Nuts to drive from MI to WDW in December?

[kirinan]

We have a Disney vacation all planned and paid for; we'll be there from Sunday 11/28 till Saturday 12/4. Our original plan was to drive down from our home in the Detroit area (with a stop overnight in Chattanooga), which we love to do and have previously done in May, October, and early November.

But now I'm having second thoughts about driving down there and back in December, and I'm starting to wonder if we'd be better off flying down (I hate flying, but I can do it with a tranquilizer) and renting a car (which we definitely want to have available since we do things outside of WDW) that time of year.

My question is, has anyone driven from Michigan or another northern state to WDW after Thanksgiving, and how was the weather on the way down? Does it get icy, snowy, foggy, or otherwise treacherous? I'm not so worried about the cities, but there's a lot of mountain driving through Kentucky and Tennessee, which makes me nervous. I know with the freaky weather the last few years, anything can happen, but I was wondering what other people have experienced. Thanks!

 

[kirinan]

OMG, Mouse Man, you hit our feelings about driving exactly. We love the scenery on the way down, the funny little signs on the way down (Stinking Creek Road comes to mind), and especially that drive up to and through the WDW gate--I know exactly when to start looking for it, and we get so excited as we get closer.

We also stop at Cracker Barrels all the way down, because we know that not only are the bathrooms always clean, the food is good (not exactly healthy, but hey, calories don't count on vacation), and I can always buy good old-fashioned sugary stuff to keep me awake in the car. In fact, our last trip I even bought a little light-up Christmas Cracker Barrel "restaurant" with Santa sitting by the fireplace to put out during the holidays, because it reminds us of our trips to WDW.

What grinds my husband about flying is: 1) the baggage fees, 2) having to take off his shoes, and his belt, etc. (although, like you, he understands the need, 3) being penned up like veal in teeny-weeny seats in a small metal tube, and 4) now that we both use CPAP machines for our sleep apnea, it's another thing to haul onto the plane and hope that some idiot slamming his or her overstuffed luggage into an overhead bin doesn't ruin our several hundred-dollar machines.

So yes, we're going to take advantage of having the extra day or two on each side to give ourselves a travel cushion.

 

[WishIwasThere]

We are doing the WDW marathon in Jan and surprisingly my DW mentioned driving down and is willing to drive straingt through to get there.... I've been trying to talk her into this for years. I like driving, especially at night, so while she and the kids are sleeping, I'll be cruising through NYC, NJ, and hopefully DC before dawn, then she can take over and I'll nap. Kids are fine with their portable DVD players and the Nintendo DS' so no problems there. Driving the Prius, with snow tires just in case, so we should get awesome mileage. Packing our own snacks and such for the car so we are figuring a little over $100 to get down, compared to $600 for the cheapest tickets. Plan to stretch the drive back to two days so a little more expensive coming back.

Hoping that the weather isn't going to be an issue. Figured the odd are generally in our favor.

 

[cemeb4dk]

We drive from the Chicagoland area in all parts of the year. We went down in early Feb last year, and the way we looked at it, flights can be delayed due to a storm somewhere else in the country. Yeah you can have storms on the roads, but you know the crews service the highways well. Plus your from MI, so your used to driving in snow and icy conditions. Now if you were from California and wanted to drive form MI to Disney I may have a different answer. But drive go for it, we always go straight thru 19 hours, so you dont loose much time. Then stop on way back, we are too excited to get there to stop.

Safe travels either way.