Driving inquiry

[DSNY FN]

So how many of us on here drive to WDW for our holidays and where do we drive from?

We drive the I75 after getting into the US from London Ontario it is about a 20-22 hour drive on average we have made it in 18 drving hours before. Our general trip driving is 2 days there and straight home after.
Our drive down starts at 7PM after dinner and getting the kids into their pj's this way they sleep for a majority of the drive. We wake them up in Gearogia at the welcome centre and get them dressed and feed them breakfast. We then stop for lunch at teh rest area at he beginning of the Macon bypass. We then drive till 3 or 4 in the afternoon and stop for the night at the Fairfield inn in Valdosta Gerogia at exit 18. The next morning starts with the free breakfast at the hotel then on the road before 9 AM we stop at the Florida welcome centre for some Disney brochures and a shot of free Florida OJ and some pics under the welcome to Florida sign. Mind you in May it had all been changed around and it is no longer the small sign at the south side of the building it is now a huge sugn right out front. We then arrive at WDW for about 1 in teh afternoon after stping for groceries on the way in.

[cobbler]

We drive from MI.

If we go after Thanksgiving (which is most of the time) we leave Thanksgiving day and head down to hubby's grandmas house for a couple of days.

We take I-196 to I-94 to I-65 all the way down to southern Alabama and stay a couple of days with grandma. We don't stop! Its 13 hours straight. We pack a cooler and off we go. Only stop for gas and bathroom.

After we leave grandmas house we drive AL-231 to I-10 over to I-75 and then to Disney.

If we aren't stay at Grandmas we take the same above except we hit up I-24 from 65 at Nashville and over to I-75 just near the GA/TN border. We stop south of Atlanta (or stay with family in Atlanta depending on the mood). Get up and are out the door at 6am to finish the journey to Disney.

We take the same route home, trying to make our goal to KY before we spend the night.

[TW1]

Drove once, from Philly.

This past August we made the drive, me, DW, DS7 and DD11. Part of a big trip to WDW for 5 nights, then on to VB for 2 nights then 5 more in HHI.

All went very smooth, only a few major slow-downs due to accidents. Was hit by the spike in gas prices due to Katrina while we were in HHI.

Not sure if we'll do this often. Flying from Philly for 4 is not that unreasonable. Though we liked having a car in WDW, first time we had one and defintely used it to our advantage.

[PoohsPal]

Have I mentioned the amount of vacation time I get? ;) Nope, not wasting it driving. No way, no how. Most of our weekends we drive to one of our parents houses 2.5 to 3 hours away, plus we have decent communtes. Nope, no driving.

[TW1]

Have I mentioned the amount of vacation time I get? ;) Nope, not wasting it driving. No way, no how. Most of our weekends we drive to one of our parents houses 2.5 to 3 hours away, plus we have decent communtes. Nope, no driving.

DW feels the same way. She appreciates the need to drive to HHI every summer since flights there are pricey and you must have a car, but she'd rather not waste travel days when we go to the World.

We put enough miles on the van as it is!

[DSNY FN]

We do the drive with our 3 kids they have been making the drive from the age of about 8 months old. They are now 9 4 and 3. They love the drive we have a dvd system in teh van but it hardly gets used. We watch a movie when leaving London to Windsor then it goes off and they go to sleep for the night. The day is spent colouring and playing games and reading or listening to music they travel really really well. We bring an electric cooler for drinks and snacks and a roof top carrier to load the big bags etc in to keep the van from clutter it works out great and the kids love the drive. Plus for a family of 5 to fly even on SWA out of Buffalo is about 900 US and even higher from Canada compared to the 175.00 Us it cost us for gas in May that was return not just one way.

edited to fix that they don't listen to movies but they listen to music LOL.

[mickeyndvcfan]

We drive down the second week in Dec. from Philly. We go down I-95 and usually stay in Fayetteville, SC and continue on from there. We also drove to HHI this June and will be driving back again next June. Right now it is just DH and I, but next June we are taking my DS, DDIL, and DGS. DGS will be 20 months in June so we'll see who that goes.

[chimera]

We always drive, but we don't have a fair comparison to everyone else. It's only 1.5 to 2 hours for us, depending on traffic. Our girls travel well when we do take longer driving trips...I'm afraid I'm the one that hates being in the car for very long :crowded:

[DSNY FN]

We drive down the second week in Dec. from Philly. We go down I-95 and usually stay in Fayetteville, SC and continue on from there. We also drove to HHI this June and will be driving back again next June. Right now it is just DH and I, but next June we are taking my DS, DDIL, and DGS. DGS will be 20 months in June so we'll see who that goes.

I am sure it will be just fine our kids love the drive mind you we started them early driving places like from teh time they were 2 moths old they were travelling 3 plus hours in teh car to go to the cottage up north with no breaks or stops.

[bavaria]

I 'commute' to work via the big jet along with about 100 other passengers!!!

I really admire those of you hardy enough to drive - I do enjoy my road trip vacations, and can put 2,000 miles on a car in a week, meandering around. But since I live 5,000+ miles from WDW, no driving to the mouse!!!!

[tjkraz]

We've driven from Ohio twice. I don't mind it too much, but DW dreads driving. If we can get great airfare (like the $100 pp round trip we picked-up for our Feb/March trip), we'll do that every time.

The first time we drove I thought it was perfect. We left around 10pm and had three drivers in the car. I'm a night owl as it is, so I took as much of the night driving as I could and left the next morning to DW. We made it to Orlando around 6pm. That was pretty long, but it included a scheduled stop of about 2 hours in Atlanta. By the time we arrived, we had just enough time to hit Downtown Disney for an hour, and then we got a full night's sleep.

The second time we drove, things didn't go quite as well. First mistake was to leave around 1pm. We made it to Orlando around 8am, pretty much exhausted. That left us sleep-walking through Epcot for about 5 hours until our rooms were ready. I also think I may have had a head cold during that trip (it was December), because I just didn't have any stamina. I can usually push myself pretty good when I need to, but I was useless for about half of the drive.

Both return trips were uneventful. I wonder why the trip down always seems more memorable than the return trip home. ;)

[DSNY FN]

We've driven from Ohio twice. I don't mind it too much, but DW dreads driving. If we can get great airfare (like the $100 pp round trip we picked-up for our Feb/March trip), we'll do that every time.

The first time we drove I thought it was perfect. We left around 10pm and had three drivers in the car. I'm a night owl as it is, so I took as much of the night driving as I could and left the next morning to DW. We made it to Orlando around 6pm. That was pretty long, but it included a scheduled stop of about 2 hours in Atlanta. By the time we arrived, we had just enough time to hit Downtown Disney for an hour, and then we got a full night's sleep.

The second time we drove, things didn't go quite as well. First mistake was to leave around 1pm. We made it to Orlando around 8am, pretty much exhausted. That left us sleep-walking through Epcot for about 5 hours until our rooms were ready. I also think I may have had a head cold during that trip (it was December), because I just didn't have any stamina. I can usually push myself pretty good when I need to, but I was useless for about half of the drive.

Both return trips were uneventful. I wonder why the trip down always seems more memorable than the return trip home. ;)


Funy how that is isn't it you always seem to remember even the smallest details about the drive down but the drive home somehow seems to get forgotten pretty quicly LOL.

[dizhoni]

Ours is simple compared to most of you. We leave around eight in the morning down 231 and pick up I10 and I75. It takes about 8 hours, so we arrive at 5, stay off site and check in the next morning. This time we are staying in Shades of Green until rest of family arrives (first time). Such a wonderful trip---I hope 2006 doesn't spoil me forever!!! Honi :bluebloun

[withdisneyspirit]

We are about an hour and a half further up the road in Alabama from dizhoni. That makes our trip 9 1/2 hours driving. We have always driven, its not too far and we enjoy having our car. Saving on travel doesn't hurt either :beaniepro

[DSNY FN]

We have flown a few times but to be honest we really prefer the drive even teh kids look foreward to and love the drive.

[KNWVIKING]

We drive down from Jersey. 1026 miles. Worst part of the trip is getting out of Jersey. We live in the southern half. It reall bugs me to spend the first hour of the trip driving NORTH so I can go over a bridge and head SOUTH !!

We drive straight thru, takes a little over 14 hrs. Stop twice for gas & potty ( DW wishes the Envoy had a 6 gallon gas tank rather then a 25 ). I do all the driving, DW does all the napping.

I enjoy the drive so I don't feel like I'm wasting vacation time. When gas prices were $3.00+ for our Oct trip, airfare was looking a little more attractive, but after I factored in a rental car driving was still considerably cheaper.

[DSNY FN]

We drive down from Jersey. 1026 miles. Worst part of the trip is getting out of Jersey. We live in the southern half. It reall bugs me to spend the first hour of the trip driving NORTH so I can go over a bridge and head SOUTH !!

We drive straight thru, takes a little over 14 hrs. Stop twice for gas & potty ( DW wishes the Envoy had a 6 gallon gas tank rather then a 25 ). I do all the driving, DW does all the napping.

I enjoy the drive so I don't feel like I'm wasting vacation time. When gas prices were $3.00+ for our Oct trip, airfare was looking a little more attractive, but after I factored in a rental car driving was still considerably cheaper.


I agree we worked the numbers for flights for our crew of 5 and then rental and driving was by far the cheaper way to go. It was going to be 900.00 US for flights return from Buffalo to Orlando plus the hotel at the airport for park and fly another 75 bucks plas rental for the week of 200. Driving down cost us about 175 bucks for the entire trip for fuel so by far a no brainer.

[jaysue]

Drove once from Toronto to Orlando - due to weather issues (it was January) on the I-75 and I-77/79 combos, drove down I-95 way

The drive was beautiful through NY State then across and down Penn into Maryland and then into spoke around DC on the SW side and then onto I-95. The weather was so-so - the drive across Penn and part of Maryland needed lots of concentration - I was glad I was driving by myself. Once I descended into the plains in MD, it was easy driving

Left Toronto about 0900 and arrived in North Carolina (Fayetteville I think) around 11pm (remember weather not great part of the way and lack of interstates part of way) and then next day left at 0530 and arrived around 2pm in Orlando - it was nice to see the temp slowly climb as I made my way south

Went the same way coming back end of Feb since there were weather issues on I-75 and a major storm in Raleigh area blocking the I-77/79 combo

The traffic around DC is just horrible - there were some beautiful areas in PA though that some day I will take the family to see

Cheers
jaysue

[KNWVIKING]

Doesn't the exchange rate for Canadian time basically add about 30% to your total travel time ?

[lllovell]

lol KNW

We are lucky enough to be able to drive in a little over 5.5 hours if the kids are asleep and about 7 if they are awake. They watch movies for the most part and are content in the car. This trip next week will largely depend on the smallest one. My plan is to get into the car after her morning feeding (which can be anywhere from 4 am - 7 am) and then drive until she wakes up demanding to be fed. Hopefully, one stop to feed us all and we will be on the road again! I really want to be there by 3 or so at the latest giving us time to do grocery shopping, check in and either Downtown Disney and some park time if we are early enough (not necessairly in that order either!). I was going to try wegoshop this trip, but not after the latest reports.

For us its 75 to the turn pike - interstate all the way. A stop just south of Tifton, GA is close to 1/2 way and there is a Steak n Shake attached to the truck stop where we stop (exit 61 I believe :) Omega) so we can do everything we need in one place, change movies and hit the road for the remainder of the trip.

Come on SUNDAY!!! woot! :bluebloun

[KNWVIKING]

Where are you staying on Sunday ?

We check in at VWL bright & early Sunday morning.

[lllovell]

We are giving our home SSR a shot. Just my 2nd DVC trip and I can't wait!!!

[jaysue]

Doesn't the exchange rate for Canadian time basically add about 30% to your total travel time ?

About 16-17% given today's Cdn Dollar rate

Cheers
jaysue

:Pokepoke: :Pokepoke: :Pokepoke: :Pokepoke: :Pokepoke:

[DSNY FN]

It really isn't that bad anymore Viking it used to be when we were at 64 cents on the dollar but even then it didn't diswade us from traveling and driving to WDW. I just converted some money the other day and got an exchange rate of 15.1 cents on the dollar so 84.9 cents US to 1 dollar CDN which is very good and only getting better.