What's your longest road trip to get to WDW?

[NadieMasK2]

In July we will be going from Indianapolis! About 16 hours I believe, maybe a little more than that. We usually fly, but not this time. Any suggestions on how to avoid getting completely tired out from the drive down? After all that driving I am usually too wiped out to do anything.

 

[AkiraRaptor]

So, enlighten me... am I missing some great American tradition by not participating in the "road trip"??? What are the positives?

Here are a few reasons that we do it.

• My wife doesn't like to fly
• Tickets are expensive
• Security is a pain at airports
• The airlines are a pain
• We like our ritual of staying in Jacsonville the night before
• We like seeing the country (OK, seeing the US from I-95 isn't that great)
• I love driving my new car (MR-2 Spyder )

For us, the biggest issue is that my wife hates flying, and the the airlines are such a pain. The last time we tried to use the airlines, I booked over 6 month in advance. They must have changed our flight times on us over 5 five times durning that 6 months. The last straw was when they changed the arrival so that we had to be at the airport at like 6 AM, but wouldn't arrive in Orlando till after 7 PM. This is for a 2 1/2 flight. It ended up to be multiple flights with huge layovers. It was a direct flight when I booked it.

The the return flight, they wanted to change locations! They wanted me to drive to Tampa on the morning of our last day to catch a 6:30 am flight.

So I would have been screwed out th first and last days of the trip, the car rental wanted to charge me extra to return the car at a second location, and the airlines had no problem screwing my vacation. So I canceled the flights and car, and have been driving to Disney from that day.

That's why we drive. End of story, and they lived happily ever after. :lol:

 

[LouDisney]

Last year we drove, took us about 8.5 hours.
1.5 hours to fly.

 

[SewIn2Disney]

In July we will be going from Indianapolis! About 16 hours I believe, maybe a little more than that. We usually fly, but not this time. Any suggestions on how to avoid getting completely tired out from the drive down? After all that driving I am usually too wiped out to do anything.

Back to answering the original question:
Do you have a laptop? That is probably my lifesaver. I can listen to my own music, play DVD's, play games, etc. It can keep my occupied for hours. (Plus it makes uploading my pictures to a disc much easier when I get to Disney!)

If you don't have a laptop, how about investing in one of those portable DVD players. They are less then a foot wide, by two inches deep and cost around 200. For that price, think of the hours of entertainment it can provide you. Also, don't forget DVD's that carry an entire season worth of episodes too. Since most episods are 1/2 to an hour long, sometimes they are better then an entire movie.

For kids, how about old favorites: Card games, travel games, small craft projects (get them interested in knitting or crochet!) Coloring books, crayons, personal discman/walkman, etc

My last comment. Stop at Cracker Barrel's for all (or a lot) of your meals. http://crackerbarrel.com/
(If you have never heard of it) It's half store, half resturant. They are all over the country. On their website, you can print out a list of Cracker Barrel's from your house to your destination. That's the only place we eat when we make the 2 day drive to Disney.

Have fun on your trip!

 

[tigsmom]

My kids take the laptop & DVDs, CD players/mp3 players and are tuned out. They also sleep.

We always stop at Cracker Barrel to eat our meals, by the end of the trip the kids don't want to see another one! We use the trip planner at their site. You get specific driving directions and the locations (address and exit) of all CBs in the area are included inside the directions.

 

[mkt]

hmm...... longest road trip eh? about 90 minutes, coming from North Orlando with bad traffic

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

My longest road trip to WDW will be in 50-some days. My family and I are driving cross country, stopping at Disneyland and then on the way home, stopping at WDW for a day or so. I can't wait!

TheDisneyGirl02

 

[waltdisny]

In July we will be going from Indianapolis! About 16 hours I believe, maybe a little more than that. We usually fly, but not this time. Any suggestions on how to avoid getting completely tired out from the drive down? After all that driving I am usually too wiped out to do anything.

We always drive from Columbus, OH. With traffic, LOTS of construction in GA, and pit stops it takes us about 19 hours.

We take one over night, we get an early start, timing to avoid Cincinati's rushhour grid lock, and spend the night in south Atlanta. About 10-11 hours on the road. After a rest, we hit the road around 8am, and we're at the parks by around 4pm.

The early start makes it easir on the kids: they go back to sleep.

To pass the time, we bring lots of CD's, books and games for the kids, and one of those in-car VCR's with some videos. We play car bingo and have a bag of prizes for the winners. We stop every few hours and try to stop for lunch in a place where we can let the kids blow off some steam.

 

[bjlc57]

come on... two days from Milwaukee....

We leave Milwaukee at 4 am in the morning.. Drive right through DOWNTOWN CHICAGO.. this saves almost 2 hours... you are at the hy 65 turn by 6 am.. take 65 straight to Nashville.. Now you have the choice, stay on 65 and go to Birmingham or 75 to Valdosta.. I recommend if you don't like mountains going to Birmingham.. stay on the south side of B-ham for the night.. You should get there about 5 in the afternoon.. take 65 to 231 in Montgomery, and then stay on 231 to hy 10 in Florida.. you should be in Orlando by 4 that afternoon..easily... Have done this trip at least 20 times since 1970.

 

[SpoiledTink]

When we drove down the first time, from North Western Ontario (East of Thunder Bay) we took 3 days to get there, 2 to come back, because we missed home...lmao...We drove like 8-10 hours a day, then stopped....It was a nice drive, tho, I'd much rather fly..I get to the World that much quicker