Traveling to WDW by car....

[wendy1974]

I think I'll start looking at the maps & seeing about gas/food stops & of course about perhaps getting a cheap hotel for the time we do get in & sleep and like you said get to our resort & drop off bags, etc so cokes don't burst in my car (again!) and get to whichever park for whatever time we get there. we have hoppers so if one park is busy we'll head over to another. thanks to these boards i've been keeping a log of great ideas & activities that I never heard of so that should keep us busy & interested too .. without being overly exhausted. The more I think about it - this does seem the most practical. But if we can't leave until early afternoon (let's say 1pm) from New Orleans, will we still be getting in too late? I'd hate to get to our "one night hotel" for like 1am & then get hardly any sleep bc i'd be too worried about getting up & getting checked in at CBR. THEN of course if we don't get enough rest or get in too late - i'd hate to waste the $ on a hotel i'd only be staying in for a few hours! Am I the only one who worries too much about one simple decision?????

I'd still say leaving at 1 p.m. would be better than waiting all day and leaving at 9 p.m. to drive all night, especially if this is your worst case scenario. Chances are you'll probably get on the road before that but if you get there somewhere around midnight, you'll still have a good 6 hours of sleep in a bed as opposed to in a car and switching off drivers.

 

[bikinpunk]

Holy crap, you’re stressing out! Lol!!!!

Most people are lucky; they have jobs or money situations or kids that cause them to only have one option for their departure date. You’ve got too many options.
I say, go out and get a part time job for the day you plan to leave. Make sure you can only get off at 8pm. Then you have no choice but to leave late and all the other possibilities are gone.

Problem solved.



Seriously, I think you’ve been over this so many times now that it’s become more of an issue than it really is. As I said earlier, to me it seems like it boils down to money for you guys. If you can afford an extra night I say just head down to DW during the day at your leisure. Get there at 8, 9, 10, 11pm… whatever. Check out some things around your area (hotel, DTD, etc) or maybe stop at a nice restaurant on the way in (café tu tu tango is an awesome, odd place) and have a nice, relaxed dinner.. or maybe swing by and grab some groceries once you arrive in town to have snacks with you throughout the days. Then go to bed. Wake up when you decide to wake up (being because you want to sleep in or you want to get to a park early for RD). Do whatever you want.
As you can see, there’s so many of us who are different that we all suggest something different (hey, look at my hypocrisy in this post, alone ). Just from a point of not being wore out I think it might behoove you to take your time and drive up during the day. But then again, there’s a lot less traffic out at 2am than there is at 2pm. Either way, you’ll be fine.
We all have to go through experiences to learn from them. As you can tell, we’ve been through them before and have all taken away something different. Do what works best for your schedule and budget. Enjoy your trip!


- Erin


PS: Shame on you for making me want to go to disney now!

 

[goochy18]

I say, go out and get a part time job for the day you plan to leave. Make sure you can only get off at 8pm. Then you have no choice but to leave late and all the other possibilities are gone.

Problem solved.

Haha! nice one! Well I've run several options by my fiance & WHAM he tells me it's too early to make a decision! HAHAHAHA!!! OMG i'm going to lose my mind! So now i'm going to plan on heading up there early & then get a room THEN resort/parks on Friday. HOWEVER if and ONLY if he decides he wants to leave later then I'll be able to say I TOLD YOU SO if we're dragging our heels by like 1pm!

But with all this madness I completely forgot the MAIN REAL question: If I got there after the parks open (which all that day Apr 30, all the parks open at 9am) - would we be fighting too many people at the parks? We DO have HOPPERS so we can always hop - but I was hoping the FP weren't all gone the later we got to any park! But y'all have mentioned that this time of year it isn't too terribly busy so we should be fine. Woo Hoo!

 

[bikinpunk]

Typically, in the past, this is kind of a crowded season. Not as crowded as the summer time, but still crowded. Someone in this thread said it wasn't, but I believe I saw a thread earlier this week that it's been crowded lately. More likely due to spring break, though.

Honestly (and it's just a gut feeling), I think you guys will be fine if you get to the parks a couple hours late.


When are you going, again? I looked back at the OP but didn't see the date. Maybe I'm blind!

 

[goochy18]

Typically, in the past, this is kind of a crowded season. Not as crowded as the summer time, but still crowded. Someone in this thread said it wasn't, but I believe I saw a thread earlier this week that it's been crowded lately. More likely due to spring break, though.

Honestly (and it's just a gut feeling), I think you guys will be fine if you get to the parks a couple hours late.


When are you going, again? I looked back at the OP but didn't see the date. Maybe I'm blind!

We're going april 30 - may 6. I know we'll be there for last wkend of grad night but we weren't planning on going to MK a whole lots, prob more of epcot.

 

[tsmack78]

We are going to the World by car in November. Leaving Louisiana on Tuesday morning and getting to World that evening, going to find a close hotel and then get up Wednesday morning and check in at POR. I want to stay close to POR for a good price. Any ideas on good clean hotels close to POR?

 

[gobraves39560]

bump!!

 

[TinkerbellinLouisian]

WOW! Just back TODAY!

DS18 and I left Baton Rouge at 8:12am Sunday May 9th... arrived Beach Club at around 9:30pm... checked in ....added tix for the night and headed to EMH at MK...

We departed BCV at 9:30am this morning and arrived home by 7pm... Crazy !

Had a fabulous time!

Need to go back soon,

Hugs,
Mary