Question for people that have driven to WDW

[DisneyGirl4188]

DH and I drive to WDW. Usually, it's just the two of us and we rent a compact. Now, my mother and brother (9) will be coming with us. I have rented a standard (think Dodge Charger size). Will this be enough room for us, our luggage, and souvenirs?

I really don't want to rent an SUV (it's about $300 more, not to mention gas).

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

I'm sure you can manage it. My family used to drive down to WDW all the time. It was me, my parents, my sisters and my brother. 6 people in an old Plymouth Voyager. If we could do it, anyone can.

 

[Jennasis]

How long are you staying for? Where are you coming from? We drove (DH and I) to WDW from NC last year. It was a 9 hour drive with just us for a 5 night stay and it was fine. We won't ever spend rick-diculous money to fly again.

If each of you has one piece of luggage, the question is will that alone fit in the trunk? Then will you have room in the luggage for souvies and some room inside for snack and drinks. We had a cooler in the back with soda and snacks.

 

[Christine]

I'm not sure what a Dodge Charger is but it really depends on the trunk size. My Camry has a HUGE trunk and it would easily accommodate 4 people with a good amount of luggage. But some cars that are the same size as the Camry have little trunks. That's really the issue.

Oh, and I sure wish I could drive. But a 13-14 hour trip is NOT for me.

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

We are going for 7 days. I am going to try and just bring one suitcase each.

We are driving from WV (near DC). It usually takes us 14 hours (with stops).

 

[Snow_White]

I think it's totally dependent on if you guys pack a lot or a little. My husband and I stay at WDW for 9 days so we pack A LOT and we would have trouble fitting 2 more large suitcases in our trunk, but if you guys can share a suitcase, or if you are light packers, I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

DH and I drive to WDW. Usually, it's just the two of us and we rent a compact. Now, my mother and brother (9) will be coming with us. I have rented a standard (think Dodge Charger size). Will this be enough room for us, our luggage, and souvenirs?

I really don't want to rent an SUV (it's about $300 more, not to mention gas).

I would go for the extra $300 for comfort and no concern for room. To many hours in a standard car....

 

[MushyMushy]

Why are you renting rather than taking your own car? If you don't want to put the miles on it, have you considered Amtrak's Auto Train?

 

[oxfordcircus]

Target sells rooftop luggage containers for about $20. That's like having an extra trunk.

 

[MushyMushy]

Target sells rooftop luggage containers for about $20. That's like having an extra trunk.

True, but I'd be careful of the softsided ones. We took one down there and it practically fell apart -- we were duck taping that thing to death the whole way home. It didn't last 100 miles before it started ripping apart.

 

[oxfordcircus]

True, but I'd be careful of the softsided ones. We took one down there and it practically fell apart -- we were duck taping that thing to death the whole way home. It didn't last 100 miles before it started ripping apart.

Really? I think mine is a Rubbermaid carrier, and it is a soft-side. We did have one of the fasteners on the strap break, but that's because I closed it in the van door. I had to buy a $7 come-along to replace the broken strap. We drove about 1000 with ours, through occasional rain, and never had any other trouble. Maybe we got lucky.

One other thing - if you don't have a luggage rack on your rental, make sure you don't attach the straps so that the doors are tied shut! I once did this with a Christmas tree. It was not a proud moment.

 

[MushyMushy]

Really? I think mine is a Rubbermaid carrier, and it is a soft-side. We did have one of the fasteners on the strap break, but that's because I closed it in the van door. I had to buy a $7 come-along to replace the broken strap. We drove about 1000 with ours, through occasional rain, and never had any other trouble. Maybe we got lucky.

One other thing - if you don't have a luggage rack on your rental, make sure you don't attach the straps so that the doors are tied shut! I once did this with a Christmas tree. It was not a proud moment.

"I meant to do that!"

With our carrier, it had hooks that fastened in the doors. The material itself held up really well, but the stitching and glue that held the seams together came apart between the heat of the sun and the wind from driving. I had brought bright yellow duck tape to mark our luggage with, so that's what we had to use on the carrier. It looked so messed up by the time we got home!

 

[juligrl]

DH and I drive to WDW. Usually, it's just the two of us and we rent a compact. Now, my mother and brother (9) will be coming with us. I have rented a standard (think Dodge Charger size). Will this be enough room for us, our luggage, and souvenirs?

I really don't want to rent an SUV (it's about $300 more, not to mention gas).

I have no idea what a Dodge Charger is so I can't help you there. But I can say that 7 years ago my DH, mom, dad, dog and I piled into my DH's '98 Dodge Neon (no cruise control) for a 19ish hour drive to Frostproof FL (south of Disney). It was not fun. In fact, about a month later we bought our Jeep Grand Cherokee. Coming back wasn't so bad since my husband left before us and flew back which ment we had only 3 and we stopped overnight. In retrospect, even something Dodge Stratus size would have been nicer. Whateve you get just make sure it has a generous amount of backseat leg room.

Why are you renting rather than taking your own car? If you don't want to put the miles on it, have you considered Amtrak's Auto Train?

Have you ever done the auto train? We had neighbors do it one way. They said it was fun for the experience of doing it but very frustrating when the train would just stop and sit for hours on end. They wouldn't do it again. I'd love to hear some other opinions on this though from people who have done it.

 

[MushyMushy]

Have you ever done the auto train? We had neighbors do it one way. They said it was fun for the experience of doing it but very frustrating when the train would just stop and sit for hours on end. They wouldn't do it again. I'd love to hear some other opinions on this though from people who have done it.

No, but we have tickets for our upcoming trip and I'm really excited! It's kind of pricey, but when we figured out the cost of driving down and spending a night on the way, it only ended up being $200 extra. Did your neighbors say how late those stops made them? I hope that doesn't happen to us!

 

[juligrl]

No, but we have tickets for our upcoming trip and I'm really excited! It's kind of pricey, but when we figured out the cost of driving down and spending a night on the way, it only ended up being $200 extra. Did your neighbors say how late those stops made them? I hope that doesn't happen to us!

Definately let us know how Auto Train goes for you. I think it would be fun to try. I think in the end our neighbor figures that it didn't really save them any time, but it was nice to have someone else "do the driving." I'll have to look into the cost of that sometime - it's just obnoxiously far to drive in one day from here especially with two little kids.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

We have driven 9 1/2 hours from central NC in a Satrun SL2 before. There were 4 of us (2 adults; 2 kids). It was OK, but that care sure did get small the closer we got to WDW. If I were making the decision you propose, I would pay the extra and rent an SUV

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

The Chargers seem like a pretty good size car, similar to my Intrepid in size. The cabin might be fine, but frequent stops to stretch your legs may be a good idea. The adults should be fine, but the 9 year old may get antsy on that long of a trip.

A lot of people discuss driving to Disney on the Transportation Board. I'm going to copy this thread over there so you can get some replies from the folks there.

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

Thanks for the replies.

I never thought about getting a luggage carrier; I'll look into that. I thought they were a semi-permanant additional to the car (I don't know why I thought that).

We are renting a car and none of us want to take the Autotrain (I did look into it, but I hate not being able to do things on "my" time; that's another reason we don't fly).

My brother has been on several road trips (when he was 6, we took him to WDW with us) so I'm not worried about him.