For those who drive...

[melk]

...what "extras" do you bring? We usually fly so are limited in what we can bring with us. Next time we're thinking of driving to save some $$$. I figured we can bring dry food that we usually buy down there, some board games for the kids for "down time," even our electric frying pan (our accommodations have a kitchen). What extras do you bring?

Thanks!! (I know this icon has nothing to do with my post, my dd asked me to put it on, lol!)

 

[Iott Family]

Ok.....I will tell you what we do because we always drive these days with our family of 6. We did fly one time when we were still a family of four but that was 5+years ago!!!

I always pack a medium sized hard sided cooler that I fill with bottled water, juice boxes, cold meat/sandwhich fixin's, and fresh fruits such as grapes, apples......very portable. We then make stops at rest stops along the way so the kids can stretch and run/play and we do a picnic kind of thing. We are driving from Indiana so we have found once we clear Tennessee(sp) the rst stops are very clean and very nicely maintained. I pack a ball/frisbee for play when we make stops. We also dont drive more than 3 hours before stopping to let the kids stretch/potty. Having said that we leave early in the mornings, around 4-5am and drive about 5 hours before our first stop. Or next stop after that would be lunch.
I only pack what we will need for the trip itself because we make a grocery run after we have arrived and checked in/unpacked.
We have a DVD player in our truck so we bring every Disney movie we own, i have a boxed CD set of disney music we listen to and we play road games as we go. Last trip to Disney I made the kids ctiviy books with print outs from the internet and bound them in a three ring folder. Also each kid packs a backpack full of entertainment. My oldest packs lots of books, her ipod, journal etc. My oldest Ds packs art supplies, lego/transformers, his gameboy, etc. We pack color wonder by crayola for our youngest DS, some matchbox sized toys, etc.
I always pack the take n toss sippy cups to reduce spills and they are great in the parks. I also pack a couple things of antibactrial wipes to keep dirty sticky faces and hands clean. Baby wipes are ok but I prefer the antibacterial for this purpose. Having two of our four in diapers still i always have a stash of wipes, HA!
Also pack a small first aid kit. I use a soft sided cooler and stuff it with tylenol/motrin, antacid, pepto bismol tabs, band aids, neosporin, claritan-d and benadryl. All of those things are pricey at WDW and you never know what you will need to doctor on the way down. Also my DH is type 2diabetic so I keep copies of his prescrips and a business card of each of his, the kids our family dentist and my DR. in my wallet. You just never know when you will have a medical situation and by having these on hand I can relate the info right to emergeny personal or make a call home to our DR's with questions.
I dont know where you are driving from or the ages of your kids so I cant give you better info than this but I HTH!!!
Have a great trip!

 

[becca011906]

subbing for our drive that's coming up soon, i'll add some things later when i have more time

 

[daisyduck123]

We always drive. It takes about 14 hours & we stay over a night in Walterboro SC.

We never bring any food....no eating allowed in our van (I keep it like-new) & we always do the Dining Plan (way too much food there).

We bring those 36 inch blow-up tubes from Target for the resort pool. The kids had a ball at CBR with them last time...and yes, all the lifeguards told us they were allowed.

By driving, we get to bring a lot of shoes....2 pairs of sneakers each (I read once to switch each day so that you don't get blisters from wearing the same shoes), a pair of Tevas, & a pair of flip-flops for each of us.

I can't think of anything else right now.

 

[kty1]

We usually drive down from NY and I usually fill a cooler with a bunch of frozen capri suns-it great if your going in warm weather it will help keep the cooler cool as I usually pack some cold cuts and bring a loaf of bread. I bring a lot of snacks Walmart or Sams like the small dorito/chip bags-the kind the kids take to school for lunch. Also granola bars, those juicy smiles walmart sells-my kids love them. A case or two of coke & diet coke for hubby and I. We make a lot of stops so we usually get lunch or dinner on the road because you need to get out and stretch your legs. Lots of DVD's, a bought a few new ones so they would hold the kids attention and a bunch of batteries for the headphones!My husband neurotically stops at every car wash he can to vauum out all the juck-it can get a bit messy! I hope this helps, some people really like driving and it works well for them,I really don't like flying so we've been driving. That being said after out last drive down last April I am flying down this summer. It took us 3 days to get home-one of my kids had a stomach virus after eating some bad mexican food near Quantico- there was literally a scene from Cops outside of D.C. where there were like 10 police cars with weapons drawn at a gas station, as we are two feet in front of them-I'm yelling to the kids to get down & we're from NY and it was a little scary- definately a scene from National Lampoons Vacation. But honestly really add the hotel rooms, gas costs(my truck is really bad 15mpg tops) and tolls, extra food. If its worth it give it a try! Sorry for my "other side of driving" story.Good luck and have a great time!

 

[DBarber600]

To keep the little ones busy ...

My DD, 3 years, was kept busy for at least one hour at a time with stickers and a sticker book. Both Disney themed from the dollar store. Just sticking stickers on a piece of paper .. ! I thought I had overbought on stickers, but she went through all of them on the way down. So, we bought more at WDW for the trip home.

This Xmas, we got Disney DVD bingo and the kids, 5 and 3, love it! We are going to make photocopies of the bingo cards, bring the DVD with, and let them mark the cards off with a highlighter. They really like the fill the card game - that takes at least 45 minutes. I don't like a lot of clutter, so the best part is that I can through the card away when they complete a game and don't have to carry the real cards around.

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

We bring a small ice chest with drinks, and a couple of sandwiches, milk for DD3 and a variety of snacks that will last the whole trip. We bring dvd's and a portable dvd player, books and crayons for the kids. As well as everything we can pack in our suitcases.