For those who have driven to Disney (18+ hours)

[leahlefler]

Our family happens to be flying this time, but we drove to Florida (Destin area) last year - 20 hours. We live near Buffalo, so it was a decent drive. We were going to break it into 2 days, but ended up doing 3 days on the drive down. We left on Friday after work and got a good 5 hours in before stopping (since we were going to the panhandle, we stopped in Columbus, OH the first night). Then we went to Atlanta the next day (9 hours), and the next day we did the Georgia Aquarium. We left Atlanta at 2 pm and drove the remaining 6 hours to Destin, arriving at night.

Our kids were 6 and 8 when we went, and the road trip was fine. Breaking it up helped a lot, and seeing fun things on the way down was a great idea for us. We drove home in 2 days - stopping in Nashville on the way north.

We brought a DVD player, tablets to play on, and I had activity bags sorted by theme. I kept the activity bags in the back of the car in a bin, bringing a new one out every 3 hours or so. The bags were in 1-gallon ziplock bags, so the bag could double as a garbage container when the activities were done. I made a "spy" activity bag, a dinosaur bag, etc. - I bought most things at our local dollar store and it was fun to find things that fit the theme. They loved the spy activity bag - they wore the spy glasses with rearview mirrors and fake mustaches for over an hour, and had me cracking up every time I looked back at them!

We sort of kept a schedule in the car. The boys started out watching a movie, then would get an activity bag, then get some tablet time. By rotating the activities, they didn't get bored with anything too quickly. It is a long time for little ones to sit, so we made sure to stop at places that had a playground or a place to run around when we could!

 

[mshanson3121]

Our family happens to be flying this time, but we drove to Florida (Destin area) last year - 20 hours. We live near Buffalo, so it was a decent drive. We were going to break it into 2 days, but ended up doing 3 days on the drive down. We left on Friday after work and got a good 5 hours in before stopping (since we were going to the panhandle, we stopped in Columbus, OH the first night). Then we went to Atlanta the next day (9 hours), and the next day we did the Georgia Aquarium. We left Atlanta at 2 pm and drove the remaining 6 hours to Destin, arriving at night.

Our kids were 6 and 8 when we went, and the road trip was fine. Breaking it up helped a lot, and seeing fun things on the way down was a great idea for us. We drove home in 2 days - stopping in Nashville on the way north.

We brought a DVD player, tablets to play on, and I had activity bags sorted by theme. I kept the activity bags in the back of the car in a bin, bringing a new one out every 3 hours or so. The bags were in 1-gallon ziplock bags, so the bag could double as a garbage container when the activities were done. I made a "spy" activity bag, a dinosaur bag, etc. - I bought most things at our local dollar store and it was fun to find things that fit the theme. They loved the spy activity bag - they wore the spy glasses with rearview mirrors and fake mustaches for over an hour, and had me cracking up every time I looked back at them!

We sort of kept a schedule in the car. The boys started out watching a movie, then would get an activity bag, then get some tablet time. By rotating the activities, they didn't get bored with anything too quickly. It is a long time for little ones to sit, so we made sure to stop at places that had a playground or a place to run around when we could!

Wow. GREAT ideas, thanks so much! We're looking at stopping in Virginia to do the Luray Caves.

 

[sharadoc]

In addition to the cost of flying vs driving there is one more thing to consider; how much of your vacation do you want to spend just getting to your vacation. If it takes you 2 days each way that's 4 days that you could have spent at your destination having fun rather than driving.

I hear this argument all the time. But who is to say that they would spend those days on their vacation? There is a cost for room, tickets and food for four more days. If their plan is to go on vacation for a week, then the mode of transportation would not affect the vacation length, just the time away from home - two different things.

OP, our maximum is 12 hours, so my suggestion is to plan to drive around 10 hours a day. Your last stop should be around 5 hours from Disney World so you can get there by check-in. By not pushing too hard on the drive, you can arrive at Disney World awake and refreshed.

Good luck!

 

[maxiesmom]

I hear this argument all the time. But who is to say that they would spend those days on their vacation? There is a cost for room, tickets and food for four more days. If their plan is to go on vacation for a week, then the mode of transportation would not affect the vacation length, just the time away from home - two different things.


Good luck!

It would affect the time spent in the parks. I can only take one week at a time, so 9 days once you include the weekends. No way would I want to waste 4 of them driving, and then arrive home exhausted.

I did enough trips from Michigan to Florida when I was younger. The drive down was fine, the drive home was horrible. No way would I do that again, unless I could add extra days on to stop a couple of nights each way. A forced drive without many stops is not fun.

I agree with you, 12 hours in a car is my absolute limit. Anything over that without a stop is torture!

 

[2DisPrincesses]

We drive from Michigan LOTS. It's around 19-20 hours for us and, at this point, we prefer to drive straight through. I had to drive back once by myself so I split it up into 2 days and I hated having the girls awake the whole time. We like to leave in the evening so they sleep all night in the car. We swap drivers when we need to.

 

[mshanson3121]

I hear this argument all the time. But who is to say that they would spend those days on their vacation? There is a cost for room, tickets and food for four more days. If their plan is to go on vacation for a week, then the mode of transportation would not affect the vacation length, just the time away from home - two different things.

OP, our maximum is 12 hours, so my suggestion is to plan to drive around 10 hours a day. Your last stop should be around 5 hours from Disney World so you can get there by check-in. By not pushing too hard on the drive, you can arrive at Disney World awake and refreshed.

Good luck!

^^^This. For us, it doesn't affect days in park. We have unlimited vacation time (I'm a SAHM, DH is a college teacher so has the summer off). However, due to the extra cost in flying vs. driving, if we flew, we would not be able to afford any extra time at Disney. So, we would just fly in the day we'll arrive in Florida by driving, and fly out the same day we'd start driving home. So flying = more money, same amount of time (for us).

 

[sam_gordon]

I hear this argument all the time. But who is to say that they would spend those days on their vacation? There is a cost for room, tickets and food for four more days. If their plan is to go on vacation for a week, then the mode of transportation would not affect the vacation length, just the time away from home - two different things.

OP, our maximum is 12 hours, so my suggestion is to plan to drive around 10 hours a day. Your last stop should be around 5 hours from Disney World so you can get there by check-in. By not pushing too hard on the drive, you can arrive at Disney World awake and refreshed.

Good luck!

They don't have to spend the time in the parks. But let's look at a typical week vacation, so that gives you 9 days. If it takes you two days to drive down and two days to drive back, you have 5 days in the park. When you get home, you still have laundry and all the various things that have to be done following a vacation.

However, if you fly down, let's say you still only have a budget for 5 days in the parks... you can use Saturday as a "get ready" day, fly down Sunday, have Mon-Fri in the parks, fly home Saturday, then have Sunday as your "return to normal" day. To me, that's a lot less stressful.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

We drive from NJ it is a heck of a lot cheaper than flying and a lot let stressful. We usually drive to Florence sc which was about a 10 hour drive between stopping for rest breaks and food breaks. The from Florence to Orlando it was only like a 6 hour drive. I'd rather driver further on the first day and get into Disney sooner rather than later.