Welcome Centers

[tjbaggott]

We will be driving down to Orlando this Fall. We might like to drive straight through (it's a total 24 hour drive). With DH and I trading off on the driving. However, should I not sleep well in the van while it's moving, or DH for that matter, if we BOTH NEED to shut our eyes for a bit, but not want to stop for the whole night, Would we be allowed to pull into and park at a Welcome centre for a few hours, to catch a few winks? We're talking of course late at night or wee hours of the morning, but wouldn't need to stop for more than two hours.
Lots of time to plan this out, I'm not a fan of driving straight through, but DH brought it up, So thought I'd ask about this plan B option.

 

[dblr]

Most of the rest area or welcome centers you would be able to catch a couple of hour naps without a problem. When you get farther south ( Va. ) I think post no longer then 2 hours stay not sure how well it is enforced. Also in Fl. there always seems to be a State Trooper @ the rest stops.

 

[prncess674]

If you are that tired then you should pull in to a motel. It is not worth your safety to sleep in the car. If you are that tired 2 hours isn't going to do much and I would be worried about being held up or robbed sitting at a deserted rest stop.

 

[VAN]

In my younger days we would drive down to Florida straight through, switching off (20 hrs); however, now we have realized that doing that you are just burned out for the first day or two. Really, what have we accomplished?

What we do now is get on the road about 3:30 in the morning and drive for about 16 hours, pulling off the road about 7:00 or just when the sun is going down and you are starting to feel the effects of the drive. We get a room, order a pizza and break out a beer!

The next day, we are up at the "free" hotel breakfast and on the road by 7:30 am. Pulling into WDW fresh and ready to start our vacation about 4 hrs later.

Doing it this way, eliminates that burned out, so tired I can't move, feeling once you do arrive.

 

[tjbaggott]

In my younger days we would drive down to Florida straight through, switching off (20 hrs); however, now we have realized that doing that you are just burned out for the first day or two. Really, what have we accomplished?

What we do now is get on the road about 3:30 in the morning and drive for about 16 hours, pulling off the road about 7:00 or just when the sun is going down and you are starting to feel the effects of the drive. We get a room, order a pizza and break out a beer!

The next day, we are up at the "free" hotel breakfast and on the road by 7:30 am. Pulling into WDW fresh and ready to start our vacation about 4 hrs later.

Doing it this way, eliminates that burned out, so tired I can't move, feeling once you do arrive.

See, THIS is what I want to do, like you said, leave around 3 or 4 in the morning. With two of us driving, that means we could drive till early evening, which would be about 16 hours total the first day, stopping at a motel for the night, leaving only 8 hours to have to do on the 2nd day. Sounds much more reasonalbe to me. We have allowed ourselves a day of re-cooperation from the driving once we are there. DH currently for work, works 1:30 am to 10:30 am, thus why he figures we could drive straight through. But that's all dependant on him being able to sleep during the day in the van. (I know I don't sleep well in a moving vehicle) We'll see. Thanks for the info everyone!