To do I95 or Not to do I95 (from RI), that is the question??

[duck_adoo]

I tried posting this in the 'for those of you driving' sticky...but no replies yet, so I thought I'd try here..

Cast: DH-Mr. Insominaic except when driving, myself, 2 9yo dd's, and 2 yo dd (not potty trained).We're heading out on Friday 8/19 and planning on leaving at 4:00amish. We have driven down one other time and left on a Friday at about 6pm. While it worked out well with the kids (pre 2 yo), it wasn't the best. My concern this time...
1. is either 95 or not? I wouldn't go through NYC, seeing as we'll probably be getting there at about7-8am.
2.If we do decide to do 95, how can we avoid DC?We did hit traffic in DC on our last trip.
3. Do you think it would be a good idea to stay overnight at SOB? Then finish the trip the next day?According to mapquest..it's about 13 hours to SOB then 7.5 to Orlando?

Thanks!
Cheryl

 

[LovePug]

I've read that taking 301 around DC works well, but I've never done it. I come from NEPA and take 81 all the way down into VA and miss Baltimore and DC. Hopefully, someone will come along and give you firsthand knowledge.

 

[djbleach]

I've also herd the 301 route is good. Although we have never driven it. We live in Virginia, so we will come back from NY on 13. Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
It is a nice drive. Im not sure how far out the way it will be for you to go south. It's a hour from Norfolk to 95 in Emporia.
I'd check Southwest and try and get $39 one way flights. Kids under 2 fly free. But for that price, It is well worth it to fly and rent a car.

 

[Cyndiu]

Very Important! You must leave early enough that you are through NYC before rush hour. I95 backs up around Exit 30 in Connecticut and is bumper-to-bumper all the way through the City starting around 6: 30 - 7 a.m. If you're leaving on a Friday you'll hit it and wish you were anyplace else on Earth! That said, we've done the 95 drive several times from Connecticut. We leave home around 11 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. and that way we can get all the way through DC before rush hour. Our pattern is to stop around 2 pm in Walterboro, SC. We stay at the Holiday Inn there, have a nice swim, good dinner, early night. Then we get up and on the road by 6 a.m. and we're in Orlando by lunch.

I simply cannot stress enough how much you want to avoid Southern Connecticut, NYC and D.C. during rush hour.

 

[BigTigger]

I'll be driving down just about the same time to take my daughter to college near DW. Here's the route I'm taking. If you don't have a FastPass or EZPass then I'd suggest getting one so you can fly through the tolls all the way to Virginia.

I drive to Hoboken, NJ for work all the time, and can give you that part easily. It's OK to leave at 4 am if you live west of Boston, otherwise time your departure from wherever home is so you get to Hartford by 5:15 am. The route to take for this leg is get to I-90 (MA Pike) to I-84 to CT-15 South toward NYC/Charter Oak Bridge bypass just before Hartford to I-91 South for 20 miles to the Wilbur Cross Parkway/CT-15 exit just after the I-691 exit which becomes the Merritt Parkway. This route gets you through Connecticut the quickest. When you get to NY, stay on this road and go past the I-287 exits and continue across Westchester. Continue on the Cross Country parkway to the Saw Mill Parkway south to the Henry Hudson parkway. From here you're in Manhattan and can continue to the GW Bridge to I-95. I can make this run in 3 hours if I leave my Marlborough, MA home by 4 am and miss all of the CT and NYC traffic for the most part. From this point I'd take I-95 south to just south of Wilmington and then take I believe it's route 1 to route 13 to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. Once into Norfolk, you have to take some local roads southwesterly to get back to I-95. Most of the local road is route 58, but you need to take I-64 to Portsmouth Boulevard to pick route 58 up. This should take you far enough south of Richmond to miss the I-95 roadwork near Richmond. Once you get back onto i-95 it's a pretty easy drive to Florida. You can get a nice hotel in the NC stretch of I-95 with any of the big chains (Sheraton, Marriott, Holiday Inn brands) for around $80. Use either a AAA card for discount or get one of the discount hotel books at the rest area near the VA/NC border. If you book a Fairfield Inn or Courtyard Marriott online you have until 6 pm day of arrival to cancel at most of the hotels. You may want to book a room and cancel if you think you're up for driving further south on the first day.

I hope I didn't make this too confusing. Send me a PM if you want any further explanations.

 

[DISUNC]

I tried posting this in the 'for those of you driving' sticky...but no replies yet, so I thought I'd try here..

Cast: DH-Mr. Insominaic except when driving, myself, 2 9yo dd's, and 2 yo dd (not potty trained).We're heading out on Friday 8/19 and planning on leaving at 4:00amish. We have driven down one other time and left on a Friday at about 6pm. While it worked out well with the kids (pre 2 yo), it wasn't the best. My concern this time...
1. is either 95 or not? I wouldn't go through NYC, seeing as we'll probably be getting there at about7-8am.
2.If we do decide to do 95, how can we avoid DC?We did hit traffic in DC on our last trip.
3. Do you think it would be a good idea to stay overnight at SOB? Then finish the trip the next day?According to mapquest..it's about 13 hours to SOB then 7.5 to Orlando?

Thanks!
Cheryl

Cheryl,

Try this thread....
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=9125241#post9125241
I am trying this way mentioned in this link, in 2 weeks

I normally always went I95....ALWAYS hit traffic in DC, Virgina no matter what time of day or night. Also I hear that there is alot of construction in philly.

Does "SOB" mean someone you know? or If "SOB" means South of the Border SC..........FUGHETABOUIT! YUK!

If you can make it, dont stop until Georgia!

Andy

 

[cranbiz]

I gave you a reply in the driving section, but here's my feelings.

I drive I95 all the time back and forth to FL from Southeastern MA and will be doing it again on Friday.

I normally leave between 4 and 6pm. I hit NYC at around 9pm usually with little or no traffic (except for the friday before the April school vacation)

Get to the DC area around 12-1am. Stop at SOB around 8-9am for breakfast ( the food is decent and reasonalby priced but I'm not so sure that I would stay there, Lumberton and Santee are much better places to stay). I normally get to Jacksonville around 1-2pm and that is usually early enough to avoid rush hour there. This gets me into Deltona between 3 and 5pm. WDW is about 45min to 1 hour from there.

I drive with the flow of traffic which is between 65 - 80 depending on the section of 95 and stop when necessary. I have been known to stop at some of the outlets if it falls within break times (Harbor Freight in Dillon is great if you like/need tools)

I have had very few problems with I95 and will continue to take it in the future.

 

[wilwij104]

We live in Delaware and drive to Disney every year.

We take 301 south to just south of DC and then jump on 95S. You can catch 301S just before the Delaware/Maryland border. Take 896 to 301. The 301 ride from Delaware to Route 495 (DC) is so nice. It can be a Christmas rush hour and you will zip right along. Actually, 301 from the Delaware/Maryland border to about Parole, MD, you will hardly see any traffic at all, no matter what time of day! I would not stay on 301 too far past DC though, there are traffic lights and some congestion on 301 past DC.

Taking 301 will keep you away from the White Marsh, Baltimore, and DC traffic. I have read alot on these boards about the horrible DC traffic and they are right, but White Marsh, the 695 interchange, and Baltimore traffic can be brutal as well. In addition, the Richmond traffic can also be pretty heavy at times.

Whatever you do, avoid Route 13 to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. Route 13 takes you through several small Delaware and Maryland towns that are loaded with traffic lights and speed limit changes (down to 35 MPH). In addition, these small town police set up speed traps every chance they get. Trust me, I know from experience as we travel 13 almost every day.
Riding on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel is fun though! We always see these crazy birds that are near the bridge, they start about 200 feet in the air and dive like missles down under the water for fish, crazy! If you have never experienced the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel, I would say go for it, but allow the extra time due the situations I have noted above.

Ron

 

[Carolinagirl1063]

I cannot speak of 95 north of DC too much but from there on you should be fine. SOB don't to it! Don't stop in Dillon SC either. I live in Florence and we have many hotels and restaurants. You can stay at just about any at the I 95/I 20 exit and do fine and there are plenty at I 95 at US 52 that are good, but some are not so good. Do not stay at I95 and US 76 either. PM me if u want recommendations.

 

[duck_adoo]

Thank you all . We did the drive one other time and left at 6pm at night. It wasn't too bad, except we really are early to bed early to rise people. I think we'd like to try the drive during the day. I may have to rethink our strategy hmm...the thing is dh usually doesn't sleep that well, so our plan last time was I would drive unitl 3:00am ish, then he would take over. But he just couldn't stay awake and we ended up crashng in a rest area for a couple of hours. That was fine (except, they caught the DC area sniper near there a few later ), but we were wiped out for the first couple of days. I'm thinking if we get a decent night's sleep somewhere we'd be in better shape when we get to DW. Maybe we can leave at about 3:00-3:30am. That should get us through NYC by 7:00.
Thanks again!

 

[DISUNC]

....But he just couldn't stay awake and we ended up crashng....

WOW that line scared me for a second! Don't use the word "CRASH" or any form of it in the threads about driving! AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

 

[stacy6552]

DC traffic is all about when you hit the beltway. Avoid rush hour and you'll be AOK.

usastar.com is a fantastic resource for driving I95. Amoung other things, I drew up a list of food at the various exits, so when we were driving, I was able to say, "there's a BK at the next stop but a subway in 3...."

 

[duck_adoo]

DISUNC...Sorry about the crash reference..wasn't thinking

Big Tigger...Aren't the EZ passes about $100 to install? I thought I had looked into that before. Did I look in the wrong area?

I just found the link, looks like it's only about $27 to install. And if it's returned in good shape I get back $23. Do you think it's worth it? I'd have to go up to Mass from RI to get it. It doesn't look like there's anywhere south of Boston where I can get to a service center.

TIA

 

[sanibelover]

I would never stay at SOB!!!!!!!!!!! You have to stop, but staying there would be scary!!!


Also, it took us 20.5 hours to drive from New London, CT to Jacksonville straight through with no kids at night with no traffic. I think Mapquest is misguiding you with those times. I would think 24-26 hours is more likely, even longer iwth kids. Just drove to TN and sometimes we just didn't make good time no matter how we tried.........

 

[maxaroni]

Duck adoo....we are driving from S. Jersey but the day after you! We could have met on the road! Anyway, any advice driving from S. Jersey? We had been thinking of I-95 all the way down and it will be a saturday....

 

[duck_adoo]

I would think that Sat wouldn't be bad for traffic...however...when we did this drive the one other time we did hit signficant traffice in DC on the weekend. There seems to be quite a bit to be said for taking some of the alternate routes posted. I just get a little nervous about getting lost if I veer off 95. DH isn't the best navigator, and I'm a better passenger than driver. Hmm, I have to get out the maps a highlight the different routes. I did get a Triptik from AAA, but sometimes those seem the longest way. .

I think we are going to try and make it futher south to Santee as another poster suggested. But who knows...I could change my mind again and leave Thursday night and stop over Fri. afternoon. Someone else suggested that and that sounds good too.

 

[BigTigger]

Big Tigger...Aren't the EZ passes about $100 to install? I thought I had looked into that before. Did I look in the wrong area?
TIA

Even cheaper than FastPass (MA) is EZPass (NY/NJ). The work interchangeably. You can sign-up via mail at:

http://www.e-zpassny.com/

The transponder is free with a credit card deposit. They charge a $1/month fee per account, but if you return the transponder after the trip than you won't have more than a few dollars in fees. Once you sign up you'll get the transponder in the mail within a week.

Good Luck on your travel. Sounds like more than a few of us will be heading south around the same time.

 

[Uncleromulus]

301 isn't an absolutely beautiful, traffic-free route as has been described. It will get certainly you around the major traffic of the "big cities", but it will ADD time to your trip. We took it once and found it to be barely better than 95 itself. Now we just use 95, but time things to avoid the DC traffic.

 

[goofy4tink]

Even cheaper than FastPass (MA) is EZPass (NY/NJ). The work interchangeably. You can sign-up via mail at:

http://www.e-zpassny.com/

The transponder is free with a credit card deposit. They charge a $1/month fee per account, but if you return the transponder after the trip than you won't have more than a few dollars in fees. Once you sign up you'll get the transponder in the mail within a week.

Good Luck on your travel. Sounds like more than a few of us will be heading south around the same time.

Dh and both have FastPass transponders in our cars...one acct. My ds is driving to Tampa area in late Aug and wondered if we could 'give' him my transponder since I don't use it too much. Then he could ship it back to me or just give it to me when I see him in WDW in Nov. Any issues with doing that?

 

[maxaroni]

I would think that Sat wouldn't be bad for traffic...however...when we did this drive the one other time we did hit signficant traffice in DC on the weekend. There seems to be quite a bit to be said for taking some of the alternate routes posted. I just get a little nervous about getting lost if I veer off 95. DH isn't the best navigator, and I'm a better passenger than driver. Hmm, I have to get out the maps a highlight the different routes. I did get a Triptik from AAA, but sometimes those seem the longest way. .

I think we are going to try and make it futher south to Santee as another poster suggested. But who knows...I could change my mind again and leave Thursday night and stop over Fri. afternoon. Someone else suggested that and that sounds good too.

I remember driving to FL with my parents (years and years ago) and my grandfather said....whatever you do, get on the beltway and go around DC. Well, dad missed the turn off and we went through DC....I enjoyed it as a kid but my parents weren't to thrilled....