Oh, Great, Mom's on her Disney kick again - 1st time ptr

[2princesses2princes]

Wow, wanting to drive with 4 kids! That's very brave of you! I know my DBF's kids (4 as well) gets antsy sitting in the car for an hour to drive from their mom's house to ours. I can't imagine doing it for 22 hours!

If we ever have to drive halfway across the country, I'm insisting on an RV then we can explore and they can have their space and not be stuck in a seat. (We're hoping to do this from NH to Disneyland one day actually) Lol.

I would definitely suggest though dividing the drive in half. Growing up my sister and I were on tons of car trips from FL to VA. If we didn't have that break at night, we would've killed each other (that is, of course, if our parents didn't kill us first). But we get along otherwise.

Can't wait to read more! And enjoy NC!

Oh and I understand the whole "some PTR get more readers than others" it's discouraging but I'm reading!

My kids have done a 3hr drive so far with no problems whatsoever. Now I know that is a small fraction of what we'll be doing, but at least I know they can all make it that long. They all love movies, even the 2yr old, so I figured we'll bring the laptop and a bunch of disney movies, just in case.

 

[2princesses2princes]

Well I survived. We had a ton of fun! North Carolina is soooo beautiful! My brother lives in the mountains, we traveled to the top of Mt Mitchell which is the highest peak east of the Mississippi. It was great! I can't wait to go back. One thing is for sure though I learned a lot about driving long distances. The drive down there was easy as pie, it took us about 13 hours and that was with a breakfast stop and a few potty breaks. Starting out early AM was a good idea, driving through flat cornfields in the dark plus starting out in the dark was nice. Now the way back I didn't want to drive through the mountains in the dark so we headed out later, 11am or so, and got to drive through the flat cornfields in the dark, but after a busy weekend and already driving 8 hours, it was aweful. So we are quite sure when we take the kids to Disney we'll be breaking up the drive home at least into 2 stops. One at my brother's and another half way home from there. Also I think anyone that can drive straight through is insane. After 13 hours my butt was over sitting in a car. I am a little worried about gas and stuff, we had a 2011 impala that got great gas mileage, 26mpg in the mountains, my mini van I am sure will not get even 18mpg through the mountains.

 

[2princesses2princes]

This trip to NC has made me soooo excited about Disney. You'd think I'd be dreading the drive but I'm not. It was great having a "test drive" per say. I know this was only about half way, but knowing I can do the drive that far on my own was cool. I did all the driving, for one i was the only one on the rental plus I prefer to drive. When we go to Florida I wont be driving the whole way.

So now I get to get back to my Disney planning. I will figure out something fun to post regarding my trip this week for sure. Nothing to report as of now, aside from shopping for a mini camcorder and a gps. We used my dad's and named her Lucy. Mom was calling Lucy some quite colorful names by the time we got home.

 

[hollybearsmom]

Great to know you are looking forward to that drive.
Any pictures of the mountains?

 

[2princesses2princes]

Great to know you are looking forward to that drive.
Any pictures of the mountains?

I have TONS of pics. Took about 200 probably. However they are at home on my camera and I am at work. I will try to share some tonight if I am awake long enough, but I promise to get some on here this week.

 

[20thingamabobs]

Welcome back! I'm so glad you had a good trip and can't wait to see the pics! I'm glad the drive went well and made you more excited for Disney. That would be horrible if you had to dread it until your Disney trip comes...

 

[lyncecelia]

yay welcome back!

 

[2princesses2princes]

Sorry I haven't shared pics yet. My internet is still out at home, and I am batteling with the company right now. I am about to tell them to stick it, but don't want to really permantly shut it off.

So I got a reality check last night after returning the rental car. My kids had been in the car about 45 minutes or so already, and after another 10 my little one (2yrs) started whining, and this is the warning call for me, I turned and looked just as she blew. Yup she gets carsick, has since she was about a year, it has gotten a lot better. We drove 3 hrs this summer no issues, but other times we go 30minutes and she gets sick. Should I rethink this trip? Or should I just pack lots of ginger snaps, vernors, dramamine benadryl and things like that?

 

[hollybearsmom]

Oh, the poor dear....if you are used to it and prepared, go ahead and drive it. But if it will make you all miserable, you may need a plan B.

 

[DIS_Indoctrination]

Sorry I haven't shared pics yet. My internet is still out at home, and I am batteling with the company right now. I am about to tell them to stick it, but don't want to really permantly shut it off.

So I got a reality check last night after returning the rental car. My kids had been in the car about 45 minutes or so already, and after another 10 my little one (2yrs) started whining, and this is the warning call for me, I turned and looked just as she blew. Yup she gets carsick, has since she was about a year, it has gotten a lot better. We drove 3 hrs this summer no issues, but other times we go 30minutes and she gets sick. Should I rethink this trip? Or should I just pack lots of ginger snaps, vernors, dramamine benadryl and things like that?

Don't give up - your kids are always going to remember the time you drove to Disney World! The icky stuff on the trip will be the funny family stories for years to come.

I don't get carsick, but my DH & DD do. What I've learned:
• Make sure she can see out the window & encourage her to look out the window.
• Don't let her have toys or games that keep her looking down or inside of the car.
• It's worse if you are in town making a lot of turns or stopping & going. If you're going to be on the interstate going in a straight line at a constant speed it won't be too bad. If you're going around some curves be sure to point out the landmarks & encourage her to look out the window at them.
• Teach her how to throw up in a designated container, a hard sided wide mouth cup or bowl is easier for toddlers than bags. Keep it next to her at all times.
• If she starts to get sick, it compounds. If you can afford the time, the best thing to do is let her out of the car to run around for an hour to let her system reset. If you can't stop, then have everyone in the car get ridiculously excited about looking at mundane things outside, like the other cars below you when you're on an overpass, cell phone towers, trees etc. The cornfields are the worst, because there isn't anything to fix your eye to in the field. Things she can see out of the front window are better than the side windows, but the side windows work too.
• We always eat junk when we're on a car trip, but I've learned the greasy fast food & candy makes the carsick episodes more frequent. Try to walk that fine line between entertaining treats in the car & things that won't upset little tummies.
• I take that back about not getting carsick. I get carsick when my mother drives in a strange city she doesn't know. She guns the gas more, brakes harder & takes the turns tighter. If the driver has a light foot on the gas & break, & the turns are a little slower I think it does help.
• We haven’t tried it yet, but everyone I’ve asked says Dramamine really works, & they do have a version for kids.

 

[2princesses2princes]

Don't give up - your kids are always going to remember the time you drove to Disney World! The icky stuff on the trip will be the funny family stories for years to come.

I don't get carsick, but my DH & DD do. What I've learned:
• Make sure she can see out the window & encourage her to look out the window.
• Don't let her have toys or games that keep her looking down or inside of the car.
• It's worse if you are in town making a lot of turns or stopping & going. If you're going to be on the interstate going in a straight line at a constant speed it won't be too bad. If you're going around some curves be sure to point out the landmarks & encourage her to look out the window at them.
• Teach her how to throw up in a designated container, a hard sided wide mouth cup or bowl is easier for toddlers than bags. Keep it next to her at all times.
• If she starts to get sick, it compounds. If you can afford the time, the best thing to do is let her out of the car to run around for an hour to let her system reset. If you can't stop, then have everyone in the car get ridiculously excited about looking at mundane things outside, like the other cars below you when you're on an overpass, cell phone towers, trees etc. The cornfields are the worst, because there isn't anything to fix your eye to in the field. Things she can see out of the front window are better than the side windows, but the side windows work too.
• We always eat junk when we're on a car trip, but I've learned the greasy fast food & candy makes the carsick episodes more frequent. Try to walk that fine line between entertaining treats in the car & things that won't upset little tummies.
• I take that back about not getting carsick. I get carsick when my mother drives in a strange city she doesn't know. She guns the gas more, brakes harder & takes the turns tighter. If the driver has a light foot on the gas & break, & the turns are a little slower I think it does help.
• We haven’t tried it yet, but everyone I’ve asked says Dramamine really works, & they do have a version for kids.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for all the tips and encouragment. I don't think her getting carsick would be too miserable for us, you are right though, the majority of the drive is interstate, although the mountains concern me. I get carsick if I am not driving. I use dramamine on myself and my 8yr old son. He is ok unless he plays video games or watches movies which are a necessity on long trips so we let him take the dramamine so he can play his games and stuff. I did find that if she nibbles on gingersnap cookies she doesn't get sick, or if she sips on cold water it tends to help. It is 4months away yet and it has gotten way better since she was about 18mos when a 10minute drive would make her hurl. I do know that when possible we would try to stop and I would get her out quickly and that helped tremendously but on the interstate that's not so easy. I have also been able to distract her a few times from losing it. But not very often. Giving her a "puke bag/bucket or something is probably a necessity as well. This may sound funny but we use to put one of those huge vinyl t-shirt style bibs on her over her harness and that in her carseat when we would travel and what do you know she never got sick when we were that prepared.

 

[2princesses2princes]

Oh, the poor dear....if you are used to it and prepared, go ahead and drive it. But if it will make you all miserable, you may need a plan B.

It's so hard to predict though. There have been many longer trips when she does fantastic and other short trips where she gets sick a lot. We are trying to figure out a plan B right now whether it's flying (which will hurt the pocket a little too much) or if it means breaking the drive up even more so we can stop every hour or so for her, especially once we hit the mountains. Those were wicked.

 

[Jasperann]

I just read you whole PTR. I'm excited for you!

Today I thought I'd post our driving plans. This is definitely not set in stone and if anyone has any suggestions or anything, please feel free to pick it apart or whatever. We have 3 possible driving plans so far, but I will post the one that is most thought out and researched. However while reviewing this keep in mind I may change my times by 3 hours, as in leave 3 hours earlier than what we planned. The plan is to arrive at POR by noon on Friday the 11th, to have time to explore, swim and nap before a 5pm ressie at Chef Mickeys. We are new to the driving and all that so please if you think I am nuts let me know.

So here's the plan
11:00am pack up van, get gas and pick kids up from school
12:00pm on the road (eat lunch while driving)
3:10 potty break
3:25 hit the road again
6:25 dinner and gas fill up
7:30 hit the road
9:50 potty break before kids hopefully passing out for the night
10:00 hit the road
1:00am break
1:10 on the road again
2:40 break and gas
2:50 back on the road
5:50 break
6:00 on the road
7:40 break, breakfast and gas
8:40 hittin the road
11:20 arrive at POR

Now I realize this is just a tenative schedule driving leaves lots of room for change, traffic, weather, the fact we will have 4 kids in a car for 20+hrs. So that is why I thought that leaving 3 hours earlier gives us more time for breaks if need be. I just don't see the point in stopping at a hotel, I really don't I wont sleep neither will the kids any better than in the car, however we might just possibly make a reservation somewhere just in case. But that will totally change our schedule. However the drive home we will be stopping. Are my breaks too short? Are there not enough? I thought I'd try not to break during "nap time" and limit the at night stops aside from Dan and I switching the driving position. I have never driven more than 6 hours at once and we did that with one stop and I drove the whole thing.

When we drove down in March it took us 21 hours straight threw. We are about 20 mins south of Detroit. We left at 1:30 in the morning and were just reaching the hilly part of Kentucky when dawn came. Leaving in the middle of the night was the best for us, because with the 4 kids plus my 18 year old cousin it made the drive so much shorter for them. We got to Fort wilderness at about 9:30p or 10:00p, I know I seen Illuminations over the tree line and I'm pretty sure it was 9:30 for the start time for it. The worst part of the drive for us was Georgia... it just took forever!! But with the time we left we missed all the rush hours in all of the major citys along the way. The way back we left around 3p or so and got home the next day by 11am. But it was a long long drive on the way home and we went threw the mountains in the dark.

When we go in Sept. next year we will be flying, because it would be about the same price as driving was for us if we go with Southwest. With the food, gas, stuff to keep the kids busy on the ride and all the snacks I bought driving both ways it evens out on the price for flying.

Sorry I haven't shared pics yet. My internet is still out at home, and I am batteling with the company right now. I am about to tell them to stick it, but don't want to really permantly shut it off.

So I got a reality check last night after returning the rental car. My kids had been in the car about 45 minutes or so already, and after another 10 my little one (2yrs) started whining, and this is the warning call for me, I turned and looked just as she blew. Yup she gets carsick, has since she was about a year, it has gotten a lot better. We drove 3 hrs this summer no issues, but other times we go 30minutes and she gets sick. Should I rethink this trip? Or should I just pack lots of ginger snaps, vernors, dramamine benadryl and things like that?

I have car sickness and so does my DD and we took the motion sickness stuff before we got in the car and neither of us felt sick the whole way down and the whole way back. It is Bonine (I bought the kind for kids it was an orange chew tablet), it says that it last for 24 hours on the box. It worked really well, my daughter even read her book almost all the way down, and that would not have been even a possibility without it.

I love Donald's breakfast btw!!!! My favorite buffet style meal of the whole trip. My other favorite meal last time was Ohana's for Dinner. That was the best meal of the whole trip for our family!

We also ate at 1900 Park Fare for Breakfast and Dinner, the China TS, the Germany TS, and Chef Mickeys for breakfast. The breakfast at 1900 PF was average buffet style breakfast, but they did have an omelet station (think they even had some kind of fish), 1900 PF dinner was okay, my kids really didn't find much on it that they would eat and the meat was kinda dry. (my kids are super picky eaters, chicken nuggets and PB&J and they would be happy...lol) The China TS was good and the ice cream was amazing! Although I am not sure they called it ice cream. Germany TS was really good German food and the entertainment was fun. Chef Mickeys breakfast was good, but Donald's was 100x better (we ate at Chef Mickeys the first full day, then at Donald's the third day.)

This time when we go I am making ADRs for Donald's Breakfast and Ohana's. Maybe Crystal Palace for breakfast to see Pooh and get into the park early. We will have free dining with the CS plan, so those are the only TS I feel like paying out of pocket for. But we might do a TS in the World Showcase while we are there.

 

[2princesses2princes]

Jasperann-thanks for joining and reading and replying. I love to hear others opinions, advice and stories. Thank you. Bonine I totally forgot about that, I took that when I was pregnant and flying out to California, it's safe for preggos unlike dramamine. thanks for reminding me of that. I will definitely give that a shot before hand and see how it works for her.

I am still watching airfare, and if there is a sweet deal I will jump on it. It is much cheaper to fly out of Detroit for us, but that entails a 3hr drive there and paying the ridiculous parking fee for the entire time we are gone. So it doesn't save us much money in the long run. Plus if we fly then we can't stop at my brother's in North Carolina on the way home.

I don't know how you drove through the mountains in the dark. NO way here. I had a hard enough time in daylight! We are still thinking of tweaking our plans, but after the drive to my brother's we are quite certain we are vetoing the idea of driving straight through and plan on stopping in Georgia for the night.

 

[2princesses2princes]

So anyone that's been reading knows my dilema with the surprise. My 8yr old doesn't want to know anything, he was very clear about that. So out went my plans for telling them in the way of a christmas gift or doing some cool guessing game a few weeks before we go. Well this morning he says "Mom, I've been thinking. You know about Disney. I want to know the month we are going, nothing else just the month." Grrrr, make up your mind buddy. So now I am not sure what we are doing. I have to confer with the hubby but I am thinking we will do the reveal on christmas and do something cool to tell them we are going in February. But something tells me he might change his mind again. I think him hearing his dad and me talk constantly about it is driving him crazy.

 

[20thingamabobs]

Haha your son sounds like me! I would keep changing my mind like that! I think if it were me, I would do the Christmas gift and tell them you are going in like March/April then surprise them again by going early in Feb! That would be a lot of fun! I wish my parents had surprised me when we were little.. hm I still wish they would lol!

 

[2princesses2princes]

Haha your son sounds like me! I would keep changing my mind like that! I think if it were me, I would do the Christmas gift and tell them you are going in like March/April then surprise them again by going early in Feb! That would be a lot of fun! I wish my parents had surprised me when we were little.. hm I still wish they would lol!

I kind of thought about that, but. . . a story from this past January made me think twice. We had bought tickets to a Monster Jam show, it was about a 3hr drive away so we got a hotel and everything. We didnt' tell the kids, we told them mom and dad were going away for the weekend and they were going to their grandparent's (this is nothing special they do this often). So when we didn't drop them off and hit the road my oldest was all excited tryign to figure out where we were going, my 8yr old got mad and I mean mad. He got so angry he started crying, and was so upset that we lied to him. So it has made me have to think carefully about how I do this. When he asked to be surprised I reminded him of this and he said I can do it without lying to him. Alright MR HONESTY!

 

[Jasperann]

Jasperann-thanks for joining and reading and replying. I love to hear others opinions, advice and stories. Thank you. Bonine I totally forgot about that, I took that when I was pregnant and flying out to California, it's safe for preggos unlike dramamine. thanks for reminding me of that. I will definitely give that a shot before hand and see how it works for her.

I am still watching airfare, and if there is a sweet deal I will jump on it. It is much cheaper to fly out of Detroit for us, but that entails a 3hr drive there and paying the ridiculous parking fee for the entire time we are gone. So it doesn't save us much money in the long run. Plus if we fly then we can't stop at my brother's in North Carolina on the way home.

I don't know how you drove through the mountains in the dark. NO way here. I had a hard enough time in daylight! We are still thinking of tweaking our plans, but after the drive to my brother's we are quite certain we are vetoing the idea of driving straight through and plan on stopping in Georgia for the night.

Driving isn't horrible, especially if you are doing stops and not straight thru. Driving in the mountains at night was a nail biting experience to say the least! I thought for sure we were going to fly off the side of a mountain or something or be ran down by a Semi on the way down the other side. eek!

The only plus we have with flying is more time at Disney!!! lol That is why we are flying this time. Then we are not wasting 2 days driving and we aren't completely out of it the first day. My DH was so grumpy the first day I wanted to leave him alone at the tent.

 

[disneysis2]

Sorry cant help alot with your breakfast plans but I would love to try tonga toast too!!

 

[2princesses2princes]

Sorry cant help alot with your breakfast plans but I would love to try tonga toast too!!

Mmmm Tonga Toast, I thought I'd finally got that out of my mind, nope it's back.