Need advice on CT to Disney drive

[Daisy Dog]

We were planning on leaving CT early Sat. morning in May but now thinking to get a head start and leave Friday evening. We are concerned about running into rush hour traffic in NY. NYC is almost exactly 2 hrs from our home. If we left around 5:30 - 6pm what would be the best route to take on a Friday? Also, is the Tapanzee bridge better to take than the George Washington bridge? I'd prefer to take the route with less chance of traffic jams even if a bit longer.
Any tips appreciated!

 

[babydoll65]

My husband and I live in RI and have driven to wdw twice. We have always taken the TapenZ bridge to avoid George Washington bridge. Much less traffic. Also we have gone down (I think it rt 13) and gone over the Chesapeake bay bridge and tunnell to avoid Washington DC, Baltimore MD and Richmond VA to avoid even More traffic. We got these directions from a truck driver because map quest does not give these directions. They will only give rt 95 straight thru.

 

[toystorymom]

We've driven from MA several times and found the Tapanzee to generally have less traffic than the GW. That said, personally I would avoid Friday evenings, I think that would be a traffic nightmare. I would either wait until Saturday morning, or leave later Friday - after rush hour is long gone. We will use the GW, the "faster" route, only if the timing is right. We have left at midnight before, puts us on the GW about 4 AM and we usually sail through. A warning about the ride home - if it's a Sunday afternoon or evening, I would definitely stick to the Tapanzee. Twice we decided to try the GW and were there forever, last 2 times went over the Tapanzee without issue. Good luck, have fun!

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

We r from central CT. I would say don't leave at rush hour. You could b sitting in traffic alot longer. If you want to leave on Friday plan on going later at night -10ish or so. I would tend to think all major roads into NYC would be a nightmare at rush hour.

We take the Autotrain to WDW and leave our house at 2am. We manage to bypass any morning rush hour. We take the Merritt parkway into NY and hop 95 just before the GWB. Then the NJT south. I've done the Tappen Zee once and don't like it. GSP had too many tolls. We usually stop in Maryland for breakfast around 7 am. Then get to the Lorton station at 1030am. We've never driven the whole way. We prefer the train to do the driving.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[francie57]

Definitely take the Tappan Zee - avoid 95 and George Washington whenever possible. As others have said, I think I would leave a little later than 5:30 to 6:00. Even there the traffic in Waterbury, CT is backed up until after 6.

 

[Goofygirl17]

Definitely take the Tappan Zee bridge. I've driven down 3 times now as the only driver and I really prefer the inland route. It avoid all the Washington traffic too. It technically takes longer but both times we went inland we got there faster than the time we went on 95.

I also would leave very early Saturday morning rather than Friday night. Even on the Tappan Zee you're going to hit traffic on Friday.

 

[grkmbee]

I live in central CT and make the trip from CT to NJ frequently to visit family. I often leave late afternoon on Friday and rarely experience trouble. As you're traveling in CT from approx 5:30 to 7 PM, the majority of the heavy traffic will be headed away from NYC and you'll be headed toward the city. For us, we usually see the heaviest in the Fairfield Co. area. By the time you get to the city (either via the GWB or TZB), most of rush hour will be over. If you're really worried about traffic, leave more toward 6 PM. Either bridge should work out for you. Listen to the radio (AM 880) to check on any abnormalities (accidents, etc) to make your final decision. This is the PERFECT time to leave for the drive as you'll miss all the traffic down the 95 corridor from NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC, Richmond, etc.

 

[LoriC1964]

Babydoll65, someone recommended the option of rte 13 to me also,but I am wondering which way I should go to get back to 95. One of the options that I see on a map is to head directly west and get on the Hampton Roads Beltway (rte 460?) then to route 189/58 until it meets 95 near Emporia. Is that right? Or is there a better recommendation. We are seriously considering the Chesapeake bay bridge-tunnel but I am not sure what to do after we reach Norfolk.

 

[babydoll65]

Sorry I haven't got back to you but that is exactly right. It was our first time trying that route and it saved us quite a bit of time plus we got to see the Chesapeake bay bridge. Loved that but was also the first time I found out my husband was scared of heights. ( funny) It will bring you right at Emporia. When we did it which was many years ago, we left our house at 10pm on a Thursday and was at the start of the bridge at 9am on Friday morning. We drove straight thru till 8pm that night and by that point we were in Savannah GA . We got a hotel room for that night ,left the next day which only took us about 4 hours to disney.Also , we always rented a car to drive down and back so as not to put all those miles on our cars.

 

[winstoda]

If you use US 13 be very careful with your speed thru the Delmarva Peninsula, especially in Virginia. Many of the small towns you will pass thru only have one revenue stream and that's speeding tickets.

 

[monorailsilver]

Well seeing that we have our CT car in Florida with us right now I can tell you about the drive.

We live in southern ct and border the ct river but we drove to my moms house last Thursday night to save 50 minutes. She lives 1/2 hour from the ny border.

We left Friday am. I wanted to leave by 5:30 but its always the Dh who is dragging. We left at 6 or shortly there after. My Dh likes to take the tappen zee but my family always takes the Gw. We ended up taking the Gw and had no traffic problems.

We stopped in jersey so my ds (and hubby) could visit the library. That was a long 30 minutes!

No traffic, everything was great until we hit Virginia. I have No clue what was going on but I did not see anyone working on the road. We used google maps traffic map and saw the red for miles. We got off and got gas and ended up taking route 1 which was great until we hit the last 1/2-3/4 of a mile to where we were getting back on 95. The light took forever.

We hoped to get to savannah but the poop stop and the traffic caused us to only make it to santee, sc at around 9:30. We left the next am at about 6:15 and arrived ft. Myers just after 3. I waved to Mickey at about noon...sigh...see ya in August.

So basically, avoid the rush hour and Virginia.

We are headed home Friday afternoon and are going to do it in 2 nights vs 1. Originally we were going to leave early sat am but my Dh wanted to get in a few hours the first day.