Tips for 12 hour trip with kids

[DisneyKeith]

We have a 12 hour drive from VA to Orlando. My kids will be 9 and 4 when we go in May. I like to pack a "survival" kit with new and interesting games and activities for them to use as we travel. In the past I have brought along the following items...

Portable DVD player and DVDs
Magnadoodles
Word Search books
Travel Lite Brite
Small 25 piece puzzles that they can work on their lapdesks
coloring books and crayons/markers
Car Bingo
Tic Tac Toe game
Card Games--the Disney versions of Go Fish! and Old Maid
lots of bite size snack items

Any other ideas that you use? I'd love to hear suggestions.

 

[cannonn824]

I would try and get a portable DVD player or something like that so the kids can watch there fav. disney movie. I have a 9 year old and a 6 year old and plan on taking the long trip down. I would like to find more ideas also.

 

[heidijot]

hi,

This will be our third road trip from Boston to WDW. It takes us about 25 hours and we have done this with a varying # of our 5 children and once with our chocolate lab. We always have alot of food, crackers, grapes, water and always the favorite Oreo's. (gum is good to freshen breath) The kids like to look out for special places like the Capitol Building, The Empire State Building/Statue of Liberty and all of the Sports Complexes that you can see on the drive. We also usually play the License Plate games. Those that you cannot find on the road you can always find in the WDW parking lots.

The things that are always used the most are the gameboys, cd players and puzzle books. We brought a DVD player last year but it was only used once. Each child gets to pack their own backpack with things that they want, they have a pillow/blanket/soft toy, also we have a 16 passenger van so it is usually one child/one bench seat so there is no fighting over space.

Relax and enjoy the trip. The kids would rather drive then fly

Heidi

 

[Sumac]

Hi Heidi. We have driven from Chesapeake, VA at least 5 times and will be driving again in June and November.

Our favorite stuff:

DVD Player (Purchase/rent/get from library some new movies before you go. We picked up a 2 pack of Benji movies from Best Buy for like $5. It entertained them for at least 3 hours of the trip.)
Gameboy
Leapster
Puzzle Books, Coloring Books, etc...
Lots of good snacks. Homemade brownies have been a big hit before
Blanket for each child

The drive is really not too bad. It is our preferred way of traveling to WDW.

 

[Asil65]

Hi Disney Keith,
We live in Charlottesville, Va and were planning on driving to WDW in April. Just heard about an airline that flies out of Dulles called Independence Air. My family of 4 is flying round trip from Dulles to Orlando for 490.00. Might be worth a look see. The most important travel item for us is our small 9 inch TV with VCR. We have this contraption that really straps it in securely. Helps us a lot. Lisa

 

[DisneyKeith]

Asil65--Thanks for the tip but I can't talk DW into flying. Maybe someday.

Mousesavers.com has a tip for the new Disney Cartoon DVDs from Best Buy. You can get all 4 for $30. I just placed an order for them so that the kids would have them to watch on our trip.

 

[glencoe]

Thanks for the ideas!!! We are driving from LI, NY and plan on an 18-20 hour trip. We have done it before but I can't remember exactly how long it took us last time (6 yrs ago). With 9 and 5 yr old boys and a 2 yr old girl I am up for suggestions. We have a DVD in the car and I also have a portable DVD. I have bought a few new movies (disney of course! LOL) and a DVD of the Amanda show w/ about 6 episodes and sponge bob w/ about 6 episodes. The kids have seen none of these DVD's so I am hoping because it is new even if it is mediocre it will get them the first time around. I am also planning on packing games/snacks for each kid. However any ideas for my 2 yr old who is too young for board games etc. would be appreciated.
We are planning on leaving at 12 midnight so most of our "fresh" driving will be done when the kids will hopefully sleep and my plan is to arrive at Disney about 4 pm. We are staying at the poly and I want to check in at a reasonable time to get a decent room and have an evening to relax before we start the parks the next day.
Does anyone have any other suggestions? Heidi, how long does it take you guys? thanks!!

3 weeks 3 days to go!!!!! :jumping4:

 

[The4OfUs]

For those of you with DVDs in the car, there are those "joystick" type video games - I have a Disney one that has 5 Disney games, it plugs into the A/V jacks in the car, and it takes batteries - no lugging a game console along with all the wires and controllers and such. And all for under $20!

We actually have 2 of them, one Disney, and one old Atari games, but they like the Disney one as it has a 2 player game on it and they play together.

Another thing is audibooks - burned to a CD, borrowed from the library, or put on an MP3 player. At 10 and 12, they like stories that I like too...so we can get one that we'd all like to hear, and have that play - for example, "Theif Lord" or "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke, or one of the Harry Potter ones, Eragon, Series of Unfortunate Events, and so on. I belong to Audible.com and download 2 a month for $20 ($10 each) so I have a library on my iPod that we listen to through the car speakers together.

 

[glencoe]

For those of you with DVDs in the car, there are those "joystick" type video games - I have a Disney one that has 5 Disney games, it plugs into the A/V jacks in the car, and it takes batteries - no lugging a game console along with all the wires and controllers and such. And all for under $20!

We actually have 2 of them, one Disney, and one old Atari games, but they like the Disney one as it has a 2 player game on it and they play together.

Another thing is audibooks - burned to a CD, borrowed from the library, or put on an MP3 player. At 10 and 12, they like stories that I like too...so we can get one that we'd all like to hear, and have that play - for example, "Theif Lord" or "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke, or one of the Harry Potter ones, Eragon, Series of Unfortunate Events, and so on. I belong to Audible.com and download 2 a month for $20 ($10 each) so I have a library on my iPod that we listen to through the car speakers together.

Oh yeah....I forgot about those!! I will have to look into getting something, my husband and I had one for the ride down 6 yrs ago!! Now I will find something for the kids!

 

[DisneyKeith]

We leave at midnight also so the kids sleep for half of the trip. YEAH!! I like the idea of the video game. My son was thinking of taking along his GameCube this trip, but that would be much more convenient. I also had forgotten the Books on Tape (CD) idea. Thanks everyone!

 

[tebookie]

DVD Player is a really good idea!

The trip is only 12 hours...I'm sure your kids will do just fine.

Perhaps think about leaving where they could sleep during the trip too.

That way they wake up and they are @ WDW

 

[scarboroughmom]

My hat's off to all of you folks. If I had to ride for 12 or more hours in a car with my kids, I would stay home.

 

[java]

We have a 16 hour drive and we have a 10,7,2 and newborn! We have done the drive many times before and one of our favorite tips is leave at night so the kids can sleep through the major chunk of the trip. Then you only have about half the trip to entertain.
For the smaller ones, we bought books on tapes and played those on the car tape player. Warning you may have to listen to it over and over again, but it is great for little ones. Our favorite is If you Give A Pig a Pancake. Crayons and coloring books are good for an hour or two. And plan on having to stop. Good luck fellow drivers! We can do it. I always find North and South Carolina to be the LOOOONGEST part of the trip.

 

[jlaspoq]

We drive from Virginia too! I wanted to fly this time, but my daughters both voted to drive ..... as my DD12 said, "I can listen to all my CD's and no one bothers me!" They each have CD players with headsets, and we have the car VCR player. We break the trip into two days and spend the night in SC on the way down and Georgia on the way back up. That way we aren't ready to crash when we arrive in WDW!

 

[winniedapooh]

I second what scarboroughmom says and add a valium to that, lol! But I would be drving 5 kids and going to Maine and back is about as far as I can take it,lol-that is only 2 1/2 hrs!

 

[DisneyKeith]

Trust me, I know the feeling. Sometimes an hour trip to a city close by can drive DW and I crazy. Our drive to Disney last year was PERFECT. The kids were angels and very pleasant the whole trip down. Thanks everyone for your input. BTW, we spend the night at a hotel halfway between Dsney and home on the return trip.

 

[DreadpiratK]

www.audible.com is awesome. Our kids love it, they actually do not want to stop when we go on trips, they get so wrapped up in the book we are listening too. Even when we get home, if the book is not over, they want to drive around some more to finish it!
It really does make trips go by very quickly. We install video systems for a living and coud easily put a great one in our van, but we would much rather have them listening to a good book then glued to yet another video screen, plus with the audio books I can enjoy them too while driving, and we get a chance to talk to the kids about the books.

Audible is a great deal if you are interested, plus our library has a good selection of books.

 

[Cyndiu]

We've done the drive from New Haven Connecticut several times. My best tip? Don't let the kids play with or even touch the toys, books, etc that you pack before the trip. That way, everything is new to them once you're in the car.

 

[gizmosammy]

I've pretty much done all those but I also find plain od bribery works...

I have two children so I went to the bank and got 100 one dollar bills. As we started our drive, I gave them each envelope with 50 one dollar bills in it. (pretty impressive to a 8 and 6 year old) I told them whatever they have in the envelope when we get to Wdw they can spend however they like ( no questions asked). The key was that any time I had to "yell" at somebody I took a dollar.

It pretty much worked as the threat of taking a dollar was always present although I did "warn them" as a reminder every so often. This only works for the way down but I figure I would spend $50 on souviners for them anyway so I amy as well use it to my advantage.

 

[tammyandtommy]

I am traveling from Pa in August, and my kids are 9 and 7 we bought a PS2 and it plays games and DVD's so we are going to buy some games to keep for the raod and new movies its gotta help make the hours fly, we also give small gifts disney orienented, we buy them on sale at Disney store things they can put in their pouch and use while in long lines, light spiny things for night time, bubble for day time, portable fans, anything we can think of. Good luck