Drive to Disney World?

[Guatemom2]

Hi Everyone,
How is the drive to Disney? How many hours? We are in Philadelphia, PA. Is parking free at Disney for guests that are staying in the park? WE are staying at AoA. Is it a pain to drive and park?
Would e leave in middle of night?
We will have an 8 & 6 yar old in the car with us.

Sorry for the questions, just never considered driving but some are telling us it's not that bad?

Thanks.

 

[JerseyDad]

I'm driving from the Piedmont/Triad area of NC with my kids tomorrow! We've never been before. We're leaving out at lunch. I hear it only takes about 10 hrs?! from the NC boarder so that should be about out time if that's right. But, we'll need to stop for the night since we can't check in until Friday Anyone have a good overnight spot? I'm thinking Jacksonville? Brunswick? or Savannah? Not sure how long the kids can hold out in the car!

...Piedmont/Triad area of NC ...is that near Greensboro?

 

[tndinnc]

Yes it is. Actually I'm leaving from about the second exit into NC MT. Airy/Dobson

 

[JerseyDad]

....I sort of know the area because I had a friend that lived in Hickory

 

[tndinnc]

....I sort of know the area because I had a friend that lived in Hickory

Cool. Not far at all from us.

 

[JerseyDad]

Cool. Not far at all from us.

....if your driving "limit" is about 7 hours ...you could easily be south of Jacksonville. I used to always stop in Brunswick, but we stopped in St Augustine this past August ...and it was great to have a less than 2 hour drive the next morning. As a recommendation, there is a Fairfield Inn there ...right off I-95 ...(Exit 318 / Rte 16) ...on Outlet Mall Blvd. It was the nicest ...cleanest hotel I've been to in recent memory ...with a great (free) breakfast available. If you consider it ...sign up as a Marriot Rewards member ....tonite ...NOW!! (on-line) ...and you can get a discount if you stay there. There are lots of restaurants in the area too ...

 

[brifraz]

I'm driving from the Piedmont/Triad area of NC with my kids tomorrow! We've never been before. We're leaving out at lunch. I hear it only takes about 10 hrs?! from the NC boarder so that should be about out time if that's right. But, we'll need to stop for the night since we can't check in until Friday Anyone have a good overnight spot? I'm thinking Jacksonville? Brunswick? or Savannah? Not sure how long the kids can hold out in the car!

If it was us, assuming you are leaving around 1pm or so, I'd say go until 9pm and see what you hit right around then. Ideally, I'd shoot for Daytona! Then in the morning, you only have an hour to get to Disneyworld, which means you can check into your room and be at one of the parks for opening (which is the best touring time).

 

[tndinnc]

Unfortunately our reservation says we can't check in until 3pm

 

[JerseyDad]

Unfortunately our reservation says we can't check in until 3pm

....ignore that ...ignore that TOTALLY. We arrived ...generally ....each time (at POP) between 10 am and 12 noon ...on all our trips. And we walked right up to the counter and checked in. Your room may be ready ...or it may not. (because of the 3pm stuff it says on the reservations ...yadda ..yadda ..yadda) 75 % of the time our room was ready and we went right to the room ....the other times ...we dropped the bags at the "luggage area" ...where they are secure ...and we went to a park ...or to eat ...or in the pool. You can have them call you when the room is ready. In the meantime ...enjoy the facilities.

 

[Disnee4Me]

I live in Massachusetts and have driven and flown to WDW. I much prefer the drive down. I can't tell you how many hours it takes because every time has been different. I love to take side trips and explore. And many times I arrive at WDW without any reservations and just take a shot that I will get what I want. Only once did this not happen...it was Christmas and AKL was completely booked and had to stay at one of the All Star Resorts. It was actually quite nice. Driving down you get to see so much of this wonderful country that we live in. One year I began the trek down and decided stop in Connecticut. I found a wonderful Greek diner that evening and great breakfast place the next morning. The hotel is an entirely different story.
-T

Where in Connecticut was the Greek diner ... well they are all over Connecticut.

 

[Disnee4Me]

To each his own. How you pack for Disney is all on you. I, myself, would leave my computer at home. Also, depending on the ages of your kids, if they're young enough to take a stroller, that gets you on the plane 1st!!! Plenty of overhead storage when you're on the plane first.

I have a small 10" Acer netbook that I bring just to transfer the photos taken each day, put them into folders for each different park, but now that i have a huge SD card I can take pictures forever before having to remove them. Still haven't taken the Italy 2012 pictures off the card ... call me lazy. LOL

 

[Lord_Vader]

We drive from Little Rock, AR with only stops from gas, dining/snacks or restroom breaks and the drive is ~1000 miles typically and takes around 14-15 hours or just less from door to door. Once we stopped overnight in Atlanta, GA adding to our expenses and really did not result in us being any more rested for our first day at Disney. When we were younger we preferred leaving late afternoon, switching off several times while she or I slept and usually meant the kids slept nearly all the way there and we arrived early in the morning to check into our resort. Once checked in we always had a relaxing day planned with pool time for the adults to relax and burn energy from the kids followed by a trip to DTD for them to scout souvenier ideas so we weren't constantly in the shops in the parks.

Today I prefer to drive during the day, leaving VERY early in the morning (3AM-4AM) which puts us in WDW around 8PM, we check-in, unpack, shower and get some rest so we can get up and out bright and early the next day. The kids have laptops, iPhones and iPads to keep them occupied so they are content to sit back, read or watch movies, and play games. We flew last summer, drove for Christmas and prefer the ease of flying but truely missed having the car. We spent a lot more money on flights ($1400), $200 shuttles/taxis to go off-site, and were restricted as we had to plan our times around a shuttle or cab to do off-site activities such as take our son to the outlet mall for school clothes shopping.

Having a car at Disney is not required to get around but makes dining at other resorts much easier, going out and about the Orlando area is much easier.

 

[SagamoreBeach]

Where in Connecticut was the Greek diner ... well they are all over Connecticut.

I wish I could tell you. What I do remember about the place is that the color scheme was mostly black & teal, set back from the road. Across the street was a huge super market. It's been about 12 years since that trek. LOL! The food was great, though!

 

[brifraz]

Unfortunately our reservation says we can't check in until 3pm

....ignore that ...ignore that TOTALLY. We arrived ...generally ....each time (at POP) between 10 am and 12 noon ...on all our trips. And we walked right up to the counter and checked in. Your room may be ready ...or it may not. (because of the 3pm stuff it says on the reservations ...yadda ..yadda ..yadda) 75 % of the time our room was ready and we went right to the room ....the other times ...we dropped the bags at the "luggage area" ...where they are secure ...and we went to a park ...or to eat ...or in the pool. You can have them call you when the room is ready. In the meantime ...enjoy the facilities.

That's right on. We actually generally arrive between 6am and 7am. We get checked in, get our keys to the world, etc. Granted our room has only been ready once in the past 10 or so trips when we arrive that early, but it usually gets us the text for our room being ready by 1pm or 2pm to get checked in that early. Since we have driven, we just leave the luggage in the car and get ourselves to a park for rope drop!