We have an 11 hour drive to Disney...

[angipoo]

any suggestions on how to pass the time?

Thanks for any help

 

[always_learning]

Pray Our drive was approx 16 and it about did us in! I don't see how old your daughter is but we brought along handheld games like yahtzee. We also bought travel bingo where the kids just slide over the cover of semi's...trains...etc. I purchased some children's books on tape and bought all kinds of new children's music. We brought along our dvd player but our 4 year old got car sick so we had to avoid him seeing the screen. We watched every disney movie out there...even the planning dvd! lol

 

[girlsx4]

We just got back from an 11 hr(each way) trip to Virginia Beach. We are headed to WDW in Sept. I think it should be about 16 hrs. My girls were awesome! We only stopped twice. The girls had ipods and a DVD player. They also had stuff to draw with. We had a travel "Guess who" game. They kept busy and everything went great!

 

[angipoo]

Pray Our drive was approx 16 and it about did us in! I don't see how old your daughter is but we brought along handheld games like yahtzee. We also bought travel bingo where the kids just slide over the cover of semi's...trains...etc. I purchased some children's books on tape and bought all kinds of new children's music. We brought along our dvd player but our 4 year old got car sick so we had to avoid him seeing the screen. We watched every disney movie out there...even the planning dvd! lol

DD is 7 and is a good traveler (we live "in the country" and a trip to Walmart is a 72 mile excursion). We have the portable DVD player, but I was kind of looking for other ideas to pass the time. Thanks!

 

[Steph9072]

We just returned. With stops and everything it was close to 17 hours. We fed the kids and put them in their pajamas..We were on the interstate by 8:30 PM and drove straight to WDW. With the exception of gas breaks, potty breaks and food. Oh we also stopped @ a rest park and got a quick cat nap.


Steph

 

[Mouse House Mama]

The only tip I have would be to fly!!!

 

[jenrein]

We did a 22 hour drive! We have 3 kids, 11, 8 and 7. We brought DVD players, ipods, gameboys and I also printed out a lot of the activity pages I found on here. I bought them each their own little canvas bag and filled it with flash cards, coloring books, books, candy, etc. They were dying to find out what was in the bags before we left and I would not budge!

The drive wasnt too bad- my sisters live in VA so we did 9 hours- stayed at their house to visit for the night. The next day we left at 11pm. We folded our seats down and made the kids a bed to sleep- they all fit snug in the back. Then we drove the 13 hours to Disney with a couple stops for gas and doughnuts.

On the way home we just wanted to get home. I drove myself from Florida to NY. We stopped at the Virginia welcome center and I slept in the driver seat for 3 hours and got up and drove the rest of the way.

Now we get to do it all over again in about 2 weeks when we move down there!

 

[threekidsandasheltie]

We are coming from Louisiana also, and decided to stop in Tallahassee and spend the night. My youngest is 2yo and she just does not handle long road trips very well. 5 hours is about all she can handle

 

[blondemom]

We drive from New Jersey. I have two kids. When we drove down two years ago, we had the portable DVD player, game boys, magna doodles, etc. I also like to pack little surprises for the ride down. I go to the bargain toys at KB or the dollar store. We stop at the Cracker Barrels along the way and let the kids browse, eat, etc. We let the kids decide how long they can handle in the car. They need to stretch their legs, etc. They do pretty good, though.

 

[missmun52]

bring the dvd player and some new movies your DD wants to see. Bring the I-pod and get her one or two new CD's to download, let her pick. Some kids can pass the day just listening to music and watching tv, even at seven! At her age she is probably still into the coloring books, and dolls. Get her some new things so that she does not get board and maybe give them to her along the way.

I would also suggest, if your up to it, to drive through the night. When you do this the trip does not seem as long for the kids because they will sleep for most of it! If you cant do the all night thing try to leave at like 3 in the morning, the same will hold true, she may sleep till 8 and she will feel like it was just a 6 hour drive, this ill also allow you to have less stops which can take you 11 hour trip and make it 14

 

[tadamom]

Our drive was about 12 hours (I think) and we had two 2 year olds and a 5 year old. What I did was I bought a lot of little things at the Disney Store (like magic washcloths, tiny coloring books w/colors, light up toys, pajamas, etc.) and got some snacks. I wrapped them up for each child and each time we stopped (about every 2 hours, my DD2 is recently potty trained!) they got to open a present. They were really excited about these items and it usually kept them occupied until we stopped the next time. We also had the DVD player that constantly played movies. We played a lot of I SPY and DISNEY WHO AM I.

Have fun on your trip!

 

[Chelley00]

We did 16+ hours last year, with 4 kids, and they traveled great.

We leave VERY early in the morning so they sleep the first few hours. We plop them in the van in their pjs and change them into clothes before going in to eat breakfast.

Each kid had their own plastic box with age appropriate toys. The older ones got a new Nintendo DS or PSP game and/or CDs, handheld games; the little ones smaller toys, crayons, coloring books, Color Wonder markers and paper (FABULOUS!) and everyone had an inflatable travel pillow which they all loved because they could nap

We also packed a box up front of family items: travel size games (Battleship, Connect 4 etc) and we found great travel games in the dollar section at Target: license plate bingo, travel bingo where you looked for certain items on the road ex yellow car, bullodozer, no passing sign, icy when wet signs etc. If anyone got antsy with their stuff, we could play a family game. We bought a few new movies for the DVD player and packed lots of snacks, juice boxes and bottled water.

We also took balls to play with when we stopped for gas or to eat and would let the kids run for 5-10 minutes before getting back in the van.

 

[dementia412]

We are planning a 17 hour (not counting stops) drive with three kids who are not used to riding in cars (we walk and bus most places). We plan on bringing a game that plays movies so they will have that available, but the big way to fix the long drive problem is leaving at night. I'd like to leave around 9pm. The kids will be very tired by then, so even with the excitment they should fall asleep pretty quick (we shall see), and they won't be a bother untill they wake up (I'm guessing around 6am). That leaves us with only 8 more hours to suffer through. Just make sure you take plenty of breaks... a ten minute break every hour is way better than half an hour to clean up puke (and countless hours of smelling it) or two hours to let the kids run in circles because they've been cooped up for hours.

DON'T BRING BOOKS UNLESS YOU KNOW THEY DO NOT GET CAR SICK!

 

[jenrein]

Speaking of kids sleeping- I had mentioned we fold the seats down in and let them lay down. Any other parents still do that nowadays? My husband thought I was crazy- I came from a family of 6 kids once my parents adopted my cousins and my mom is from a family with 8 kids. Anytime we went anywhere with grandma or my parents we always did stuff like that.

 

[Jen66]

We generally fly with our 2 kids, but do take at least 2 driving mini-vacations a year. We have found that besides the usual DVD players and Gameboys, the kids really like old fashioned car games!! We always get license plates (last year we actually got Alaska and Hawaii when we were in NC (now we have to start again!). We also bought a deck of cards that has car games on each card and the kids loved them! We got them in the gift shop at Monticello, but I am sure they are readily available.

 

[Chelley00]

Speaking of kids sleeping- I had mentioned we fold the seats down in and let them lay down. Any other parents still do that nowadays? My husband thought I was crazy- .

I believe it's illegal since the kids would not be wearing seatbelts.

 

[tadamom]

I believe it's illegal since the kids would not be wearing seatbelts.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We did a 12 hour car trip a few months back. Aside from the usual DVD, Ipod, Gameboy and other electronic gadgets, my kids enjoyed doing Madlibs and we also took the card decks out of our Disney Trivial Pursuit game and just made our own game of seeing who could get the most questions right.

 

[jenrein]

I believe it's illegal since the kids would not be wearing seatbelts.

Well I knew that much....

 

[pbharris4]

Don't know if it was mentioned, but American Girl Puzzle Books. My plane phobic DD did these to get her mind of the plane ride. Or those invisible ink games you see at rest stops. I used to play with those as a kid too. Books. A few new toys.