Daytona 500 question

[daveemtdave]

This may sound odd but has anyone tied this race in with their stay at Disney. We have been at Disney when the race was taking place, but we thought of going down...staying at Disney...driving over for the race...then coming back to finish our trip. Just wondering if anyone else on this board has done this.

 

[crazygirley]

We thought about doing it last summer and are glad we didn't.

My parents are big NASCAR fans, and when we spotted someone in a "Daytona 500" T-Shirt, we stopped and asked them how the race was.

They told us the race was great! But not great enough to make up for the terrible time they had getting back to WDW/AKL.

They had set aside one day to travel to Daytona and see the race. Everything was fine until the race was over. They said they, and everyone else, waited at least an hour, bottlenecked, to get out of the stands and to the parking lot. When they got to their car, it took another half-hour for them to get on the main highway. And then another three hours to get onto I-4. From there, traffic was heavy and it took another hour to get into Orlando, and then back to WDW. They said that they didn't get back to WDW/AKL until 4:30 the next morning, and it ruined the next day for them, as they spent a good portion of the day sleeping. They said they would never do it again.

It's up to you though!

 

[JPVonDrake]

I can tell you that alot of people do this. Some never even go to the parks, instead just stay at Disney to go to the race as rooms anywhere near Daytona Beach are very hard to come by. If you are interested in doing this, be sure to plan ahead and book early.

Hope this helps! :sohappy:

 

[Ringo8n24]

We did it last year when Disney sponsored the Daytona 500. We stayed at POR Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. We hit Epcot on Saturday to get a Disney "park" fix. Driving over to Daytona that morning was a breeze as was returning. We came straight out from the track to the interstate--straight shot and it did not take long at all. I would suggest waiting for about an hour after the race is over to hit the interstate because we seemed to miss the bottleneck. I highly recommend incorporating Daytona 500 with a Disney stay. We will do it again as well. PM me and I will give you the info on the parking lot we used at the speedway that allowed for quick exit back to the interstate.

 

[Master Yoda]

I would have to second crazygirlie's response. While I have never gone to the race I have been stuck in the 50 mile long traffic jam on I-4 after the race. If you decide to go a better way to get back to WDW might be the Bee-line expressway that picks up about 30 muinets south of the I-4 exit on I-95. It bypasses downtown Orlando and dumps you onto I-4 only a couple of exits away from WDW. I typically take this route in from Jacksonville if I am going to be coming through Orlando during rush hour. The travel distance it longer but because the Bee-line is a toll road the traffic seems to be much lighter.

 

[njblackberry]

You have to plan it and expect a very long day on race day. We've done it the last 3 years. Start in WDW, leave brutally early for Daytona - like well before 6 AM. Last year we got to Daytona and were parked before 9 AM. Went to breakfast, walked around, bought stuff and had a great time at the race. We park way down by I-95, so we almost ran to the car after the race, and made it back to Orlando in about 90 minutes. We went down I-95 to the Bee Line, as was mentioned. I've done that for both the Daytona 500 and the Pepsi 400. For the Pepsi race - a night race - we didn't pull into Orlando until after 3AM. And I was the designated driver. A long, fun day.

 

[daveemtdave]

Thanks for the info. We have been at the parks during the race, just an idea about going.

 

[brkgnews]

I have a buddy who lives in Ormond Beach (northern Daytona suburb) and works at the speedway. He says a LOT of people stay on Disney property (and Orlando/Kissimee/etc in general) due to the fact that during race weeks, even the el-roacho motels in Daytona jack rates skyhigh.

 

[claning]

This may sound odd but has anyone tied this race in with their stay at Disney.

I know this will make some women on the board cringe....but this was my honeymoon. We even scheduled our wedding to make this work. Of course a February wedding in NJ got us 6 inches of snow during the wedding.

My wife jokes that I "owe her for life" for that. But hey! Her driver won the race! What more did she want?

We too got caught in traffic on I-4 on the was home. They had it down to one lane for 7 miles due to construction. At the very end of the closed zone there was one guy, ONE, with a shovel. Sent my wife through the roof. She is an engineer that runs construction projects on bridges in Delaware. They cannot even think of closing a lane of anything on Dover weekends. Delaware DOT will not permit it.

 

[disneyguru]

My boyfriend and I just did this in february. We stayed at All-Star Sports. It wasn't bad at all, and it was well worth it. I love both Disney and Nascar, so it was a perfect match. We came in the friday before the race, and went to the busch series race on saturday and then went back for the Daytona 500 on sunday, and then spent mon-fri at disney, it was a lot of fun, and we are actually considering doing it again next year. There is also a company that offers packages. The packages include staying a hotel on international drive and bus transportation to and from the race. We did it for the Pepsi 400 last summer and it was well worth it....we stayed on Internatioanl dr and went to the race, then checked out the next morning and went over to disney for 2 nights, it was great.