Help me plan driving from NY to WDW

[fairytinkerbell]

We were talking about driving from NY to WDW in the summer.
I have to reserve a hotel. What days would I book? It would be I guess:
leave Saturday early morning 5am
get to another hotel midway? -which town? which state? when? do i book it?
arrive at our hotel in LBV on Sunday?

Does anyone drive? Does it go fast? We went to VA and it was such a long drive on 113. I imagine it goes faster on 95S. We are renting a car $600 for the week, unlimited mileage.

 

[mousebymarriage]

Not sure where exactly in New York you're located but, we live in Bergen County , NJ (about 6 miles from the GWB). According to mapquest it is 1108 miles from our driveway to Disney property. We take I95 down.
We have done the drive a bunch of times and definately prefer to leave late afternoon/early evening and drive straight through. We have stopped over for the night in Santee, SC (it's approx. 12 hours from our house to Santee). Santee, SC is a good place to stop because there are a few hotels, restaurants, gas stations, stores etc.
If you are planning to drive down via I95 I definately recommend getting the book "Drive I95- an Exit By Exit Guide", I think we got it in Barnes & Noble. The "Drive I95" book is great because it gives you an idea of what is at each exit (hotels, restaurants, stores, gas stations, malls, hospitals etc), this way you can plan where to stop and are not left guessing as you turn off an exit. We bought our book a few years ago and it's still pretty accurate (yes sometimes things close down-especially with the way the economy has been, but, we always try to stop at exits that have multiple offerings so even if something has closed down there is another option). We have never had a problem following the books exit info but, like I said we always try to choose an exit that seems to be more populated.
If you have any questions I would be happy to help if I can.

 

[vacationclub]

How many of you are going in the car? Just curious how much you're saving by renting a car for $600, plus the few hundred for multiple gas fill-ups, food along the way, plus the various hotel stays each way. Not to mention 4 days in a car. (2 down, 2 back)

I've driven one time from FL back to NYS. It was brutal. I don't know how anyone does it, but I was picking up a car and had to drive it home.

Do you have a GPS? For a long trips like that they are well worth it, especially now that they've come so far down in price.

As far as hotels... I simply put my GPS on the dash....pressed HOME, then followed it for 2 days. It was mostly I95. When I needed gas or a hotel, I just pushed the button for that and called ahead to see if they had a room. I then mapped to the hotel....done.

 

[DVC-Don]

We travel from north of Albany and overnight near Richmond, Virginia and Savannah, Georgia.

 

[DISshopkeeper]

I did it from Philly and back and I was dreading it. It was a LOT easier and more pleasant than I anticipated. On our way south, we stopped in Walterboro, SC. I chose the location via a map, I wanted to get the bulk of the driving done on the first day.

By pure chance, the rental car had satellite radio. THAT was a HUGE advantage, we really enjoyed it!

Your car rental price is way high. I am doing the drive again and I have a car booked at $150 for a week.

 

[fairytinkerbell]

May I ask which car rental company?? $150!?? I am buying the extra insurance for $25 a day too..$200 extra.


Also, so where do you think we should stop? Savannah? What time would we get there if we left at 5 AM? Do you just show up at the hotel or book in advance?

Do you ever worry about storms, flooding, tornadoes while driving all the way down there or back???
Thanks!

 

[DISshopkeeper]

Plug in your info at Autoslash.com. they do the work of searching discount codes and such. Then they send you e-mails when they re-book for you at a lower price. I've been amazed! They don't charge and you don't even have to enter your credit card #.

My rental is with thrifty. Started at $307, now down to $150. Try it! good luck!

 

[lisa-upnorth]

take all the money you will spend on the car,gas,hotels,food and ride the rails like me arrive rested and ready to go!!! I could never survive that long driving!

 

[fairytinkerbell]

I just saw the other posts now. Sorry!

Thanks for the I95 Exit Guide book - that's excellent! We'll def buy that!

As for how much we'd save by driving, I don't know exactly, we would have to fly there , that was quoted $600-800 jet blue for 2 roundtrip, then rent a car for the week while we're there, usually 450-500.

Plus, I don't want to fly unless going to Europe. Too scared to risk my life for WDW I guess.

Do u guys ever run into flooding, storms, tornadoes on the drives there or back???

How much are hopper passes? I guess we'd leave Sat am, get there Sun afternoon and leave that Friday, get home to NY on SUnday. Right??
How many days would we need? We also go to Universal. I want the hopper and 1 water park included. We have AAA....

I have to get excited to make this happen.

 

[MolonLabe]

I don't blame you for wanting to drive. Flying post-9/11 is a hassle, not to mention the increased costs.

I always leave my hotel stay open on the drive down and find a place where ever I feel the urge. Usually one of the carolinas (when we made the 95 drive).

The reason being, what sort of time am I making? If I'm way ahead and feeling good, why not get in another hour or two before I stop? Likewise, if I'm running behind or just really tired, stop early.

I have also driven till 3am before (listening to a good audio book) and then just parked and slept in the car for a 2 hour power nap and finished my drive up after that.

For me it's a 19 hour drive. I knock out 8 hours or so after I leave work (usually get an early day) and then cruise into Orlando around 4-5pm. We stay off property this night. It's an early to bed night. It's also a buffer in case something happens and we get stuck in a 5 hour traffic jam.

Then next AM we hit our resort at the break of dawn and hopefully hit RD after check in.

Nothing better than hitting a long week of vacation after a full nights sleep.

 

[fairytinkerbell]

While driving on I95, how do you handle flooding, heavy rain, tornadoes etc?

 

[debbibee]

this will be our 4th drive from ny area to disney in a mini van with 2 kids we usually leave at 3am we take 95 down stop in walterboro sc usually the holiday inn express its has always been clean and they have free continental breakfast. i have a fear of flying so we prefer driving. its really not so bad we have a fun time. coming home can be tough nothing to look forward too.i have never used that guide book suggested but i'll check it out. if you stop at some of the rest stops p/u the free i-95 hotel guide it shows all the hotels and the amenities on i-95 (has coupons also) which helps when deciding how much further you want to drive to the next hotel. we always stop at the main florida rest stop to take a picture under the florida highway sign they have in the front. it s cool to look back and see how the kids have grown. we pickup all our brochures there and they have complimentary oj. have a safe trip!!!

 

[Tony NY]

I have done this trip onces . I 95 is long Drive I have done Rt 13 throu VA beach and it wasant to bad you cut DC traffic but the south of the boder sign will drive you nuts lolz I found it hard to be the only driver but if you have a 2nd driver it will help ...

Leving 3 am is not to bad leave nyc you will hit DC in 5 hours if not faster if their is no construction on NJTP. I learnd a trick is to have a laptop with a broad band card this way you can find a hotel or where to to eat if your not one for driving in bad weather .

 

[happily single]

While driving on I95, how do you handle flooding, heavy rain, tornadoes etc?

With lots of patience. We (myself, dd12, ds11 and ds6) to Orlando in April, 2010. Great trip. Did it again last April. According to the weather there was going to be nasty rainy weather the entire way down, so I decided to leave extra early-about 3:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. We hit terrible traffic in DC then the tornadoes in North/South Carolina!! Add a jack-knived tractor trailer blocking both lanes headed South on Route 95. We, along with 1000's of others slept in our car. We managed to get out off the highway-not that it was moving at all-and slept in a gas station with a State Trooper keeping an eye on us. Absolutely terrible!!!!

We ARE NOT driving back to Orlando this April.

On a side note, our first trip was wonderful and return trip home was wonderful. So just pack your patience and enjoy the drive.

But, I do agree that $600 for the week is very high for a rental. I had a rental for 8 days and only paid $142!

 

[North of Mouse]

I, personally, think the book "Next Exit" is a total waste of money. We used ours once. All the exit signs have the closest listed gas, food, etc. Now, with most everyone having access to a GPS, all you do is type in what you want and you have several choices, plus directions - can't beat it. We found the book to be inaccurate a good many times.

 

[fairytinkerbell]

Wow, what a nightmare! We drove to va beach once and it took so long on rt 13. or 113.....ee gad.

Where can i get a cheap rental ? I need unlimtd. mileage....from ny to fl and back

 

[disneymom06]

We drive every year because we are 6. Only once did we do the entire trip in a week and it was grueling. We were exhausted. There just wasn't enough time to regroup and enjoy the vacation before we were back in the car. It is a tough drive and WORSE on the way home. Our best time was 18.5 hrs and our worse was 26.5hrs. We drive straight thru with only bathroom, gas and one meal break. (The rest of the meals are eaten on the road). We like to start between 11pm and 3pm. Or if we can't do that we must be on the road by 2pm. Our best trip was at 1am and we pulled into POR at 8:30pm. THis trip was perfect, no traffic, full moon and nice weather. Rain, wind, fog and traffic can slow a trip quickly. (We were once parked on 95N for a few hours because of a massive accident.) A storm can cause you to pack it in for the night.You mentioned VA being a tough drive. When we finally get thru VA, that is when the trip REALLY begins. Don't get me wrong, I like the road trip but you need to be prepared.

As for hotels, you need to research. Go the AAA, or google maps and map it out from your house the distance to see how long you think that you can drive in a day. Then investigate hotels in the area.

With universal and disney in one week including the driving, it appears to be alot.

 

[kanga24roos]

We are also a family of six and we have made the drive from New Hampshire twice already and are preparing to do it again in 2 weeks We generally try to leave our house around 230 am so we can get through New York before rush hour and on the way down we stop overnight in SC we drive straight through on the way home leaving Disney around 1pm and getting home before 10am. This year will be different because we are caravaning with my brother and his three kids so it will be hard splitting the driving between 2 vehicles and three adults I wish we could find a 10 or 12 passenger van to rent so we could all be in the same car but oh well we can't wait !!!!

 

[MrMarv]

Http://www.i95exitguide.com has tons of superb information on it, so be sure to check it out.

You'll get another discount at various hotels if you're a member of the Auto Club.

For budget hotels, http://www.wyndhamrewards.com is another indispensable website, since most of the best-known budget hotels, starting withe Baymont Inns and including Ramada, HoJo, Super 8 and others are under their ownership.

http://www.choicehotels.com is another standout website; they're always running promotions of some type.

Their current promotion goes like this; if you stay in one of their hotels on two separate occassions for at least one night, you'll get a free night the next time you're on the road.

Have a great trip!

 

[debbibee]

has anyone used the i-95 exit app is it worth it to buy