For those folks driving!

[BC1836]

Hi all! It’s been about 100 years since I’ve posted here, but the last time I traveled to WDW, it was pre-children and I always flew down. My husband and I will be driving from Pittsburgh to WDW in April with our two little boys, and TBH I am not even sure where to start.

We’ll be traveling with a 3 year old and a 7 month old. I’ll take just about any tip that anyone has! This is the longest drive (nearly 15 hours) that we have taken with our kids, and I’m definitely nervous.

Don't forget to check out the "For 2,000+ Mile Round Trip Drivers Only!" thread. It's the site devoted to looooong drives like yours.

All the best!

 

[rusafee1183]

I’ll go look for it now! Thank you

 

[morrik5]

Hi all! It’s been about 100 years since I’ve posted here, but the last time I traveled to WDW, it was pre-children and I always flew down. My husband and I will be driving from Pittsburgh to WDW in April with our two little boys, and TBH I am not even sure where to start.

We’ll be traveling with a 3 year old and a 7 month old. I’ll take just about any tip that anyone has! This is the longest drive (nearly 15 hours) that we have taken with our kids, and I’m definitely nervous.

I have been watching videos from full-time RVers who travel with very young children and it looks like one of their tricks is a tablet and headphones for the older child and resources to find rest stops if necessary for the 7 month old.

 

[dawz1026]

Hi all! It’s been about 100 years since I’ve posted here, but the last time I traveled to WDW, it was pre-children and I always flew down. My husband and I will be driving from Pittsburgh to WDW in April with our two little boys, and TBH I am not even sure where to start.

We’ll be traveling with a 3 year old and a 7 month old. I’ll take just about any tip that anyone has! This is the longest drive (nearly 15 hours) that we have taken with our kids, and I’m definitely nervous.

So funny! I have not been on here in 100 years either but saw this and had to reply! We drove every year from NY. My kids are now 15 and 26 but since they were tiny we have done it. The best way is leaving at 6am on a Saturday (not a work day) drive as far as you can (we stop in Jacksonville) get a room and then the next say the drive is under 3 hours and you wont miss a park day. My son watched the ipad and I would fill a bin with surprises from Target dollar spot and Dollar Tree. Coloring items, books. car bingo games and snacks and plenty of videos to watch. The kids do better than you think! It takes us 14 hours to get to Jacksonville. We are there by dinner. Crowne Plaza hotel and they have a nice dinner and breakfast. Indoor pool. There is a website for i95 too if you need to stop off along the way for food. It will be fun! I would say drive at night but it can ruin the drivers sleeping the rest of the week. We used to leave at 3am but my poor hubby would be exhausted. It depends on how you guys handle it. Ask me anything! Kathy

 

[Stratman50th]

My current drive to Disney is around 24 minutes east on I-4, well as long as there aren't any backups.
We moved down here permanently from MD several years ago. Before that we drove down once or twice a year. Smartest thing we did was buy a Sunpass. Ours cost about $25 8 or so years ago. I think the EZ pass works here now but we also have a Sunpass PRO in Florida that works along the north east coast as well and it doesn't cost anything to have. All you have to do is use it once every three years to keep it active. Just like any other toll pass you can pre-load it using a credit card and forget about it.
That's my travel suggestion for Florida.

 

[flipflopmom]

Hey, everyone! I am no stranger to the drive from my home in VA (right at that curvy, mountainous 77 you all allude to, and you’re right!) Well, I guess I should say drive because I don’t get behind the wheel. Supposed to be 9.5 hours but I think 11 is about our best.

However, it’s been about 3 years since we’ve driven down, and we’re changing up our departure so I have some questions. We’ve done every variation of “leave after work Friday” available at some point over the last 13 years I think. This year, DH decided to take Friday off and leave Friday am. We know to leave early to avoid Charlotte am traffic, but have a few other questions.

1. Is there still a big back up in SC where it seems you don’t move at all? Are there any times that are better?

2. Is there a Jax area back up on Fridays? Hoping to be through there by shortly after lunchtime but who knows with our crew?

3. Coming down 95-4 (again, I ride so not entirely sure what we specifically do) should we encounter the new toll roads? If so, can you give any details?

4. It seems vaguely like we did some sort of bypass on 95 around Jax… good idea? Which one?

5. Is gas buddy still the best option to find the best gas prices?

Thanks, all!

 

[crazy4wdw]

You can take I-295 which will bypass downtown Jacksonville.

I-95 north still backs up on the way back home just as you cross the Georgia-South Carolina border. The interstate changes from 3 to 2 lanes.

 

[OKW Lover]

3. Coming down 95-4 (again, I ride so not entirely sure what we specifically do) should we encounter the new toll roads? If so, can you give any details?

The new toll section of I-4 is avoidable. The toll only applies to the "express" lanes and is well signed. If you stay in the regular travel lanes you won't be charged.

4. It seems vaguely like we did some sort of bypass on 95 around Jax… good idea? Which one?

Yes, I-295 will take you around Jaxonville. We usually take the eastern side of the loop. Not sure its really any easier/faster than just sticking with I-95 right through the city. Might depend on what time of day you hit it.

5. Is gas buddy still the best option to find the best gas prices?

We always use iExit when doing road trips. As long as you have a "navigator" to to the monitoring. It will show you all the options on the upcoming exits so you can plan you gas stop far ahead. In addition to gas info, it also shows rest areas and what food options there are at each exit.

 

[LadybugsMum]

When driving down I-95, I find it easiest to take 295 East towards Jacksonville Beach and just follow it down until it merges back in to 95. I don't like driving through Jacksonville at any time day.

 

[Rhody73]

I always take 295 east around Jacksonville mainly because it is pretty easy driving. I do think that driving "off-season " pretty much eliminates any major concerns for SC/GA border either way and maybe Jacksonville as well. SC gas usually is cheaper than NC or GA so I would fill the tank in SC and that will save you some. You can use gas buddy but prices are changing quite often and may not be updated. I use the high rise signs along 95 to see the price trends that day.

Have a safe trip

 

[mieuxmew]

Howdy!
Due to airline madness, we are considering driving from South Jersey/Philly area to Orlando in May.
Considering leaving Friday night around dinner time to avoid Baltimore/Washington DC traffic. Debating on driving overnight vs stopping somewhere. We are not traveling with kids. Hotel check in is Saturday.
Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[Mikey15]

Howdy!
Due to airline madness, we are considering driving from South Jersey/Philly area to Orlando in May.
Considering leaving Friday night around dinner time to avoid Baltimore/Washington DC traffic. Debating on driving overnight vs stopping somewhere. We are not traveling with kids. Hotel check in is Saturday.
Any advice greatly appreciated!

I can’t comment too much on Friday night DC traffic, other than this sounds like it should work. We did the same thing, albeit starting north and west of you, so we went down I-81, entering MD from PA around 6:45 or so, and NC (I-77) around midnight. Since it was just the two of us, we had a “sleep” stop at the welcome center which turned into me hitting the road again at 4am. In Orlando and checked in by 2pm. Boma dinner at 6 .

Main wrench I can see is if you were leaving, say, Friday of Memorial Day weekend. Then Friday night isn’t “avoiding DC traffic”; it’s entering “prime I-95 traffic.” I’d consider an alternative route down through Delaware / Ocean City / VA Beach but that’d probably be pretty busy too if the weather is starting to be nice.

 

[bluezy]

Howdy!
Due to airline madness, we are considering driving from South Jersey/Philly area to Orlando in May.
Considering leaving Friday night around dinner time to avoid Baltimore/Washington DC traffic. Debating on driving overnight vs stopping somewhere. We are not traveling with kids. Hotel check in is Saturday.
Any advice greatly appreciated!

We're a little north of Philly and have made the drive numerous times but we usually leave in the morning. One trip -- due to a bunch of unexpected things -- we ended up leaving around 12:30 p.m. and hit DC at about 4:00 on a Friday. I can tell you that you *don't* want to do that! It was stand-still traffic and took us hours to get through the DC/Baltimore area. We listened to traffic reports and they kept saying "no accidents, just typical Friday evening traffic". I would plan to get to DC after 7:00 or so. Or if there's any way you can leave by late morning and can be through DC before 3:00, you should be ok as well. Otherwise, I'd take a more inland route and avoid the area completely.

As far as travelling through the night...we've never done that because: 1) We're not used to being awake for 24 hours straight or being awake during the night. We don't feel we'd be alert enough to drive safely. We also prefer that both the driver and the "co-pilot" are awake at all times. Our son and his wife used to work night shifts so they decided to try the straight-through drive. They said they'd never do it again -- that they were exhausted and their sleep was disrupted for 2-3 days. And, 2) Disney vacations are tiring enough. The last thing we want to do is arrive exhausted. We've actually started spreading out the drive down over 3 days on the way down: Driving from about 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. on day one; day two we drive until we're about an hour away from Disney; day three we arrive at Disney at about 10:00 a.m. and hang out at the resort and spend a few hours at a park. We used to do the drive over 2 days as well -- doing about 12-13 hours the first day and then having about a 3-4 hour drive on day 2. This method also allowed us to get a good night's sleep on the drive down. I know a lot of people do the straight-through drive, but it just doesn't appeal to us. YMMV.

 

[Amyshubby]

We're a little north of Philly and have made the drive numerous times but we usually leave in the morning. One trip -- due to a bunch of unexpected things -- we ended up leaving around 12:30 p.m. and hit DC at about 4:00 on a Friday. I can tell you that you *don't* want to do that! It was stand-still traffic and took us hours to get through the DC/Baltimore area. We listened to traffic reports and they kept saying "no accidents, just typical Friday evening traffic". I would plan to get to DC after 7:00 or so. Or if there's any way you can leave by late morning and can be through DC before 3:00, you should be ok as well. Otherwise, I'd take a more inland route and avoid the area completely.

As far as travelling through the night...we've never done that because: 1) We're not used to being awake for 24 hours straight or being awake during the night. We don't feel we'd be alert enough to drive safely. We also prefer that both the driver and the "co-pilot" are awake at all times. Our son and his wife used to work night shifts so they decided to try the straight-through drive. They said they'd never do it again -- that they were exhausted and their sleep was disrupted for 2-3 days. And, 2) Disney vacations are tiring enough. The last thing we want to do is arrive exhausted. We've actually started spreading out the drive down over 3 days on the way down: Driving from about 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. on day one; day two we drive until we're about an hour away from Disney; day three we arrive at Disney at about 10:00 a.m. and hang out at the resort and spend a few hours at a park. We used to do the drive over 2 days as well -- doing about 12-13 hours the first day and then having about a 3-4 hour drive on day 2. This method also allowed us to get a good night's sleep on the drive down. I know a lot of people do the straight-through drive, but it just doesn't appeal to us. YMMV.

I haven't logged in here for a long time, but I saw this and I wanted to log in just to say that I agree with every single thing that you wrote.

We always did the drive from New York over 2 days. Left at 7:00 a.m. so that we would get past DC before rush hour starts. Drove pretty far the first day but never drove through the night because we didn't want to be exhausted for the vacation.

 

[shinysparklybubbles]

We are driving in August from Philly. I *think* our plan is to leave at 7pm on a Thursday and drive til either Emporia, VA or Roanoke Rapids, NC and then spend the night. That way we can avoid DC traffic. No idea how far we will go the following day. Check in is Saturday for us. Planning on kinda winging and if it’s going well, we’ll see how far we go or stop and find a room.

 

[Mikey15]

We are driving in August from Philly. I *think* our plan is to leave at 7pm on a Thursday and drive til either Emporia, VA or Roanoke Rapids, NC and then spend the night. That way we can avoid DC traffic. No idea how far we will go the following day. Check in is Saturday for us. Planning on kinda winging and if it’s going well, we’ll see how far we go or stop and find a room.

Sounds like you’d be leaving yourself north of 24hrs on Fri/Sat to do 10hrs of driving. That’s pretty good. With that much time you can stop and spend time at any beach or city you want to along the way.

Charleston
Savannah
St Augustine
Daytona

 

[imnotsancho]

Anyone ever drive from NJ to Disney on the Saturday after Thanksgiving? Considering moving a Jersey Week trip to week after Thanksgiving trip because of the new Disney+ deal, but slightly worried about traffic. We are already planning on taking the 77 route.

Thanks!

 

[pmdeve]

We're a little north of Philly and have made the drive numerous times but we usually leave in the morning. One trip -- due to a bunch of unexpected things -- we ended up leaving around 12:30 p.m. and hit DC at about 4:00 on a Friday. I can tell you that you *don't* want to do that! It was stand-still traffic and took us hours to get through the DC/Baltimore area. We listened to traffic reports and they kept saying "no accidents, just typical Friday evening traffic". I would plan to get to DC after 7:00 or so. Or if there's any way you can leave by late morning and can be through DC before 3:00, you should be ok as well. Otherwise, I'd take a more inland route and avoid the area completely.

As far as travelling through the night...we've never done that because: 1) We're not used to being awake for 24 hours straight or being awake during the night. We don't feel we'd be alert enough to drive safely. We also prefer that both the driver and the "co-pilot" are awake at all times. Our son and his wife used to work night shifts so they decided to try the straight-through drive. They said they'd never do it again -- that they were exhausted and their sleep was disrupted for 2-3 days. And, 2) Disney vacations are tiring enough. The last thing we want to do is arrive exhausted. We've actually started spreading out the drive down over 3 days on the way down: Driving from about 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. on day one; day two we drive until we're about an hour away from Disney; day three we arrive at Disney at about 10:00 a.m. and hang out at the resort and spend a few hours at a park. We used to do the drive over 2 days as well -- doing about 12-13 hours the first day and then having about a 3-4 hour drive on day 2. This method also allowed us to get a good night's sleep on the drive down. I know a lot of people do the straight-through drive, but it just doesn't appeal to us. YMMV.

 

[deedeew80]

Anyone ever drive from NJ to Disney on the Saturday after Thanksgiving? Considering moving a Jersey Week trip to week after Thanksgiving trip because of the new Disney+ deal, but slightly worried about traffic. We are already planning on taking the 77 route.

Thanks!

We have made that drive several times. But not on Saturday, always that Friday (day after Thanksgiving) We usually leave about 3-4am (we are coming from Camden County NJ, about 20-30 mins from the Delaware Memorial Bridge) This gets us through any early morning traffic in the big cities. We have never had any issues. Not sure about that Saturday though. If it was Christmas, I would definitely expect traffic, but I don’t think Thanksgiving should be too bad.

 

[imnotsancho]

We have made that drive several times. But not on Saturday, always that Friday (day after Thanksgiving) We usually leave about 3-4am (we are coming from Camden County NJ, about 20-30 mins from the Delaware Memorial Bridge) This gets us through any early morning traffic in the big cities. We have never had any issues. Not sure about that Saturday though. If it was Christmas, I would definitely expect traffic, but I don’t think Thanksgiving should be too bad.

Thanks! Yeah I was also thinking of leaving Friday and taking an extra day to get down there. Figure people are still getting through all of their turkey issues on Friday. Haha