Real driving experiences needed about travel times!

[Tortuga-J]

Greetings lads!

I was wondering if I could get some real first hand reports on how long the actual drives times people have experience from the Philadelphia area to WDW?

Some many different outlets have so many different time tables and I would appreciate some real first hand reports.

Thank you much!!

 

[Darcy03231]

It takes me about 6 hours to get from my house in Southern NH to Philadelphia. When my brother and his wife drove from my house to WDW it took them 26 hours one way and about 24.5 on the way back. Going down they hit a lot of traffic, construction and an accident. Mapquest from my house to WDW is 22 hours.

 

[stephie1012]

im in central jersey it takes us an hour to get to philly. we left here at 9pm on a friday night and was in disney checked in around 4pm...we stopped for some food to eat in the car and numerous stops for dh to have a smoke break and gas and bathroom, the longest stop was 45mins i think.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

We leave South Philly at 5pm. Been doing this trip for 15 years. We make 3 gas/bathroom stops. We have food & snacks in car. We should be there by 9:00 am give or take for the unexpected. Like heavy rain, traffic or accident or Construction. We DON'T SPEED. We our or try to be good safe drivers.
When we stop we don't mess around.
DH gets the gas we all run in to the bathroom. When we come out DH runs in to the Bathroom. All said and done it should be a 10 min stop. Any ? ? just ask.
Roe

 

[WillCAD]

I can't help from Philly, but from south Baltimore it normally takes about 14 hours, with stops every 3 hours or so for bathroom, gas and to change drivers, but without any long stops for meals or shopping. We average 75mph most of the way.

However long it takes you to get from Philly to the Ft. McHenry Tunnel in south Baltimore, add 14 hours to that, and you'll have a good idea of the total drive time.

 

[frndofpooh]

It's going to depend heavily on what time you leave and whether it's a weekday or weekend. Depending on these factors, you could face some big traffic issues at various places until you clear Richmond, but then you should have no traffic issues at least until Jacksonville (unless there's construction). The biggest question mark will be from Philly to Richmond, but after that it's more predictable.

With those caveats, we have made it from Richmond to WDW in around 10 hours when driving through the night with no kids - very minimal stops and no traffic at all. The same trip from Richmond can take over 12 hours if we stop more often or if we hit traffic around Jacksonville or on I-4.

 

[Missytara]

The manager at the restaurant just got back three weeks ago. I live in Dover, DE.

It was just her and her husband; they are in their late 20's. They left early, early morning, stocked with sandwiches, sodas, and snacks. They stopped for a bathroom break and gassing up, on the same stops, but that was it. No dawdling.

They made it down in 17 hours and back in 16-1/2.....

 

[Missytara]

Ooops. I should say the manager at the restaurant where I eat frequently.

They took the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. It is a long ride through DE, but it got them away from the whole Baltimore/DC thing.....

You can take either Rt. 13 or Rt. 1/Rt. 113; Rt. 1/Rt. 113 has less lights, but the road keeps changing from an interstate to a two lane highway. Rt. 13 is more lights, but pretty consistently a two-lane highway.