Driving to Disney - Your Thoughts?

[wickedfan07]

Hi Everyone!

i'm hoping I can find some opinions here about driving to WDW. My family (5 people: my parents, myself (17), my sister (15), and my grandmother) are planning on driving down at the end of June. We live in northeastern Pennsylvania. We were originally considering driving straight through, stopping every few hours for a stretch break, gas, food, etc. However, we're now looking at stopping for the night somewhere past the halfway point, breaking up the travel time, and possibly allowing us to do something the night we arrive at WDW instead of just recuperating from spending the last 18-20 hours in a minivan. (we will still have some rest time though.)

So, if any of you have driven to Disney from the northeast, wha would you recommend? Can anyone recommend decent places to spend the night in South Carolina or Georgia? Any tips?

In case it matters, we will be staying at our timeshare off-site for 7 nights (June 23-30). (We tried to exchange our timeshare week for a week at a DVC resort, but it turns out we're not allowed to since our timeshare is too close to Disney property.)

Thanks!

 

[maelstrom]

We like to stay at the Country Inn & Suites in Santee, South Carolina. It's a nice hotel on a nice exit; it has a very homesy feel. We have also stayed in various hotels in Savannah, Georgia, but we like the Country Inn & Suites much better.

Coming home, there is a Wingate Inn at the exit after the downtown Fredericksburg exit in Virginia. That is pretty much the only place you'll want to stay in Virginia. It's a business hotel and it's very nice & clean, which can't be said for a lot of the hotels in Virginia. I don't know what it is with that state, but everything along 95 in Virginia kinda sucks.

ETA: As others have mentioned, make sure you leave early enough to beat the traffic on the Baltimore/Washington beltway. You don't want to get stuck there.

 

[littlered]

we drive from baltimore and do most of our driving on the first day. we spend the night in Kingsland, GA which is exit 3 off of 95s. only about 2miles from the GA/FL line. We have about a 3-3.5 hr trip in the morning. We can check in and be in the parks by noon. There are several hotels there and they are not real expensive. We also hit the same hotel on the way back which allows us to stay in the parks later and do most of our driving on the second day. However this year we may try stopping midpoint on the way back just to break up some of the drive home. When you are extremly tired 13-14 hours in the car on one day is alot.

 

[BryanandPatrizi]

I'm another one of the "drive straight through" crowd. I live about 30 minutes north of Detroit, MI and it takes about 18 hours to get there.

The few tricks about driving straight through for me are:
1. Make sure you have another driver to switch off with
2. Leave after dinner so most of your driving is done at night.

For us we leave at about 6:30pm Friday night (after a light dinner) and arrive around 12:30pm Saturday afternoon. The change from night to day in Georgia gives you an extra boost. Then crossing the boarder into Florida gives you another boost of energy as you realize how much closer you are.

We check-in to our room when we get there, take a nap, and then head out to dinner at about 6pm. We get a good nights rest and are ready for the parks the next morning.

Have a safe trip!

 

[dave1105]

We drove down last April and it wasn't too bad except we timed it wrong thru Jacksonville and hit afternoon rush hour. That was crazy! I am from the Washington DC area and it made our rush hour look like nothing. Then just checked into a hotel outside of Disney for the night to rest. In the morning checked into ASM and we on our way to the parks.

On the way back we were planning to stop in Rocky Mount, but we were making such great time we just drove straight thru.

 

[GatorDi]

Don't forget to take into account that your grandmother may not be able to make it that far without stopping (I've noticed that as my parents age, they cannot sit in a car for more than about 10 hours in a day). With that said, I would also make sure that you time your travel through Jacksonville and Orlando carefully. (Take I-295 around Jacksonville between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. and between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. on the way back). I would also take the tollroad (SR 428? - the one right after you cross the St. John's river around Sanford) around Orlando between 4:00 and 6:30 p.m - Costs about $6.00 but is worth every penny. Have a great trip whatever you decide.:sohappy:

 

[Tim G]

I'm living almost around the corner... and I still drive to Disney...

 

[tigsmom]

I'm living almost around the corner... and I still drive to Disney...

:lol: :wave:

 

[Monty]

:lol: :wave:

I'm backing Mad up on this one Corrus! :ROFLOL:

 

[Tiggerfanatic]

We drove down twice when DD was small - approx 17 hours from our SW corner of PA. Charleston, SC marks the halfway point for us. We'd leave @ 3PM and drive til midnight, get a good sleep, back on the road by 9AM, and pull into Disney early enough to get checked in, have a nice dinner and relax before hitting the parks first thing in the morning. Stop for potty breaks and leg stretches every 100 miles or so.

 

[garyhoov]

We drive every year. It's about 14 - 15 hours from New Jersey (just east of Philly).

We leave after school and stop overnight. The first trip I made reservations in an area that seemed like a good stopping point. That was a mistake, because then we were sort of locked in and couldn't drive longer if we felt like it or shorter if we got tired.

There are decent places to stay every 10 - 20 miles nearly the whole way, so I've had very good luck just picking a place when I was ready to stop.

Have fun!

 

[ClemsonTigger]

As an alternate from 95, we have done 81/77/85...no city congestion except Atlanta less traffic and a lot more stop options.

 

[tigsmom]

We drive every year. It's about 14 - 15 hours from New Jersey (just east of Philly).

We leave after school and stop overnight. The first trip I made reservations in an area that seemed like a good stopping point. That was a mistake, because then we were sort of locked in and couldn't drive longer if we felt like it or shorter if we got tired.

There are decent places to stay every 10 - 20 miles nearly the whole way, so I've had very good luck just picking a place when I was ready to stop.

Have fun!

We did that once also. Now we have a Hampton Inn book we keep with our travel stuff and call ahead about an hour or so and reserve a room, if none are available they will find one for you. Put it on the credit card and they hold it for you till you get there.

 

[jim1051]

We have driven 8 times from Phila area. We used to stop part way. We started leaving at 3 AM to get past DC before they wake up and each time we drove a little farther before stopping. Once we were at Savannah at 2 PM which is where we had reservations. I felt good driving, and passengers all agreed to go for it, so we cancelled ressy and drove all the way.

Since then we do it all in one day. It's about 15-16 hours for us. We stay off property that night, have a small dinner then crash. We rise the next morning and go check in (at our DVC resort) and get tickets, then its off to the parks, golf, or whatever.

 

[rockydek]

Drive

We drive from MA to Lorton VA and pick up the auto train. They put your car on the auto train and you relax. Next morning at 8:30am your a half hour from Disney with your vehicle. This is reasonable too. It takes us 7 hours to get to VA. Meals are included.:wave:

 

[eeyoremum]

I'm planning on driving down from Ottawa for the last week of June. Mapquest says it's about 22/23 hours of driving. We'll be leaving very early on the 23rd and driving for as long as I can reasonably handle [driving until you're dog tired and then trying to find a motel isn't a good idea]. We'll find a motel [don't care where or how fancy... a bed is a bed] and leave as early as possible again on the 24th.

Our only real constraint is an ADR at California Grill at 9PM on the 24th... I'm fairly certain we'll make it.

On our return trip we leave on 29 June, but later in the day. We'll likely make two stops on the way back.

With respect MontyMon we are in the Niagara region I did a mapquest of how long it would take from our home. It said 19/20 hours. I know we are about 6 hours from Ottawa. I have found mapquest is not always reliable. I have mapquested directions from work then from home and received 2 different directions. One correct and one way, way off in the opposite direction. I am not saying it won't take you that long I assume you would be going through Quebec? I would be interested in the driving time as we would like to drive straight thru. We have done Hamilton to Winnipeg straight thru

 

[Monty]

With respect MontyMon we are in the Niagara region I did a mapquest of how long it would take from our home. It said 19/20 hours. I know we are about 6 hours from Ottawa. I have found mapquest is not always reliable. I have mapquested directions from work then from home and received 2 different directions. One correct and one way, way off in the opposite direction. I am not saying it won't take you that long I assume you would be going through Quebec? I would be interested in the driving time as we would like to drive straight thru. We have done Hamilton to Winnipeg straight thru

They're not reliable primarily because of traffic... In a perfect world [where the rest of you get out of my way ], doing the speed limit they're not far off. In the real world, traffic jams, construction and other unreasonable things [like police pulling you over :lookaroun] tend to impact driving estimates.

The 24-hours driving time to Orlando quoted by friends is more what I base my timings on. In the event that the worst-case is accurate, I'm still comfortably able to make our 9pm reservation on the second day.

The route Mapquest provides actually goes through Ontario to the Hill Island Bridge, then follows I-81 and crosses over to I-95 at Washington Then through to I-4. It actually covers a bunch of by-passes along the way, but that's the basics.

I may just punch the address into the nav system and see where it takes me.

 

[dhcalva]

We always drive down from Ohio. We're about 30 miles west of Pittsburgh PA. We've found that pushing ourselves to get through Jacksonville FL and then stopping to sleep for a few hours in St. Augustine works out the best. Jacksonville is much easier to get through in the very early morning hours, hardly any traffic.

 

[YankeesFan]

The Auto train

How much does Amtrak hit you for the Autotrain from VA?

 

[Courtney488]

I'm right by Detroit in Michigan, and we almost always drive there, especially now that there's 3 of us that can help drive. There's only one time we've ever stopped, and that was because my parents were about to kill my 7-year-old cousin lol.

I think it's fun to drive straight through though. Take turns driving, listen to Disney music, read the unofficial guide book, and we have a dvd player in our van so we can watch Disney movies on the way.

 

[Monty]

I'm right by Detroit in Michigan, and we almost always drive there, especially now that there's 3 of us that can help drive. There's only one time we've ever stopped, and that was because my parents were about to kill my 7-year-old cousin lol.

I think it's fun to drive straight through though. Take turns driving, listen to Disney music, read the unofficial guide book, and we have a dvd player in our van so we can watch Disney movies on the way.

The police might question DS12 driving! :lookaroun

:lol: Only one driver, but I'm happy driving for up to 16 hours a day...