!st time driving from New Jersey

[fieldfam4]

Yo, Hi!
So, since our last trip to the happiest place on earth my children have turned into adults so the 4 of us decided to save money and to drive from Joisy to WDW this August. The 4 of us will be sharing the driving; we check in on a Sunday and are staying 5 nights (Beach Club, yo). We were planning on driving about 12 hours on Saturday, and sleeping over somewhere so that we would have just a few hours to drive on Sunday for our arrival. I am looking for any suggestions as to the best driving route to take as well as any ideas on where might be good to stop along the way and on saturday night to catch some zzzzz's. I don't want to drive too much on Sunday so we can be fresh to start our active fun vacation.
Thanks so much!

 

[artesian]

What time and what part of NJ are you leaving from? 12 hours will put you in Savanah with minimal stops. Walterboro SC might be a better reference point if there will be a lot more stops. This is assuming you take 95. Little bit more info we can get this figured out

 

[glen65]

It depends on where in NJ and what time. If you are fairly close to 78, then I suggest 78/81/77/26/95 route. Google maps may show an extra hour or so this way but in the long run it’s faster driving than taking 95 all the way down. You avoid the traffic of Philly, Wilmington, Baltimore, and the dreaded DC traffic and Richmond. If you go back a few pages on the For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" (IV) thread in this section, you’ll see that there are a lot of fans of this route because of the reasons I’ve mentioned. You may also want to check out this older thread that discusses the route. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2522586. Whatever way you go, I suggest leaving late at night (after 8 or 9 PM) or very early (midnight to 3 or 4). That way you can get some distance under your belt before everyone else is up and on the road.

PS. I was born and raised in Morris County.

 

[amcnj]

From the southern end of the state 95 is our best option. But I leave early am (2:30) and am usually in the WDW area by around 6:30 pm that evening.

 

[fieldfam4]

Thanks so much for the responses thus far. We will be leaving from central jersey (we live about 10 minutes north of Princeton), not that far from Rt 78. Our check in is Sunday so we would leave NJ some time on Saturday. I would think that the traffic on 95 thru the major cities would not be that bad since it would be the weekend(?) In any case we plan to stop at some hotel somewhere Saturday night so that we could get a normal nights sleep in as much as our main goal is to arrive on Sunday in good enough shape to be able to have an active first day/evening at Disney. We don't want to arrive on Sunday sleep deprived and exhausted. I hope this makes sense. We welcome more of your most helpful and thoughtful comments/suggestions.
Thanks again!

 

[Sophie's Mom]

We just drove down about 4 weeks ago. We live near Atlantic City so we had to make our way through NJ and picked up I-95 near Wilmington DE. We left home around 8:20am - picked up some traffic around DC - and got Walterboro SC around 9:00pm at night. The next day we left Walterboro around 8:30am and got to Disney's Wilderness Lodge about 1:30pm.

Coming home was not fun - but only because it rained the whole way home!!

 

[artesian]

Thanks so much for the responses thus far. We will be leaving from central jersey (we live about 10 minutes north of Princeton), not that far from Rt 78. Our check in is Sunday so we would leave NJ some time on Saturday. I would think that the traffic on 95 thru the major cities would not be that bad since it would be the weekend(?) In any case we plan to stop at some hotel somewhere Saturday night so that we could get a normal nights sleep in as much as our main goal is to arrive on Sunday in good enough shape to be able to have an active first day/evening at Disney. We don't want to arrive on Sunday sleep deprived and exhausted. I hope this makes sense. We welcome more of your most helpful and thoughtful comments/suggestions.
Thanks again!

Wash DC area is your biggest wild card. I personally even on weekends want to be out of that area by 10 am. You have two choices. Quickest will be getting on 95 in East Windsor or grabbing 295 by Trenton. You could go interior route but you will be adding 1-2 hours overall. Interior is 78-81-26-95. That way you will avoid DC and Richmond but the time factor always convinces me to go 95.

 

[CPT Tripss]

We just drove down about 4 weeks ago. We live near Atlantic City so we had to make our way through NJ and picked up I-95 near Wilmington DE. We left home around 8:20am - picked up some traffic around DC - and got Walterboro SC around 9:00pm at night. The next day we left Walterboro around 8:30am and got to Disney's Wilderness Lodge about 1:30pm.

Coming home was not fun - but only because it rained the whole way home!!

Did you have heavy traffic north of Richmond? In years past we ran into "shore" traffic until we were south of 64.