Planning For October 2014

[honeybm23]

Hi my name is Honey, I live in the middle of South Dakota about a 25 hour drive from WDW.
This trip will include my Mom, Niece 15, and 3 daughters 16,13, &12. All in a mini van with DVD for all. (I thank DH for letting me always when I buy a van it has DVD)
My question is are there any helps or hints that others have HAD TO HAVE for road trips with kids in a van?

I have bought all girls a heys bag to hold
earbuds (for ipod)
camera w/ 8gb sdcard
small wallet

I know sunscreen but I'm thinking of the kids in the car for long time.
Let me know and thanks
Oh our trip is Oct 17th thru the 26

 

[Aliceacc]

You're far braver a mom than I am!!!

I think I would plan for a few suprises-- things you can pull out when they're bored. They can be simple-- even a coloring book and crayons-- to help them pass the time. Crossword puzzles? How about getting each a journal of some sort? And definitely a book or two on Disney World so they can determine what they want to do and see at WDW.

Do they read? Could you buy/download some books? Will they have summer reading to do for school?? (Wouldn't work for me; I can't read in a car.)

If they have tablets, there are a number of great games out there. (Though to be honest, I only have one on my tablet: Flow. It's a free download. You have to connect dots of the same color, using all the boxes in a grid, and not crossing any lines. It starts easy and gets more challenging.)

I would pick up some old Disney movies for that DVD player--anything at all, and pull them out for the ride down. And, probably more important, I would save some other movies for the ride home. (Think The Parent Trap, that sort of "we used to love that movie when we were kids" type movie that won't offend you or grandma.) That's going to be the hard part of the drive, since there's far less excitement and tempers are likely to be a bit shorter.

Could each get a lap desk (You know what I mean- something like this: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Student-Lap-Desk-Black/10927279 -- it might make it easier to keep busy if they have a flat surface. )

Of course, there's always food. But, again, remember to save some suprises for the ride home.

Finally, put this all on their laps: how are THEY planning to pass the time? ("Sleeping" is not an acceptable answer; at some point they have to wake up.)

 

[RoyalMom]

My kids and I just took a 21 hour van trip down in Feb. with my parents. One really cool thing my mother did was fix up a "treasure chest" plastic bin full of non-refrigerated snacks like craisins, trail mix and cereal bars, snack size bags of chips, fruit snacks, pudding - you name it! we had stuff to chew on for the whole ride, plus enough to pack a little snack away for our park days, and plenty left over for the ride home.

tablets - awesome. consider that you might need wifi for some of the apps or DLs, so if your tablets aren't on your plan, a phone with a mobile hotspot is GREAT! just make sure that you have car chargers and adapters for whatever electronics you bring. If there aren't enough outlets, DO have a splitter.

I know you must KNOW - plan on stopping every 2 hours for a bio break, industry standard rule for touring companies


Have a great time, maybe we'll see you on the road! maybe we'll put a green mickey in the van window

 

[stacylm]

I'll be traveling from/to Ohio your same dates. This is our first time driving to WDW. For other trips we always pack lunch in our cooler if the weather is good and eat at a rest area. That way we can walk around and stretch our legs. My girls will be 10 & 13. They do take their iPads on trips and we have a DVD in our van. They like looking through magazines and doing word searches. We've even done sock puppets and we all were in tears laughing so hard. But, maybe we were just getting slap happy.

 

[tbia]

I hope we see you there. We will be there at the same time and a staple of our trips is the license plate game and let me tell you, South Dakota is tough.

With your ages, you could do some license plate Hinton cards. I have seen them nonlinear before. Winner gets to pick a lunch stop or something.