How much do you budget for the drive to WDW?

[ziggystardust]

Obviously there are a million different factors going into this, the starting point, the kind of car you drive, if you are stopping half way...

I'm just wondering what types of budgets people have. Or how much you have spent driving...
We're coming from NYC, driving the 18 hours straight, and driving a non-gas gussler, any input would be great.


Thanks in advance!

 

[MidgeD79]

We drove from SE MI last summer. Spent about $175 in gas roundtrip w/ a Ford Windstar. We took 3 days no reservations just found hotels about $50 a night Food is the hardest to budget. We did not stop at any sit-down restaurants, ate breakfast from the "free continental breakfast" drive-thrus for lunch then stopping at a rest area to eat and stretch legs. Dinner picked-up fast-food and ate at hotel swim early bed and early rise. Brought juice boxes and snacks in car (no chocolate- too hot!) Myself, 2 dd 24 &22,ds 9 & 6,dgd 8. Cost much less than flying and we made it part of our vacation. Travel books help with interesting facts.

 

[cocowum]

We drove from Albany straight through, 18 hours. We left at 6:00pm. We ate dinner before we left. Had breakfast at McD's. Arrived in WDW at 12:00pm for Lunch Total was about $280 including tolls. HTH

 

[baileybelle]

This will help you figure your gas prices http://www.fuelcostcalculator.com/TripGasPrice.aspx

 

[ANTSS2001]

we always drove ever since 911, what we usually do is prepay our mobil charge card of $200, this past April we only spent about $150 for gas and chips when the bill came. We are coming from Philadelphia,Pa and we are there lesurely in 16 hours. We try to live Philly around 7ish (PM) so we don't hit the traffic in Virginia.. the Potomac Mills is a killer...and also the traffic in Richmond. One time we tried to drive 7AM and took us almost 20 hours because we sat in every state for traffic. BTW we drove a 5 year old Civic Honda this April ... and we now saw a 100,000 miles in it by the time we got back... well that was for all the trips we had to the World since 2000 maybe one more year and it will be drove locally... We also find it helpful that we have a $100 in ones which we use for tipping and again snack. Every pay day at our part time job we save $25 to $40 dollars and buy disney dollars by the time vacation comes everything is paid for wiith some left overs to take home

 

[hannah03]

This is a great question b/c I was wondering the same thing. We will be driving from OK, which is about 21 hours. My DH WILL NOT fly, so we 'll just take turns driving. We will have our 2 yr old DD and if she starts and won't stop CRYING then we will find a hotel, otherwise we will be heading straight through to WDW

 

[JoeCathyAngelina]

Our Trip to WDW 3/26/04: Miles Stopped Time
Boston to Walt Disney World: 1:00pm
Boston to New Jersey 212 212 6:00pm
N J to Aberdeen MD 183 395 9:07 pm
MD to Rocky Mt NC 266 661 1:36 AM
NC to Florence SC 209 870 4:40 am
SC to S Newport GA 210 1,080 7:58 am
GA to WDW 251 1,331 12:00 PM
Started, Friday, 3/26 0 1:00pm
Finished, Saturday, 3/27 1331 12:00pm
A 23 hr trip with 5 stops along the way down
76 gallons of gas, $131 for the gas, 17.78 mpg 58mph
Driving around WDW 21

The Real Trip Home: Miles Stopped Time
Walt Disney World to Boston: 11:00 am
WDW to St Augustine FL 116 116 12:44 PM
FL to Savanah GA 178 294 3:55 PM
GA to Florence SC 174 468 6:22 pm
SC to Battleboro NC 181 649 9:30 pm
NC to Aberdeen MD 295 944 2:17 am
MD to Bloomfield NJ 181 1,125 5:30 AM
NJ to Boston, MA 237 1,362 9:30 am
Started, Friday, 4/02 11:00 am 0
Finished, Sat, 4/03 9:30 am 1362
A 22 1/2 hr trip with 6 stops on the way home
81 gallons of gas $126 for the gas 17.58 mpg 60.5mph
Driving around WDW 62

157 gallons, $257 for the gas, $44 tolls, 17.68 mpg, 59.2mph 2776

The traffic was a mess from Hartford through Delaware on the way down.
It rained from North Carolina to Boston, Mass. on the way home

Me and my wife alternated turns driving our Nissan Xterra when we stopped for gas. My 3 year old held out a lot better than I thought she would on the way down and on the way back to Boston.
No Big Deal.
Good Luck

 

[theterms]

We always drive from NW Jersey straight through. Leaving at night (around 9-10) helps with mileage - hardly any traffic, smooth sailing til we hit Jacksonville! I take the average mileage my truck (Explorer Sport) gets, then figure how many miles we'll go til the next fill up. We've noticed that we stop pretty much at the same places every time, so I know how many miles it is and I can check the average price before we leave for each state, here - http://www.usastar.com/i95/gasprice.htm. We also have EZ-Pass for tolls, which helps us to keep moving along at a good pace and the tolls are cheaper with it, too!

This year, however, due to some problem with my truck that no one can seem to figure out , we don't want to use it. So, we're renting an Explorer from Budget. Got a great rate for June 23-July 1, found a code doing a google search, and with all the taxes, we're paying about $350.00 w/unlimited mileage! And, the 4-door Explorer gets better gas mileage than my Sport! It looks like we'll spend about $250 on gas (from what I calculated). I can't find airfare right now for much less than $900 for the 4 of us, then add in r/t transfers in FL (another $100), and parking my truck at the airport (who knows how much that is!). It looks like we'll save at least $300-$400 by renting the truck and driving over flying.

Can't wait - 1 month left!

 

[momto2inKC]

We just got back from driving to WDW from the Kansas City area. We left at 8:30pm and got into Orlando around 6pm the next evening.
We really spent no money on food as we had packed sandwiches, chips, snacks, etc...
Gas wise, we way overbudgeted what that would be. We used right under $100 to get there (my car is a 91 Olds convertable). On the way back we had to rent a car since my engine blew on us Gas was right about the same for that car (a 05 Kia Amanti).
We did spend about $60 for food/snacks on the way home.
We were planning on staying the night on the way down somewhere, but the kids did so well we didn't need to.
But, I would definately budget in money for vehicle emergencies!!!