So are we nuts to consider driving?

[dgr1973]

That is the million dollar question! I am in the process of planning our 5th trip to WDW for early June 2014 and considering driving there from the suburbs of Chicago for the first time. We have always flown because I could never wrap my mind around n 18+ hour drive and figured my time is worth the extra cost of flying. Well now with crazy high airfare and all the extra fees along with needing to rent a car once we get there(we stay off site in rental properties) I thinking its quite a savings to drive down.

The longest car ride we have ever taken was 9 hours just a few weeks ago and I was expecting it to be horrible but it really wasn't bad, so maybe this is doable. I am even trying to tell my husband we can drive it all in one shot but he says NO WAY! lol!!

So for all the die hard Disney drivers that come from all over and even further then us, is it really worth it? Or after do you say, we will never do that again? I figure we will save at least $1000-$1200 by driving and that is significant! Airfares may come down but I'm not sure if it will ever be under $1000 for all four of us again.

 

[Howgreat]

We're "only" 12 hours away, but we always drive. It costs us around $250 round trip to drive and would be around $1000 probably to fly. The savings is definitely worth it for us. That being said, we enjoy the drive and our children are good travelers. If you think everyone in your family would be worn out and grouchy by the time you get to WDW, it might not be worth it.

 

[dgr1973]

We're "only" 12 hours away, but we always drive. It costs us around $250 round trip to drive and would be around $1000 probably to fly. The savings is definitely worth it for us. That being said, we enjoy the drive and our children are good travelers. If you think everyone in your family would be worn out and grouchy by the time you get to WDW, it might not be worth it.

You are lucky to only be 12 hours away lol!! My girls are teenagers and will probably sleep or have their faces in their phones for most of the trip. I don't think the grouchiness will be till the drive home but my DH is planning to take 2 weeks off work so he has plenty of time to recover and I am off all summer so that's not an issue. Right now r/t flights are about $1500 and then when you add baggage fees and car rental it makes it around $2000 and we could most likely spend about $500 if we drive. I think I just answered my own question but the unknown is a bit scary!

 

[Aliceacc]

I wouldn't consider it.

But, if I were going to sell it to the kids, I would frame it as "I've found a way to get us an extra day at Disney World!!"

 

[nugov2]

Just drove from the same area this past June with a 2, 6 and 8 yr old. We gave it a try b/c of my fear of flying. DH doesn't like road trips, but I talked him into it. We even added a couple of days to the trip to stay in Clearwater. It doesn't impact our vacation, DH gets a ton of time off each year so for us it was a good option. It cost us around $400 round trip and 19 hours with our stops each way. We drove straight through both ways. My kids actually were so tired on the way home they slept a lot of the drive and when they were awake they were like zombies...not a lot of talking and no complaining. I would do it again. We left at 7pm and were in Clearwater by 3pm the next day. We hit the pool and everyone went to bed early that night...we all slept until about 8-9 the next day(we had two rooms so the early risers could be in one room) and everyone was fine. It didn't take us a day to recover and we hung by the beach. It was great!

 

[Pembo]

We've driven many times from Ohio (17 hours). We like to drive 12-14 hours the first day, get a hotel and a decent nights sleep, finish the drive and arrive at WDW refreshed.

If you kids are teens, you won't even know they are in the car. We just got back from NC (12 hours). My kids were so engrossed in their own stuff we never heard a peep from them. lol

 

[Rose23]

This year will mark our 27th trip to Walt Disney World; we have only flown four times out of the 27 and have taken the Amtrak Autotrain one way twice out of Lorton, VA (driving seven hours from Ohio to Lorton, VA to catch the train).

When we drive from Central Ohio to Orlando, we split the drive by stopping in Atlanta overnight. The time in the car is invaluable with family, reading license plates, stopping at different sites, visiting different malls. Last year we stayed an extra day in Altanta to visit the Georgia Aquarium which we would have never done if we had flown. It was FABULOUS!

A few years ago we took the coastal I-95 and State Rt. 17 route and stop through Myrtle Beach and Charleston. We're still talking about the great time we had on that trip through the Low Country and seeing all of the fresh fruit and fish stands, enjoying the water views and fishing boats, and meeting locals.

Life is already too fast. Why not slow it down some and enjoy the trip driving. You can take whatever you want in your car and you do not need to go through security. Have plenty of games and things for the kids (videos if you have a DVD in your car) and consider purchasing a AAA membership. Make sure your car is serviced before you go and tires are in good condition.

Consider stopping at your local Cracker Barrel and picking up "The Next Exit" travel book which gives you a description of everything at every exit on every Interstate in the nation. (You will know what is at the exit before you get off.)

Safe travels with whichever way you decide.

 

[arielmomma]

We drive from Mid-Michigan (about 22 hours).

We have been doing this with the kids since my youngest was only a few months old. We have both driven straight through and stopped for the night.

The first time we did this with kids, I was terrified that it would be miserable, but it never has been. In fact, they enjoy it! It is 1 1/2 days of doing nothing but watching movies, playing video games, and eating the snack bags I make up for them. (We have strict rules about how much time they get to do these things at home, so this is a treat for them!).

My favorite way of travelling down (now that the kids are past the toddler phase) is to leave home around 6am and drive 18 hours straight. We stay the night at a hotel shortly past the Florida border. We get a good nights sleep, have a nice breakfast, then we only have a few hours to go and we still have enough energy to enjoy part of our day at one of the parks or do whatever we want to.

Don't get me wrong, I like to fly, but we've found that there are some major advantages of having our own car down there too. With the huge price savings, driving is well worth it for us!

I say give it a try.

 

[monorailsilver]

Well, you won't know until you try it.

Dh and I, before we were married have driven from CT to quite a few places in his little 2 seater fiero. I think the farthest was St. Louis We knew we could do it to FL in the van with our 3 kids. But I think we forgot we were in our 20s and not in our 40s!

Anyways, we did the drive this past April from CT to Ft. myers. I can tell you that while the kids were great in the car the drive was long and boring once we hit Virginia (the lower 2/3s) and the Carolina's.

The way down we did it in one night. The way home we left a day earlier, well afternoon earlier.

I am glad we did it because I now know what it is like and if we ever had to do it again it would be bad but at least I know. We are going to try the auto train next April. Our vacation ends on Easter so I was afraid to look at flights plus car rental. If we hate the train we will fly or go back to driving during April vacation.

 

[dgr1973]

Thanks so much for all the tips and advice! Its comforting to see so many people drive from further then us with younger kids and they have survived and even do it over and over lol!

 

[LadyBeBop]

I am even trying to tell my husband we can drive it all in one shot but he says NO WAY! lol!!

Good. Chicago to Orlando is an easy two day drive, but I wouldn't do it all in one day.

If you have the time, I'd break up the trip somewhat, and take some side trips. There are a number of attractions along the way (Indianapolis, Louisville, Mammoth Caves, Bowling Green and the National Corvette Museum, Nashville, Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain). If you have time, you could take three days down. Or, what I'd do is save some of these attractions for your next drive to WDW.

Look at the 2000+ Mile Thread for ideas. Or, there is another thread for those driving from the Chicago area, although I don't think that thread had been updated for a couple of months.

Good luck.

 

[SEA333]

You are not crazy!!! Do it!

We drove from Brookfield IL to Orlando in March of '12 (remember when it was in the 80's for a week that March??!!). That was the week we left.

We started out at 7pm on a Friday night and planned on driving straight through with me, DH, DS11 (at the time), DD7, and DS5. We decided to take...57? to Indianopolis to Cincinnatti to get to I-75 and take that the rest of the way down so we could go through the mountains. We hit a dead stop south of Indy due to a 2-mile strech of 8-inch ice - they closed the freeway and we were stuck for two hours. To this day, I have never been able to find out any information about this "ice" storm - when we were sitting on the highway, everyone had their windows down enjoying the breezy 55-degree evening! It was the weirdest thing.

Other than that, the drive was delightful. We ended up driving through the Kentucky hills right at daybreak, which was quite possibly the most beautiful vews I have ever personally seen. Tennessee was gorgeous, and Atlanta was fun to drive through. The trip took about 24-25 hours total, with the delay.

On the way back, we took the other Orlando-Chicago route, through Nashville, etc, and planned a stop in Brentwood TN (just south of Nashville). The plan was to leave Orlando early Friday morning, drive to Atlanta to the Falcons football field (forgot what the name of it is) for a field/locker room tour, then drive through Chattanooga, stop for a late lunch, then on to Brentwood for the night.

We left much later than expected due to an activity conflict that morning, so we didn't go to the stadium tour OR get to see Chattanooga in the daylight, but we made it to the hotel by about 9pm.

The next day we planned a stop at Mammoth Caves for a tour before heading the rest of the way home. We made one last stop at a Diner's Drive-in's and Dives place in Indianoplis for an early dinner, and pulled into our driveway at about 6:30pm on Saturday evening.

I would totally do it again!!!! The only drawback was that it took a good 3 days from our vacation, but since we actually built the drive INTO the vacation, none of us felt like that time was wasted.

Good luck!

 

[SEA333]

That is the million dollar question! I am in the process of planning our 5th trip to WDW for early June 2014 and considering driving there from the suburbs of Chicago for the first time. We have always flown because I could never wrap my mind around n 18+ hour drive and figured my time is worth the extra cost of flying. Well now with crazy high airfare and all the extra fees along with needing to rent a car once we get there(we stay off site in rental properties) I thinking its quite a savings to drive down.

The longest car ride we have ever taken was 9 hours just a few weeks ago and I was expecting it to be horrible but it really wasn't bad, so maybe this is doable. I am even trying to tell my husband we can drive it all in one shot but he says NO WAY! lol!!

So for all the die hard Disney drivers that come from all over and even further then us, is it really worth it? Or after do you say, we will never do that again? I figure we will save at least $1000-$1200 by driving and that is significant! Airfares may come down but I'm not sure if it will ever be under $1000 for all four of us again.

FYI - We are flying down from O'Hare to Orlando in November via Spirit for $628.04 roundtrip out the door, including one checked bag up to 60" and free "personal" bags, one per person, up to 16" that we can take on the plane. Spirit may not be the best airline oout there, but it will get us there safely and in about 2 1/2 hours!

 

[marius97]

I think that if you just look at the length of time to travel, it sounds really long. But if you add up the "real" time that it takes to fly, it might not be so bad. If you drive, you will likely leave early in the morning...likely several hours before you would have gotten on the flight. Your flight is around three hours plus the drive to the airport, security, and waiting. When you get to Orlando, you still need to get a rental car/use magical express and get to your hotel. So, from the time that you leave in your car, to the time that you would have gotten to your hote had you flown may be more than ten hours. Thus, is an 8 hour longer trip worth $1,000+? For my family it is.

We did the straight through several times. Driving overnight was pretty rough. I wouldn't do it again unless we had a job where we were normally up all night. Leaving at like 4am and getting there after midnight wasn't too bad. That is what I would probably do again. This year we stopped for overnights going there and back. It was extra money and made the trip take longer, (plus in stopping at a pet friendly hotel, we found out that DS was severely allergic to dogs. ), but DW and kids seemed to like it better. Whatever makes DW happy is what dad wants to do.

 

[maxiesmom]

I live in Southwest lower Michigan, and I would never drive to WDW, unless I had a lot of vacation time I could use all at once. We drove to Florida many times as children, and I hated it. The last time my sister drove with her family (I flew down and met them) her youngest came home and said she would never ride that far again, her butt hurt!!

Also, it isn't the ride down that gets you. It is the ride home. You no longer have the excitement of the trip to keep you going. You are tired and maybe a bit crabby, and all you want to do is get home already!

Btw, are you positive you can't find cheaper flights? I just purchased tickets, and Southwest had non stop flights from my home airport (Grand Rapids) for only $109 each way.

 

[maxiesmom]

I think that if you just look at the length of time to travel, it sounds really long. But if you add up the "real" time that it takes to fly, it might not be so bad. If you drive, you will likely leave early in the morning...likely several hours before you would have gotten on the flight. Your flight is around three hours plus the drive to the airport, security, and waiting. When you get to Orlando, you still need to get a rental car/use magical express and get to your hotel. So, from the time that you leave in your car, to the time that you would have gotten to your hote had you flown may be more than ten hours. Thus, is an 8 hour longer trip worth $1,000+? For my family it is.

For me, leaving from Michigan, if you add up getting to the airport, flying to Orlando, and getting to the resort it is only a 6 hour trip. Six hours, instead of 22 in the car, and that 22 is only if we drive non stop. Which I refuse to do. Some do it, but I think driving without stopping for sleep is dangerous. But then, I've been in the car with someone who swore they were not tired, and then they almost drove us off of the road. The rumble strip plus someone screaming is what woke them back up.

 

[Lilliputian]

We always drive. Until recently, we lived in the Dallas area, which meant about a 20 hour trip. Now we live in St Louis, and we're looking forward to shaving a few hours off our trip.

We don't really mind it at all. We leave in the early afternoon the first day and drive as far as we possibly can, usually until around midnight. Then we get up around 7:00 or 8:00 the next morning and drive the rest of the way.

We have little kids. Right now, our 5 children are 10, 8, 6, 3, and 1, so there's always a baby or toddler in the car. Driving with 2 teenagers sounds like a breeze to me.

It does come down to what you'll gain by driving. In our case, renting a 12 passenger van (we can't get our family plus our luggage into anything smaller) is really expensive. Plus we take extensive food and cooking equipment due to allergies that make it hard for us to just buy what we need at restaurants or regular grocery stores. If we were just a family of 4 without special needs, flying would be a viable option, with price being the main consideration. In your case, I'd hunt around for the lowest fare, and then figure out what you can tangibly get at WDW for the difference in price.

 

[Princess_Nikki]

I would totally drive. My family and I always have a great time together driving to vacations. We are only 6 hours from WDW, and we are also located in Florida, so driving is always what we do. Now, when we go to Pennsylvania to visit my family, which is 16 hour drive from us, we still drive and break the trip up. We drive for about 8-10 hours, stop for the night, then finish the trip the next day. I really don't think you'll regret it.

Until flying conditions improve & prices decrease, we won't be flying anytime soon. Luckily our boys are still small enough that they only care to vacation in WDW.

 

[LMDisneygirl]

I have felt all the same ways as you! We are in the Detroit area, and always flew down to Orlando. After all, why waste all those hours you could be in the parks stuck in a car?!?! And I had been finding great fares! Then flight prices went up, we realized that we really like having a car with us at The World, and my husband finally got his way and we drove for the first time last year.

We left later than expected - 6pm Saturday night. My hubby got some Starbucks around 11pm, and we drove straight through the night! That was a shock to me since I was on my phone messaging my mom around midnight about at about all the places we could stop for a rest. He drove until about 6am, then I took over for a couple hours. I drove just long enough for him to get a well-deserved nap and his 2nd wind. Then he drove from the Florida border to WDW.

It was MUCH better than I expected. The kids were fine too. This is one case where having them distracted by electronics is a good thing! It's the ride home that's not as much fun.

We'll be hitting the road to WDW again in a little under 4 weeks!

 

[dgr1973]

You are not crazy!!! Do it!

We drove from Brookfield IL to Orlando in March of '12 (remember when it was in the 80's for a week that March??!!).


On the way back, we took the other Orlando-Chicago route, through Nashville, etc, and planned a stop in Brentwood TN (just south of Nashville). The plan was to leave Orlando early Friday morning, drive to Atlanta to the Falcons football field (forgot what the name of it is) for a field/locker room tour, then drive through Chattanooga, stop for a late lunch, then on to Brentwood for the night.

We left much later than expected due to an activity conflict that morning, so we didn't go to the stadium tour OR get to see Chattanooga in the daylight, but we made it to the hotel by about 9pm.

The next day we planned a stop at Mammoth Caves for a tour before heading the rest of the way home. We made one last stop at a Diner's Drive-in's and Dives place in Indianoplis for an early dinner, and pulled into our driveway at about 6:30pm on Saturday evening.

I would totally do it again!!!! The only drawback was that it took a good 3 days from our vacation, but since we actually built the drive INTO the vacation, none of us felt like that time was wasted.

Good luck!

FYI - We are flying down from O'Hare to Orlando in November via Spirit for $628.04 roundtrip out the door, including one checked bag up to 60" and free "personal" bags, one per person, up to 16" that we can take on the plane. Spirit may not be the best airline oout there, but it will get us there safely and in about 2 1/2 hours!

I totally remember that warm March last year and kept waiting for that to happen again this year to no avail lol!

You sound a lot like me in what you tried to do on the way there and back, especially hitting up a triple D restaurant. My husband and I have taken Spirit a couple times out to Vegas and I have no problem flying with them but their fares for June are not out yet and unless I can find any flight on any carrier for $1000 or under I think we will drive and spend the extra cash in Disney!!

Thanks to everyone else for all the insight and tips, I am keeping it all in mind!