Would you drive down for one week?

[TreesyB]

Do you think it's worth it?

I'm thinking of going down for March break. Leaving early Sat. morning and arriving Sunday night; then driving back Sat. morning and returning Sunday night (and probably taking an extra day off to recuperate).

Would you do it? There would be me, my mom and DS (10). We are actually going to Fort Myers as that's where my parents' condo is.

Flying during March break is so expensive (even from Buffalo) - and I just got a new Hybrid car so even gas wouldn't be that expensive... just if the weather would cooperate.

 

[new2disx3]

YEP! We are doing it for the first time...leaving next Saturday. I'm looking forward to our BIG adventure

 

[irisesareblue]

We own a business so can only take a week off at a time and have driven down before for a weeks' vacation - 36 hours down and 36 hours back - even with one stop on the way down and one on the way back, it was cheaper than flying. We are definitely Disney fans!

 

[nat1234]

I just did it the past December. We left on Sat. Nov. 28th and arrived at Disney on Mon., Nov 30th. And did the return trip on Dec. 7 and arrived home on Dec 8. We had great weather there and back and missed Buffalo's first major storm of the year by mere hours. Would I do it again, yes. It was just my mom, my 12 yr old DD and myself. Mom and I just shared the driving. Flights for the three of us were just so expensive that I thought we would give driving a try. And it wasn't so bad.

 

[AndyMcV]

I guess it depends on what you want to do on your vacation. Driving down eats up 2 days before and 2 days after in addition to your time at Disney. Depending on your dates you can still get flights out of SW for $700+ for the 3 of you.

Since you asked, we'd be flying down.

 

[dancin Disney style]

If I really needed a vacation and there were no other options I would drive down. We really prefer to have at least 7 full days of vacation. DH and I have stressful jobs and need the down time. We were thinknig of driving for MB but in the end we decided it just wouldn't be enough time for us and this year he is not able to take an extra day or 2 because of meetings and other peoples vacation time.

Could you leave on the Friday afternoon instead of Saturday?

 

[lisaviolet]

Absolutely. I've done it year after year after year. And I absolutely think its worth it! I adore the drive down. Adore the feeling of warmer, warmer, coat off, shoes off. Sandals on. (though the last two years haven't been great for that - still cold in the Carolinas etc). The drive to me is part of the vacation.

I have a good strategy for the short trips like the March Break. Sometimes we leave late in the day (ummm we sleep for two hours in a US Walmart parking lot the first night but I realize that's not for everyone! ) and then I priceline "name your own price" very far down the route and we've got into that hotel early in the day and had a long hotel stay and we're in driving distance of WDW the next.

I adore 90/79/US19/77/26/4 - West Virginia fuels my soul. And the drive from WV/VA into NC. Sighing. So incredibly beautiful.

However this year I've been vetoed. Flying from PIT instead of the closer BUF. So half and half. PIT always stays low. I just booked my flight out for $89 last weekend. And last month got our extended family in for just under a thousand US for a family of four!!! And direct flights. I did Airtran. Usually do SW. (Unfortunately, they've - PIT flights - have gone way up this week )

We've done PIT before for last minute trip to WDW b/c it stays low and it's a lovely airport. And you can do it in 4.5/5 from Toronto. Not the best but wonderful if you didn't get BUF early enough.

I will miss the drive. So have fun if you go. I'm jealous of the warmer, warmer, HOT!!! Laughing.

 

[Alderbrook]

We've done it, not during winter months before though so you have to take into account weather in your drive, but we don't mind the drive. We do 14 hrs the first day & 10 the next. We leave early in the am like 4am & go. We don't mind the drive down, but the drive home always seems to take forever.

We don't do parks the day we get there as usually we're there late afternoon & just hang around the pool, unpack & relax & hit the parks the next day.

I love having my car there. We use the bus for park transporation but we drive around to visit other resorts/restaurants.

 

[grace&philipsmom]

We would totally drive if we could do it in 2 days. Unfortunately we are stuck with airfares that cost the same as our hotel, park passes and dining plan combined!

All the same we are thinking about driving down in the summer 2011. If only it didn't take 4 days!

 

[jayjay13]

Yep, that's what we're doing - we leave Friday night and will drive straight to Savannah, GA then rest for the night in a hotel and then on to Disney!

 

[Sue M]

No, taking 4 days travel time out of a week holiday is alot, but that's me. I'd fly. We are 3 hr drive from a U.S.airport and fly out of there to save $.
Depends on how much your time is worth to you.
I would save driving for longer vacation.

 

[North7]

Of course it's worth it... and we are doing it Our March Break starts on Friday so we are leaving Thursday after school and will arrive at WDW Friday afternoon driving straight through. We are staying 8 nights and then will leave on Saturday for the trip home with an overnight stay.

I would definitely do it

 

[TreesyB]

Could you leave on the Friday afternoon instead of Saturday?

I'm thinking of leaving early Saturday morning to avoid an 2nd overnight stay. I figure if we leave at 4:00am then we could do 14 hours before needing to stop for overnight. Then the others could sleep while I drove.

I agree it's a nice drive, and that's part of the vacation too if you're not feeling rushed. So long as the weather is co-operative and no snow storms are brewing.

 

[canluvpooh]

We did it the first year we went down, before we realized how cheaply we could fly out of Buffalo No more driving for us now.

However, that said we really did enjoy the drive down - as another poster said it is great shedding those clothes along the way

Coming back north, now that is a depressing thing

If driving is the only way you can do it then go ahead and have fun with it

 

[dvc deernut]

WE HAVE DRIVEN IT, GREAT DRIVE. RATHER DRIVE THAT DRIVE THAN DRIVE THE 401 TO DETROIT. IVE DONE IT DRIVING BY MYSELF WHILE THE REST FLEW. WE WANTED VEHICLE THERE AND I BROUGHT THE GROCERIES. THAT TIME I LEFT NOTL AT 7am AND ARRIVED aROUND 10am THE NEXT DAY WITH A REST NEAR CHARLOTTE NC.
I ARRIVED AT OKW RESORT ABOUT 10 MINUTES BEFORE THE OTHER 3 ARRIVED BY JET.
THERE ARE 2 PLACES YOU HAVE TO WATCH OUT FOR SPEED TRAPS. THE INFAMOUS ONE IN SUMMERVILLE NEAR BECKLEY THE TOWN SHERRIFF SITS THERE LOOKING FOR CANADIANS AND NAILS YOU FOR 1 MPH OVER. THE OTHER IS THE FLORIDA STATE LINE ON THE 95. THEY COME OUT AT YOU DRIVING CAMEROS AND WHATEVER TO CATCH YOU. OTHER THAN THAT I WAS DRIVING 80 MOST OF THE WAY.
BUT THE NEXT DAY I WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOO TIRED WASTED MOST OF THE DAY RECOVERING. i CANT SLEEP WHILE SOMEONE ELSE DRIVES .
BUT IF YOU HIT BAD WEATHER ANYWHERE FROM BUFFALO THRU TO THE 2 TUNNELS IN VIRGINIA JUST PAST BECKLEY BEFORE YOU GO DOWN THE HUGE DECLINE AT THE BLUE RIDGE ROAD YOUR IN TROUBLE. SO HOPEFULLY YOU GET GOOD WEATHER. IVE DRIVEN DOWN THE 79 IN A BAD SNOWSTORM A COUPLE OF MARCH BREAKS AGO. FORTUNATELY I GOT THRU BEFORE THE WHOLE STORM HIT AND FRIENDS OF OURS ENDED UP STUCK IN WV FOR 2 DAYS.
NOW WE ALWAYS FLY OUT OF BUFFALO, WE ARE LEAVING MAR 10th FLIGHT COST US 79 EACH GOING DOWN AND 99 COMING BACK THE FOLLOWING WED. IF WE HAD WAITED A DAY IT WENT UP TO OVER 200 One WAY.
THE MORE GOING DOWN IN ONE CAR ITS CHEAPER BUT IF YOU ARE GOING ALONE OR WITH ONE OTHER FLYING IS CHEAPER AND YOU DONT WASTE ALMOST 4 DAYS

 

[hcmomma]

We are going to. We are leaving Saturday morning, staying somewhere that night and will get to Daytona Sunday night. Monday we are going to Kennedy Space Centre, Tuesday taking our time getting to Disney and staying there Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday nights. Doing MK for 2 days and heading home Friday morning. We will get home Saturday night. Sunday for recovery. Monday school and work. We considered Disney for 5 days but want to see KSC and dh doesn't want to do parks that many days in a row. I think it would have been totally doable though.

We recently did Banff to SWOntario - 37 hours of driving - in 2 1/2 days so 22 hours sounds short in comparison. 2 adults, 4 kids 3-11 and dh doesn't let me drive. I will have to make sure he knows about those speed traps though - thanks for that.

Lots of people from our area drive down - I know 2 others going that week. The family I know that was going to fly last week ended up with their flights getting cancelled after they travelled to Detriot. I think the weather is a risk no matter who you travel. For us the drive is part of the vacation/adventure.

 

[Cdn Gal]

Thanks for the speed trap info! We are driving down this summer and I am going to make sure that we take it slow in those two places!

 

[Hockeychic]

Yup I would go in a heart beat

 

[TLPL]

You crazy people! I will not drive down there if I don't have to. After driving for 2 days I will need another 2 days to recover. And drive another 2 days home after a vacation?? I will another vacation after that!!!!

 

[tigercat]

We just drove down and had to use I-75. The weather was really bad the other way down. We had a 2 and 4 yr. old as well as a dd pregnant with her 3rd. My ds (29 yrs) as well as myself. The only person driving ended up pretty well me. We ended up stopped for an 18 car pile up just south of Knoxville. We drove the speed limit and were glad we did. I couldn't believe the number of speed traps on the route. I don't think it really was cheaper for us to drive. I think if we had of looked we could have gotten flights cheaper and just used Disney transport and just rented a mini van for the last 2 days to go and see our friends. If I have my way I will not drive down again unless we are going for more than 2 weeks. It seemed such a waste to me. We left Fri night and got there on Sunday afternoon. We stopped for both nights. The little one's were really great but they did need to get out and stopping for the night gave them some run time. Also, a 5 months pregnant lady, a 4 yr old and a menopausal woman meant lots of potty breaks. The drive was fun and we did make it part of our trip but I would have rather been at Disney not getting there.
tigercat