"For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" (Part V)

The odds will always be against you; however, they will be a bit less if you travel on a non Holiday and between Sunday night and Thursday night.

During our 46 round trip drives from NJ to WDW, we nearly always made a reservation in advance, based upon the place we expected to get to if we were doing an overnight stay (we also did over a dozen straight-thru drives), like Pooler, GA; or Yulee, Palm Coast, or Deltona, FL. And we made these reservations on the road, usually before 6 p.m. There is no worse feeling than driving to hotels and asking for a reservation that doesn't exist. We experienced that on our first drive in 2002.

Note #1: we have made multiple reservations in the past, cancelling the other(s) based upon whether we could reach a certain Holiday Inn by a certain time. Check with each hotel if your decide to try that since all hotels have different refund policies based upon different times.

Note #2: Staying at Yulee, for example, will give you a three-hour drive to WDW.

Good luck.

All the best!
Thanks so much! I didn’t think to call while we are on the road. Probably better chances than just showing up. My husband thinks we will make it straight through, so we will see! Lol! Leaving NJ (30 mins from Delaware Memorial Bridge) around 3am.
 
Thanks so much! I didn’t think to call while we are on the road. Probably better chances than just showing up. My husband thinks we will make it straight through, so we will see! Lol! Leaving NJ (30 mins from Delaware Memorial Bridge) around 3am.

We've done 8 round trips from SE PA and only made reservations ahead of time (meaning before we left) once. And that was because we liked a specific hotel in a specific location in Savannah. We used to just stop in an area that had a lot of hotels and always found *something*. Now that there are apps like Priceline, Expedia, etc., we still just pull over in an area with a lot of hotels, but we make our reservation from our phone while sitting in a nearby parking lot. There have been a few times that we couldn't find a room at the first exit we stopped at but we just drive a little further and try the next exit. We tend to stop driving for the day by about 6:00 so we stay ahead of the crowd so to speak. I do know that many times the hotel we stop at for the night does end up selling out for the night which is why we tend to stop early in the evening. And we haven't made the drive over a holiday so that would probably change things as well.
 
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Thanks so much! I didn’t think to call while we are on the road. Probably better chances than just showing up. My husband thinks we will make it straight through, so we will see! Lol! Leaving NJ (30 mins from Delaware Memorial Bridge) around 3am.

If you are departing around 3 a.m. from NJ on a weekday (and you anticipate crossing the DMB around 3:30), you may be hitting the early phase of the southern MD-northern VA rush hour.

All the best! :thumbsup2
 
If you are departing around 3 a.m. from NJ on a weekday (and you anticipate crossing the DMB around 3:30), you may be hitting the early phase of the southern MD-northern VA rush hour.

All the best! :thumbsup2
Yes, I realize that. We are hoping it won’t be so bad though....we leave on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed!
 


Yes, I realize that. We are hoping it won’t be so bad though....we leave on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed!
Just may run into some traffic near any shopping districts but no worst than King of Prussia Friday morning.
 
Hi everyone! What are the odds of getting a hotel for the night without reserving ahead of time? We are driving from NJ and are hoping to make it all the way, however, if we decide we need to stop for the night we will. Any thoughts? Experience? Thanks!

We did it in 2016 and it worked just fine. That said, it was a Thursday night in February that we were driving down. I had the hotels.ca app and just started to look ahead about an hour when we decided to stop for the night. It worked out well for us, you'll probably have better luck in bigger cities that have more inventory.
 


Just wanted to check in about our drive from NJ! We are making great time, I think. We left an hour later than I wanted to though, hit the road at 4:20am. We hit no traffic at all (so far). It is currently 10:35am and we are in NC, about exit 114. I think the last sign said 68 miles till Fayetteville. We stopped once in VA to tap off our gas tank and get some quick breakfast, and use the potty of course. We will probably be stopping again soon. I have two kids with me so the need to stop more is important. Lol!
 
Just wanted to check in about our drive from NJ! We are making great time, I think. We left an hour later than I wanted to though, hit the road at 4:20am. We hit no traffic at all (so far). It is currently 10:35am and we are in NC, about exit 114. I think the last sign said 68 miles till Fayetteville. We stopped once in VA to tap off our gas tank and get some quick breakfast, and use the potty of course. We will probably be stopping again soon. I have two kids with me so the need to stop more is important. Lol!
I just stopped in to see if you checked in! I was thinking about you this morning while I was on the road at 4am heading to a job. Glad your trip is going well!!! If luck is on your side, keep going!! Lol
Keep us posted!
 
91 days till our next drive!!! One bedroom villa at Grand Floridian.
DD is driving down with us. She hasn't driven down with us for almost six
years. Her last drive was when I took her down to do the college program.
I guess she figured it was time for dad to pay for a trip. Lol
 
I just stopped in to see if you checked in! I was thinking about you this morning while I was on the road at 4am heading to a job. Glad your trip is going well!!! If luck is on your side, keep going!! Lol
Keep us posted!
Thanks so much! We are in GA now, about exit 97. Have been hitting some lite rain the past hour, but hasn’t caused any issues. We recently passed the Tanger Outlets in GA and the traffic on the other side (going North) was insane. Everyone getting off to go to the outlets. Glad it wasn’t like that on the south side. GPS says about 4 hours to our hotel. We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Apopka, FL for the night and check in to All Star Music tomorrow! The kids are doing great! Much better than I thought! Also thankful to be back on a 3 lane highway! Those 2 lanes in NC and SC were crazy! Lol! SC took FOREVER!! I didn’t think it was ever going to end! Lol!
 
So we are doing the drive from Iowa (1500+ miles one way) starting the day after Christmas and cannot wait to get on the road! We have done the trip one other time and kids did amazing! Just hoping that we have good weather to get out of the Midwest to start off. We haven’t decided if we are driving straight through or stopping overnight somewhere.
 
Quick update: we arrived at our hotel in Apopka at 8pm last night 11/23 after leaving NJ that morning at 4:20am. We checked into All Star Movies today 11/24 around 11am and are now on the bus headed to MK!! Drive was great! Well, as great as that long of a drive can be! Lol! Hit some rain off and on from SC to FL. But no traffic or anything! Let’s hope for the same on our return on 12/1!
 
Quick update: we arrived at our hotel in Apopka at 8pm last night 11/23 after leaving NJ that morning at 4:20am. We checked into All Star Movies today 11/24 around 11am and are now on the bus headed to MK!! Drive was great! Well, as great as that long of a drive can be! Lol! Hit some rain off and on from SC to FL. But no traffic or anything! Let’s hope for the same on our return on 12/1!

Glad to hear everything worked out well. It sounds like you were able to keep stops to a minimum and had no major issues. Enjoy your stay!
 
Quick update: we arrived at our hotel in Apopka at 8pm last night 11/23 after leaving NJ that morning at 4:20am. We checked into All Star Movies today 11/24 around 11am and are now on the bus headed to MK!! Drive was great! Well, as great as that long of a drive can be! Lol! Hit some rain off and on from SC to FL. But no traffic or anything! Let’s hope for the same on our return on 12/1!
That sounds like a great drive!!
Have fun!
 
Quick update: we arrived at our hotel in Apopka at 8pm last night 11/23 after leaving NJ that morning at 4:20am. We checked into All Star Movies today 11/24 around 11am and are now on the bus headed to MK!! Drive was great! Well, as great as that long of a drive can be! Lol! Hit some rain off and on from SC to FL. But no traffic or anything! Let’s hope for the same on our return on 12/1!

Uneventful long drives are always appreciated! Thanks for sharing.

All the best! :thumbsup2
 
After 46 round-trip NJ-WDW drives, the founder of this thread became ineligible to participate on it upon moving to Florida one year ago today, Dec. 1.

Headin' back to WDW on Thursday (our 25th visit in 2018), a 60-mile drive. :drive:

All the best! :thumbsup2
 

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