How tired are you when you arrive after driving?

[disneydreamersx4]

On our last trip (2007) we took the autotrain and loved it! Next time we go (hopefully next year) we might look into driving but wondering how tired are you the day you arrive at Disney World? Our drive is from Jersey and we would be stopping one night for sleep.

 

[WaltCast-Shawn]

I am driving to Orlando from Maine in a couple of weeks, but we're gonna have two full weeks there as well.

 

[2DisPrincesses]

My DH and I drove straight through from Michigan (before we had kids). We arrived around 2pm. We were tired that day so we just stayed at our resort, swam, went to be early, etc. We were fine the next day.

I would think with stoping to stay overnight, you should be fine.

 

[alyssa810]

Many moons ago, my DH and I drove from Cape Cod to Orlando. We left town at 10 am on a Friday, and drove straight through. We stopped to eat and for bathroom breaks in NJ and VA, and switched off driving around midnight in the NC/SC border area. We also stopped at a rest stop in GA when were too tired to drive, and we slept for about 3 or 4 hours, then we made it to the Kissimmee area around 11 am. We checked out the area, and had an early dinner, and I think we both crashed around 8 pm. We also woke up around 3 am, ready to go, but went back to sleep until a more respectable hour. That first day when we didn't go to any parks we were pooped, but after that we were fine.
We did split the drive home with a night at a motel in GA, and then a few days in the DC area visiting family, so that wasn't so bad.

 

[sharadoc]

We stop overnight, usually around Walterboro SC which gives us 5-6 hours the next day. We found that we like to go long enough the first day to give us some "leisure" time the next morning. We don't get up at 6 am, more like 8, then go down to breakfast and hit the road around 9:30 or 10. We hit Disney by 3-4:00 PM, which is check-in time.

Works perfectly for us! Have a great trip.

 

[ancestry]

I would imagine the tiredness level varies from person to person. We drove once back in 2002. Being tired wasn't the problem as much as was being cranky. We were all ready to kill each other. Never again for us.......

 

[eliza61]

We drive from Jersey. We stop at Brunswich Ga, which is pretty much the last exit on 95 before crossing over into Florida. We are never tired because we get a good nights sleep and then only have ~ 3hours to drive in the morning.

 

[ntz4disney]

We drive frequently and we are coming from the Philly area. We leave around 530pm and drive straight through the night with stops for the bathroom and gas fill ups. We usually arrive in the Disney area by 930am. The day we leave my husband tends to catch a few hours worth of a nap and he drives the first leg of the trip, then around 2am I take over for a few hours so he can sleep in the car again. Typically our first day there is a park day, we just take it easy and its not usually a late night. This past December we were lucky enough to arrive at our resort and have a room available for us, so we got to check in and unpack. While the kids ate a snack and watched TV, the adults got showers to freshen up a bit and off to the parks we went for the afternoon ...again not a late night but if we sat around the resort we would certainly be exhausted and then up in the middle of the night wide eyed!

It will depend on how you feel when you arrive what you do, again we don't make it a late night but we do make it a park day to keep moving. We have also arrived when our room was not ready and we go right to te parks, then late afternoon around check in we head back to the resort, check into the room and grab a bit to eat and call it a night ... you just have to be flexible!

 

[bdoyledimou]

i have driven 7 times straight through from Toronto to WDW. (23 hours!)

I always find that i am tired when i leave the highway and turn into the property, but by the time i get to the resort, check in, get to my room and have started absorbing some of the pixie dust the second winds kicks in and i am ready to go!!1

 

[anabelle]

If you stop and get a good nights rest and limit your arrival day driving , you should be fine. I try to limit my arrival day driving to 5 hours. That way we get there early enough for dinner and we are ready to go the next day.

 

[M2DD's]

Just back 2 wk ago and we drive straight through from Illinois. It took us about 20 hrs (only stoping for gas/bathroom and fast food).
We left 1pm from peoria and got to HS in time for rope drop
We stayed the whole day at the park and left around 8pm. Our kids are young(6,9) but they sleep in the car and DH and I take turns sleeping while the other one drives.
This was are 3rd drive down there this yr and making another one over christmas

 

[bookwormde]

I drive straight through from your area and while I am tired it really is not that much more than flying

bookwormde

 

[brivers222]

My DH and I drove straight through from Michigan (before we had kids). We arrived around 2pm. We were tired that day so we just stayed at our resort, swam, went to be early, etc. We were fine the next day.

I would think with stoping to stay overnight, you should be fine.

We are actually doing that trip in Oct... Have done it twice so far. I am not a fan of flying and now that we have a Honda Fit with 43mpg it will only cost us $175 round trip.

We are leaving friday at like 5:30pm and arriving around 3pm on Saturday to check-in... We will rest a bit then head over to Magic Kingdom for our 8pm CRT ressies

 

[disneydreamersx4]

We stop overnight, usually around Walterboro SC which gives us 5-6 hours the next day. We found that we like to go long enough the first day to give us some "leisure" time the next morning. We don't get up at 6 am, more like 8, then go down to breakfast and hit the road around 9:30 or 10. We hit Disney by 3-4:00 PM, which is check-in time.

Works perfectly for us! Have a great trip.

This sounds like a plan for us that could work. I like the thought of just driving about 4-5 hours on the day of arrival.

 

[Vickis3js]

We are totally ready to go when we get to WDW. We leave South Jersey before 3 am and get to Savannah around 3-4, which is where we stop. We let the kids swim or we walk around a bit and let them unwind. THen we get to bed early and are up around 7-8 the next morning have a nice breakfast and are on the road before 10am. We have a little less then 5 hours of driving from there to WDW.

DH and I flew last month and we had an early morning flight and we were beat. We actually commented that our first day there was worse then when we drove down we were so tired.

 

[sharadoc]

This sounds like a plan for us that could work. I like the thought of just driving about 4-5 hours on the day of arrival.

Exactly, that way you're in a regular schedule. We could never drive straight through - I would waste the arrival day on being exhausted!

 

[loveysbydesign]

We stop overnight, usually around Walterboro SC which gives us 5-6 hours the next day. We found that we like to go long enough the first day to give us some "leisure" time the next morning. We don't get up at 6 am, more like 8, then go down to breakfast and hit the road around 9:30 or 10. We hit Disney by 3-4:00 PM, which is check-in time.

Works perfectly for us! Have a great trip.

I noticed you live pretty close to me, I was hoping you could answer some questions for me as I'm trying to talk dh into driving down for a short surprise trip for our kids in May! (We are already flying down in Nov. with my in-laws and are buying new 8 day tix for that trip, but we have 2 park days left on past tix and we'd like to go to the beach for 1-2 days to relax and get away)

I was wondering do you go through Hamburg and then south to avoid the Philly and DC areas?
Also what time is a good time to leave and how long of a drive is it to get to Walterboro, SC.

Is a Sat. to the following Sun. seem like a long enough stay when driving? We usually go for 8 days when we fly. However if we do drive it's gonna eat up Sat and Sun driving down and back so only 5 full days in Florida.

 

[TIGGERmetoo]

We drove last month from near Chicago. We did a long first day, north of Chicago to Georgia. We only had about a 3 hr drive the next day to WDW. It was easier than I expected (even though we left at 4 am and drove until 7 pm, day 1). I would do it again but don't tell DH as I would still rather fly as long as the rates are reasonable.

 

[sharadoc]

I noticed you live pretty close to me, I was hoping you could answer some questions for me as I'm trying to talk dh into driving down for a short surprise trip for our kids in May! (We are already flying down in Nov. with my in-laws and are buying new 8 day tix for that trip, but we have 2 park days left on past tix and we'd like to go to the beach for 1-2 days to relax and get away)

I was wondering do you go through Hamburg and then south to avoid the Philly and DC areas?
Also what time is a good time to leave and how long of a drive is it to get to Walterboro, SC.

Is a Sat. to the following Sun. seem like a long enough stay when driving? We usually go for 8 days when we fly. However if we do drive it's gonna eat up Sat and Sun driving down and back so only 5 full days in Florida.

Hi. Happy to help.

In the past, we have driven 422 to 202 to 95 to I4 in Florida. It's worked very well, BUT last August we got hung up on 95 from Washington DC to Richmond VA. It should have taken 2 hours, it took closer to 7 with a lunch break. Awful! We kept that route in February because there's no beach traffic and it was great.

So, this summer we're going to try the 81-77-26-95 way. Depending on when we leave, we'll either go through Lancaster or up towards Reading/222/Harrisburg. Technically we'll go the same way once we hit Harrisburg, though.

We expect to take around 12 hours to Walterboro, although we may stop in Columbia SC if we're tired, or Orangeburg. We have no idea what the drive will be up to that point, so we'll play it by ear.

Our first couple of drives were right around 2 weeks, driving on the weekends. But we kind of felt it was a little long the second time we did it, so now we do Sunday to Saturday and it works out fine. We know what we like, only make a couple of meal reservations and have plenty of time. We don't want to burn out on the same things over and over so we find that 6 days is perfect now.

They key is always be positive about the driving part. Enjoy the time together, listen to some music you haven't heard in a while, actually TALK to each other. It's amazing how much DH and I can reconnect on things when we have a couple hours to just talk. That NEVER happens in our everyday life!

For us, we're not wasting that time. It's positive family time.

Let me know if I can help with anything else.

 

[loveysbydesign]

Hi. Happy to help.

In the past, we have driven 422 to 202 to 95 to I4 in Florida. It's worked very well, BUT last August we got hung up on 95 from Washington DC to Richmond VA. It should have taken 2 hours, it took closer to 7 with a lunch break. Awful! We kept that route in February because there's no beach traffic and it was great.

So, this summer we're going to try the 81-77-26-95 way. Depending on when we leave, we'll either go through Lancaster or up towards Reading/222/Harrisburg. Technically we'll go the same way once we hit Harrisburg, though.

We expect to take around 12 hours to Walterboro, although we may stop in Columbia SC if we're tired, or Orangeburg. We have no idea what the drive will be up to that point, so we'll play it by ear.

Our first couple of drives were right around 2 weeks, driving on the weekends. But we kind of felt it was a little long the second time we did it, so now we do Sunday to Saturday and it works out fine. We know what we like, only make a couple of meal reservations and have plenty of time. We don't want to burn out on the same things over and over so we find that 6 days is perfect now.

They key is always be positive about the driving part. Enjoy the time together, listen to some music you haven't heard in a while, actually TALK to each other. It's amazing how much DH and I can reconnect on things when we have a couple hours to just talk. That NEVER happens in our everyday life!

For us, we're not wasting that time. It's positive family time.

Let me know if I can help with anything else.

Thanks so much for the info! We're only a 5 minute drive from Rte 222 so I think we'd take that alternate rte. as well. Our kids would be 11, almost 8 and almost 3 y.o. when we would drive down and my dh thinks it will be the road trip from..well you know where. We've never driven longer than 4 hours to go anywhere So trying to talk him into driving has been quite difficult. I'm holding out hope that I can change his mind by the end of May!