Trip not for over a month away but.....

[ellamom]

Ok, I have my ressies, 4 day hopperpasses,character PS's are booked, a flexable itinerary is made and I have been gathering tons of information since November. But now what should I do to distract me from thinking about our drive from Boston. I have stacked up on surprise toys, ext for daughter to play with, have a packing list made, and have already started stockpiling snacks for the road trip. We have our driving maps also.

Now all I can think about is this long drive! Has anyone else done this with a 4 1/2 year old. How well did it go. We are planning to leave in the evening and drive through the night.

Any advice?

 

[LooneyIAm]

We are driving down from Pa. on Fri., 8/2 - my son is 16 and my daughter is 20. We drove down the first time in '94 and my son was 7 1/2 at the time. I was a nervous wreck worrying about how he would be occupied since he was a hyper kid. My daughter was happy to just read or watch the cars go by, but not him! The one thing we did have that passed the time for him was a vcr/tv hook-up that might husband put together - we brought along lots of tapes, so a couple hours here and there would pass by quickly with no complaints. Of course, it's not like watching tv in your living room! I'm guessing you are leaving and driving through the night so your child will sleep most of the way? I could never do that - I wish I could - I need my 8 hrs. of sleep so we always leave 5 or 6 a.m. and stop somewhere around So. Carolina or Georgia and stay over and rest up and then do the last 6 hrs. the next day. I know it was a long ride, but I remember feeling that I wasted a lot of energy worrying about it - it turned out that it wasn't so bad. It sounds like you have done as much as you can! Try to focus on how much your daughter will love being there !

Paula

 

[Jen D]

My daughter loves music, so we bring lots of music and books on tape. And recently (she is 4.5) she figured out how to use a Walkman, so she can listen on her own.

 

[ellamom]

Thanks for the information.

 

[jennymouse]

I used to get car sick really bad, so my mother would dose me out on Dramamine which made me sleep for a few hours. I'm not suggesting you do this unless you have a car sick child, but sleeping does pass the time and car rides usually makes kids sleepy. You do have Dramamine in case he ends up being a car sick child like I was, don't you?

 

[CamColt]

Yep! Last September we drove from Woburn with our 2 DSs(then 4.5, and 20 months). The best thing we brought with us was my mother, LOL! Seriously, having Grandma with us really took a lot of the kid pressure off of us. She was a great help. But another life saver was a tv/vcr that you can plug into the lighter. The kids loved watching videos in the car. And of course, all the typical toys and snacks helped too.

Going down we drove from 3:20pm Sat to 3:00pm Sun. Coming home we left WDW property at 10:20 am Sat and arrived home at about 10:00am Sun. Both times we stopped for 1 real meal(fast food) and occasionally for gas, coffee, bathroom breaks, etc... To be honest, we preferred leaving in the morning. That way we had a big breakfast and then took off. We drove for 1 whole day, stopped for dinner, then drove through the night and were almost home in the morning. Going it seemed longer since we drove for some of the day, then overnight, then we still had a lot of the next day to drive. I think it seemed more broken up doing it that way. We are doing it again in August(God willing...we have a sick family member right now) and we plan to leave around 10:00am so that we arrive early enough to have a whole day to relax by the pool, maybe nap, and then we will go out for dinner that night and start the parks fresh the next day.
Good luck!