Tell Me About Driving 15 Hours Straight Through at Night with 3 Kids!

[PiperPizzaz]

Our friends have two kids and live near Cincinnati and they drive overnight every time. It seems to work well for them. They even drive home overnight.

We live in Indy too and we leave at 4am. We have one DS6 and it works well for us.
We pretty much have it down now.
Stop 1: Just before Nashville for breakfast about 4 1/2 hours driving, we stop at Shoney's.
Stop 2: The original chick fil a for lunch (it's called the dwarf house and it is in/by Atlanta, not the nicest place ever but, DH adores it.) which is another 4 1/2 hours driving.
Stop3: Then we stop for dinner soon after getting into FL which is another 4 hours or so.
After all that we only have like 3 or so hours left.
Usually for dinner we grab fast food and eat in the car. We get to WDW around 9-10 I think. Go to bed and are ready to go the next day.

 

[North of Mouse]

As someone who could have died this way I agree. Before my husband and I were married we went to an amusement park and on the way home he fell asleep. We ran off the highway and flipped 3 times. He didn't realize how tired his body was if he had he's a cautious person and would have pulled off the highway and gotten a room.

I agree We almost lost our DD before she and her DH were married. They were on their way back from somewhere (forgot now) and she was awake with him and his body just crashed. He didn't realize how sleepy he was either, but went to sleep instantly. You never want that 2AM call from the hospital. The Dr. called us from ano. state (in hosp) and told us our DD's back was broken and there could be some paralysis, they weren't sure yet as they were still doing tests - she could move partially. We packed quickly and headed there (7hrs. away). Can you imagine the agony we were in all that time? It turned out ok in the end, she had to wear a hard cast for 6mos. but no lasting damage. Her BF just had scratches We're thankful, but when I hear people say, I know when I'm sleepy and won't drive that way - It's just NOT true. Many are very lucky, but some are not, along with innocents in their cars and maybe others. It happened not long ago to a family driving through NC here on I-95 coming from Disney and 3 out of the family were killed - were headed to NY straight through. So just to gain a few extra hours at Disney or not having to deal with their children when they're awake.

 

[goofydad99]

We drive every year. We have started early in the morning, mid afternoon and early evening. I made the drive last year by myself with our two younger children. Our youngest son was appointed navigator and stayed awake when I was driving. I lasted about 14 hours and then I was done. We found a hotel and woke up refreshed the next morning. We had another 6 hours after that.

Have a few audiobooks on hand. Movies if you have a dvd player. Start a list of license plates. Pack a cooler with fresh fruit and healthy snacks. I find that if I am snacking on junk food I feel worse. Apples are a great food to eat while driving. I think it's the crunch and texture that keeps you going.

Stop when you are tired. We are kind of up in the air right now if we are going this summer but we plan to drive so far and then find a hotel for the night. Good luck! You can do it!

 

[Greyhound22]

Lots of different opinions. Here's mine - we almost always drive straight through from Central Illinois (18 hours). The advice I think is most important is we started doing it when our kids were little. They know no different and I think this is the most important factor. Our DD's get into the car with their IPods, Nooks, DVD player & books and I never hear from them.

We started doing vacations this way when they were 1 & 3, now they are 10 & 12 and it goes great. I have to stop to use the restroom before they do! If you think this is going to be your "plan of attack" - do it now. If you wait until they are older they won't be able to handle it (or you won't their complaining).

Take everyone's advice on this thread and run with it.

 

[goofydad99]

Oh I did forget one thing..............they aren't allowed to ask if we are there yet. If they ask, they have to get out and push.

They have never asked. This will be the 7th year of making the drive.

 

[delmar411]

I didn't read through the entire thread so please forgive me for skipping.

We live on the southside of Indy and drive down to WDW. It's longer than 15hrs if you have to stop with the kids a lot. Took us 18hrs the first time to get there and 20 to get home. After that trip I was better prepared for not stopping at all and for making everyone stop and use the bathroom every time I did stop. I also sped at every chance I get to make up time and once we hit FL, everyone on the road speeds up to about 90mph. Makes up a lot of time that way too! LOL

These days we make it in around 15hrs with about 2.5hrs worth of stops and enough speeding to make up the time lost from those stops.

Anyway, I have the car packed the night before and we are on the highway by 5:30am and just drive straight through and get to the DTD area about 8:30pm. It's rough on the driver but after a good night's sleep, it's pretty easy to recover.

I keep a cooler of food in the car and put stashes of drink boxes all over the car so the kids can access as they want. We get rid of trash at every stop.

We also have a couple of DVD players and the kids all have ipods and DSs too to keep them occupied.

The first time we drove, we didn't have any electronics and it was still ok though. That drive the kids were 2,3,4 & 10 and 2 were still in diapers so that was part of the extra stops.

Now they are 6,7,8 & 14 and it's much easier for them to entertain themselves in the car and of course no more diapers that need changing.

For the trip home, I do the same routine of packing up the car the night before and we leave by 5:30am. It always takes longer to get home though.

ETA~ another car tip that I just remembered is that no one is allowed to wear shoes in the car and all shoes stay by the doors (we have a minivan). That way the kids can all get cozy with pillows and blankets and we don't have to worry about anything gross from their shoes getting all over the place.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

As someone who could have died this way I agree. Before my husband and I were married we went to an amusement park and on the way home he fell asleep. We ran off the highway and flipped 3 times. He didn't realize how tired his body was if he had he's a cautious person and would have pulled off the highway and gotten a room.

This is why DH refuses to drive to WDW (it would be a 16-17 hour drive for us) even though I've made the suggestion to drive since airline fare is pricey for our family of six. He says it is too exhausting and would take too much time away from our trip since he can only take a week off from work at a time for vacations. If we can't afford to fly, then we just don't go and wait until we can. I admire all those families who drive long distances to get to Disney. We drive 7-8 hours to visit my parents out of the state and that drive wipes us out and is probably our limit as our kids are done with being in the car at that point, even with a few rest stops along the way.

 

[MomtoBJSF]

I don't have much advice, but we are taking the risk and driving with our 3 kids in 3 weeks to WDW, ages 5, 3, and 21 months old. We are coming from Texas so it will take us about 20 hours to get there, we plan on doing it in 2 days. Flight for us would have been 3K and there's no way would would fly. I know the drive will be rough, but we plan on making the best of it, we have a DVD in the car, a couple of old Iphones,leap pads, and leaspter, so we figure we'll be good to go. we plan on stopping a few time or at least hoping.

 

[ArcticCat]

We will be doing it in less than 2 weeks. Our plan is for me to come home from work and do my best to sleep until midnight and keep the kids up until then. Jump in the car and let the kids sleep until morning if all goes well. We have a 17 to 19 hour drive from our house in Michigan. I'm guessing we will hit knoxville during morning rush hour and atlanta near the afternoon rush(all depending on how often we stop).

I am hoping to get a pace car or two through out the night... (someone who plays bait for the police)! lol

I hope to be pulling into the Caribbean Beach Resort by 7pm-9pm. Maybe sooner depending on our girls and going car seat crazy. They are 4 and 16 months old.

We just could not afford the airfare.

Ken

 

[maxiesmom]

We will be doing it in less than 2 weeks. Our plan is for me to come home from work and do my best to sleep until midnight and keep the kids up until then. Jump in the car and let the kids sleep until morning if all goes well. We have a 17 to 19 hour drive from our house in Michigan. I'm guessing we will hit knoxville during morning rush hour and atlanta near the afternoon rush(all depending on how often we stop).

I am hoping to get a pace car or two through out the night... (someone who plays bait for the police)! lol

I hope to be pulling into the Caribbean Beach Resort by 7pm-9pm. Maybe sooner depending on our girls and going car seat crazy. They are 4 and 16 months old.

We just could not afford the airfare.

Ken

Can I ask where in Michigan you are? We are in Southwestern lower Michigan, and going by mapquest it is just under a 20 hour drive without stops. I don't want you to be too tied to your arrival time, because it may be later than you are guestimating.

Also, I was wondering what airlines you checked for airfare? We are flying in just over 2 weeks and are paying less than $200 a person round trip, non stop flights both ways. We did very well this trip, but we have been know to drive the 90 minutes to Flint every so often when we find a great low fare.

 

[rt2dz]

I've only scanned most the replies, but...

We live a little over 15 hours away. We generally drive through the night on the way there because it is easier on the kids than sitting wide awake in the car all day. We tend to leave around 4 PM, stop at 6 PM to eat (getting out of the car), and the kids and DH go to sleep around 8 PM. The kids usually won't wake until the next morning (early--with the sun!). They are then excited to make it to Disney.

They always have travel pillows, place to rest their feet, and blankets. They also have plenty of activities to keep them busy. I always drive first, and have taken a long nap on departure day. DH will take over when I get tired. I then sleep while he drives. If we are both too tired to drive, we do stop to sleep.

Now, on the way back, that doesn't work because one of us can't take a long nap. Instead we leave early and drive straight through, stopping every 3 hours so the kids can get out and stretch. That is where the DVD player comes in handy! All in all, I think it takes us about 18 hours.

 

[ArcticCat]

Can I ask where in Michigan you are? We are in Southwestern lower Michigan, and going by mapquest it is just under a 20 hour drive without stops. I don't want you to be too tied to your arrival time, because it may be later than you are guestimating.

Also, I was wondering what airlines you checked for airfare? We are flying in just over 2 weeks and are paying less than $200 a person round trip, non stop flights both ways. We did very well this trip, but we have been know to drive the 90 minutes to Flint every so often when we find a great low fare.

I live near Lansing. I do not use mapquest since its always wrong... I use microsoft streets & Trips. it says 19 hours and as I said, I will attempt to make up some time... I am not worried about the time we get there. 9pm arrival does not allow for much to do.

As for airfare, it was $350 at best when we were looking in September. 4 of us, plus a car rental for the week (since we are planning excursions away from WDW) will cost much more then an oil change and $500-600 in gas. Add in extra charges for strollers and other items that the kids need... $2k easy if we fly. $1800 if it was 250 each to fly. dont forget all the tax. best i see at the moment is $283 out of flint.

Id love to fly, the time difference would be great... but then we would be very tight on cash. I am also in school so I had to schedule during my spring break.

 

[Funfire240]

We drove overnight from northwest Ohio last September and won't do it again. Our kids were 3.5 and 16 months. It was great for them as they did good sleepingin the car and that part worked really well because they didn't have enough time to get ancy or bored in the car. But we left after I got off work, putting us on the road about 5:30 p.m. We drove all night, stopping for about 2 hours at a rest stop to kind of re-group. The hard part though was when we got to the resort. We were so wiped out that we weren't up to doing too much. We got up early the next morning and had a full day and in my opinion then it caught up to us the next day. However, that could be just how we are. If you personally can handle it and are used to being up late/working nights, I would say go for it because it makes it alot easier on the kids, especially if they normally sleep good in cars.

 

[ellenmiele]

We have also driven at least one way straight thru overnight quite a few times. Started doing it when the kids were young and now as teens they are seasoned passengers (thanks in part to their iPods and kindles!). DH loves to drive - I think it reminds him of he childhood trips to Florida. I do however appreciate the concerns about sleepiness and other issues with driving at night -- I once convinced DH to try daytime travelling with an overnite stop We hated it!!!! Mainly because of Too much traffic! We almost always go to WDW at Easter so 95 is busy! Overnight there are just enough cars on the road that we never feel like we are alone out there but not enough to cause traffic delays. And in terms of sleepiness, we keep to an alternating schedule and it works for us.
(my #1 traveling preference is to take the Autotrain one way and drive the straight thru overnight the other way)

 

[StuckInKS]

I can say that we drove straight though from Kansas in 2010. We had 4 kids who were 7, 5, 3 and 2 at the time. They slept a lot and were overall pretty good for staying in a car for 26 hours with only a few stops to potty and get gas. It was hardest on my DH, who was doing the driving. We also drove in 2009 and 2011 (that time with 5 kids), but we stopped at least once to sleep for a few hours. We likely won't drive straight though again because it was hard on DH, but our drive is over 24 hours. If it were only 15, then he might have been able to handle it better.

 

[Ariel8676]

We drive from NJ evey year for the last 6 years or more (we used to fly when we only had 2 children). Anyway is takes us about 18 hours. We leave at around 9PM and drive straight through. Ok so right now my kids are 10,9,6,2 and i absolutely love driving down to WDW with them, they love it as well. We keep a small cooler in the car and snacks and they bring their pillows and a small blanket to keep comfy. If the kids are awake when we stop for gas we get the kids out to use the bathroom, stretch and move around..then its right back in the car. We usually stop for one sit down meal..just so the kids get a little extra time out.
Now coming home is a different story, because you have to check out in the morning we drive until we get tired and get a room somewhere..
Driving with young children is do able, you just have to be patient, expect the unexpected ( like like year, my then 5 year old, threw up all over my 9 yo's pillow pet..lol) and enjoy the time you have with your children.

 

[shannonstar]

We live outside of Houston, and it is a 15 hour drive for us as well. All I-10 for the most part, which is just so boring. But I digress.

We have done the drive twice out of our 3 visits and I do not prefer it.

However, if it is the only option, this is what I recommend. Don't try to drive straight through on the way there. Find a good stopping point halfway or maybe 10 hours in. we stop in Biloxi at a Casino resort (cheap) and let the kids swim for a while. Then we get back in the car the next day and finish the trip. Breaking it up really seems to help.

On the way home, we drive straight through. We leave right after the fireworks or Fantasmic. Everyone is so tired that they fall right to sleep and it really helps make the first part go faster. It's usually about 10:30 when we get on the road. We drive for as long as humanly possible and then stop for breakfast and let everyone stretch their legs.

Things to take in the car to make it easier: DVD players, handheld video game systems (even for little ones LeapFrog?) books, toys, pillows, blankets (keeping the car cold will help them sleep longer), snacks, small sized drinks (bigger equals more RR breaks).

We also gave the kids Disney books Guide to the Magic for Kids and let them prepare themselves by picking and choosing what they were most excited about. Also played travel games that were Disney based, name as many villains, princesses, movies, main characters, etc.

 

[Dis_Dreamin]

We drove on our second trip (just northeast of Indy) and our friends did the same. We planned a stop, and they planned to drive straight through the night. They ended up calling us while on the road asking where we were stopping so they could get a room at the same hotel.

My recommendation is break the drive up so you won't be exhausted when you roll into WDW. Then you can plan for a fun day/afternoon once you arrive rather than being worn out from the trip.

We're planning our next trip (this June) and are doing the same thing. Leaving by 7:00 am, stopping in Byron Georgia about dinner time, get a good solid night of sleep (after some pool time for the kids and hot tub time for the parents to relax the muscles) and hit the road by 8:00 the next morning. Arrive at CBR by 1 or 2, get checked in and head to the Parks (or unload if our room is ready then head to the parks).

Regardless, have fun on your trip and be safe. You may also want to check out the 2000+ Mile Round-trip thread in the Transportation section of these forums. Lots of good advise there too.

 

[Suellen]

We have done it with the Kiddos twice. We are a bit further though... about 27 hours. We typically leave Maine about 7:00 PM to avoid traffic in Boston and New York.

Each of the girls has an iTouch loaded with shows and movies and games. They typically watch a movie and have a snack and then we have a bathroom break and they are expected to sleep. They typically sleep until 8:00 in the morning and then we stop for a quick breakfast.

Back on the road until lunch time.

We will typically stop in Georgia for a picnic and then hit the road again.

We will roll into my dad's house by 9:00 PM (just south of Disney).

They can color, play on their phones or look out the window.

We don't have much problem with the trip... DH and I take turns sleeping.

They are in booster seats....

 

[DisneyWorldPlanner]

We Live just north of you in the Fort Wayne Area! We actually did this exact scenario and drove down May 2011! Our son was 13 months. We left at around 6p.m. and arrived around 11ish a.m. Ate breakfast in the car! He slept the entire way!!! Phew!

Keep in mind when arriving to Orlando area when your check in time is. Don't want to be stuck waiting in your car for your room to be ready.

Our plan was to let my husband drive during my normal "sleep hours" 11p.m. - 7 a.m. then I took over. That way at least one of us was semi rested and could tend to the kids.

We didn't want to waste a day at Disney being exhausted so we bid on a hotel in the Downtown Disney area using Priceline ($50.00, after tax 65.00). It was really nice and we were just around the corner from Downtown Disney. So we checked in, I had previously packed everyone's necessities in 1 suitcase so we could leave everything else in the van until we checked in at Disney.

We took it easy and those of us that wanted to (me and my son) headed to downtown Disney to eat lunch, and the hubby slept and slept! We stayed here 1 night so we could all re-coop from our trip and the next morning drove to Disney Caribbean Beach! It did add the extra expense of staying at a hotel but we found it totally worth it so we were rested and ready to start our trip off right at Disney!