Thinking of Driving:scared:

[dlawallace]

I live in LUbbock Texas. That is 16 hours from Anaheim. I am thinking about driving to DLR this coming December. Am I crazy? I just cannot afford to fly! I got laid off from my job in January, so it's either drive, or not go.

Here's what I'm thinking.....get up at 4 am and leave the house by 4:30...drive to Flagstaff, AZ. That is 10 hours. Then, spend the night at a hotel in Flagstaff and leave the next day after lunch. It's only another 6 1/2 to Anaheim.

I dont think it will be that bad. We drove to Pheonix 1 1/2 years ago and that was 13 (we did that in one day) and the kids did pretty good!

Any thoughts???

 

[LavenderPeach]

I say go for it! When I was a kid we used to drive from northern California (bay area) up to Spokane, WA to visit my grandparents. I'm not sure how many hours it was exactly but we would drive all day the first day, stop in oregon and then drive part of the day the next day so it's probably a similar trip. It wasn't bad. Just bring stuff for the kids to do and it should be fine. I used to bring books, crayons, etc for the car. One time my mom bought me a bunch of different colored pipe cleaners to play with and I made all kinds of stuff with them. Also, you could buy some new little toys for the kids to play with (cheap dollar store stuff) and give them a new toy every once in awhile, if they are good.

Sounds like it will be a fun trip!

 

[wvnative]

I second going for it. I was apprehensive the first time I drove the 6 hours from Phoenix to DL just me and the kid, now it's old hat. lol

When I was a kid we made several trips from CO to WV. Two days easily in the car if you drive all day. Just make sure you have entertainment and I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[dlawallace]

Yeah....I'm pretty sure we will go for it. We also have an SUV with built in DVD players, so that will be a life saver!

Plus, my husband travels for work a lot, so it's nothing for him to drive long hours.

 

[nunzia]

We used to drive it all the time..it got kind of hairy when you hit the So CA trafffic..but it's not horrible. We just take the train now..cheap and easy.

 

[pixiewings71]

Do it!! Do it do it do it! LOL Seriously, do it, that actually sounds fun!

 

[nottellin']

I say go for it! We drive from Edmonton, Canada which is about a 24 hour drive. We drive up to Salt Lake City on day one and then get a hotel Day 2 we drive to DL. It's not as bad as it seems, the drive is nice and the DVD's keep the kids busy. A trick we do is buy the TV series on DVD that way they will play for about 4 hours and we don't have to stop to change the movie until we stop for gas. We also pack food so we don't have to stop for that either.

 

[bumbershoot]

Not for Disney, but in a cross-country move, I drove solo from San Antonio, made it to a town just on the border of New Mexico where I stayed the night, then got to Palm Springs where I stopped b/c I wanted to look around the city. Neither were hard drives at all, and it was in late December, too!

 

[Teki]

Ive Driven from Las Vegas to Camden Maine before, it was rough being in the car so long, but we survived I think youll do fine

 

[Mugglemama]

i've driven across the southwest on I-40 several times, and the nice thing is that the weather is often clear most of the time. however, the 40 through Flagstaff in December? i would check weather almanacs just to see if they typically are hit with a lot of snow during that time of year. we used to live in AZ, and i've heard of the 40 being closed through Flagstaff due to snow, but i don't know if that was an anomoly, and i can't remember what month(s) those events occurred in, either.

also, that stretch of 40 from Flagstaff to Williams can be kind of iffy too, due to rainstorms or snow. but when we personally hit that kind of weather, it was actually early spring, so maybe december is better? i don't know, but i would definitely suggest that you research the weather patterns on the 40 during the time of year you plan to drive.

as far as the distance, 16 hours isn't bad at all! we now live in Idaho and have to drive for 2 days to get to disneyland (i'm afraid to fly), and we do it with 4 kids. it's no problem! (however i MUCH prefer our former commute to disneyland, which was only 25 minutes, lol!!!)

have fun and drive safe! (and do some research about typical December weather in Flagstaff!)

 

[carj]

We are planning on driving from the DFW area to DL. We had originally planned to drive via El Paso and Phoenix but we have decided to go the slightly longer route through Amarillo, Albuquerque and Flagstaff.

We plan to leave after my husband gets off work and drive to Amarillo, about 6 hours, the first day. The second day we will drive to Williams, stopping in Albuquerque for lunch and to burn off some steam. The third day we will drive the last 6 hours into Anaheim.

Our kids are 8 and 5 and I have a few ideas of how to keep them entertained. We are planning to stop about every 2 hours to stretch, go to the bathroom, etc... We have found that stopping frequently energizes us. I have gone online to the McDonald's website and mapped the indoor playlands all along the way. We will look for parks and other places to stop but I find it helpful to know that where we can let the kids run around for a bit, even when it is 100 degrees. (We are going at the end of June.)

I am also planning theme days. The kids don't know about these yet. I need a theme for 6 days worth of driving. Each theme day is going to have its own shoebox of activities. They will be easy, non-messy things that will hopefully be entertaining. Each theme is based on movies. Like one day we are going to have "Under the Sea" and watch Little Mermaid, Shark Tale and Finding Nemo. In the shoebox, I am going to put our Aquadoodle and some paint with water notepad things that I found. I also have mini-beach balls that I am going to give them on that day. I'll include stickers or whatever I can make fit with the theme.

Anyway, you get the idea. I am going to try to keep it simple and make the items "new" again by presenting them within the context of the theme. If I just gave them a whole bag of craft stuff, they would pick and choose and then get bored after an hour or so. By doing it this way, I can stretch the activities into several days. (I hope!)

We will also be bringing books, Nintendo DS and a Game Boy.

I am certain that the drive will be tiring but by breaking it up, hopefully it won't be too terrible!

Oh...and if I see flights for less than $900 for all of us, forget the whole plan, we're flying!

 

[KCmike]

We are driving 24 hours one way to Yosemite NP this year. Airfare is the cheapest I've seen it though at anytime we've ever gone. For 5 of us from KC it is under $1000 roundtrip to SF and its non stop!

But back to road tripping....my wife wants to see the country this time and my kids are getting older so this might be one of those "its the journey not the destination" type of trips. Plus half the fun is mapquest'n all the places you get to see and what cities you'll go through.


Be a ROAD WARRIOR!!!!

 

[Aprilisdisney]

I say GO FOR IT

I've made the drive from north of Seattle, WA to Anaheim numerous times. We usually break it up in two days. Day one drive until Redding, CA and then wake up early and off to Anaheim. It's approx 20 hours or so.

The DVD player will really help the kids, not to mention your sanity as well. Packs lots of snacks, movies and things for the kiddos. Stop when needed though.

Have fun planning and have a GREAT time!!

April

 

[waitihaveacoupon]

I live in LUbbock Texas. That is 16 hours from Anaheim. I am thinking about driving to DLR this coming December. Am I crazy? I just cannot afford to fly! I got laid off from my job in January, so it's either drive, or not go.

Here's what I'm thinking.....get up at 4 am and leave the house by 4:30...drive to Flagstaff, AZ. That is 10 hours. Then, spend the night at a hotel in Flagstaff and leave the next day after lunch. It's only another 6 1/2 to Anaheim.

I dont think it will be that bad. We drove to Pheonix 1 1/2 years ago and that was 13 (we did that in one day) and the kids did pretty good!

Any thoughts???

We are thinking of doing the same thing! We will be driving f/ Dallas to DL in December! We will have a 5,1 and 2 yr old!! Yikes!

 

[Jennifer03]

I think you should do it! Driving to Disneyland is pretty fun. I actually enjoy it more than flying.

 

[Eeee-va]

That doesn't sound too bad.

My only suggestion, if you're worried about driving in snow/ice, would be to watch the weather before you go, and maybe even make two different reservations that you could cancel...one along the northern route and one on the southern route. If it looks like there will be severe storms, you could take the longer southern route, staying in Tucson and then going through Phoenix onto Anaheim. It would be longer but the odds of snow (at least in Arizona) would be severely reduced.

Have a great trip!

 

[50sjayne]

We are 13 and a half hours from Disney according to google maps and I am totally looking forward to the drive. Were gonna drive straight through down, then stop in Sacramento on the wasy back up.

 

[nunzia]

i've driven across the southwest on I-40 several times, and the nice thing is that the weather is often clear most of the time. however, the 40 through Flagstaff in December? i would check weather almanacs just to see if they typically are hit with a lot of snow during that time of year. we used to live in AZ, and i've heard of the 40 being closed through Flagstaff due to snow, but i don't know if that was an anomoly, and i can't remember what month(s) those events occurred in, either.

also, that stretch of 40 from Flagstaff to Williams can be kind of iffy too, due to rainstorms or snow. but when we personally hit that kind of weather, it was actually early spring, so maybe december is better? i don't know, but i would definitely suggest that you research the weather patterns on the 40 during the time of year you plan to drive.

as far as the distance, 16 hours isn't bad at all! we now live in Idaho and have to drive for 2 days to get to disneyland (i'm afraid to fly), and we do it with 4 kids. it's no problem! (however i MUCH prefer our former commute to disneyland, which was only 25 minutes, lol!!!)

have fun and drive safe! (and do some research about typical December weather in Flagstaff!)

I agree with this..we always took the southern route (for DLR..for Vegas we go through Flagstaff..but got hit pretty badly with snow one time) on I-10..may be quite a hassle for you to get there..but depending on forecast it's an option.

 

[dlawallace]

I didn't even think about the weather!

I am more worried about New Mexico (Albequerque) than Flagstaff! I dont know what to do now.

 

[Mugglemama]

I didn't even think about the weather!

I am more worried about New Mexico (Albequerque) than Flagstaff! I dont know what to do now.

well, can't you just re-route your trip onto I-10 into Phoenix? then stay on the 10 all the way to san bernardino (CA) where you can catch the 91 straight to disneyland (i think there might be a short transition to the 5 just before disneyland, but the 91 is the freeway we used to take when we lived 25 minutes from the parks). by doing this, you would bypass that entire mountain range in the middle of arizona, which is where you would hit the snow. the southern portion of the state should be fine. it might actually even cut time off of your trip. when we used to drive from kingman, taking the 10 to the 91 only took us 4.5 hours to disneyland.