Strategy for Driving from Long Island to Disney

[MerriH807]

Since I am a teacher, flights during school vacations can be pretty costly. I was looking into driving. Mapquest says 19 hours. So, I was wondering how you break it up? Our children are 5 and 3. Do you leave late at night? Early in the morning? Drive straight thru? Sleep overnight somewhere? Any suggestions appreciated!
Thanks, Merri

 

[GranddadTom]

My first concern would be for what time I’d hit the big cities in the northeast – New York, Baltimore, and Washington. No sense in making a long trip longer by getting tied up in rush hour traffic in one of those places. Stay away from those places on workdays from 6:00 am until 10:00 am and from 3:00 pm until 8:00 pm. Of course you can always come upon an accident that will slow traffic down but you can’t plan around that kind of an occurrence. My wife is a retired teacher and we used to leave for Disney World late on Friday (along with everyone else!) and we’d drive for a few hours (from Maryland) just so we could get into North Carolina to spend the night. The problem that we almost always experienced when driving down on a school break was that traffic into Orlando (starting in South Carolina) was very heavy on Saturday. We finally resorted to driving through the night but when we did we always considered “arrival day” to be waste because the whole family would be wiped out.

 

[deltachi8]

go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn.

 

[nytimez]

I leave from Nassau County pre-rush hour. I try to make sure I'm on the road before 5 am.

I always stop at the very southern portion of North Carolina, because I have family there to stay with -- it's also pretty much the midpoint of the trip. However, if I didn't have family there, I would probably push on into SC or possibly even Georgia and have less driving on the second day.

This comes up a lot on the 2,000+ mile thread, you should join us there. Lots of LIers who make the trip, and also people from the NE who have a similar journey share strategies.

With small children, I would always suggest splitting up the trip. Also, stop often, let them run around a bit, get a snack, bathroom, etc. It makes the trip take longer but it'll help keep everyone sane.

Oh, and when they fall asleep -- make time!

 

[crzy4dsny]

I've driven four times, straight thru twice and stopped twice. Since your going during what I assume would be a one week school break, I would suggest trying to go straight thru. Leaving at 2:00am gets me to Disney between 7:30 8:30. Last trip I left at midnight and got there at 4:30. The least it has taken is 16.5 hours and the most is 18.5 I think. You have to avoid DC around rush hour times, if you think traffic is bad on Long Island it's nothing compared to DC. The best times that I know of to leave Long Island is 7:00pm, 2:00am, or midnight. Like nytimez said check out the 2,000+ mile thread.

 

[4DisneyNUTS]

Hi we are doing the same thing in May for the first time. We are planning on leaving Saturday morning at 5am and then trying to drive straight through. We have a 10 year old and an almost 3 year old. My main question is should we leave Friday night but then we risk being exhausted while driving? I figure if we can all get to sleep early Friday night wake up and be on the road at 5am we could make it pretty far before stopping overnight and staying somewhere. Powering through would be an option only if we made great time. If not we can stop sleep and then make it to the world early Sunday...What am I missing ???? Any suggestions?

 

[zmanandshan]

I understand costs can be high, but if you plan ahead of time you might catch some deals. Not sure where abouts on LI you are, but Jet Blue flies out of Westchester Cty (HPN) and has some great deals. Its a small but very convenient airport - only thing is parking is expensive, so if someone would drop you off - even better.

Watch for when Jet Blue opens the dates up. I'm going in June and caught tickets when the dates opened for ~$160 pp. For us 4, $640. Gotta catch them fast, because as they fill up, they get more expensive. To me, by the time you pay tolls, gas, wear & tear on vehicle, meals, Hotel stays at least 1 night there and back, you would spend more than that driving, not incl. the cost of your vacation time.

 

[nytimez]

I understand costs can be high, but if you plan ahead of time you might catch some deals. Not sure where abouts on LI you are, but Jet Blue flies out of Westchester Cty (HPN) and has some great deals. Its a small but very convenient airport - only thing is parking is expensive, so if someone would drop you off - even better.

Watch for when Jet Blue opens the dates up. I'm going in June and caught tickets when the dates opened for ~$160 pp. For us 4, $640. Gotta catch them fast, because as they fill up, they get more expensive. To me, by the time you pay tolls, gas, wear & tear on vehicle, meals, Hotel stays at least 1 night there and back, you would spend more than that driving, not incl. the cost of your vacation time.

To me, the costs are not even close. It's WAY cheaper to drive -- even with the best possible deal on flights (short of winning free air tickets).

In any case, anyone interested in making the drive should check out the 2,000 mile thread for some great tips.

 

[4DisneyNUTS]

We are about 10 minutes away from MacArthur airport and when southwest posted their flights were more than they are now which is $113 after taxes and fees it would be $250 each making it a few cents over $1000 for the four of us. If I could get in the $600s I would definitely fly but so far this is the best price we have found. Of course I should have paid more attention to the ding flights so I am not sure what we missed @ Southwest. Hopefully they will ding lower. We have figured that renting a car also should be part of the equation since we would have our car with us if we drove. Minivan rental is about $500 but a car would be $200.
We figure total for driving is about $600 rt stopping and sleeping on the way. Thanks for the info I will be reading the 2000 mile thread tonight

 

[palhockeymomof2]

We are about 10 minutes away from MacArthur airport and when southwest posted their flights were more than they are now which is $113 after taxes and fees it would be $250 each making it a few cents over $1000 for the four of us. If I could get in the $600s I would definitely fly but so far this is the best price we have found. Of course I should have paid more attention to the ding flights so I am not sure what we missed @ Southwest. Hopefully they will ding lower. We have figured that renting a car also should be part of the equation since we would have our car with us if we drove. Minivan rental is about $500 but a car would be $200.
We figure total for driving is about $600 rt stopping and sleeping on the way. Thanks for the info I will be reading the 2000 mile thread tonight

Not sure when your going but I watch the ding fares out of Islip...and I haven't seen any in quite some time...the lowest regular fares I've seen to Orlando recently was $99 this was for May.....

 

[zmanandshan]

We are about 10 minutes away from MacArthur airport and when southwest posted their flights were more than they are now which is $113 after taxes and fees it would be $250 each making it a few cents over $1000 for the four of us. If I could get in the $600s I would definitely fly but so far this is the best price we have found. Of course I should have paid more attention to the ding flights so I am not sure what we missed @ Southwest. Hopefully they will ding lower. We have figured that renting a car also should be part of the equation since we would have our car with us if we drove. Minivan rental is about $500 but a car would be $200.
We figure total for driving is about $600 rt stopping and sleeping on the way. Thanks for the info I will be reading the 2000 mile thread tonight

Hopefully you will ding lower. FYI, we dont even rent a car when going to disney. We started staying onsite and take advantage of the Magic Express and once at the resort, the Disney Transportation. Obviously, if you are offsite, you will need to rent a car, though and obviously costs included in that equation.

Good luck!