Tips for 12 hour trip with kids

[jehma]

We drive from Central NJ to Boynton Beach, FL every year. It takes 19-20 hours, depending on the weather. We usually leave around 3AM and drive for 14 hours to Jacksonville, then wake up the next morning and drive the remaining 5 hours. We find that one long day and one short day is much more manageable. We avoid 95. From here, we go west and take 81 down, then cut back towards the coast. If the weather is good, it's much more pleasant.

We use:
lots of junk food
VCR
portable CD players
gameboys
lanyard
puzzle books
books
travel games

Like another poster, each of my kids packs a backpack with stuff for the trip. Sometimes they pack crayons, stickers, pads.

My kid love the long drives!

 

[golfgal]

I have done several long trips with the kids, many solo, too. One thing I do is shop around for small clearence items and put them in a shoe box size rubbermaid tote. I call them "surprise" boxes. Every so often I pull out a box and give it to the kids. There are a variety of snacks, toys, books so that keeps them entertained for a while. They ask for the surprise boxes when we go on trips.

The BEST thing we have for long trips are the Harry Potter books on CD. The five books are about 90 hours of listening enjoyment (well if you are Harry fans like we are). They are easy to have in the car and make the long trips go by much faster! Any series of books would work. You can also check out other books on tape at the library (they will adjust due dates if needed at our library) and Cracker Barrel restarants have them as well (don't count on getting the Harry Potter ones though--they are too popular).

 

[jenndisney]

We drove from Kansas to Florida 2 years ago and to California last year with a 7 year old girl. What I did for the first trip was I took a large manilla envelope and put color sheets, small toys, candy, etc. in it and did one for each state. As we passed the state line, she would get a new packet. Each one was a bit different and it was a blast for her.

Last year, I did it again, but this time (got smarter) and bought a 4 inch 3 ring binder and gave her folders (she got to use them again at school). This gave her something to look forward to, and I had fun putting them together.

The other thing my family enjoys doing is Mad Libs. My husband has had to pull over because he was laughing so hard! We just to them every few hours so they keep us entertained. My daughter still laughs when she thinks of the toilet flying out the car window (guess you had to be there!)

Have a great trip, and remember to take a break if you need to. So what if it makes you 10 minutes late, that is better than being stressed out when you get there.

 

[Princess Glenda]

Thanks for all the great ideas. Here are a few of mine...

I wrap small Disney related gifts for my DS and DD to open every hour or so on the trip. These items include new DVDs to watch as we travel, a few Disney coloring pages, a small lego set, Disney Gummies, etc. BTW I wrap my DD's in Mickey wrapping paper and DD's in Princess wrapping paper. I use a label to write a time on the packages so they will know when to open each gift. The gifts give them something to look forward to and something to play/work with until the next gift.

I also bought each of them a TRAVEL LOG book. It has a place to record memories from each road trip.

We bring lots of bite size snacks along and I serve them in Mickey or Winnie the Pooh Dixie bathroom and kitchen cups.

Each of my kids have a travel size pillow, a blanket and a lap tray of their own. The lap trays are great for coloring pictures or working puzzles.

 

[grlpwrd]

Maybe something for the bathroom breaks/rest stops like a frisbee or ball. That way everyone can play and get some fresh air and exercise.

Oh...and there is an airline out of the NN/Williamsburg Airport that will fly into Tampa starting in February. I think it's AirTran, but I am not sure. That can be an option for those who fly except you would have to rent a car and drive to Orlando - sure beats the whole trip driving down, though.

 

[kikipug]

The kids would rather drive then fly

You've GOT to be kidding... anything over 8 hours, and the best thing to pack is airline tickets!!!

Seriously though, one of the best things I packed when we moved last year was pipe cleaners... the big craft-type colorful kind... a package for each kid. They made animals, flowers, critters, and 'sculptures' out of them for hours... can't remember which magazine I read that tip in, but it sure worked!!!! No mess, easy to store (zip-lock bag to the rescue!) and quiet!!!

 

[striker3636]

Hey, I love the pipe cleaner idea! I'm going to dig some out of my craft stash now! My kids are 3 & 5, so not being readers (much) yet and still pretty messy, it limits a lot. My best friend and I have been putting together new plastic hard cases (like the size of a file folder, but 1" thick) and filled them with nice stickers, papers, and of course Disney pencils, paper etc. The cases will work nicely as drawing boards too. I tucked away some of the new travel type gifts with kids got for Christmas. One thing they did get were several magnetic games and story boards. They will be packing a backpack each with their choice of toys, and I will have a stash in the front to draw on when things are getting buggy in our 24hr. drive. Our friends are travelling with us in their own car, and their dd7 will be trading a few things with my ds5, just so there are a few more "new" things for distraction. I am more worried about my dd3, since she can't do many activity pages yet etc, and I think the stickers novelty will wear off early. I hope the trip down will be ok, as our first travel day will be mostly through the night. The way back will be another story as we have to pack up the camper and can't leave in the wee hours!

 

[MichaelH]

Well I like to use the DVD. We take our laptop and play DVD movies on the trip. I also take along games to play on the laptop also.

However, there is something that I will mention that is a little over the top. I like tech stuff and I think this is great. You can buy a receiver that goes on the roof of your SUV. You can get internet, and cable tv with this. It is probably expensive but I think it is great.

 

[disneychrista]

My experience is that in most cases the kids (well my kids at least) are too busy watching the sites go by to play with any toys. The toys wind up on the floor or lost within the first hour.

The one thing my kids did like to do one trip was see how many license plates from other states they could find.

 

[lyeag]

We drove from Oklahoma over Christmas. My dh avoid flying unless the military makes him, so we ended up driving 2 twelve hour days. My children are 12,6, and 3. Luckily, we have a van with 3 rows of seats, so the 6 yr old could sit away from the other two. We have the Chevy Warner Bros Edition, and the headphones were a GODSEND. We also had the gameboys and Magnadoodle. We were pretty tired, but the drive was not as bad as I had imagined. It was our first trip to WDW, so that helped a lot in the behavior dept. I do like separating the kids as much as possible. It helps with the he/she is touching me!!!!


Also, everytime we stopped I made sure my younger too did a few jumping games or running around to burn off energy.

 

[matdamom]

I live in SW VA, and we flew down in January - paid less than $150 per ticket (Delta Connections) and it only took an hour and a half. Beats the 10 hour drive time. I hate to fly, but I think I would hate a full day in the car with three kids even more. LOL However, to cut costs way down, I might be able to talk DH into driving down this May. Previous trips to the beach we have the tv/vcr, leapster, crayons/coloring book. Also, we always drove most of the trip at night so the kids would sleep, but DH had to sleep half of the following day to recover.

 

[leebee]

WDW is about 27 hours of driving time from here, so I really wouldn'tever consider driving. My real issue with driving isn't the drive down...it's the long trip home, full of sadness. How DO you do it? I'm secretly afraid that if I didn't have those expensive plane tickets to force me to leave (to say nothing of the cost of keeping a rental car over the time limit- lol!), I'd NEVER come home! Did I mention it's below zero here with knee-deep snow? Seriously, we've done many long distance trips. DD is 11 now, but still happily plays with Polly Pockets in the car (the rubber ones...I can never get the clothes on 'em but she loves them!). MadLibs are also a big hit, and food, of course. We've borrowed books on tape from the library...the Harry Potter ones are terrific (if you are fans) even if you've read them all before. Mathilda is also available on tape, and it's very good. When DD was younger, the electronic books with the audio keys that make the sounds that go along with the text were very popular. I also had a colledtion of cassette tapes from the dollar store, geared to younger kids- Beatrix Potter stories, stuff like that. We also started playing car games when dd was very young...I spy something green, 20 questions, etc. We have a portable DVD player but don't use it much, don't own gameboys or hand-held games. I wish we lived close enough to consider driving, but I'd always be in WDW if I didn't have to pay for airfare and car rental!

 

[JustLoveDisney]

I'm sure you have tons of ideas but sounds silly I like to hop in the back and make sock puppets. I put all of the fixins in ziploc bags before hand. I also usually grab some magnet boards from the toy store. Those are usually very handy at restuarants.

Best of luck
Debi

 

[tmatthews]

We will be driving down for about 17 hours with 13,9 and 19 months! I have driven with my kids, mom, and a dog to NC before and my secret was I hit the dollar store before we left. I had a bag for each of them....every once is a while I would pull out a new toy/candy/book for them! They loved it.
This year we TOO are driving mostly through the night w/ dvd.We have purchased lots of new dvds from ebay that the kids have not seen yet. It helps we just purchased a new car w/ a third seat so we all have breathing room now! PILLOWS, pillows, pillows!!!! Here's to a safe fun ride!

 

[bdcp]

I guess we were old fashioned, but we just expected good behavior from our kids and we got it. We did 14 hours to AL when they were 2 and 4 and again at 8 and 10, and 14 hrs to WDW when they were 3 1/2 and almost 6. We also drive to the beach every year (3 hours). They are grown (18 and 21 now and very ethical, responsible, loving adults) and we never expected to be their "entertainment". We talked, they colored, read, etc and entertained themselves with silly road games like we did when we were kids. No big problems and they always traveled very well because of it. It's about expectations. They were the children and we were the adults, not their entertainment. We are their parents, not their "friends". They always found something to do to entertain themselves and you know what as teenagers they didnt' get into any trouble because they didnt' expect the "world" to entertain them. Someone has to be in charge and it's better when it's the adults. These trips were about adventure and family time. We also stop every 4 hours, change drivers and do bathroom breaks. I think there's a lot of people afraid their children wont' like them if they dont' supply everything for them. That's not how it works. Dont' worry so much.

 

[cricket429]

I dont think its that we think our children wont like us. We are just thinking of our sanity on such a long drive. We will be driving down in March with a 5 yr old and I am loving all these ideas to keep her occupied. I am not her entertainment director and she entertains herself all the time at home but this is 20 something hours in a car and is supposed to be a magical vacation. If I feel like investing some thought into my child instead of expecting her to just sit in her seat like a robot and be seen and not heard than I dont think there is anything wrong with that. We spend so much time planning every aspect of our WDW vacations that I see nothing wrong with doing a little planning to make sure your children have a good time getting there as well.

 

[Princess Glenda]

cricket429--AMEN!!

When we were little and traveling to FL we didn't have to sit in the same carseat hour after hour because there weren't child safety seat laws. It is very hard on little ones to sit in a car seat for that long. Anything I can do to make this more comfortable and enjoyable for my children (and me) is well worth a little planning.

 

[cricket429]

I totally agree. When we were little, if we were tired, we just stretched out on the back seat and went to sleep. They have to sleep restrained, sitting up.

 

[bdcp]

Mine had car seats, booster seats and later on just seat belts. That wasn't an issue. They really only slept when they were still napping and in car seats. They also survivied without DVD players. We all stayed sane. I guess just talking, singing and playing road games have had their day for some people, but not for us. We still do that with our grown boys.

My point is that children are so used to being entertained 24/7 by videos/dvds that quite a few don't have a clue how to entertain themselves. I always brought books, crayons, travel games, etc. I just see so many people agonizing over how to keep their children happy all the time. Road trips are a great opportunity to teach patience and delayed gratification. I don't agree with "paying" children with disney dollars or anything else to make them behave. In the real world, no gets rewarded for every little thing they do. I think the trip to WDW is the reward. Like the "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow. And the return is just part of the whole package.

 

[cricket429]

Well, everyone has their own style of parenting and I do respect your opinions but I do not over indulge my child or entertain her 24/7. This is just a magical trip for us and a dream vacation and we want every part of it to be fun, including the drive. So I will keep watching the boards for ideas for our car trip and offer suggestions when I can.