HELP! Driving from Houston area...Need any advice.

[EMom]

ACK!!! As God as my witness, I swore I'd never drive again after that cursed ski trip in the late 80s.

But the sky high airfares for December may have broken me. Add to that the fact that we like to have a rental car and those are $$$$$ in December. Then we'd have to pay to park our car at the departure airport. It's too dang much. I may have to break down and drive to WDW in my itty bitty car. The truck is even less comfortable.

I need any advice you can give. To make it easy, just say we're leaving from the Houston area, because a lot of you can relate to that location and we have to drive through it anyway. We are already committing the sin of taking DD out of school a week early to go to WDW. When we thought we'd fly, we were going to leave Friday night, 12/10 so we could hit the ground running at WDW on Sat. 12/11. Now that we may have to drive, I am not about to leave Friday after school and go through THAT traffic, only to arrive Saturday night and have to begin our vacation on Sunday. NOOOOO!!!! I will not give up a day!

So I may have to be an even worse person, and leave after school Thursday 12/9, so we can drive as long as possible that night. Then drive Friday until we make it to WDW, check in and veg, and be ready to hit the park Saturday morning.

What's a good place to stop? Biloxi seems like a bad choice because of all the casinos. If we hit Houston at 4:00, we can probably drive until 10:00 or 11:00 at the latest. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

 

[rachdd]

We live in the Beaumont area and the few times we have drove (UGH!) we usually drive to Tallahasse the first night that way we only have approx. 4 hours left the next day. If that is to far, instead of stopping in Biloxi, why don't you go just a little further to Pensacola. That would be my suggestion.

 

[EMom]

We live in the Beaumont area and the few times we have drove (UGH!) we usually drive to Tallahasse the first night that way we only have approx. 4 hours left the next day. If that is to far, instead of stopping in Biloxi, why don't you go just a little further to Pensacola. That would be my suggestion.

Is that a trip when you left early in the day or after school the way we'll be doing?

 

[rachdd]

We did leave early in the morning but I will tell you that we stopped ALOT! We just drove in March when my youngest had just turned 3 so he required many pit stops. We have now decided to drive again in March 2011 only because we have several vacations planned for 2011 and not paying for 5 plane tickets saves lots of $$$$. Now when we drive this coming March we are leaving when the kids get out of school and are driving straight through the night all the way to Disney. We have talked to several people and they say this is the way to do it if you drive! We shall see!!

 

[EMom]

Found out from my neighbor that they're headed to WDW at Christmas too and are also driving for the first time due to airfare costs. While we plan to leave after school, they may leave around noon. So if anyone has any advice or info for those of us who ARE NOT starting our journey first thing in the morning, please feel free to add your 2 cents. Thanks!

 

[sherbet]

Have you driven from Houston before? May i ask how long it took you to get to Disneyworld? THanks

 

[postage stamp]

We are going to have to drive on our next trip from Ft. Worth. That's where we'll be living by the time we have enough to go again.

I've driven from Chicago, which is longer, but it didn't seem as daunting then.

Maybe that's because it was my husband, his brothers and I and we were all between the ages of 17-22. There were no toddlers, lol

 

[EMom]

Have you driven from Houston before? May i ask how long it took you to get to Disneyworld? THanks

I haven't, which is why I started this thread. But I know some DISers have. I am dreading it, but it's a done deal now.

 

[twooley2]

We drive from Houston every time we go. the past three times we have done it different each time. The first time we stopped twice overnight on the way once stopping in Mobile, Alabama overnight and than where we spent a couple hrs at the U.S.S Alabama sight seeing and than a stop overnight in Ocala, FL. The next time we drove straight through knowing the first day was a wash as we were too tired to function. The third time we stopped in Tallahassee, Fl and stayed one night. the first day was still a wash because we still arrived around 2 P.M. this next year we plan to go to all the way to Ocala and stay the night and drive the next day for one more hour to Disney. It really depends on your tolerance for long drives and the riders tolerance too.

 

[twooley2]

oh this last time it took till 6 P.M. to get to Tallahassee from Houston leaving at 5 A.M.