For those who've driven more than 15 hours to get to Disney...

[stasijane]

I drive down solo from missouri, (about 17 hours) roughly 3 or 4 times a year. I like having the convenience of not having to worry about missing a flight and have even stayed later a time or two and came home early (Just once, missed my puppy during a Really long but super awesome trip) I also love sigh seeing and am happy I have been able to see some of the states during my drive. Plus I love a good road trip

I forgot to add, I make the trip non stop. I have a little cooler I use for traveling. Pack Water, Monster, and Sandwiches and hit the road. I stop maybe 3 times for gas and thats it.

 

[Rose23]

This year will mark our 29th trip to Walt Disney World. We've driven every year except five of them (flew or Autotrain) from Central Ohio to Walt Disney World. Wouldn't trade the family time in the car/suv for anything. We go from Central Ohio to Atlanta, stay overnight, and drive the rest in the morning.

We've also driven from Central Ohio to Columbia and stayed overnight, completing the rest the next morning.

We've made friends along the way; have seen wonderful sights and love seeing the Welcome to Florida The Sunshine State sign every year.

Wishing you a wonderful trip!

 

[darrengs]

Would I rather fly from NJ? Hell yes!

Then why I am driving in 15 days? $$$, I am willing to burn an extra day of vacation to save almost $1000 with airfare and luggage costs.

We first drove down 2 years ago, and I can honestly say I was not looking forward to it at all, now after doing it I can't say that I look forward to it, but I can say that I am not worried about it at all. For the drive down I feel that I really do not lose any actual "Disney time". We leave 2:00 AM and are in the hotel by 9:30 PM that night, we get a full nights sleep and ready to go in the AM, although driving home this time I plan to stop overnight. People tell me it is "only 2 hours" to fly, but I disagree. Gate to gate is almost 3 hours, I have an hour drive to the airport, to arrive 2 hours before check in. Then an hour to an hour and a half to get luggage and then get to the resort, so we are then closer to 8 hours. Now my last three flight to Orlando were delayed, and we actually rolled into the hotel later then when I drove. In fact last time it took a while to get all of our luggage, because we arrived 10 hours late, so even though it was then after ME luggage service ended,some of our bags where held and some where out on the carousel.

 

[kbwright]

My BF is the one with the fear of flying. I don't mind it with the help of some benedryl to help with the motion sickness. He gets an rx for 2 'helpers' from the doctor when he has to fly (one for there and one for back) and does fine. For us flying just makes the most sense b/c we are only 30 min from PVD which offers many nonstop flights.

I have done the drive before from Richmond with a friend and it took about 12-14 hours. It was a nice drive but my friend was one of those who insisted that stopping was for suckers and only she would be driving... she ended up with back spasms after the 14 hours with 3 or so 5-10 min stops. Road trips can be great fun you just need to stretch a lot

 

[lufty]

We have driven our camper (not a small one either, 40 foot 5th wheel) from Wisconsin multiple times in January. We stopped every 3-3 1/2 hours for gas and a bathroom break. Keep an eye on the weather both ways, we left a day earlier once due to possible weather and then just stayed close to disney the extra night. If you have a smart phone, look up the traffic apps/internet sites for when you come close to the big cities, Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, etc. Helped a lot when we would get close to one in case an accident or rush hour traffic had things balled up. Once we stopped to eat early on north side of Atlanta because of the traffic, worked great, breezed through instead of sitting in traffic. The last time we left at 6 am and drove til 4:30ish. Stopped for the night, then made it to Disney the next day in early afternoon. Worked great. If you are not pulling a camper though I would drive right through, or plan the area you want to stop and do a little site seeing on the way down. Make it part of the vacation. Went fast for me cause I was navigating, looking up traffic, looking for gas stations that sell diesel and we could get in and out with the beast etc. If you have kids, get a box of odds and ends, toys, videos, etc for them. Hide it from them til they get in car. I did it for my son (he was 6 first time we went) and he was quiet and occupied the whole way with all the new stuff to tinker with. Was money well spent!