Obi-Wan Pinobe can probably give you a better idea on the VA stops.

Exits 130 and 126 in Fredericksburg each have a lot of dining and lodging options. Check this page on the DIS for a full listing.

The exits between Fredericksburg and Richmond have some offerings, but not as many as the ones above. Ashland exit 92 might be the best of those.

When you get down to Richmond, take I-295 around the city. If you make it this far, your best options would either be exits 37, 15, or 9.

Exit 37 only has a couple of hotels, but they're decent -- Hampton and Holiday Inn Express -- and I know that area has more dining options than are listed (Applebee's and Ruby Tuesday, for example).

If you take exit 15 and go west a few miles, that will intersect with I-95 at exit 61, increasing your hotel and dining options.

I've only rarely been down as far as exit 9, but from what I remember it's a decent area.

The Emporia area, exit 11 -- from what I remember, I've never been that impressed with the area. If you're making good time and make it that far, I'd drive a little bit farther and try to make it to Rocky Mount.

 

[Mom_]

We are driving from CT and thinking of taking I-84 to Scranton, PA to I-81 to I-64 in Roanoke, VA, to I-95 to Orlando. It is approx 90 min farther than I-95 straight in but it bypasses NY, NJ and DC. Do you think it is worth it to take this route? We are leaving around noon from Hartford, CT and thinking of driving straight through. This is our first drive to florida.

 

[meredetrois2]

Hello I am new to the board. We are leaving for Disney World on July 2. Driving from near Shreveport, Louisiana and staying at the All Star Sports. Where can I get exact directions to All Star Sports? We have pretty much decided on the route we will take to Florida - but I have no address for the All Stars. We stayed at Fort Wilderness in 2004 and I had exact directions, even to the lanes we needed to be in. I can't remember where I got them though Thank you in advance!

 

[Mickey's Sister]

Hello I am new to the board. We are leaving for Disney World on July 2. Driving from near Shreveport, Louisiana and staying at the All Star Sports. Where can I get exact directions to All Star Sports? We have pretty much decided on the route we will take to Florida - but I have no address for the All Stars. We stayed at Fort Wilderness in 2004 and I had exact directions, even to the lanes we needed to be in. I can't remember where I got them though Thank you in advance!

We drove to All Star Music (right next to All Star Sports - all the All Stars have the same entrance) in November and we just followed the signs off of I-4 and had no problems. There are usually directions on the back of the confirmation you receive from Disney, but we didn't use them. The All Stars are in the Animal Kingdom area near Blizzard Beach. The address is on West Buena Vista Drive. Hope this helps.

Jessica

 

[Ct_TiggerFan]

We are driving from CT and thinking of taking I-84 to Scranton, PA to I-81 to I-64 in Roanoke, VA, to I-95 to Orlando. It is approx 90 min farther than I-95 straight in but it bypasses NY, NJ and DC. Do you think it is worth it to take this route? We are leaving around noon from Hartford, CT and thinking of driving straight through. This is our first drive to florida.

If you going to do that, Continue down I-81 until I-77 to I26, Then take this to I-95

Its a much nicer route

Have you looked into the Autotrain. Its only about 6-7 hrs from CT
We break it up by stopping overnight, but you could get to the station in one day

We normally drive to Merricanicsburg, Pa the first night, Next morning take RT 15 to I66, to Rt 7100 to Rt123 into lorfton VA.
We board the Autotrain and wake up next morning in FL with are car and us.

Trains leaves Lorfton Va at 4pm and next morning around 9 or 10am your in Sanford FL, 45 minutes outside of Disney

Just a thought. Its a relaxing way to start a vacation.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

Hi! We are traveling down from the DC area. I'm driving down with my two boys (1 and 3). Dh will be flying down with the older two. We're going separately so that I can stop and visit for a couple days with my Aunt and Uncle who are about an hour away from WDW.

Anyway, I was wondering what are some of the major cities I should try to avoid during rush hour times. My plan is to leave after dinner our first night (a Wed.), and try to get close to the Richmond area. I was hoping to leave around 9 the next day (Thursday), and drive for about 7 hours, finishing up the trip on a Friday.

As it is, I'm hoping to avoid driving through anything major during a rush hour since we won't be leaving until close to 9 and plan to hit our next stop by 5ish. Is there anything else I should be concerned about, in terms of hitting major cities.

TIA.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Once you're past the Richmond/Petersburg area, the drive is fairly clear of major cities through the Carolinas and Georgia. There might be some traffic around Fayetteville and Savannah, and where Interstates 40, 20, and 16 meet with I-95, but nothing like the DC area.

Jacksonville, FL, would be the next big city you'd drive through or around before reaching Orlando.

We've made the drive from Richmond to Orlando in about 12-13 hours. Driving down we've stopped around Savannah, which is about 7-8 hours from here.

For a stop in the Richmond area, I'd suggest taking I-295 around the city and staying somewhere toward the Hopewell area. Exit 15 would be the best option. That way you can avoid a lot of the rush hour traffic the next morning.

 

[scottb8888]

We plan to leave the morning of the 29th, take the 77 to 95 route and end up in Hilton Head the first night. Is that too much of a drive?

We actually planned on staying in Hilton Head a couple days, then go on to Orlando the morning of the First.

Our plan is to Leave Orlando the following week and drive to Atlanta. Soend a weekend there and then back to Columbus.

Any of these plans too ambitious. By the way we are traveling with a 5 and a 9 year old who have never driving that distance.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[kimberlyp02]

We "thought" we had plane tickets,but that didn't work out and we are thinking about driving to FL from Houston, TX. I have seen that it is anywhere from 14-19hrs? Which of these are correct?

Also, I will have a 4.5yr old(she is pretty good in the car) and a 11mo old(he is a wonderful baby, very easy to please). BUT, will I want to strangle myself by the time we get there?

We don't really like to drive much, the longest trip being about 5hrs. I have a sister in Lafayette, La, we were planning on spending the night with her, so that will cut 3hrs off of our trip. So I guess I need to know how far it is from Lafayette, La.

Anyway, just wondering what kind of misery I'm signing myself up for or if it's doable. We are getting a 10day trip for about $1500 through disney at Pop Century with FREE dining plan and it's too good to pass up. But plane tickets are running about $300 a piece....OUCH! Give me some advice please!!!