When is the best time to drive? Night or Day?

[chipper10]

We are going to be driving to WDW for the first time with our DS who will be 3.5 when we go in August. We will be driving from IL (very close to St. Louis, MO). Do you think it's best to leave in the late afternoon and drive through the night or would it be best to leave early in the morning and just stay overnight somewhere.

I'm not sure what to do since this will be our first driving trip with our son. The farthest he's ever been in a car has only been about an hour and a half.

Thanks for any help!

 

[msmayor]

Its really hard to predict how a young child will react to a long car ride.

The very first time we drove to WDW from NJ, we left in the morning around 8am and by 4pm stopped for dinner. The kids seemed fine in the car, ate well, were happy...so we opted to press on for a few more hours. We left an area with abundant hotels, and were a good 2 hours from the next best area.

30 minutes after we pulled back on the interstate the kids just melted down. It was awful, and we ended up stopping at what amounted to a truck stop area (there was a nice Days Inn right at the exit) because that's all that was around. The kids NEEDED out of the car and some play time.

Best advice? Be prepared to change gears whatever you decide until you know how your child will handle all that time in the car.

 

[eliza61]

We love starting out very early in the morning (3 amish) for any long distance drive as we are pretty refreshed after a good nights rest.

Msmayor is absolutely correct, no way to predict how the kiddies will handle a long drive. One year mines would be perfectly fine, the next year-all hell would break loose.

Usually leaving early means my kids would fall back asleep for 4 hours then could last until we stopped for the night (when I say last, I also should say we stopped many times for rest and play)

 

[skiingfast]

I feal the biggest problem of driving at night is fatigue. Right before the trip will you be so exciting from planning and packing that you won't sleep well and the next night you plan to drive? If you can switch drivers the dilemma isn't as bad. Just let the one who has the most problems sleeping in the car drive first so the other can nap. The other thing that makes me worry about driving at night is animals. I've never hit an animal during the day and only have had a couple close calls. I've hit a few at night and had near misses with lots of deer and elk. But I live in a rural area driving highways, and problems are much fewer once on the interstate.

The benefit of driving at night is missing the traffic, especially when you go through mertopolitan areas. The extra is saving the money on a hotel.

You may get to WDW at an odd time. If you pull into your hotel at 10am will you be able to check in? What if one of you need to sleep when you get there? Will you have enough energy to go in the parks?

Your son will probably be fine. The only problems I've had with mine is getting car sick on winding passes. I'd bring a picnic meal so he can run around outside for a bit, or a McDonals play place, for a half hour. Doesn't matter whether you leave at 8 pm or 4am, I'm sure he will sleep when its dark. If it's light out he may need to pee a lot and at that age you may not want him wetting diapers on the ride becaus it could continue in the parks.

If you have one a portable DVD player will keep him entertained. He's probably too young to read or mabye even color in the car.

 

[JB2K]

We are going to be driving to WDW for the first time with our DS who will be 3.5 when we go in August. We will be driving from IL (very close to St. Louis, MO). Do you think it's best to leave in the late afternoon and drive through the night or would it be best to leave early in the morning and just stay overnight somewhere.

I'm not sure what to do since this will be our first driving trip with our son. The farthest he's ever been in a car has only been about an hour and a half.

Thanks for any help!

I live in your neighborhood -- we did our first car trip to WDW, last September with our 3 year-old son -- it turned-out to be a good experience.

We left the Metro-East in the late afternoon and overnighted in Tullahoma, TN (I am retired military and we had great accomodations at Arnold Air Force Base that didn't cost a lot) -- left TN early the next morning and arrived at Disney by dinnertime (that was by using the I-75/Florida's Turnpike routing to WDW).

As we passed-through Atlanta on the weekend, we didn't have anything out of the ordinary, there...

If you need any specific information as it relates to driving from the Metro-East to WDW, you can PM me, and I'll let you know...

 

[bookwormde]

when you are the most comfortable and safest. I like to leave at 9-11 pm since the kids go to sleep and I am half way there before they wake up, but I do not mid night driving and DW takes over a little after dawn. From the mid atlantic that get me into WDW around 1-3 pm.

bookwormde

 

[jojogana]

Hi we live in Iowa and we drive for EVERY vacation!!! We always leave at about 10-11 pm, that way ds9, dd8, and ds2 gets a good night sleep. When they wake up in the morning we put a dvd in the portables and they count down arrival with the amount of movies they watch!! We only stop for bathroom and eating breaks...we have never stopped at a hotel. ( we feel if we ever stopped that getting back in the car with 6 more hours to go would be a fight.) We have even driven to mexico city mexico with the 3, non stop.. Just give them plenty to do and snacks and drinks to share they will be fine. Definately start late!! Driver gets peace and quiet for the first 6-8 hours!!

 

[Disneycrazymom]

We live just on the other side of you. We have had to drive a couple trips. We like to leave our driveway around 4:30 - 5. It puts us in Atlanta before rush hour. And give the benefit of it being dark for a little while so the kids could go back to sleep. Twice we have driven straight through leaving at about 4:30 and arriving at The All Stars about 11:30. It was a LOOOOOONNNNGGGG day. But we checked in and slept in the next am. DH prefers this to stopping and doing the drive in 2 days. Since he is the primary driver he gets to choose!

Depending on when you are going there are some good Southwest fares you might want to check into. For our June 23 - July 1 trip we are only paying $149 round trip. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[TheMorgans]

We live just to the east of you! On most of our trips we fly, but on the occasions that we have drove we generally leave right after an early dinner. The kids have their bellies full and settle in with blankets and pillows to watch DVD's. They are usually asleep by 9 or 10 and wake up about 1 hour before we arrive at WDW. We take turns driving so that each of us gets a little nap.

On the first day we plan very limited activites - exploring the resort, pool time, and the arcade. That evening we usually have an early dinner so we are ready for a full day on day two.

One time we made the mistake of driving all night and trying to go to AK at rope drop and spending the day. Trust me... It was not the happiest place on earth that day.

 

[sticker231]

Just got back from our trip last night On the way down we leave after dinner. We eat dinner then get on our way. Since it is their normal schedule, they fall asleep and you get some quiet driving time. On the way home, we just leave when everyone is ready, we have left at 5 am, 7am, and 9:30 am.

 

[DVC mom]

My vote is to get up and leave very early about 4 am, stop for lunch at a place with a play place to let the little one run and play, and stop before rush hour and evening to eat a relaxed meal and get settled in a hotel early to unwind and SLEEP. Repeat the process the next day. I would also recommend packing new fun car activities for the little one to do. Have an adult sit in the back to keep them company. Happy traveling...

 

[2DisPrincesses]

We are driving from MI in June. We have driven it straight through, but never with kids.

We are planning on leaving at about 5 pm. We figure they should be fine and easy to entertain for the first few hours. We will stop for a quick picnic dinner and let them run a little and put pjs on.


We are hoping they will sleep all night- we'll see. I think DD(4) will be fine, it's DD(1) I'm worried about. I'm bringing lots of new toy, snacks, and dvd players in hopes that we can make it a pleasant experience.

Good Luck!

 

[bored]

We live in western NC and takes us 10 hours. We try to keep DD (7) up to around midnight or 1 am and leave then. We usually arrive around noon and she will sleep at least 6-7 hours of the trip. Makes for a "quieter drive" and less traffic. I vote night.

 

[cranbiz]

My drive used to be 18-20 hours (still is when going back to MA to visit). I always drove the bulk of the trip at night as there is less traffic and you can make better time. The kids will usually sleep all night too.

You will need to figure out what is best for you though. I can drive all night without issues, you may not be able to for reasons already mentioned.

 

[CharliNye]

We live in west suburban chicago and we're going down for the first time in september by car.

We decided we're going to leave around 6 am and just drive as much as possible during the day, with a couple stops here and there. We have a 4 yr old and 13 yr old. The 4 yr old doesn't nap so that's not a big deal. Our estimation is that we'll hit Atlanta at some point by 7 pm and we'll stop for the night.

The place we're staying is off site and we can't check in til 4pm, so we plan on sleeping in, having breakfast and then just driving until we hit the place around 4ish.

At least we're HOPING that's how it works. Luckily the kids have a dvd player and video game system to keep them occupied. We've never done this type of trip before and my husband is looking forward to it(or was, the big reason he wanted to drive was to stop in Nashville-poor Nashville).