How long do YOU drive??? :)

[Mama-san]

We're 8-9 hrs. away (depending on who is driving). We leave out around 6 am and arrive at our resort between 2 -3pm. This is the current plan for our next trip, but I am hoping to talk my DH into leaving the evening before our planned leave day, after he gets off work. I can drive because I will be too psyched to sleep anyhow. Ideally, I would love to make it to Orlando that night, even if it is 1-2am, and spend the night a cheap hotel near WDW. Sleep in a little the next morning, pack our bags and grab a quick breakfast, then head on over to POFQ to get our KTTW. Hopefully in a park by 10am.

Heck, if we only make it way down in GA the first night, I'd much rather start from there in the morning than starting back a home.

 

[accarson]

We're 12 hours away. When kids went drove straight through. Last 2 trips (empty nesters) DH and I stopped in Brunswick, Ga overnight at check-out on to Orlando. We never do parks first evening there after resort check-in, a good dinner, DTD and a good nights' rest we're refreshed for the next early morning!

 

[Scrumperella]

We drive about 18 hours straight.

 

[daisyduck123]

We drive 14 hours straight thru.

We leave about 2am & arrive exactly at 4pm for check-in.

 

[Prolif1k]

We drove down twice when we lived in PA and had a 16 hour drive, each time stopping after about 12 hours and having just the 4 hours remaining the next day.

Now, we only have about a 5-10 minute drive to the parks, so we don't miss the drive at all hehe =P

 

[SamJane]

Google maps says it would take us 32 hours to drive to WDW. Add in 2 kids aged 4 and 7, means we are not driving LOL!

But, when we drive the 12 or so hours to visit Grandma in Las Vegas, we do it straight through without a problem. I've even done it alone with the kids, but that makes for a very long day.

When we did a 31 hr drive before, we did it in 3 days. About 15 hours the first day (left very early in the morning), spent the night at a hotel, next day up at a decent time and drove another 10 hours, and then 6 hours on the final day. We found that gradually decreasing the number of hours of driving for each day was a good strategy. By day 3 everyone was very tired of being in the car.

In your situation, I'd drive 8 or 9 hours then get some rest at a hotel, then up early and do the last stint.

 

[Diznygrl]

I just checked, and it would take me 46 hours to drive to Orlando. Haha...um, no.

 

[Raetz]

1666.6 miles, 24 hr 14 min according to Bing Maps.

The last three Decembers I have drove down to Disney World. We leave in the afternoon, I drive until about Chattanooga take a 2-3 hour nap. After nap we continue on to Orlando arriving at about 7:00 pm and get a cheap hotel outside of Disney. We get a good night sleep and then check in to POP at about 7:45 am, then drive to Animal Kingdom for rope drop. At around 3:00 pm we go back to Pop and move into our room. Next we have a meal at TS restaurant and head to DHS for EMH, Fantasmic, Osbourne Lights and whatever else we can squeeze in before they kick us out.

We usually keep this pace up for 2-3 days, then slow it down for the remaining 4-5 days. My family is bipolar on our Disney trips. The first few days are uber commando, but flexible followed by slow paced stop and soak it all in kind of days. We still make rope drop and close the parks on the slow days, but it is at leisurely pace.

The trip home is awfully slow. After a week plus in Disney, I have no energy or motivation to drive home. It usually takes us twice as long to get home.
This year the drive should be easier for me, because I will have 2 other people to share the driving.

Raetz

 

[JessiLynn015]

We live right off I95 in South GA. It usually takes us about 3.5 hours, 4 at the most.

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

9-10 hr drive.... we have done it 3 different ways let me just say (I work 3rd shift and love to drive, we do not switch drivers and I only stop for fuel or if someone is really whining about the bathroom so I prefer to drive while they are sleeping).

Option 1. Leave the house at 4am pulling into POP at 1:00pm they have always had our room ready by then, we say we are going to relax and unpack but that last about 15min then we are heading to MK...lol. We usually grab a quick shower and go from 4-8pm to be rested for the RD the next day.

Option 2. Leave the house at 12am and pulling into POP at 9:00am our room will not be ready, we get our tickets and head to MK. Not a popular option due to not being able to get cleaned up.

Option 3. Leave the house at 6pm and pull into Laquinta in Orlando at about 3am. Sleep till 8-9am and get to POP by 10am, room not ready but get tickets and head to MK.

I like option 1 DW likes option 3 it all dependends on out work schedule and how much anticipation there is... have a safe drive.

 

[TLinden16]

I'm going to move this to our transportation board.

 

[DisneyLindsay]

2,093 km,21 hours 36 minsI-75 S (Google Maps)
From London, On, Canada

Last year we did it in 2 full days, we would have been sooner if we hadn't have broke down at the Florida border and had to have a tow into our resort from the florida welcome station, lol, Good times. Hoping in 2 weeks from now we will not have a repeat.

This year we are changing things up, and will be Driving on the thursday evening, at about 5 till whenever, may 5 hours-6 hours, depending on the kids, and then a full day friday, then arrive on Saturday at somepoint. Our Friends who are on vacation with us will leave on the Friday morning at around 5 and Drive straight through to Florida, he only stops for gas and at those times you get out and p and grab something to eat and on you go. Unfortunately with the ages of our little ones that would be impossible and potty breaks are essential to a stress free trip for us. We feel the drive is part of our trip and have fun with it. The kids love the movies on the way, we like to point out scenerey and all of us Love to see the Mountains!!

My sister and Her family Drive 25 hours from Montreal Quebec, Canada and they Drive down the Coast, she said it was beautiful, now they drove straight through and their little ones did amazing.

This year we may make better time as we won't have newborn who needs to feed every 2 hours.

I hope you have an amazing trip and enjoy your Drive!! I know we will, I am itching to get on the road now, 2 weeks is so close and yet so far! lol

 

[BC1836]

We have taken 23 2,000+ mile round-trip drives of about 17-18 hours each since 2002.

And all those on this thread who qualify, please join us at the "For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" thread.

All the best!

 

[lync]

WOW!!! I thought our 9-10 hour ride was bad! We leave around 5pm and drive to the other side of Jacksonville. Spend the night in a hotel then get up and head to WDW the next morning. We drive straight through to go home, though.

 

[jakenjess]

I wish we only had a 13-hour drive! 24 hours each way -- straight through! We take turns sleeping, but if both us of hit a wall of course we would find a hotel and stop for the night. Two trips and haven't had to do that yet. We'll see how we do in April!

 

[kydisneyfans]

Hey KY neighbor-we are 865 miles from the entrance of Disney.
We have done many ways:

-Leave after school and drive straight thru-arriving at 4-5 AM.
-Leave at midnight and arrive around 1-2 PM
-Leave at 3-4 AM and get there at dinnertime.
-Leave after school and stop in GA-arriving just after lunch the next day.

Option 1 was done twice, I won't do it again-very wiped out.
Option 2 was done twice, likely won't do it again.
Option 3 is most common, the evening is for rest, parks the next day.
Option 4 was tried last month and worked out great. We plan this in Dec for the Christmas trip.

We always drive straight home, leaving Disney around 8 AM.

 

[SDSorority]

Ok...we are driving down in November and have a 13 hour drive

We won't actually be leaving until 3 or so in the afternoon due to school. How long do most of you drive before stopping for the night?

My 3 DD's think we should drive all the way but I am hesitant to do that because I am afraid we would be wiped out the next day and not be able to possibly check in til later anyway.

1st day will be a relaxing day..no parks..but still wondered how safe it would be with nighttime traffic and thought I'd get some other's advice on how they did it.

We drive 5 minutes... to the airport.

When I was a kid, we would get up and leave around 4:30am and drive until 4:30pm. By that time, we would be in Valdosta, GA. Get up early and finish the rest of the trip the next day. 12 hours was about all we could handle... and that was including little pit stops for bathroom breaks. We brought all of our lunch food/snack food in coolers and ate at rest stops or in the car. Breakfast was before we left (so we could take our vitamins and dramamine) and dinner was at the hotel. I haven't been on that long of a road trip since... high school? I think it's been since high school!!! We've flown for our vacations ever since, if the drive is over 5-6 hours. Gotta luv Southwest! DH is all about driving... I'm all about getting there. The journey is in the destination when it comes to me and Disney!!

 

[MrsDuck]

We drive about 2 1/2 hours.

 

[saxman]

Hey KY neighbor-we are 865 miles from the entrance of Disney.
We have done many ways:

-Leave after school and drive straight thru-arriving at 4-5 AM.
-Leave at midnight and arrive around 1-2 PM
-Leave at 3-4 AM and get there at dinnertime.
-Leave after school and stop in GA-arriving just after lunch the next day.

Option 1 was done twice, I won't do it again-very wiped out.
Option 2 was done twice, likely won't do it again.
Option 3 is most common, the evening is for rest, parks the next day.
Option 4 was tried last month and worked out great. We plan this in Dec for the Christmas trip.

We always drive straight home, leaving Disney around 8 AM.

Option 4 is basically what we do from NE Mississippi. We stop around Dothan, AL for the first night.

 

[OhdahLolly]

We are looking around 1175 miles, so anywhere between 18-24 hours depending on how many stops we have to make. We've driven straight through, and are doing so again this year :eek.

Mostly, we leave some time after dinner and the majority of our trip is spent with the kids sleeping. The adults also take over in shifts, so one tries to sleep with the other drives. It really stinks on the way there, but it is awesome once we arrive. Last time we got there one full day ahead of schedule, and were able to kind of chill out around orlando for the day to recharge our battery. Which was exactly what we needed for disney.

I am going to try to make a trip report this time around to document the whole thing