For those who drive from Chicago

[jeancbpugh]

Do you drive straight through or stop overnight? If you stop, how do you divide the miles? And where do you stop?

Mapquest puts it at about 1225 miles for us.

Thanks.

 

[JC Butterfly]

I have never driven from Chicago to Disney World but I take youth on several cross country trips in a year. I found found that more than 8-10 hours in a car makes everyone cranky and unhappy -- not the way I picture starting out a trip.

Will there be at least two drivers that both know where they are going? The sleep you get in a car is just not of high quality and if there is no one awake to keep the driver company or help navigate, it can become unsafe.

So I would recommend making it two driving days. Driving the bulk of the time in the first day. Driving through Illinois is so boring to me, just so flat. But if you make it through Illinois, then part of Kentucky and Tennesse. Then stay in the northern part of Georgia (or Alabama). I can tell you that the drive from Atlanta to disney is about 6-9 hours., depending on traffic.

 

[jeancbpugh]

Originally posted by JC Butterfly
Will there be at least two drivers that both know where they are going? The sleep you get in a car is just not of high quality and if there is no one awake to keep the driver company or help navigate, it can become unsafe.

We have GPS in the car so getting lost shouldn't be a problem. Good point about keeping each other awake. Thanks.

 

[stauncie]

We are a family of 5 leaving from Champaign, Il (3 hours south of Chicago) its an 18 hour trip (driving time) for us with 3 kiddies (13-11-10)
We have it timed to stop about every 2 hours for a 6 minute 'break'. We try to get the 'bulk' of the driving done the first day. (I don't know who it would be harder to convince to get back in for the second day of travel if we stopped at only half way..... the kiddies or dh) The first year, we stopped North of Atlanta, boy was the second day of travel LONG!!
We don't usually make a hotel reservation, but just pick up a travel discount book when we get to GA and start looking for hotels between Macon, Ga and the state line. Tifton, Ga is our usual goal. Most years we make it there, once we stopped short. We are traveling for 12-14 hours that first day.(We leave the house at 6 am, and stop for the night between 7-8 p.m.) No one complains about the second day of driving, if you only have 4-5 hours to go!
Since we are only going for 10 days this year, we are flying.

 

[Becky2005]

We are in the Far West Suburbs of Chicago, so just getting to Southern Illinios is a 6 hour drive! It all depends on where you live near Chicago. We debated on which way but have decided we are going to take the I-57 to I-24 to I-75 way as opposed to going through Indiana via I-65.

We haven't done Disney yet but several years ago DH did the Richard Petty at Atlanta (which I believe is actually in Griffin - about an hour or so south of the city) and we ended up driving home straight through (not on purpose, couldn't find an open hotel!)...words out of DH's mouth when we pulled into our driveway were "Never let me do that again". It was an absolutely horrible drive, so this time around we are planning on stopping NORTH of Atlanta (Marietta area). That should get the bulk of the drive out of the way and won't make for a super long 2nd day. At least based on all the maps and things we have done. I just know from past experience although physically we CAN make it past Atlanta (at the time we only had 2 kids though), for safety reasons that is NOT a good idea.

Since we are going with our 4 kids (wish us luck, 11, 8, 5 & 1 year olds ) , we have to make reservations ahead of time, otherwise I might just wing it but with a larger family that's harder to do.

 

[Got Quattro?]

From St. Louis and it's 16 hours.

We have drivenb this when my daughter was 1-2 and 3 years old.

Key is to start drive at 6:00pm....have dinner before you leave, abd pack snacks and drinks. have kids already in PJ's. drive all night. The kids will fall alseep by 9:00 or so.

Drive all night, only stop for gas and to stretch legs.

At 7:00am or so, when everyone wakes up , usually just as you hit florida....stop and have a nice breakfast at a crackerbarrell type place. Take at least an hour.

that will refresh you for the final few hours to disney. Done this many many times

 

[mermaidlady]

We have driven many times from the northern suburbs to FL The best thing to do IMO is to leave 1-2AM. Taking the I-65 route we normally make it to south of Atlanta where we stop for the night. The best time we made is getting to the Fl/Ga border. It makes a difference on how well the kids travel. Mine are good and we don't even have a DVD player in the car

 

[jeancbpugh]

Originally posted by Got Quattro?
From St. Louis and it's 16 hours.

We have drivenb this when my daughter was 1-2 and 3 years old.

Key is to start drive at 6:00pm....have dinner before you leave, abd pack snacks and drinks. have kids already in PJ's. drive all night.

I'm jealous of those who can do this. I, however, would get in wreck driving all night. I need my sleep. :-D

 

[Chicago526]

The one time we drove, we stoped in Murfreesboro, TN for the night. I'm not sure of the milage or how long it took us (maybe 20 hours total split between 2 days?), it was back in '98 but I think it was almost exactly half way. We stayed at either a Comfort or Quality Inn, I can't remember it was a Choice Hotel. We didn't like it, I'd pick another if you stop there (it didn't look like it had been vacuumed in a few months, dust bunnies had just about taken over!)

At the time we lived in Schaumburg, about 45 min NW of the city. We left around 4 or 5 in the morning to get ahead of the rush hour traffic. The second day we made sure to time our departure so we'd pass Atlanta during NON-rush hour, too. We got in early evening to Orlando, stayed at a Quality Inn on International Drive (this we liked!) and checked in to Disney the next day.

 

[jeancbpugh]

Now I am debating the route, too. We will be driving down mid-December, so have to take snow and ice into consideration.

Thanks everyone for the responses so far.

 

[Got Quattro?]

really no other route to take

when you get past nashville, you dontr need to worry about snow....uless extreme cases

just watch the weather channel and adjust your departure times for weather

 

[jeancbpugh]

Originally posted by Got Quattro?
really no other route to take

I guess some people start out going south all the way through Illinois, others go east to take I-65 through Indiana.

 

[Chicago526]

Originally posted by jeancbpugh
I guess some people start out going south all the way through Illinois, others go east to take I-65 through Indiana.

We went via I-65 thru IN if it helps you out any!

 

[Got Quattro?]

65 south

or

55 south to 57 south to 24 east

either way they all end up in Nashville....then 24 east to 75 south to FL turnpike

 

[We4mickey]

We drive from Wisconsin and drive all the way through Illinois from Rockford on down. It is an hour longer for us, but the drive is so much better. You don't have all the tolls and you don't have near the traffic. We usually drive to either just north or just south of Atlanta leaving by 3am. Drive until we figure out the time we will hit Atlanta and then decide where we will stop. We would much rather go through at 3am than rush hour. We just got back last week and hit construction in Atlanta, 6 lanes down to 3. What a mess. Unfortunately we got a late start and had to go through at that time. For us it is 8 hours to get through Illinois.

 

[cranbiz]

I drive from MA many times. It is about 1300 miles and will normally take about 22-23 hours. We drive straight through and usually change when one is tired. We always get out and stretch at gas stops and will make potty stops when required.

While I agree that the sleep in the car is not the greatest, it is usually enough to allow you to continue when your partner (s) need a break.

DS and I just did a trip in Oct and it worked out fine. DS, DD (23) and myself are again driving down in Dec and will meet DW and DD (16) at MCO.

 

[SpecialK]

I've taken the 65 route and 57 is a much easier drive. Depending upon where you're coming from, getting to 65 can be a nightmare, especially if you're going across 80/94. Truck city.

I'm also not a big fan of driving straight through. I know it can be done and a lot of people prefer it, but it's not for me. I don't feel that I would be rested enough to be considered a safe driver. And DH and I get really crabby when we don't sleep!

We're planning on driving next summer and breaking it into three days. Stop early - let the kids swim and rest. We don't have severe time restrictions so we're taking our time.

 

[BCV23]

Another vote for 57 over 65. A few more miles for less time and a more peaceful drive.

 

[FamilyGuy]

Hi all,
New poster here. There is some really great info and ideas on these boards.

We are leaving Plainfield, IL at approx 7pm and hoping to check in @ 6 PM the following evening.

The wife plans to stay up late the night before and sleep during the day prior to leaving. Reading the posts here makes me almost think that we may have to break out our driving into a couple of days, as we have never driven this distance before.

Still going to try and do it though. Our portable GPS system assures us that we will stay on track and more importantly it accurately gives an ETA, which will hopefully help us to stay focused on our goal.

I will be working on Sat Dec 4th, so we can not leave earlier. At present we have a reservation at the CR for check in 12/05. If for some reason we decided relatively last minute to check in a day later (say 2 or 3 pm on 12/05, I called the CR to inform them we would not be checking in that night), would Disney actually charge me? I will obviously call them and ask, but in my experience, many times policies differ from actual experiences. IE they tell you they will charge you for the night even though you haven't checked in, but they do not enforce that. Or would I be better doing the opposite? Changing the reservation to 12/06, and checking in a day earlier when we arrive there. I suppose if neccessary, I could check into a place outside of Disney for one night.....

Any thoughts and / or input is appreciated.

I should mention, when I first considered driving to Orlando, I thought that I-65 would be the natural route to go, however both Mapquest (we all know how reliable that can be) and my handy dandy Navigation device suggest I-57 (for both the Mapquest and the Nav routes I requested the fastest route).

And lastly, I just checked flights and they are still available relatively cheaply: $876.00 round trip for 5,. all taxes included via SWA. Then I would rent a car too, which would be another $150.00 So driving will save us over $700.00. Some people would look at it as $700.00 well spent though....... decisions decisions

 

[BCV23]

Welcome to the DIS, FamilyGuy.

If it were me, I would snag those SW tickets. When factoring in the cost, if you include wear and tear on your car, it might make you feel better.

If you do decide to drive, I would break the trip up.

Have a great first trip!