We usually fly to WDW, but we just retired-

[Madhatter266]

And are now going to drive. We do not want to drive straight thru, so we will be stopping somewhere to spend the night. Just curious, do you determine ahead of time which hotel (in which area) you will stay in, and make a reservation? Or do you plan to drive a certain amount of hours then start looking at the hotel signs? We will be driving from Maryland and going straight down 95. I have been following several threads about the best places to stop, but I wanted to know which way is best - planned reservation, or wing it? Thanks for your help and by the way, the trip will not be until after the first of next year.

 

[msmayor]

In all the years that we've driven to WDW, we've never reserved ahead for our stops. We make a preliminary list of towns along the way to stop (major point along I-95 with a lot of hotels) and decide as we approach whether to stop or continue to the next major area.

We've NEVER had an issue getting a room along the way, and never had to worry about either canceling a reservation to avoid charges if we want to keep driving.

 

[Madhatter266]

That was exactly what I needed to hear. My concern is that if we feel that we can keep going, I don't want to worry about cancelling reservations and rebooking. Thanks for your help.

 

[mamapajama]

See this thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2465424 for the current discussion on hotels.
We will be reserving a room at 2 hotels that allows you to cancel before 6pm on day of arrival. At least that is our plan. We are going to try to make it to Walterboro, SC and stay in the Microtel there. The time we didn't make a ressie we got stuck in a disgusting hotel and I will never do that again although there are people here who do not make plans and do just fine. My feeling is that if you can cancel with no penalty then why not book a place and if at around 4 or 5 you feel you still have much more driving in you then keep going.

 

[tjbaggott]

We've done as the previous poster mentioned. Only in addition, in the days before leaving, I looked up and made a list of possible Hotels along the way. I also looked at the reviews and made a list of those to AVOID if any had terrible reviews. We picked up the coupon booklets for discounts on hotels, that you can get at the welcome centres in each state, and made use of those and my list when we were getting ready to stop. Our first night, we didn't make it as far as we had planned, but had actually driven longer than we had planned. My lists came in handy as when we found a coupon in the booklet, I was able to compare it to my list to see the hotel rating and prices excluding coupons. (just to know we got a deal, but when you are tired you are tired and sometimes getting a deal just doesn't matter)

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Marriott hotels allowing cancelation up until 6 pm day of check in to cancel without penalty. This includes their more budget-oriented hotels such as Courtyard and Fairfield Inn. FIs include free breakfast. They are usually under $100 after tax w/AAA and clean/modern.

 

[hearts8701]

we drive down at least 5 times a year i never make advance reservations mainly because i never know when we will be tired and want to stop everytime i think we'll stop in a certain town my husband wants to drive longer we never have a problem finding a room

 

[vicki_c]

We have made unplanned stops and sometimes it works out, and one time it did not. We were traveling from Florida to MD a few years ago and decided we needed to stop for the night. I can't remember where we were, but it was a holiday weekend I think. We went to some town with a bunch of hotels and spent like an hour driving around and no one had any rooms. We finally lucked out with one chain hotel -- they had only king bed rooms left and we took one - it was close to midnight by that point. All 4 of us (me, DH, DS 9 and DD 7) all slept in the bed together!

On the bright side, I did talk the manager into a discount since it was almost midnight!

 

[NotUrsula]

Personally, I don't wing it. I can almost always get a better deal in advance, and for us it works best to have a goal. I do have several chains' 800 numbers programmed into my cell just in case, however. Sometimes you just need to stop RIGHT NOW, like the time I unexpectedly came down with a stomach virus 4 hours from our goal hotel.

I find that the biggest risk in smaller cities comes over weekends because of sport tournaments. I originally started booking ahead when this happened to us twice in a row: the first one was a college football game, and the second was a gymnastics tournament.

 

[Promomx2]

We used to drive to Jackonsville and take the tour of the Budweiser plant, free beer, spend the night and then stroll in the wdw.