MA to WDW drive with infant.

[ChillyWilleys]

We've done the drive from MA to WDW straight through 3 times now. The first time DD was 2. Now were planning on doing it again with our new DD who wil be 6 months. We are anticipating it taking longer, and definitely want to go straight through because we want her to sleep as much as possible through the trip. I'm actually a lot more worried about the day time travel than the night. Just wondering...has anyone else done this?

 

[la79al]

We did 17 hours when DD was 10 months. I was DREADING it for weeks and DD ended up doing great. I spent a good amount of time in the back next to her because she didn't even seem able to fall asleep without me there . We took along her FP seahorse because she was scared of the dark and her 'heartbeat bear' because she uses it at home. We drove as much as we could during the night. During the day we would drive til she got fussy, stopped to eat/play a bit, got back in the car again and played with her til she took a nap. Take a lot of toys to try to distract her and maybe some lullaby CDs. Plan on it taking a lot longer so she can surprise you by doing great!
ETA: We did a 4 hour road trip when DD was 4 months old and it was h***. She cried most of the way because we would stop and take her out and she would stop crying and the second we put her back in, she would start again. We eventually had to just let her or we would have never gotten home. Nothing really seemed to help with that except getting her to sleep and then driving. Hopefully for you your DD will be more like our DD at 10 months.

 

[Cinderellabride]

We drove from CT to Disney with ds last year when he was just shy of 6 months. He did great on the way down, not so great on the end of the way back (though I don't remember much about the way back, I'll have to ask my DH). On the way down we left at night, basically put him to bed in his car seat and took off. He slept straight through the night no problem, just like he would at home. We had to stop to feed and change him during the day of course and let him out of his car seat for a few minutes. Whenever he was awake my DH or I (usually me cause DH drove most of the way) would go sit in back with him and entertain him and when he fell asleep I would either fall asleep too or go back up and sit with DH. It worked out great too because we got to WDW in the evening and managed to actually call on our way down (when we decided we were going to drive straight through to Disney instead of stopping in a different part of FL which would have been silly) and get a day added to the beginning of our stay and get dinner ressies for Poly during Wishes! What a great way to begin the vacay then we went back to the room and got a good night sleep and started fresh in the morning. Before that I always wanted to get there during the day and go straight to the park, but that was so much better.

The way home he was more fussy and fidgety (if I remember correctly we left during the day so there was more awake time for him in the car).

I def recommend leaving at night and doing most of your driving at night. And I think if you have enough drivers to make it safely going straight through is best because if you stop during the day and try to sleep in the hotel during the day and then start again at night the kids will be up because they slept all night and someone will have to stay awake with them. Take her out of the car whenever you stop and stop often during the day. Bring her favorite toys and go sit with her when she is awake.

Now, we are going again in Dec (Me, DH, DS will be 22 months, DS will be 7 months, my dad and DMIL and DFIL) and we are flying. DH and I wanted to drive but my dad was like "are you crazy?" (even though he drove with me every year). And the more I think about it I cannot see my DS 22 months sitting in the car for 18-22 hours.

 

[ChillyWilleys]

Thank you. Those are reassuring experiences.

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

I drove alone from NC to WDW with my oldest when he was a bitty one. I started out around 3pm, hoping he'd fall asleep. He did, off and on, but the problem was once we got there (around 1am or so) he was WIDE awake and ready to play! I, on the other hand, was ZONKED. So there's my advice: Be sure someone's going to be okay to hang out for a little bit with the baby when you do arrive if everyone else wants to snooze!

 

[mrs.explorer1977]

We drove from CT to Disney with ds last year when he was just shy of 6 months. He did great on the way down, not so great on the end of the way back (though I don't remember much about the way back, I'll have to ask my DH). On the way down we left at night, basically put him to bed in his car seat and took off. He slept straight through the night no problem, just like he would at home. We had to stop to feed and change him during the day of course and let him out of his car seat for a few minutes. Whenever he was awake my DH or I (usually me cause DH drove most of the way) would go sit in back with him and entertain him and when he fell asleep I would either fall asleep too or go back up and sit with DH. It worked out great too because we got to WDW in the evening and managed to actually call on our way down (when we decided we were going to drive straight through to Disney instead of stopping in a different part of FL which would have been silly) and get a day added to the beginning of our stay and get dinner ressies for Poly during Wishes! What a great way to begin the vacay then we went back to the room and got a good night sleep and started fresh in the morning. Before that I always wanted to get there during the day and go straight to the park, but that was so much better.

The way home he was more fussy and fidgety (if I remember correctly we left during the day so there was more awake time for him in the car).

I def recommend leaving at night and doing most of your driving at night. And I think if you have enough drivers to make it safely going straight through is best because if you stop during the day and try to sleep in the hotel during the day and then start again at night the kids will be up because they slept all night and someone will have to stay awake with them. Take her out of the car whenever you stop and stop often during the day. Bring her favorite toys and go sit with her when she is awake.

It's like you had the same vacation as me!! When we took DS on his first trip, he was just OVER 6 months and we drove from Ontario. We left around dinner time, put him to sleep in his carseat, and drove...and drove...and drove...

We had planned to stop in St. Augustine, but since we were going to be there ridiculously early, and it was only another 2 hours to Disney, we called them and got an extra night.

The way home was MUCH worse -- more day time driving, and more awake time = more fussy and crying.

We leave next Friday again -- and now he's just over 2. We're leaving around lunch on Friday and expect to be there in the late afternoon on Saturday....hopefully it goes as well as the last time we drove!!! (This time, we have a secret weapon though -- the DVD player!!)