Question for all you New England Drivers that have made the trip to WDW!

[dtsaos]

Okay, if we leave Portsmouth, NH at about 6:30 p.m. and drive until about
2 a.m. where would we be? And how much further would we have to go? Our plan is to stop at 2 am and stay in a hotel til about 6 am and then do the rest of the trip. If it goes according to plan (yeah right), what time do you think we'd arrive at WDW? We will be traveling with young children, so during the daytime hours we will have to make various stops. Thanks!

 

[Disney1fan2002]

Rather than try to figure out your timeframe, I will tell you where we were, at times, and you can try to figure it out. It all depends on traffic. Leaving at 6:30 should get you through Boston with little to no trouble, but NYC is a whole other story!

We have driven 3 times now from southern Mass. The 1st time we left at 4PM, not realizing it would bring us into Providence traffic. The whole STATE of RI was a traffic jam. Around 2am, we were entering VA. 2nd time we drove, we left a little earlier, beating RI traffic, and 2Am found us still in VA, but a further along. 3rd time, we left at 1PM...we cruised! I would say at 2AM, we were in the North Carolina. No traffic at all, even breezed through NYC!

My guess is, based on mild traffic, you should be somewhere in the vincinity of leaving NJ.

 

[dtsaos]

We were thinking about trying that alternate route that has been mentioned on these boards before to avoid Boston, NYC and DC. Also the plus (I think) for us is that we'll be leaving on a Saturday so there won't be the normal rush hour traffic. But I definetly want to at least make it past DC that night before we stop so we might have to leave a little earlier....

 

[JoeCathyAngelina]

Last March 26, 2004 we drove to WDW.
Our Trip to WDW 3/26/04: Miles Stopped Time
Boston to Walt Disney World: 1:00pm
Boston to New Jersey 212 212 6:00pm
N J to Aberdeen MD 183 395 9:07 pm
MD to Rocky Mt NC 266 661 1:36 AM
NC to Florence SC 209 870 4:40 am
SC to S Newport GA 210 1,080 7:58 am
GA to WDW 251 1,331 12:00 PM
Started, Friday, 3/26 0 1:00pm
Finished, Saturday, 3/27 1331 12:00pm
A 23 hr trip with 5 stops along the way down
76 gallons of gas, $131 for the gas, 17.78 mpg 58mph
Driving around WDW 21

The Real Trip Home: Miles Stopped Time
Walt Disney World to Boston: 11:00 am
WDW to St Augustine FL 116 116 12:44 PM
FL to Savanah GA 178 294 3:55 PM
GA to Florence SC 174 468 6:22 pm
SC to Battleboro NC 181 649 9:30 pm
NC to Aberdeen MD 295 944 2:17 am
MD to Bloomfield NJ 181 1,125 5:30 AM
NJ to Boston, MA 237 1,362 9:30 am
Started, Friday, 4/02 11:00 am 0
Finished, Sat, 4/03 9:30 am 1362
A 22 1/2 hr trip with 6 stops on the way home
81 gallons of gas $126 for the gas 17.58 mpg 60.5mph
Driving around WDW 62

157 gallons, $257 for the gas, $44 tolls, 17.68 mpg, 59.2mph 2776

The traffic was a mess from Hartford through Delaware on the way down.
It rained from North Carolina to Boston, Mass. on the way home

Me and my wife alternated turns driving our Nissan Xterra when we stopped for gas. My 3 year old held out a lot better than I thought she would on the way down and on the way back to Boston.

This year we're flying down.

 

[Disney Fool]

I'm from Lowell, MA not far from you. Here's an alternate route I like to use, which avoids NYC, DC, and VA bottlenecks:

It's I-84 west to I-81 south to I-77 south to I-26 east
to I-95 south to I-4 south to orlando --takes about 22-24 hours

We stayed over in rock hill, SC at an econolodge (less that $40
because we booked it on the web), getting there in 14 hours the first day
and then drove 8 hours the second day. On the return trip, we stayed overnight in Harrisonburg, VA on the trip home after a 12 hour ride and then got home in 8 hours the second day. No traffic to speak of and no NYC or NJ or DC worries.

 

[dtsaos]

Disney Fool,
I think that's the route I was thinking of...You make it sound so nice and easy!

 

[Disney Fool]

I like it. Other than route 84, these highways are two lanes. And, it's rural countryside, and further south, it's mountain scenery. There's one stretch on 77 that's very hilly, but I think you'll like it. You can plan your second day's arrival at Orlando as an eight hour trip. I usually start out the second day, by 7:30 or 8 a.m. and I arrive in Orlando, around 3:30 or 4 depending on traffic. You will hit traffic on Rte 95 in Florida and on I-4. Go at your own pace and you'll be fine.

 

[Disney Fool]

One more thing, if you're a daytime driver, leave at 6 a.m. If you drive all day (with help, I hope) and stop at 9 or 10 p.m. you'll be somewhere in between North and South Carolina.

 

[dtsaos]

well, that's the thing. We can either leave straight from Portsmouth on sat. between 5 & 6 pm or the other option is leaving Portsmouth at the same time, arriving at my moms house in North Jersey (by Paramus) around 10pm, sleeping there and continuing on at about 6am the next morning. The only thing about plan 2 is that we wanted the kids to be sleeping as much as possible-that's why we're leaning towards not stopping in jersey...

 

[Disney Fool]

Save your sanity and either borrow, buy, or rent a portable DVD player. the kids can watch Disney movies all the way down. Great way to get them in the mood.

 

[Ted and Holly]

I am sure you know this, but you don't need to go anywhere near Boston.

Take 95 to 495, to 90, to 84. Don't bother with 290, in my opinion, Worchester is just a pain.

When we did the drive, we went over the Tappenzee, rather than the GWB. We took the I95 route the rest of the way. I think we did OK as far as managing the traffic everywhere, but by the time we got to Rocky Mount, it was about 17 hours into it. Way too much driving for one day.

EDIT: We drove from Newmarket, NH, by the way.

Ted

 

[dtsaos]

when we go to NY/NJ we always take the 495 route. We never go over the GWB-took it a couple of times-never again-no matter what time of day or night, it seems to be congested.
And we will definetely be taking a dvd player & lots of movies! thanks for all the replies, I'm feeling better about this drive now. Of couse we're not going until sept. so I have plenty of time to obsess about it.

 

[magsmom]

With that timeframe you may miss the bottlenecks. I would say Northern Maryland, maybe Baltimore.

Last trip that we drove south we left Springfield around 3:30-4:00 AM on a Friday morning (mid-August 2003 - the day after the blackout!). We were over the Tappan Zee by 7:00 And we were in the DC area by 10:00 or so, and in southern VA (Petersburg, yummy BBQ) by 1:30. We missed all the bottlenecks.

We detour to Myrtle Beach as I have family there. I am going to say that trip is roughly 14 hours or so (and is as far as we will drive in 1 day).

Take lots of DVD's and enjoy the trip. It is a great way to see this country.