Just curious who drives & how long does it take you?

[TammySB]

My family and I always drive to Florida. My DH WILL NOT FLY!! We drive, or I should say I drive us, the last two times we drove straight thru. It took us 18 hours! I love to drive and we always have a good time. Its just me 34, DH 35 and DD 14. We are going back June 06, and will drive straight thru again!! I CANT WAIT

 

[dixiedizfan]

We always drive, but we're fortunate enough to live only 8 hours away in South Carolina. Because we drive we're also able to pack as much stuff as we want to take with us.

 

[chrrycolalola]

We have also driven the past two years. We drive from Long Island, New York so it is a pretty long drive, in August we made it to Orlando in about 17 hours with a few stops. In '04 it took us much longer because during a huge storm in S.Carolina our windshield wipers flew off....so scary! But all in all, we love the drive...you can't beat the billboard watching lol!

 

[disneymom727]

We are in NC and it takes us 10 hours. Our next trip we are leaving the night before and driving a few hours and staying at a hotel just to break it up a bit but usually we drive straight through. We will do it all in one day coming home.

 

[NC State]

It took us 8 1/2 hours, we left at 3:20 am (in NC) and arrived 12:30 pm at Pop. We stop only 3 times (45 mintues total). We just couldn't sleep and wanted to get on the road!

 

[princess-rn]

We drove for the first time in May. We live just south of Birmingham, Alabama. It took us about 10 hours to get to Gainesville, Florida and decided to stay the night there. (it was about midnight with the time change when we arrived) Incidently...we will NEVER stay in Gainesville again if we can avoid it at all...we will just leave super early in the morning and drive on to Orlando) We got a pretty good night's sleep and woke up around 8am and drove the 2 hours to WDW. My husband and I hate to drive..but did it this time to save $$. (our car gets awesome gas milage. We ended up saving about $400) We actually enjoyed the drive. We took a portable DVD player for our 3 yr old and made frequent short stops to stretch our legs. We also packed some snacks so we wouldn't stop and pay for snacks. Will we drive next year??? Probably so..unless we can find a super cheap flight.

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

Usually 19 hours driving time.........21 with all of the stops including dinner. We love almost every minute of it.

Bring it on, Baby! We're going to Disney World!! 15 days until we leave.

 

[shelton463]

We drove last year and will drive again in less than 2 weeks. From SE Michigan it's about 18 hours. In 2004 we drove as far as mid-Georgia and stopped for the night, got a hotel. This time we will be leaving on a Friday evening and will drive straight through (stopping in Georgia though, to meet up MIL & FIL who are joining us this trip) and will arrive Saturday afternoon. DH and I will trade off napping & driving. We've got the DVD entertainment system for the boys in the backseat, plus snacks and their Leapsters (these are a godsend!). This will be our first attempt at driving through the night with the kids and I pray it goes smoothly!

 

[travel with kids]

We drive. It takes us 24 hours of driving time. We do it in two days, stopping usually in VA. I am not a huge driving fan, but DH loves to drive.

 

[disneysnob]

We drove from Boston to Disney in June '02 and again in June '04. It's me, DH, and the three kiddies It takes about 23 hours, I believe, but we've never gone straight through. In 2002, we stopped at Atlantic city for the weekend, then did a stopover in NC, then on to Disney. In 2004, we drove from Boston to Fayetteville, NC (about 14 hours) then got to Disney the next day. We are going back next June, and we are debating whether or not to drive (Jet Blue and Delta Song are so cheap, that it might be worth flying) Both times we had a minivan with TV and VCR-so the ride was tolerable. We brought a packed cooler and snack bag for the road and plenty of video games and coloring books. The ride going was good, but coming home......

 

[Tigger113]

8-9 hours depending on how many stops we make

 

[kerry34]

We also drive and will continue to do so until it becomes more affordable for all 7 of us to fly. I honestly dont mind it for now and the kids are always really good. I look at it as family time with my kids because they are actually sitting in one spot for more than a few minutes. The only thing that gets tough is one of my 5 yr olds loves to talk, I mean really talk! Last summer she talked all the way from Maine to home in Mass and I honestly dont think she took more than a five minute break DH and I were trying so hard by the end not to laugh but it was tough, because she just didnt stop.
I always start my trip by yelling around 3am WHO WANTS TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD.....then you hear thundering footsteps coming from all directions upstairs!! I love it.

We usually end up driving to Fayetteville and stay overnight. The ride the next day is pretty short compared to the first. In all it takes around 23 hours.

 

[cristbaby]

We've driven for the last 10 years. It takes about 16 hours to Orlando. Just DH and myself, but ocassionally we have 1 or 2 of the grandchildren. We don't mind the drive, it gives us quality time together.

 

[ZippyDooDah]

We drive...about 8 hours if DH lets us stop to go to the bathroom or not. Ha, ha, ha. We are in Mobile and usually drive after getting off work to Tallahassee which is almost exactly 1/2 way for us. Then we get up early the next morning and drive the rest of the way. Better on DS2 that way!

 

[Deb & Bill]

14 hours for us from NW Louisiana. We flew once and it nearly took as long to get there by plane with the 6 hour delay from our airport, then missing our new connecting flight. We should have been in Orlando by 2PM. We didn't get there until about 10PM.

 

[indigoxtreme]

Another north of Atlanta here. It takes us about 8 1/2 hours depending on how much we stop. We leave aroung 5 in the morning and drive through.

 

[umaangel00]

I am glad to see I am not the only one that drives around here! I live in Michigan and if we drove straight through it would be 23 hours but since we don't it takes 2 days.

 

[sweetpeakaris]

We drice from Mi, takes us 18-22 hrs depending on how much we stop for gas and food. We drive straight through. My kids love the ride!

 

[RussH]

I drive 2 times a year from Cincinnati to WDW. In the past my plan was always get home from work around 4 pm Friday pack out the truck and get to bed. Up at 1 am on the road by 1:30 Once I get about 1/2 hour into KY I crank up the cruise to 83 and let fly. Stop just for gas and restroom breaks. Best time ever was 12.5 hours but normally around 13-13.5
This year leaving at noon on Friday setting the cruise at a much more reasonable speed and stopping overnight in FL/GA border. This way not frazzled when I get there and my milage goes up almost 25%.

 

[dzneelvr]

We drove once to see what it was like as far as time and cost...21 hours and it did not appeal to us. However, we did add a 2-day stay at Vero Beach Disney as a treat that trip and that was wonderful. We'll be back to flying again this trip. 3 hours from home and we're there--who can beat that Happy driving...but I'll leave that to you