Tell me about the drive back HOME

[taylorcpa]

Is it completely depressing? Do you do anything special to pass the time? I'm not really worried about the drive to Disney since we are stopping about half way, but coming home I would really rather make the 10 hour trip in one day.

 

[grimley1968]

We have a 12-hour trip and make it all in one day on the return trip, since we leave early in the morning. For the trip down, we normally pick the kids up after school, so we stop somewhere for the night.

We normally spend a week at WDW, so we're kind of "Disneyed out" by the end of that week, so the drive home isn't that depressing for us. But the initial leaving of WDW itself (seeing the transition of signs to normal road signs, etc.) can be kind of sad. We usually go during Fall Break so there's normally some kind of reading the kids can do to prepare for school resumption. Sirius/XM radio helps me out personally on long drives.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Is it completely depressing? Do you do anything special to pass the time? I'm not really worried about the drive to Disney since we are stopping about half way, but coming home I would really rather make the 10 hour trip in one day.

Coming home is always a bummer...we sometimes take the train to WDW and that's a long boring 36 hour trip but we have no stress since we're not driving and rather relaxing...

When we do drive it's a 19+ hour drive and most of the times, straight thru is not an option... We used to do it when we were younger but not anymore...

It comes down to if you have to go to work the next morning upon arriving home or have another day of vacation to recoup and relax before going back to work ... Seems the extra day before work eases the pain... Does for us

 

[twinmom319]

I'm worried about this too. We are driving from Chicago for the first time. On past trips leaving disney has always made me sad but the excitement of flying with the kids overcame that. This time, on the way down we are going to do the drive with one overnight stop (we have small kids and my night vision sucks so driving through is not really an option) and not a whole lot of long road trippy type stops. On the way back though, to try to minimize my post-disney depression, we are actually going to take the drive slower and find a couple of things to experience along the way.

Or maybe I'll just start planning our next trip on the drive back from this one!

 

[Salrx95]

last time, we drove straight thru and, after getting home at 5am here in CT, the kids were then awake for the day and I was a miserable mess all day. Took a nap in the afternoon but was more tired to go back to work Monday on short. Always gets me the next day. So this time, we will take our time checking out, having pool time in the morning, have lunch with some cousins in Jacksonville, stop at South of the border, and stay over in northern Virginia. This way, we get home early afternoon Sunday, on regular rest and sort of make it fun going home and not just get over with, miserable ride.

 

[maxiesmom]

The ride home sucks. You are happy but exhausted. And you just want to be home already! Not fun.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We drive from Ohio. On the trip down, we leave in the afternoon and drive straight through. Coming home, we leave around 8 am or so, and also drive straight through. The trip home seems to go quicker, but I don't know why.

 

[Pembo]

We drive from OH, 17 hours. We usually do the trip down in 2 days, sometimes 3 (if we can't leave until later in the day). Coming home, we drive as far as we can before stopping. We usually leave at resort check out time, so noon-ish and drive until 10 or 11 pm. We are not straight-thru kind of people. Neither DH or I want to drive all night.

I just want to get home. We always think we'll stop and see something on the way home, but reality is we all want it to be over. I always find it depressing. It's my least favorite part about driving.

 

[gjl]

Last time we drove we had no idea how truly exhausted we were after four commando style days in the parks and didn't make it anywhere close to where we wanted to after leaving. We went to DTD the last morning and thought we'd get far when we departed after a late lunch. We made it about four hours and realized we better stop or we'd fall asleep at the wheel! We did much better the next day after a good night's rest.

I guess I'm just saying be prepared to have well rested drivers or your goals for day 1 might not be met!

 

[LadyBeBop]

To me, driving home seems shorter than driving down. Going down; you want to get there so badly that time just seems to drag. When going home, you're that much closer to school, work etc. Time doesn't zip by, but it goes by quicker. (That's why today, being Sunday, will seem so much quicker than Monday through Friday).

It doesn't mean it's a happy trip. But it's not a horribly long trip.

 

[willowsnn3]

Last time we drove we had no idea how truly exhausted we were after four commando style days in the parks and didn't make it anywhere close to where we wanted to after leaving. We went to DTD the last morning and thought we'd get far when we departed after a late lunch. We made it about four hours and realized we better stop or we'd fall asleep at the wheel! We did much better the next day after a good night's rest.

I guess I'm just saying be prepared to have well rested drivers or your goals for day 1 might not be met!

I agree completely!! We're only a little over 6 hours away, but we are always so exhausted on the drive home. The best drive is when we get up and leave & maybe have a late lunch on the way. But we've only done that a couple times. The last few times we have been letting the kids have some last pool time before we leave.