For those folks driving!

[mom of five]

I'd love to hear how the trip goes and the rte you take.

It's so hard to figure out where we will be after driving all night...I don't know any cities by that rte so I don't even know how to begin to search for hotels! I guess I'm kind of stumped.

I'd pick up 84 in Newburgh (about 4hrs from home-puts me at 9 or 10pm) then 81? How long do you stay on that for?

I don't mean to be a pain about this, but mapquest just sends me the 95 route.

 

[mike2u]

I have driven to Florida at least a dozen times and have found the best time from me to leave is 6 or 7 pm at night. I normally work 12.5 hrs at nights so when i drive to Florida it's like I'm leaving for work. I have made it to South of the Border in 8 hrs and Florida in 13 hrs. Speed limits are 70 MPH and if you get behind a RIG you can do 80 MPH. We only stop for gas and potty breaks, but that's few since the kids are always sleeping at that time of night. I find that I-95 at that time is very good to drive as long as the weather holds up. The only problem I do have is when they wake up the next morning they sya to me. " WERE STILL NOT THERE YET"... Becarefully and have a woderful trip to WDW...

 

[cmonroe]

mike2u,

I considered that, but as of this past year with our newborn, around 9pm, I turn into the proverbial pumpkin.

 

[mike2u]

I know what you mean cmonroe.. I have worked night shifts for 12 years now so i'm kinda use to being up all night.. Also the wife will not drive at all so it's all up to me.. So alot of sodas, coffee, radio, and the stretch of the legs and i'll be fine..

 

[cmonroe]

Be safe and have a wonderful trip!

 

[sheryl0521]

We are driving for our 3rd time in the last few years, so I thought I would share our plan.

Leaving from south of Hartford, CT at about 8:00 pm Friday night after a full day of work & camp (2 adults & 2 kids – ages 2 & 10). The plan is to drive about 4-5 hours the first leg and stay the night in Aberdeen, MD.
Leg 2 - Start reasonably early on Saturday and drive to Hardeeville, SC – just north of the GA border.
Leg 3 - Start reasonably early again on Sunday and arrive in WDW by mid day/ early afternoon.

We have done the “drive straight through” technique and it left my hubby exhausted for the first couple of Disney days. Even though I drove on occasion, DH didn't sleep!

We have also done the “drive until you need to stop” routine and it took an additional couple of hours to find a vacant hotel room at 2AM. This was during a snowstorm in February, too. So we are thinking we are being safe this time.

Coming home we plan on leaving Saturday AM and drive to Chester, VA and then on day 2 get back to Hartford CT by the end of the day.

Any thoughts or comments? Let me know!

S

 

[mom of five]

We too plan to end our second day in Hardeeville, SC. We are staying at Quality Inn & Suites off Hwy 17. Ever heard of it/seen it? I'm a little nervous cause I've never even seen the place. I do know it was recently remodeled.
Thanks for any help!

 

[sheryl0521]

Oh my gosh - that is just the place we will be staying too! I will have to let you know what the place is like.

I have also read good things about Quality Inns in general, so that is why we made our ressie there. It is a bit more expensive (by $20 or so) and farther away from the I95 exit ramp (by a mile or so) than other motels I investigated, but the queen size beds won our business.

I will send you a pm when we get back!

 

[mom of five]

We booked it cause it was so close to 95 and had suites--which we need with 5kids!

Please let me know how it is!

When is your trip?

Have a Fun, Safe Time!

 

[sheryl0521]

Thanks, and I'll let you know about the Quality Inn.

 

[mom of five]

I don't know if you'll get this info. in time for your trip, but I just called and got an extra $15 knocked off the rm rate by asking for the "Carolina Smiles rate". They applied it to my already existing ressie.

 

[cmonroe]

I booked our hotel rooms for the ride down.
The first stop is in Roanoke, VA. at the Quality Inn.
With AAA discount it was 63.86 pr/room

The second stop the next day will be in Daytona beach.
There do not appear to be too many hotels in the I-95/ I-4 interchange area. The closest I could find was La Quinta. I'm holding my breath hoping as I have never stayed at one of those before. Anybody have any experience with La Quinta?

With AAA discount it was 62.10 pr/room


We're then going to wake up early the next morning to drive into Orlando for check in.

I'll be sure to post how it worked out when we return.

 

[StephMK]

Has anyone stayed in Fayetteville, NC? Is it an ok area? The distance sounds about where we will end up coming home.

Thanks!

 

[leehans]

We are driving from NJ the end of October, stopping for a couple of days on Outer Banks to visit sister, then onto to the airport to pick up daughter and family the onto POR. They arrive at 1:00 pm. I don't know the airport and wonder if anyone can help me with parking while picking up, etc. Also good place to stop overnight between outer banks and Orlando.

Thanks for any help.

 

[JoeCathyAngelina]

Our Trip to WDW 3/26/04: Miles Stopped Time
Boston to Walt Disney World: 1:00pm
Boston to New Jersey 212 212 6:00pm
N J to Aberdeen MD 183 395 9:07 pm
MD to Rocky Mt NC 266 661 1:36 AM
NC to Florence SC 209 870 4:40 am
SC to S Newport GA 210 1,080 7:58 am
GA to WDW 251 1,331 12:00 PM
Started, Friday, 3/26 0 1:00pm
Finished, Saturday, 3/27 1331 12:00pm
A 23 hr trip with 5 stops along the way down
76 gallons of gas, $131 for the gas, 17.78 mpg 58mph
Driving around WDW 21

The Real Trip Home: Miles Stopped Time
Walt Disney World to Boston: 11:00 am
WDW to St Augustine FL 116 116 12:44 PM
FL to Savanah GA 178 294 3:55 PM
GA to Florence SC 174 468 6:22 pm
SC to Battleboro NC 181 649 9:30 pm
NC to Aberdeen MD 295 944 2:17 am
MD to Bloomfield NJ 181 1,125 5:30 AM
NJ to Boston, MA 237 1,362 9:30 am
Started, Friday, 4/02 11:00 am 0
Finished, Sat, 4/03 9:30 am 1362
A 22 1/2 hr trip with 6 stops on the way home
81 gallons of gas $126 for the gas 17.58 mpg 60.5mph
Driving around WDW 62

157 gallons, $257 for the gas, $44 tolls, 17.68 mpg, 59.2mph 2776

The traffic was a mess from Hartford through Delaware on the way down.
It rained from North Carolina to Boston, Mass. on the way home

Me and my wife alternated turns driving our Nissan Xterra when we stopped for gas. My 3 year old held out a lot better than I thought she would on the way down and on the way back to Boston.
We're planning on doing it again, April 1st-9th and hope to stay at BWV.

 

[pixieprincessmom]

I'm glad I found this thread. Learned a bit. We have driven 4 times from Louisiana (about 11 hours). We usually leave around 2:00 am and drive straight through. Once my friend convinced me to leave at 9:00pm at drive straight through afterwork. NEVER again, we ended up stopping because we couldn't stay up any longer. I think after reading this post we will try leaving right after work on Friday and stopping somewhere around Tallahassee. That way we can rest and will only have a few hours to drive in the morning.
We travel with my 3 kids and usually various nieces, nephews and friends. We always pack them lots to do. It is usually fine on the way there, but coming home is usually a problem. We just bought one of those portable DVD players and I'm hoping that helps when we go Thanksgiving week (My husband keeps telling me I'm going overboard -"We still have 3 Months" He just doesn't get how much planning goes into this). I've seen lots of suggestion for going there any for coming home? Our best trip was the kids in 2 cars on the 2-way radios coming up with their own questions and playing "Disney Trivia." The adults usually were yelling out answers with the kids.

 

[kwdietrich1]

sorry double post

 

[kwdietrich1]

Hello,

It has been awhile since we have driven to Florida. We normally fly. We will be taking rt. 70, 270, then hitting 95 around Washington. (travel this way alot to baltimore/wash, traffic won't be a problem around 9pm.) Any way once we reach 95 are there what are the tolls on the way to Orlando on 95 or I4 in Florida?

My triptix from aaa doesn't say where and how much.

Thanks in advance

 

[blowinbubbles]

Hi, guys! I am scheduled to drive from Navarre to Orlando on Wednesday, just three days after Jeanne.

I'm wondering what the expected traffic conditions will be on Southbound I-4. I know that the incoming traffic to the panhandle was awful after Opal and Ivan.

And gas.. . am I going to get to Orlando and be stranded because I can't get gas to get home? (not that Orlando is a bad place to be stranded. . )

Guess we'll have to watch, wait and see for the next couple of days.

 

[JoeCathyAngelina]

Originally posted by kwdietrich1
Hello,

It has been awhile since we have driven to Florida. We normally fly. We will be taking rt. 70, 270, then hitting 95 around Washington. (travel this way alot to baltimore/wash, traffic won't be a problem around 9pm.) Any way once we reach 95 are there what are the tolls on the way to Orlando on 95 or I4 in Florida?

My triptix from aaa doesn't say where and how much.

After Washington D.C. and Cheasapeake Bay there are no Tolls the rest of the way to Orlando. Triptix from aaa is pretty good, that's what I used from Boston to Orlando about $25 each way in tolls. It does show the tolls, but you have to search and calculate the different sections of road.