This past fall, we decided to surprise our son and daughter (at the time, 9 and 6, respectively) with a long weekend trip down to WDW for some MNSSHP and F&W. This was going to be their first surprise trip -- we usually hyper-plan the trips with the kids involvement.
The plan was to wake them at 4:30am the morning of Nov 1, drive them to JFK, get on the first flight out of JFK and be on the magical express by 10:00am. We would fly back the evening of sunday Nov 4 -- this way, the kids would only miss 2 days of actual school.
As most of you know, Hurricane Sandy hit the NY area on Oct 29th. In my area of Long Island, flooding wasn't the problem (as we are more inland). But large numbers of downed oak trees completely ravaged the electrical grid. We had no phone, no power and only our cars to charge our cell phones...which had zero signal. I discovered that I could get a cell signal by driving into town and parking in certain parts of commuter lots, so all day on Oct 30th, I'm driving back and forth trying to figure out whether our flight was going to take off on the morning of Nov 1. During these cell signal drives into town. I learned that LaGuardia airport was complete submerged and JFK literally had large boats littering the runways. By the evening of Nov 30, all of the flights out of JFK had been canceled for the 31st. I came home and discussed this with my wife (my kids were still in the dark on this trip - and in their rooms).
The next morning, we hatched an alternate plan. I checked the minivan's oil, tires, etc and after breakfast we told the kids about the original plan -- and how that original plan was likely not going to happen because the planes aren't flying yet. We were either forced to cancel the whole trip or get in the car and drive down -- all in the next 45 minutes. I've never seen these kids mobilize so quickly. 40 minutes later we were in our car, driving to my mother-in-law's place to drop off the dog -- and after being told we were certifiably crazy, we got on the belt parkway and got the eff out of dodge! That was 10:30am, Oct 31st.
My wife and I split the driving. We drove all day, stopping only for gas and quick fast-food meals -- and got to Savannah, GA by 1:45am. By this point, we were flat out exhausted. We stopped at a hotel just outside of Savannah's airport, got a room and slept for approximately 6 hours. We ate breakfast and by 9:00 am, we were back on the road. We got stuck in *major* traffic just south of Jacksonville, due to nasty wreck, which delayed us at least 2.5 hours. We pulled into the Beach Club at 1:30am, Nov 1 - making our original reservation. Total trip time, with the stopover in GA, 27 hours. Our driving time was closer to 20 hours -- which would have been closer to 17 hours, if not for massive rush hour traffic in DC and the wreck in Jacksonville.
In a sick twist of irony, our original flight, the morning of Nov 1 -- did in fact take off from JFK and landed in Orlando *on-time*
Talk about feeling like a complete schmuck! Granted, we all agreed that given the information we were being given on the 30th, there was no way anyone would think that the Nov 1 flight would take off.
When we got to the Beach Club, the CM checking my wife in took pity on us and marveled at our last minute drive -- she upgraded us from a BCV studio to a garden-view room in the hotel. We ended up doing everything we had planned -- F&W, MNSSHP, etc. However, On saturday morning, my wife had a great idea in that I should go out hunting for a generator -- as generators would be in short supply back home. So I took the morning, while the kids swam at Stormalong Bay and I found the largest generator I could fit into the back of the Minivan -- a 7500 watt beast....which made the minivan ride quite a bit back-heavy.
On Sat night, I fronted the idea of taking the auto-train back while my wife and kids would fly back home. I scheduled the autotrain for monday Nov 5. My wife calls the airline to check if it's alright if just her and the kids fly on nov 4th.... and they inform her that since they didn't show the morning of Nov 1, their seats were forfeited.
So after speaking to several different people at the airline, they got them back on the flight. Ironically, as we rode to the airport, my wife learned that school was going to be canceled that following monday-- the woman at the airline was able to switch them to the next morning's flight.
One more Disney Day! So we checked into the Hilton at DTD and spent the night at DTD loading the car up with everything we otherwise would never have bought if we were flying!
I actually had alot of fun driving during that particular trip. It was great having the car down there...and I hate airports and TSA under the best of circumstances. If I drove from Long Island again, I would do a few things differently, however:
Departure timing is essential - I would *not* leave at 10:30am. With a lunch stop, we passed DC at approximately 4pm. By 4:25, the rush hour traffic leaving DC southbound on 95 was absolutely heinous. Worse than anything I've seen in NYC. You'd be at a standstill for minutes at a time, move forward 4 feet and then stop for another 2-3 minutes. This traffic holdup cost us hours!! I would instead, leave closer to 5am or so. This way, you're leaving NYC before traffic gets bad and you're passing through DC after the morning rush hour. This way, you get to Savannah, GA (which was a great place to stop, btw) in early evening -- you get a full night's sleep before continuing on the next morning.
Bring a smart phone or do your homework in advance - being able to find places to stop along the way for bathroom or food breaks is harder in parts of NC, SC and GA -- as 95 drives through some rural zones. Pre-plan your stops if you don't have a smart-phone with GPS.
plan some downtime - The day we arrived, Nov 1 -- we got to the Beach Club, dropped our stuff and went straight to the WS - within 4 hours, my body was shutting down. I was ornery and short with everyone and physically exhausted. Not a good way to spend any days at Disney. So if you drive down, don't drop your bags and rush to the parks. Stay at the hotel on arrival day -- soak in the pool and relax, have a few cold ones, etc.
Hope that helps. I know I get long winded with my stories....so I hope you guys don't mind -- hopefully someone finds this story entertaining!
