Overnight driving vs. During the day

[Virginia_Native]

12 hour drive non stop from Virginia and was thinking about driving it over night while my daughter sleeps, thinking this might be a little easier for her because she hates being in the car.


Anyone have any experience with this?

Only down side would be we get to Orlando at like 9:00 in the morning and our check in isn't until 4, any suggestions on a nice quiet place to chill?

 

[SenecaWolf]

You can try to check in early and your room just *might* be ready. Perhaps once you get checked in you can grab a bite and kick back by the pool for a bit? If your room isn't ready I think they can text you when it is.

 

[sam_gordon]

Forget your DD for a moment. Can YOU make it? Will you have someone help keep you awake? Are you used to overnight hours? What about overnights while driving down a highway? This can be a major safety issue. If you're not safe to drive, it doesn't matter whether your DD hates being in the car or not.

 

[happily single]

Unless your used to staying up all night I wouldn't recommend driving all night. Plus, you will be exhausted when you arrive at 9:00 a.m. but your dd will be wide awake and ready to go.

How about driving 1/2 the night and then stopping for the night?

 

[rachdd]

If you can do it, I highly recommend it. Last year we drove and we did it overnight it is was definately the way to go. My husband works about 7 nights a month so he was used to staying up all night. He was tired when we got there but once we were in our room which was around noon, I took our boys to lunch then to HS and he met us there after he had a good nap.

 

[Stacy_C]

We drove overnight for our March trip. Our drive was also 12 hours. It worked out great for us. We arrived at POR at 4:30 a.m. and our room was ready. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

[ncc1701]

Is there another driver with you? If so it might work. You will need to stop for gas and a bathroom break or 2, so 12 hours may be 14 in reality.

 

[Virginia_Native]

Commuting at night has never been a problem for me, I would rather do it and have less traffic. I will be to excited about a 9 day vacation to sleep the night before any way. I was thinking about the ability to check in early but we are staying at emerald island resort in a 15 person house so it probably won't be ready early, maybe they will let us hang out by the resort pool until it is. I'm going to call the resort tomorrow to see if they allow this.

 

[alice99]

Forget your DD for a moment. Can YOU make it? Will you have someone help keep you awake? Are you used to overnight hours? What about overnights while driving down a highway? This can be a major safety issue. If you're not safe to drive, it doesn't matter whether your DD hates being in the car or not.

Unless your used to staying up all night I wouldn't recommend driving all night. Plus, you will be exhausted when you arrive at 9:00 a.m. but your dd will be wide awake and ready to go.

How about driving 1/2 the night and then stopping for the night?

I agree with both of these recommendations. I worked overnight shifts for many years....... it is exhausting to stay up all night, and nothing can keep you awake.

I was just discussing this with a friend, she was telling me how horrible it felt to drive overnight, and seriously regretted it...... she was very upset and truly believed she had put her 3 sons lives in danger. Said she would never do it again.
I DO NOT think it is ever a good idea.

 

[Virginia_Native]

Is there another driver with you? If so it might work. You will need to stop for gas and a bathroom break or 2, so 12 hours may be 14 in reality.

My wife will be with me and she is use to getting up at 5 in the morning for work so I'm sure she could take over if I need a break.

Map quest direction estimated the trip taking 12.5 hours and I'm assuming that is the exact speed limit so I'm thinking it shouldn't take much longer than that.

 

[edk35]

Forget your DD for a moment. Can YOU make it? Will you have someone help keep you awake? Are you used to overnight hours? What about overnights while driving down a highway? This can be a major safety issue. If you're not safe to drive, it doesn't matter whether your DD hates being in the car or not.

We did this in late March..NEVER EVER EVER EVER AGAIN. It was horrible. We live in MD and we left around midnight. My dh slept a few hours before..if you can even call it GOOD SLEEP. He had a big coffee and off we went with our 18 year old son, his friend and our 13 year old son. I could not sleep....no matter what I tried when he drove the first 3 hours. Then my husband got soooooooo sleepy around 3 or so..and I took over. THAT WAS THE HARDEST thing ever on me. Everyone was asleep and I was doing everything I could to stay awake driving through N.C. It was terrible. I tried snacking, drinking water, singing with the radio, chewing gum and blasting the AC...it was the worse feeling to be that sleepy. It scared me to death. I finally pulled over at a rest area and told my dh I could not do that or I would end up killing us on the road. He took over from there, I slept a couple of hours and we switched off again ...IT SUCKED. We both realized that it was dumb for us to ever think we could do that. I don't recommend it at all.

 

[java]

I vote leave at 3am instead. You'll get to the hotel right around check in.

4 hours in breakfast break, gas break bathroom break.

4 hours later lunch break ( we can usually stretch it to 5 hours)

Then last leg.

Thinking of it in 4 hour increments is easier. How old is your daughter? My kids will generally sleep those first 4 hours.

 

[Virginia_Native]

I vote leave at 3am instead. You'll get to the hotel right around check in.

4 hours in breakfast break, gas break bathroom break.

4 hours later lunch break ( we can usually stretch it to 5 hours)

Then last leg.

Thinking of it in 4 hour increments is easier. How old is your daughter? My kids will generally sleep those first 4 hours.

My daughter is 5, I have thought about this as another option but again trying to go to bed earlier to get up to leave at 3 in the morning might be just as bad, I'm considering this method as well.

Trying to figure out which is worse listening to my daughter whine and want to stop every hour, or try and keep her occupied for up to 6 hours when we get there.

 

[alice99]

We did this in late March..NEVER EVER EVER EVER AGAIN. It was horrible. We live in MD and we left around midnight. My dh slept a few hours before..if you can even call it GOOD SLEEP. He had a big coffee and off we went with our 18 year old son, his friend and our 13 year old son. I could not sleep....no matter what I tried when he drove the first 3 hours. Then my husband got soooooooo sleepy around 3 or so..and I took over. THAT WAS THE HARDEST thing ever on me. Everyone was asleep and I was doing everything I could to stay awake driving through N.C. It was terrible. I tried snacking, drinking water, singing with the radio, chewing gum and blasting the AC...it was the worse feeling to be that sleepy. It scared me to death. I finally pulled over at a rest area and told my dh I could not do that or I would end up killing us on the road. He took over from there, I slept a couple of hours and we switched off again ...IT SUCKED. We both realized that it was dumb for us to ever think we could do that. I don't recommend it at all.

This could be an exact quote from a friend of mine that drove to Tennessee from New York.

She still talks about this trip and how she regretted even trying it.

I don't think someone can possibly imagine just how bad this feels without ever experiencing it personally.
It is the equivalent to driving drunk, as far as impairment goes.

 

[OceanAnnie]

We have driven long hours to Disney. We have done overnight and half day/half night. We have arrived at Disney all sorts of hours. What has worked best for us is to add a day to our vacation. We stayed the first night at a nearby hotel for DH to sleep and recover. He would have needed that day/night anyway because it is a long trip for us. No use in having so much down time and not be able to enjoy it on property or in the parks. So having added that day worked for us. We stayed off property one night then hopped over refreshed to our on property resort.

DH slept while the kids and I enjoyed the pool. Win-win. We have stayed at different places. The kids really liked the Nickelodeon hotel. It had some draw backs for us as adults -- nothing major, but the kids loved, loved, loved the pool and putt-putt. That was the main thing. The kids loved it.

I also packed small overnight bags for us so we didn't have to lug all that "week long" stuff hither and yon.

HTH!

 

[3pletprincesses]

we usually drive 27 hours non stop except for pee breaks which we don't do at night to not wakw them and meals. We purposely leave after dinner for the reason you stated. The grls fall asleep within minutes in the car and wake up in the eaarly morning, which knocks right there 12 hours or easy driving and n complaints from them. Then actually like the drive and feel like Disney is not so far. Also at night, the highways are not as crowded and no traffic. Last year we arrived once at 7am and once at noon. The 7am @ POR in May, the room was ready and the second time in August noon @ ASMovies the room wasn't ready until almost 4pm.

Be careful tho, it's easy to fall asleep at the wheel but much lease painful on children

 

[sam_gordon]

My wife will be with me and she is use to getting up at 5 in the morning for work so I'm sure she could take over if I need a break.

Map quest direction estimated the trip taking 12.5 hours and I'm assuming that is the exact speed limit so I'm thinking it shouldn't take much longer than that.

Don't look at the time Map quest (or any program) gives you. Look at the miles & divide by 60. To me, that's been more accurate. Yes, the speed limit is 70 in places, but you won't be going 70 all the time. Restroom/gas breaks (which should be the same stops) & construction/accidents will slow you down.

As far as the overnight thing, I'm not totally against it. Just be willing to stop for the night and get a hotel when you get tired. Even if you pull into a rest area and close your eyes for 20-30 minutes, that will help. Just know your limits.

 

[Butterbunkins]

We always drive through the night because of traffic. We do the same thing for many of shorter road trips nearer to our home. But you have to make sure you can handle it.

The first time we drove to WDW we drove straight through – 18 hours. We don’t drive straight through anymore, but we still leave at night. That first trip I had to work the day we left but DH didn’t so his “job” was to sleep as much as possible. He was a bit too excited and didn’t sleep as much as we would have liked, but he did get some additional hours. We left about 7:30pm so I took the first shift since I would not have been sleeping at that time anyway. He took over about midnight and we just switched off every few hours. We were fine until about the FL border and we both got tired. We pushed on because we were still okay, but if we weren’t so close we would have stopped.

We made a quick food stop and ate the car, another food stop and ate in the restaurant and a few gas stops and made it in just about 18 hours never going above 5 over the speed limit.

I think we are just getting too old to do 18 hours straight through so we stop now, but we could easily do 12 through the night and not have a problem. As long as you think you can do it without issues I say try it, but have the idea that you will stop if you need to in the back of your mind just in case.

 

[leebee]

I guess what I don't understand is why you want to drive overnight if you then have to hang out waiting for your room and/or spend your first 6 or so hours in Florida sleeping. It is so incredibly dangerous to drive overnight; there's no amount of kid whining that would make me take this chance.

 

[alice99]

I guess what I don't understand is why you want to drive overnight if you then have to hang out waiting for your room and/or spend your first 6 or so hours in Florida sleeping. It is so incredibly dangerous to drive overnight; there's no amount of kid whining that would make me take this chance.