For those of you who drive to DW, specifically long drives...

[disney0928]

We have done the drive to WDW from Mass twice; once just me & DH, once also w/ DS. We loved the drive! We minimized more costs by tent camping on the drive, as well as camping at FW. A tent campsite ate South of the Border in Dillon, SC is about $12 per night! We left from MA at about midnight, made it through to SC by dinner time. Set up the tent, cooked some burgers, asleep by 9:00. Back on the road by 8:00, made it to Datona by 5:00 PM. From there it's under 2 hours to WDW! This was an easy pace for us, as my DH is a trucker.

I wouldn't hesitate to do the drive down more often; my only problem with the drive is getting enough vacation time off to do it. I like to have 6+ days for Disney; driving really cuts into our time.

We did the drive home straight through in about 26 hours. We only stopped for gas, bathrooms and diaper changes for our 2 year old DS. This was somewhat less pleasant, but necessary due to a family emergency. It still went fine, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

We used less than $100 in gas, and about $30 in tolls. We totalled just under 1500 miles each way. Gas is MUCH cheaper once you're south of DC.

And I have tons of ideas for keeping the kids occupied, without TV. Mostly inexpensive. E-mail for ideas disney0928@aol.com

 

[PamNC]

We drive 99% of the time. However, we're 9 1/2 hours away, so I guess that's not too bad. Sometimes we actually can make it in 9, depending on traffic. We make the trip typically twice a year, one year 3 times. We've done it twice this year...within 1 month's time span. Probably won't go back until next year.

I know what you mean about the cost of flying. Even if the fare is good we found that by the time we fly, change planes and get our rental car, we've only saved about 4.5 hours. That's not worth the money for us. Unless we get a killer fare. Once we got $120 round trip. We had to fly out of the Raleigh airport, which is 1 hour and 45 minutes from us so it was still a bit of a time-stealer.

I like to drive because we sing Disney songs and talk about the trip all the way down. It's fun. It's just not fun driving back.

PamNC

 

[dvcdudes]

I seem to be the opposite of most. We are about 18-20 hours away. I drive straight through on the way down, but have to stop on the way home. I think I can do the trip down because I'm so excited but I'm so depressed on the way home that I have to stop about 1/2 way.
We have been going twice a year for the past two years driving each time.
I bought a conversion van for this reason. The kids and my DW have a TV, VCR, Nintendo64, we pack a cooler and have a porto potty. The kids actually enjoy the drive. My DW doesn't really likeit but likes flying even less. I get myself books on tape and listen to them on the way. It really makes the time fly (excuse the pun).

 

[leslieh]

Hi Mercy, we live in Calvert County, north end (Owings). We are about 30 miles from the Solomons Bridge. That should help. We have been to DW over 30 times we just love it. Cant get enough. My DDs are now 19 & 16 and we still go as much as possible. Still debating about driving/flying for a short trip in Dec. Its so beatiful at MGM with all the Christmas lights. Keep in touch neighbor!!!

 

[mom42860]

When do you leave if driving? Just wondering how you figure your driving time and where you will be stopping?

 

[Mercy]

leslieh, that was Carole that lives in So. Md., but I live really close to UMBC, I could walk there.

Mom42860, we use mapblast.com to help calculate distance and the amount of hours we want to spend on the road in a day. For us leaving as early as possible then driving about 10 hours or so puts us in Brunswick, GA. That is where we stop for the night, then I bid for a room there via priceline.com... we got a room at a Holiday Inn for $20 Then we get up early the next morning, have breakfast at the Cracker Barrell there in Brunswick and head down to Disney which is about another 4 hours or so, we get there about noon.

 

[Carole]

leslieh - we were just at Northern High School on Friday watching Soccer and Field Hockey games!

Mercy - UMBC is a beautiful campus. I have been trying to convince my daughter to go there - so far no luck!

We like to stop in at Richmond Hills exit in north Georgia. There is a Southern Cooking restaurant with nice specials for under $10. The specials include beverage, salad, rolls, entree, two vegetables and dessert! There is also a nice Hampton Inn at that exit and Disney isn't too far away!

Carole

 

[TinkerbellRules]

We have driven 4x (once with trailer, boy was that long!) and flown 1x, I think, to WDW. Drove 4x to the panhandle area (13hrs). We were to fly this year, but Delta cancelled our flight. We changed plans (gave us a refund) and moved our trip up two weeks and will drive again. It's about 16hrs from north of INdy.

Go to www.freetrip.com It's a great website (better than the others). It's very accurate and has gas prices along the way plus much more.

 

[Mike J]

We leave for our 3rd driving trip in 3 years on 10/20. We leave at 9pm Friday nite from Upper Delaware and usually get there around 2pm, stopping for gas twice and food.

Mike

 

[lynn46356]

We also drive. It takes approximately 20 hours. We leave Northwest Indiana around 2:00 pm in the afternoon and we arrive at WDW around 9:00 am. We have three boys, 13, 12 and 3, and find that they will fall asleep around 9:00 pm and when they wake up in the morning we are almost at our destination. We also don't run into any traffic in Atlanta with leaving at this time. On one of our drives down we honestly only seen a handful of cars on the road in downtown Atlanta. When we finally arrive of course Dad and Mom are somewhat tired but we have enough energy to do one of the parks till mid or late afternoon and crash early in the evening. We've done the same thing on each of our three trips down and are planning a fourth trip for this December. The hard part is always the drive home, getting to WDW is easy because we are all so excited.

 

[Blue dear.]

It's about an 18 hr drive for us. I'd rather drive because I LOVE a roadtrip so I might be the minority here.

As far as how often we go due to the drive - it really has no bearing. I don't consider us devout WDW fans because we don't plan on going back after our upcoming Jan 2002 trip for about oh... three years or so. We took two of our kids last fall and since DH and I couldn't really ride the biggies or relax at Epcot, we've decided to go back (it was cheaper than going to Cancun!) and do "grown up things."

If we were crazy about the place and wanted to go all the time... I still only think we would go once per year. 18 Hours is a long time, even for a roadtrip fan like myself. (BTW, we plan on driving straight thru this time.)

 

[Towncrier]

It's about 20 hours each way to/from WDW for us. We go once a year. This January, we had the opportunity to go down to WDW for 5 nights, but nobody (besides me) wanted to make the drive. We bought into the Disney Vacation Club in 1995 with the understanding that we would not have enough money to be DVC members and fly down each year. Believe it or not, we enjoy the drive. But not enough to make it twice a year.

We usually stop in the Hardeeville (SC) area on the way down. We leave home at 5AM and drive 12 hours. That makes for a short second day. On the way back, we stop north of Charlotte (NC) and visit friends who moved there from Ohio several years back. Very convenient for us. We did drive straight through on the trip home once. Might try driving straight through again when our children are a little older.

 

[Minnie's Mate]

We plan on buying our first set of annual passes for each family member for our next trip in December (second trip for this year). Since we are relatively close to WDW (7.5 hours each way) we had decided to go twice per year 'till the kids "out grow" Disney, once during Christmas break and once during Spring break each year. Of course, Mom and Dad haven't outgrown Disney yet!

A couple of nights ago my wife said she needed a vacation. Last night at dinner I told her once we have annual passes, we might go at the end of the summer because I didn't know if I could make it from Spring break 'till Christmas break. She said she had been thinking about that herself. She is a teacher and it limits the times we can go, but she said she gets 3 personal days per year and was thinking she might could take 2 of them for a 4 day week-end and just go to a couple of parks on an Autum trip, maybe in October. So who knows, we may become a 3X family.

Of course, I've been thinking that its too bad we don't have annual passes this year. I have been eye-balling a work related symposium that will be held in Orlando the week after Thanksgiving. I'm hoping it will be held there again next year.

 

[Minnie's Guy]

We also drive two times a year, 19 hours each way. About 6 yrs. ago
we purchased a TV/VCR for the car for our sons.(kind of a pain to carry into hotel
room, but a life saver!). Driving is our only option (I'm really afraid to
fly), but when we need to "rush" our trip, we book the AutoTrain.

 

[korzmom]

our family usually goes 2 times a year, its about an 18+ drive plus pu;;ing a 35 foot camper behind you makes it a little longer...we always put a tv in the car stocked with vhs tapes (usually disney tapes) pack an electric cooler so sandwiches and drinks stay cold, and dont mind the drive... we're in a suburban so there are many stops for gas, glad the prices are going down...usually make a stop in s.c. but my crazy husband drove straight through last time..couldnt wait to get there. he said it wasnt bad, i dont know - i fell asleep. going in november and he plans on driving straight through again..wont be taking camper this time though, i'll miss fw. but got a great deal at a resort through friends that are dvc members...i hope theres no snow here at that time.

 

[dvcdudes]

Hi korzmom,
Did you rent points from your DVC friends?
What resort are you staying at?
I think all of the DVC resorts are very nice and you will enjoy them just as much, if not more than FW.

 

[korzmom]

hi dvcdudes, what i failed to tell you is that our friends also have a time share as well as dvc members, they offered their time share at the grande vista marriot resort...not in disney world but close enough,price was right. they are using their dvc the following week. they stay at the boardwalk. we're planning on going to hooptydoreview just so we can be on fw ground...my kids love that show.laughed so hard we cried. 1 day we'll be dvc members too, just have to wait awhile to save up the $$$$. thanks.

 

[dvcdudes]

My friend has a Marriot timeshare. I'm not sure if it's that one but he says it's first class all the way.
Enjoy!

 

[Minnie's Mate]

Like Minnie's Guy, we have a TV/VCR combo that we use on these and any other long trip. It is truely a sanity saver! With a now 4 year old and 16 mo. old., I don't know how we would make the trip without it. We could, it would just be less fun.

We carry Teletubbies for our youngest, Disney movies and park videos for both, and for our oldest son, we carry almost all of the "Land Before Time" dinosaur movies. It does make the trip easier.

I usually do all of the driving, but have decided, whether she likes it or not, to have my wife drive for the first part of our next trip in December. Normally, she sits in the middle row of our Expedition to keep our youngest from getting too lonely. Our older son has the third row to himself. Our dog rides in the front seat with me and we drop him off at my parents house near Ocala.

My wife is clostraphobic and gets car sick unless she is in the front seat. So we wind up stoping at every exit with a restroom for her and then after the 5th or 6th stop, she drives for a couple of hours 'till she "settles down". I'm also going to insist that she take Triptone before we leave to see if that will help. Anyone have any other suggestions for this subject?

 

[Robinrs]

I've driven twice and HATED it, but with all that's happening and after reading this thread, I'm driving on my next trip.

I live only 6 1/2 hours away so I should be ASHAMED of myself! After reading the lengths people with more children and stuff go through I need to just get on the road and go!

My son has decided he does NOT want to fly. To tell you the truth, our last three trips down by air were nightmares. Two were cancelled, the others delayed and one LEFT US! It once took us 8 hours to get there after all the delays and we could've driven...

Well, I figured I'd have to rent a car anyway so I rented one here and we'll leave when we're ready and get there when we're ready. With the new restrictions demanding we get there two hours early, I can imagine how much time it would take just to fly...

Thanks everyone! I feel much better now....