? For thoses who drive to WDW.

[paladin]

We stayed off-site on one trip the first night and will never do it again. I know a lot of people do it, but it just isn't worth it for us. We like to get settled in and unpacked.

 

[Got Quattro?]

heck no...you time your drive to arrive at 9:00am.

We leave at 6:00pm central in st. louis. It's 1,050 miles and it takes about 14 hours with a stop for break fast and gas.

Drive all night so everyone can sleep in the car. Why waste money on a hotel if the driver (me) like driving at night. (no traffic, no distractions)

 

[LvsTnk]

Straight thru from Chicago. I leave about 4/5am and check in about 12/1am on property.I did this on our second trip this summer just me and my kids. Nice to have 2 kids driving now.

 

[Got Quattro?]

It is a 14 hour trip but we break it up over 3 days. .

Dear lord what a wast of hard earned vacation days.

 

[georgina]

It's a 17 hour drive for us, so yes, we do stay somewhere else the night before our arrival. (when we drive, which we have only done a few times) Depending on how far we want to go the first day, we stay a few hours outside Orlando, then get to the world the next morning. I really don't understand the packing and repacking comments. We just pack one small overnight bag with PJ's and clothes for the next day, and a few toiletries. It's not like we unpack the whole car and suitcases. I would rather not arrive at WDW after driving 17 hours straight.

 

[Minnie824]

Straight thru from Chicago. I leave about 4/5am and check in about 12/1am on property.I did this on our second trip this summer just me and my kids. Nice to have 2 kids driving now.

Thats what we're hoping to do! We debated stopping over, and if our kids really need to stop, we will, but the plan is to leave at 3am, drive straight thru and hopefully get there by 1am...since I see LvsTnk is from Chicago area too, I know it can be done! We are planning on staying at Pop the 1st night when we get there at 1am though, cuz 'just in case' if we don't make it that far, we're not spending the money for BC, as we are the rest of the trip.

 

[CharlesTD]

We drive down every trip and never stay offsite we leave onteh Friday night about 7 PM and stop in Valdosta Georgia for the night on Saturday we get there about 3 in teh afternoon we then drive to WDW Sunday morning. When leaving we just drive straight back home no stopping for the night.

 

[Manon]

In june we didn't stop and we are driving from Quebec, its a 26 hrs drive, we left home a wed. afternoon and arrived the thursay at 9h00 pm.

For this upcoming trip, since its in winter we plan on stopping for our first night, we'll leave at 4h00 am and stop as far as we can that night! We think it might be to cool for the kids (3) to sleep in the car in winter

We will mostly stop at an Hampton Inn were we know that its clean, and comfy, with breakfast the next morning

 

[disneyfreak74]

We stayed off site once the night we arrived, but I will NOT say that it saved any money!!!! THe only thing with that now is that if we stayed the night (usually 9-10 pm) we would have to pay for another day dining plan. So in that case we could DEFINATELY stay off site and save money!!

 

[corinascot]

Dear lord what a wast of hard earned vacation days.

LOL! We live in the Cleveland area. When were in our 20s we could drive straight through to Florida and not even be very tired day of arrival. In our 30s, we could drive straight through but felt worn out the next day. Stopped all night driving (which we both used to like) in our 40s and now we make one overnight stop on the way down. Getting close to the 50s now and I can see where we might end up doing 2 nights on the way down (or flying.) We're both good drivers and in very good shape physically (if I do say so myself), but I don't think it would be safe for either of us to do the all night drive thing anymore. We have a couple friends (married couples) where the husband THINKS he can still drive like that and the wife thinks he's crazy and isn't too happy about!

 

[ssferguson79@yahoo.c]

We have booked a Quality Inn for the first night and for the last night. We didn't want to pay Disney prices for traveling days. We plan on driving straight down.

 

[mickeysaver]

My honey has family in FL, so we are always staying offsite near or with them for a few days prior to our WDW onsite stay. If I could drive straight down, I would just stop around Ocala, FL for a night in a cheap hotel and then wake up early and hit the road to Disney and start my vacation off bright and early the next day. But, while there are loved ones still in the Deland, FL area, we will continue to stop there first. Maggie

 

[james15]

heck no...you time your drive to arrive at 9:00am.

We leave at 6:00pm central in st. louis. It's 1,050 miles and it takes about 14 hours with a stop for break fast and gas.

Drive all night so everyone can sleep in the car. Why waste money on a hotel if the driver (me) like driving at night. (no traffic, no distractions)

Where from springfield mo thats the way we do it.Leave at 6pm buy 10pm the kids are down for the night and hitting Nashville and Atlanta in the overnight hours saves alot of time.This past trip stayed 2 nights at the nick suites before checking in to POR.And will do it again nick is a good place for the kids and mom and dad to get some r and r before checking in onsite.

 

[Sammie]

Dear lord what a wast of hard earned vacation days.

To some the vacation begins as soon as you leave home and the journey is part of it. As a child some of my fondest memories were the trips we took and the nights we spend on the road to get there. It was as much fun as the destination.

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

We have done it both ways and staying on site works for us.

It takes us about a day and a half to get to DW. I try to make it through Atlanta, after rush hour, and then shut down after driving all day. The next day I drive on in and check in early afternoon. It is not usually all that busy then.

We do little things that we enjoy that evening and then are set for a full day in the parks the next day.

Whatever works is fine as long as it gets us to DW!!

Slightly Goofy

 

[ndelaware]

We have driven every trip to WDW and 4 or 5 trips to other parts of Florida. On the trips to Disney we would leave Delaware just after dinner on Friday night. I would drive til we got thru DC and then my wife would take over for Virginia and the Carolinas so I could catch some sleep. I would resume driving somewhere in South Carolina and my wife would sleep the rest of the way (in addition to the nap thru Maryland). We would stop for gas, restrooms and breakfast (in FL) and make the trip in about 15 hours, 14 of which were actual driving. We have always stayed onsite for our whole trip and check in around noon. Last year and this year (in 4 weeks) my mother has/will come with us and we will stop overnight in Georgia. That way we can still check in fairly early. And we will leave on Saturday morning instead of Friday night. She cannot make the trip all at once as she is 84. But if it wasn't for taking her we wouldn't stay outside of WDW to save money. We all want to get there as soon as possible and stay there. The bonus of driving straight thru is we get an extra day up front and on the way out we will stay at Disney until the last minute and end up getting home Sunday evening.

 

[jeancbpugh]

Do you stay offsite the first night and or last night to save money. We're thinking of doing this and are looking for suggestions from others who drive to WDW.

No. Too much hassle to move. It really cuts into your play time.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

We drive from VA. Spend the first night in GA, then the next day head down to Daytona for a bit and then go to Orlando. Every time we've stayed in a WDW resort (which has been every trip since our 1998 one), we always stay in Disney every night we're in Orlando, even though we don't usually get there until 7 or 8 o'clock at night. Just makes things simpler, and we can be all unpacked and raring to confront the mass crowds and heat the next day (we usually go in the summer).

 

[Kala]

We used to stay outside the park the first night if we drove and arrived late, but like some other posters have said, you never really know how great the place will be. We still prefer to check into our "permanent" resort as early in the morning as possible to try to get the building, floor or whatever requests we have made, but we decided that it's better for us to stay onsite at a value or moderate and then get up early and let Disney transfer our luggage for us. We just get up and call for our luggage transfer, then go directly to the "new" resort and check in, then on to the park. If we have just a few bags, we sometimes take a cab and take our bags with us so they will be available at the resort in case we need them.

 

[kmkja1]

We have a couple friends (married couples) where the husband THINKS he can still drive like that and the wife thinks he's crazy and isn't too happy about!

Sounds like my wife!