As a family of 5, there are some aspects of our Disney vacation that will have to change now that our daughter is older (she’s 3 ½). For example, we can no longer fit in most of the standard hotel rooms, so we’ll have to consider if we want to get two rooms or look for other options. The other biggie is travel. We live in Illinois, a good 22-hour drive from Disney. We have traveled to Florida a lot and have always flown, but once our daughter became the age of having to pay for a flight, we’ve had to weigh the costs and time commitment of flying vs. driving. Flying won out recently when we just didn’t have the extra four days to tack onto the vacation, but in general, our new plan is to drive to Walt Disney World.
For our family vacation last year, we decided to drive down for the first time to see how it worked out. Our kids were 8, 5 and 2. Not-so-secret confession: I don’t like to drive. I get very sleepy very quickly, yet don’t sleep well in a car. My husband doesn’t mind driving, but doesn’t want to be the only one doing it, so we decided to break up the drive with some stops. We left after lunch and drove 7 1/2 hours to Nashville, TN where we stopped for the night. The next morning, we took off again and this time drove 4 hours to Atlanta to my sister in law’s house. We were able to spend a day and a half with them, then drove another 5 hours to southern Georgia where we stopped for another night. The next morning, we finally began our last 4 hour leg of the journey and arrived at Disney right after lunch. Obviously, this trip had several extra stops in it, just because of when we left and the fact that we stopped to visit family. 888 كازينو We could have done it in two days if necessary.
We’re starting to plan our next family trip to the World and my husband said he would be interested in driving overnight. I really don’t want to, but it got me thinking – do most families that drive to Disney normally travel overnight? When I was a kid, my family would do long car trips at night, but it was mostly just my dad driving and I don’t think that would work with my husband and I. I found a thread on the DISboards discussing exactly this and thought I’d share a few of their thoughts.
puffkin – It was for our Thanksgiving trip. We ended up driving 3.5 hours to a different airport and flew into Tampa but it was half the price of our normal airport and saved us about $1500. Before that we were planning on breaking up the drive both directions with a hotel room about half way because neither of us wanted to do the overnight driving….luckily I found the more affordable airfare.
MrsGoofyMitchell – We drove to WDW from St. Louis which is about 16 hours. We actually ate dinner and then loaded the kids up in the van around 6pm. We let them watch movies and they were all out by 10pm. (Well, except for one who was up until midnight!) They slept until 7am where we stopped for breakfast in Lake City. مراهنات Then they were awake for a few more hours until we arrived! This really worked out!
Gumbo4x4 – 10 hours? I’d just get up at my normal time & get there by supper. One day in a car should be no sweat. BTW, even if you live next door to the airport, and can fly without a connection, you’re still looking at 5 hours door to door more than likely. Save your $1,800 (Note – the original poster of the thread lives 10 hours from Disney and is trying to decide if she should drive overnight or fly.)
AlexisMaxMommy – You have to do what you are comfortable with, but I agree with most of the comments here that leaving a little before bedtime and driving through the night is easiest with little ones.
leahlefler – We can’t do overnight trips (DH and I just can’t stay awake well at night and worry about the safety issue), but we have driven 18+ hours to Florida in the past (not to Disney World, but to Destin). When we go, we get up really early (like at 3 am) and that seems to work well. Our kids are great in the car, though, so we don’t need them to sleep through the trip. 10 hours isn’t too bad of a drive – if you go overnight, you’ll be there early in the morning, and (after resting for the adult who drove overnight) you can probably do a few things that afternoon.
cariann77 – I wish we could drive through the night. We tried it last time and ended up at a hotel after about 6 hours.
MandiC – I think this is just one of those things that depend on your family. There is no way dh and I could function and be happy parents the next day on no sleep. لعب بوكر If we lived 10 hours from Disney I’d pack the car up, go to bed early and get in the car for 4-5am, you will get there by early afternoon and be well rested. You can’t even check into most hotels until after noon so arriving, exhausted with no sleep, before then could be miserable. Pack some snacks and things to keep the kids occupied and hope everyone decides to take a nap or two
I’m really pushing to drive for our next trip, but we live almost an entire day’s drive away so we will see. 6 plane tickets, even the cheap ones, are EXPENSIVE.
Feel free to comment below with your thoughts, opinions and experiences. Does your family drive overnight or just during the day with some hotel stops?
