longggg car ride

[peace.love.disney]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question, but I'm new here, and i figured this would be the best place to put it (sorry if I'm wrong!)

But anyway, I'm about to go on a trip to Disney World with my mom, dad, aunt, younger brother, and cousin (I'm 17, and my brother and cousin are both 12). We usually fly, but this year, we are taking my aunts van on the very long car ride from upstate New York to Orlando I'm actually pretty excited; I kind of like the idea of a road trip. However, it seems that no other member of this vacation group shares my feelings. I know people on this site travel from all over, so I was wondering if anyone could give me any tips on things we could do to make the ride a little more bearable. I feel like getting them to understand it won't be so bad is truly half the battle, so anything I could pass on to them would be greatly appreciated!

 

[usrtyz]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question, but I'm new here, and i figured this would be the best place to put it (sorry if I'm wrong!)

But anyway, I'm about to go on a trip to Disney World with my mom, dad, aunt, younger brother, and cousin (I'm 17, and my brother and cousin are both 12). We usually fly, but this year, we are taking my aunts van on the very long car ride from upstate New York to Orlando I'm actually pretty excited; I kind of like the idea of a road trip. However, it seems that no other member of this vacation group shares my feelings. I know people on this site travel from all over, so I was wondering if anyone could give me any tips on things we could do to make the ride a little more bearable. I feel like getting them to understand it won't be so bad is truly half the battle, so anything I could pass on to them would be greatly appreciated!

We drove from Wisconsin in 2009 and will be driving again in June 2012. I didn't think it was to bad of a drive. I had a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 year old at that time. We brought lots of movies for them to watch. This time we will have one more addition the family. I've made activity books for them and each will have their own DVD player. Flights are to expensive for us and this is the only way we can afford to go.

 

[chris31997]

Scavanger hunt on the road. You can do something with cameras and team everyone up and then at rest stops they need to find certain things, like a hidden mickey(might be real hard traveling) or someone drink a coke.

There is the good old license plate game, find all 50 state plates and maybe canada.

 

[Disneykidsdad]

Sleeping pills into everybody else's drinks except the driver.

 

[ctink23]

Are you driving straight through? Or making stops along the way?

I have driven from NY to Florida (though not to Disney, further south). And I was with a friend and not family. But we planned our trip so that we could make several stops (South of the Border - tacky and a little run down, but fun, and Savannah) and stayed at some hotels along the way. We intentionally set up the trip so that we could see some different things/cities to break up the drive. Maybe if you could add another night to your drive to stay somewhere and explore? This could make the road trip more of an adventure than a chore.

 

[Theosus]

Scavanger hunt on the road. You can do something with cameras and team everyone up and then at rest stops they need to find certain things, like a hidden mickey(might be real hard traveling) or someone drink a coke.

There is the good old license plate game, find all 50 state plates and maybe canada.

There's an app for the license plate game if you have a real phone. I don't know if they make one for those toy droid phones (haha).
It makes keeping track easy.

We used to play "count the cows". All the cows you pass on your side of the car belong to you. Count as you pass. If you pass a graveyard, all your cows die and you start over. After a certain time whoever has the most cows alive wins. Alternatively you can say whoever's cows die first loses, and start over.

It's a good counting game for young kids, and makes them pay attention to what's going on outside the car.

Spot the cop is another fun game. First kid to spot a cop coming up behind you or sitting in the median gets a dollar.

 

[angelat]

Check out the transportation board! They have lots of great threads over there. There's even one for 2000+ mile roundtrip drivers. I love that board!

Have a great trip!!!