Talk to me all about Driving to the world!!!

[mickeyluv]

We always drive from our home in the mountains of NC. I pack the van up the night before (dear wifey pack the suit cases which is arguably the easiest of the two) and we pull out of the garage at 4:00am. We usually stop and eat a relaxed breakfast (right!) somewhere in SC after the kids wake up. Each of the kids have portable DVD players which are sent from heaven on long road trips, their gameboys and headsets which are truly one of God's gifts to parents! Then we stop every 3-4 hours for gas or potty breaks or just to stretch our legs. We spend the night in St. Augustine (love that place!) - go out on the beach a while and order pizza. Up early the next morning and drive to the WORLD and check in early, lay around the pool, play in the arcade, or just do nothing. THEN we hit the parks - each day is planned out in advance by dear old dad (me) and I make sure we have the best vacation to date. Coming home, the kids are so tired they sleep all the way and I have NEVER had to stop and stay somewhere coming back - I drive all the way home. Even though the wife grumbles about the return trip, everyone is happy to be home the next day. Tired as hell, but glad to be home - then the vacation to get over the vacation starts.

We are in NC also but near the coast. How far is WDW from St. Augustine time wise? We're thinking of driving this year instead of flying!! TIA from one tarheel to another!!

 

[becca011906]

if you go to mapquest it give you a guestimate on the time on the road... just put in your home town and then orlando, or kissimmee, ect.

 

[rubberband1293]

We are in NC also but near the coast. How far is WDW from St. Augustine time wise? We're thinking of driving this year instead of flying!! TIA from one tarheel to another!!

Once you get to St. Augustine, you're about 3 hours away and can easily make it before any of the parks open.

 

[Dawn414]

Ours (b/g twins) will be turning 4 in March and we're just 20 minutes outside Philadelphia. We're flying when we go in April and (probably) flying when we go in September (assuming I can find acceptable flight prices), but (probably) driving in November. My biggest concern isn't keeping the kids busy. DVD player in the mini-van. My concern is the potty thing. I'm probably going to bring the portable potty for emergencies (since they're used to saying "I have to go potty" and us getting them there almost immediately). I'm hoping by the time we actually drive (and they're 4 1/2) that the bladder control will be so strong it won't be an issue, but I guess we'll see. They don't usually have accidents, but then we also haven't driven 16ish hours with them since they became pottytrained. I thought about the autotrain, but almost had a heart attack at the R/T cost once you add on the cost of a van, family bedroom (for the 4 or us), etc. And driving for me isn't an issue. I get carsick when my husband drives so unless it's me sleeping, it'll be me driving. I drove us to Myrtle Beach (from NJ) and drove until about 2am. It was probably a little ambitious on my part, but it was nice to be only 90 minutes from Myrtle Beach. My thoughts are to do something similar when we do drive to Orlando. But then we'll be leaving Thanksgiving night (probably around 6) and will have all day Friday to get to Orlando (since our check-in isn't until Saturday). Plenty of time to iron out the details, but those are my random thoughts.
Dawn

 

[Sleeping~Beauty]

We just drove down to WDW from NJ in November (children ages 3.5 and 2). We drove straight through (well the occasional stretch and stopping for the kids to eat, etc).

We had sandwiches with us for the night. The kids hadn't slept the night before from sheer excitement. So they were zonked for just about the whole trip down. My husband and I kept taking driving shifts. We were down in about 18 hours. We left about 5pm (not on a rush hour day)

We had dvds, markers, coloring, the Crayola magic drawing set, cars. I had packed the kids each a backpack of their goodies. It was really good timing the way we did it, and we were at my uncle and aunt's house by 11 the next morning. We were able to relax at my uncle's before we started our actual visit the next day.

I much preferred driving to flying. Flying was lugging two car seats, being at the yucky Newark airport, having my baby's ears pop, dealing with the luggage, and lines, and then renting a car. Driving was wonderful for us.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

I'm a shift worker so i'm good with getting up at 3am and driving. We leave around 3 am and head to the boarder sometimes the kids are awake still sometimes there not. Sometimes the border police make us wake them up sometimes they dont. We stop for gas every 6 hrs or so. We make the kids goto the bathroom then. We pack a picnic basket for breakfast and lunch. The kids have road games like signs and types of cars.They have books to read and color. They each have there own dvd player that plays cds too. Oh yeah with headphones. They both have gameboys with tons of games and headphones too. We stop at some the the rest areas at the beginning of each state too to stretch our legs and pee breaks. I usually check levels Oil ,etc at these stops and check the tires, also clean the windows. We usually let the kids pick a few booklets from these stops for fresh reading. We stop when needed otherwise we stop. We will stop for dinner then drive a bit longer and stop for the night at a hotel then pull in part way threw the second day if were not stopping elsewhere. If others have anyother ideas I would love to hear them too. The more occupied the kids are the better.

 

[becca011906]

we have desided that we will leave at 7am or so then we will stop after atlanta around 6 or 7pm to let the kid swim get some dinner, ect. then get up and have around 4-5 hours the next day to drive. it will mean one more day of missing school but oh well it won't make that much of a differance really. ds is only in 1st grade and won't have that much more work, my other is in 2 preschools but doesn't get worlk while away LOL. my mom's a teacher/libarian, but she has enough vacation time to take 3 weeks paid off so i think we'll do that, dh will have to take off thursday now though b/c he works 2pm - 2am and he does 90% of the driving so he can't get off work at 2 am and be up to drive at 6 or 7 am LOL. he has about 3 weeks of vacation time as well so were all good there!