Looking for Driving Tips!

[roadtrippin2wdw]

Oooh, the plastic container idea is awesome!!!

 

[Corjack]

The plastic tote idea makes sense for SOOOOO many reasons!!! I can get flat underbed type to go under the back seat of the van. maybe I can out bathroom stuff in that one. I was trying to figure out how we could possibly get all our stuff in the van. YAY! GREAT IDEA!

Thank You!

 

[4under4]

A few other ideas:

Let the kids choose something out-of-the-ordinary for snacks. It can become a travel tradition and gives them something to look forward to when faced with a long drive. We never have Pop Tarts at home, but when it's time for a road trip, the kids know they get to choose which flavor, and enjoy them on the drive.

Books on tape (I get them from our library before we leave and renew online if we'll be gone for more than 2 weeks). We've listened to the first 3 Harry Potter books while traveling. The kids know that after one DVD, we listen to a few chapters of the book. I LOVE having the DVD player, but mom guilt always kicks in if I let them watch the entire time.

Another thing, I always put the kids in the same shirt (I've used the Disney polos for the past few years, and added their favorite character on each one). It looks a little funny when we stop, but it's easier to keep track of them in unfamiliar environments like rest stops and play areas, and I feel better knowing that if one of them ever got separated I can easily tell others "he/she is wearing this" and point to the other kids.

 

[blessedby3]

So what kind of places can you stop where your kids can play while you eat? Other than McDonalds?

Chick filets usually have a play place also. We love to stop at fast food places that have a play area and let the kids play while we eat. Then take the kids food in the van and let them eat on the road. You could also pack a lunch or dinner and stop at a rest stop and let them run about in the grassy areas.

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

I am going to have to look into plastic tubs!! That even made DH think. I really appreciate all of these ideas...keep them coming!

 

[MontyMontyMOnty]

Our drive is about 6 hours total, including a stop for lunch.

I pack a bag of goodies--cheap coloring books and crayons, little amusements, etc, and the oldest packs her own books to read and a little project to knit or sew.

We leave around 7am, and the kids are fine for the fist hour or so (they are used to going "somewhere" just about every day, so no big deal.)

I break out a snack and a new or new to us DVD about an hour in, and that keeps them happy til our next stop.

We stop and stretch our legs, take a potty break, distribute something to do, and continue on the road for another hour or so.

We stop at a Cracker Barrel for lunch (I highly recommend this, as CBs are always in safe areas, and are usually clean and have decent food.) This takes about 45 minutes to an hour, but is worth it, we all feel refreshed when we are done.

We usually make one more potty stop, give out snacks and something else "new" to do and then arrive in Orlando. once we hit the city limits, the girls are in charge of spotting mickey signs and counting the miles, etc, so that goes fast.

When I was a kid , we drove from NJ--it took two days, I don;t know how my parents survived the trip with me and my sister bickering the whole way!

 

[LWatson]

We are about to do another one in about 3wks. We did this same drive feb 09, but have also done plenty of almost cross country (20 something hour) trips moving plenty of times.

We make sure we have :
DVD player hooked up and plenty of DVDs to switch out.
Color Wonder Markers and Paper
Nintendo DS for oldest w/ games
Diapers & wipes
Trash bags for trash
Snacks
Juice boxes
Bag of Little Toys


Also instead of regular hard suitcases we use duffel bag type ones. Then you can squish the push and flatten...etc. Strollers are usually the last thing packed so its on top. The Cooler sits on the floor between the kids w/ the toy bag in the middle where both kids can reach. The snacks are up front w/ Mommy/Daddy so no extra snacking.

 

[stevenpensacola]

...Benadryl...lots of Benadryl...

 

[Fantasmic23]

Purell and Baby Wipes ... Until you're able to get to a rest stop and properly wash up, they're a life saver! Kleenex, too. It seems that someone is always at the tail-end of a cold whenever we go to WDW.

We keep a box of medium-sized garbage bags in the car and the kids fill them with all of their trash (Kleenex, empty juice boxes, food wrappers, etc.). We throw the bag out when we reach the next rest stop.

DD11 and DS8 share the iPod, the portable DVD player and the Nintendo DS. For our upcoming trip in November, I just picked up Mad Libs on the Road. When I was in Walmart the other day, I saw a travel version of the card game Uno and I'm going to buy that as well.

My kids tend to get nauseous and headachey when they read in the car, but I love the idea of Books on Tape! I just downloaded Anne of Green Gables for DD's iPod. LibriVox.org is a great site for free audiobooks that are in the public domain.

The kids play I Spy, but I find that it becomes quite tedious after awhile (Especially when DS will say "I spy something green" and it turns out to be the sky because "The sky looks green to me")! On our last trip, they played a Disney alphabet game (I don't know how else to describe it): "I going to WDW and I'm looking for Alice" ... "I'm going to WDW and I'm looking for Buzz Lightyear".

We all get a kick out of counting the Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans and Waffle House billboards! DH will never stop at Cracker Barrel, but we've tried Bob Evans and the Waffle House.

 

[Familyof4lovesDW]

DH drives at night on the way down so the kids will sleep most of the way. We take a portable DVD player their DS's, small toys, CD's they like and snacks. We left between 7-8pm last time and arrived around 9-10am. He sleeps during the day before we leave. 12-13 hour drive for us.

We drive straight down and stop for gas about three times. Everyone has to go to the bathroom when we stop. Or if someone has to go to the bathroom we get gas. We stopped at the end of KY and at the beginning of GA I think, then again in FL. We wanted to make sure we did not have to stop around Atlanta. GA is the longest state ever lol.

We also freeze our drinks to put in the cooler so we still have some left for on the way home. We refill the cooler with ice each night at the hotel. We also take in some of the snacks and drinks to the parks and eat them for breakfast.

It was harder on the way back because they were awake longer. We stopped for a big breakfast and dinner, then made it home. No Cracker Barrel for us either. It is hard to find something that is not Cracker Barrel. It is really big down there.

 

[DreadpiratK]

Best thing we do for long trips is audio books. On our first trip from CT we listened to the BBC version of the Lord of the Rings, it's 18 hours long, and with a few breaks during the ride for other things, we made it all the way there and part of the way back. After that we were hooked and always have a book to listen to on longer drives. It's funny to hear the kids begging to 'not stop yet, this is the good part" instead of 'are we there yet?" Personally I really like the audio books instead of movies because it's more of a shared experience, and the driver is part of it too, and we get a chance to talk about the books with our kids. Our neighbors think we're weird because we'll sometimes pull into the driveway after a long trip and just sit there for a while listening to the end of a book!

If you have younger kids, I highly recommend the Focus on the Family Narnia audio series. It's a full dramatization with sound effects, and very well done, not just a voice reading. If you have older kids, all the Terry Pratchet Discworld books are just hilarious and fun and are read by Nigel Planer who does an incredible job with the voices, you totally forget it's only one guy reading. They are just the right balance of funny and fun and meaning, with out having plots too complicated to follow on Audio.

We have lots of other favorites if anyone is interested. Maybe an Audio book thread would be in good?

Also check out Audible.com if you're looking for books, having them on a MP2 is Sooooo much easier than cd's or tapes.

 

[tinkerbell60]

I have 4 young children and we drive from Chicago to NY several times each year to visit family. We have also taken much longer drives to the west coast.

The very best advice I can give you is....

DON'T TAKE SUITCASES!

Use plastic totes instead!!!! The see-through ones are the best! Not only does it make organizing easier, but it's also MUCH easier to pack the van.

I pack anything we will need for the actual drive in one box (camera, batteries/chargers, wipes, hand sanitizer, first aid, lovies, toys, snacks, DVDs, etc.). This box is kept in easy reach. Then we pack clothes in two others (one for the kids, one for parents), another box gets hair dryer, toiletries, laundry soap, shoes (in bags), and any miscellaneous items, making sure to keep bottles that can leak standing upright. For Disney I will be adding a "food box" for the villa (no reason to pay extra at the resort or take time away from my trip to go to the grocery store).

When the kids were babies, I would use a single box for "baby stuff" like diapers, wipes, baby food, 1-2 changes of clothes, etc. This box was [of course] kept on top!

Once we arrive, I unpack the clothes box and use the empty box for dirty laundry. The toiletries box is sometimes emptied, but I usually keep at least some things in it, which keeps the bathroom better organized. The "along the way" box is typically used as a toy box so housekeeping doesn't have to pick up before cleaning.

On the off chance that we need to get to something unexpected while we're on the road, I always know which box to open. And because they are all the same shape/size, they can be reorganized without having to reconfigure the "puzzle arrangement" of various suitcases. AND if/when I need to do this when the weather isn't cooperating, I don't have to worry about the tote getting wet/dirty since it will wipe clean later. Also, having "hard" boxes means I don't worry about breakables or leaks.

If we plan to spend the night along the way I pack ONE small duffel bag with whatever we will need for the hotel.

I love flying, but alway regret needing to break out the "real" suitcases. It's never as easy to pack, and never as easy to be in a hotel without my totes!

If you want to give it a try, I suggest testing a few different size boxes to see which works best in your vehicle. Some boxes will stack higher/better than others depending on your car/van.

We leave June 8th and I will have my totes lined up in my living room a few days before hand. As I think of things that might need to go, I pick it up and drop it in the right one. If I start to run out of room, I'll reevaluate and either add a tote, or cut things out. DH knows that if the tote has a lid on it, it's ready to be loaded in the van, if not DON'T TOUCH IT!

We do something similar, but for my kids (ages 13 and 16) I got them each their own smaller, clear plastic box with a handle on the lid. They keep their Ipod, DS and games, cell phone and chargers etc in that. It works really well and things don't get lost all over the car. When we stop for the night, they just take in those totes and we have one duffle bag with all our "overnight" clothes.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

we like the judy blume books for road trips. especially the "fudge" books. they are too funny, and amuse all ages.

 

[hmacmahony]

we pack everything into rubbermaids as well.

My kids are seasoned drivers, my family lives far away. My kids started doing the driving thing as a newborn. We used to drive all night. Not anymore.
Now we wake up between 3-4 and get in the car, the kids usually settle down after an hour, and go back to sleep. When we see them settling down, we will do a super quick drive by gas station for a top off. Once they go to sleep we are on a full tank, they usually sleep until we stop for gas the next time, which can be as late as 10 or 11 in the morning.
Then we stop to eat, and let them stretch their legs, and get back in, and go.

I can't do all night anymore, my husnand and I get too tired, and makes for a LONG scary drive, not worth it.

Some of our favorite car toys are post it notes, and wixxi stick, and pipe cleaners. My kids will spend HOURS doing those three things! At this point 3 of my kids have ipods and ds, so they use them a lot too.

We have also driven coast to coast with our kids, and are planning on doing that again this summer. I have a HUGE rubbermaid filled with stuff for that trip. In the morning, I ususally pull a few fun things out for them to do that day.

If your kids are a little older, a fun color book is called the anti color book, my kids LOVE it. Its not a real color book, but has pages filled with idea starters. My kids will sit and do those books for hours! And sticker books, I usually buy some of those too.

 

[bgambrel87]

well we just got back from disney 2 weeks ago and we drove from southeast indiana we left at 2 am and arrived in disney around 8 pm!!
We have 3 children 4, 2 ,and 1 are life saver was the portable dvd system i bought and we sang a bunch of nursery rhymes lol other than that our kids slept about half the time so it wasnt too bad but boy was it a long drive i will never do that again i would rather fly good luck

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

We have driven to Disney on all of our trips with kids ranginf from 9 months old to 14 on our last trip. They have always done wel, since we live 8 hours away from the closest family they are used to traveling, but since they have gotten older, they tend to argue with each other more, which is why we came up with a plan that worked amazing on our last trip. I got a bunch of one dollar bills. I told them at the end of each hour of our trip if they didn't argue with each other, ask if we were there yet, or any other annoying things we's give them $1. At the end of the hour if they had argued, etc they owed us $1.


They LOVE to write on the glass (they do his for short trips, even justto the grocery store.) I have a pile of Crayola window markers in the van and a pack of Windex wipes. They decorate and decorate then we clean it off and they start again.



When I was little I'd get a nickel for every truck I could get to honk. We still do this.

I actually love our long drives to Disney. We do it because we can't afford to fly but really it winds up being a lot of fun and a good part of our memories!

Love these ideas - will be adding them for our July drive!

If you have younger kids, I highly recommend the Focus on the Family Narnia audio series. It's a full dramatization with sound effects, and very well done, not just a voice reading. If you have older kids, all the Terry Pratchet Discworld books are just hilarious and fun and are read by Nigel Planer who does an incredible job with the voices, you totally forget it's only one guy reading. They are just the right balance of funny and fun and meaning, with out having plots too complicated to follow on Audio.

We have lots of other favorites if anyone is interested. Maybe an Audio book thread would be in good?

Also check out Audible.com if you're looking for books, having them on a MP2 is Sooooo much easier than cd's or tapes.

Thanks for the titles... any other suggestions for eight year olds (girls- but they aren't girlie girls)?