For those folks driving!

Hi, I will be taking my son to space camp in Huntsville Alabama the end of August. I drop him off around 3ish on Sunday and don’t need to be back till 10am on Friday. I was thinking of driving to Walt Disney World. Google says it is about 10 hours away. I thought I could leave Sunday and get there Monday around noon and leave Thursday around 4 and make it back by Friday morning. Does this seem doable? Is google usually correct? I was planning on stopping for the night. Should I plan out where I stop with a hotel reservation or would it be okay to drive till I get tired and then find a hotel. Is there any tips you can give me? This would be my first time driving to Disney.

I live in Alaska so our road system consists of one road North and one road South out of town. I don’t have a lot of experience driving on interstates. So any tips would be helpful.
 
Hi, I will be taking my son to space camp in Huntsville Alabama the end of August. I drop him off around 3ish on Sunday and don’t need to be back till 10am on Friday. I was thinking of driving to Walt Disney World. Google says it is about 10 hours away. I thought I could leave Sunday and get there Monday around noon and leave Thursday around 4 and make it back by Friday morning. Does this seem doable? Is google usually correct? I was planning on stopping for the night. Should I plan out where I stop with a hotel reservation or would it be okay to drive till I get tired and then find a hotel. Is there any tips you can give me? This would be my first time driving to Disney.

I live in Alaska so our road system consists of one road North and one road South out of town. I don’t have a lot of experience driving on interstates. So any tips would be helpful.

Whatever Google is showing you is probably pretty close to accurate. They even update based on traffic at the time you're searching. If you're not used to heavy traffic I'd take a route that bypasses Atlanta, but I don't know what the best choice is there from Huntsville. The most direct route takes you right through Atlanta and past the airport.

Hopefully some others could chime in, but I know I'd definitely prefer not going through ATL. Looks like there's some routes (like this one through Montgomery AL and then cutting over https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Hunt...391fd01cf1a0!2m2!1d-81.563874!2d28.385233!3e0 or https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Hunt...391fd01cf1a0!2m2!1d-81.563874!2d28.385233!3e0 ) that are still right around the 10hr mark.

You could stop around Tallahassee on Sunday night and Montgomery or Birmingham on the Thursday.
 
Driving from Iowa to Disney World. If you are planning your gas stops and are close to the border of another state, check gas prices in both states, you could save money. For instance, on GasBuddy, gas in Marion, IL is in the neighborhood of $2.90 per gallon and 55 miles down the road in Paducah, KY the gas is around $2.40. You could save yourself a little money.
 
Thanks for advice on bypassing Atlanta. I will look for alternatives. Good to know about google accuracy.

I will keep an eye on gas prices 50 cents is big difference but both those prices are pretty good compared to here. I don’t want to pay more money than I have to if I just double check.
 


Hi, I will be taking my son to space camp in Huntsville Alabama the end of August. I drop him off around 3ish on Sunday and don’t need to be back till 10am on Friday. I was thinking of driving to Walt Disney World. Google says it is about 10 hours away. I thought I could leave Sunday and get there Monday around noon and leave Thursday around 4 and make it back by Friday morning. Does this seem doable? Is google usually correct? I was planning on stopping for the night. Should I plan out where I stop with a hotel reservation or would it be okay to drive till I get tired and then find a hotel. Is there any tips you can give me? This would be my first time driving to Disney.

I live in Alaska so our road system consists of one road North and one road South out of town. I don’t have a lot of experience driving on interstates. So any tips would be helpful.
We live just west of Huntsville and it is 10 hours driving time or a hair over not counting about an hour for bathroom breaks, one gas and drive-thru food break. Most of the time we go to Birmingham on 65 then over to Atlanta on 20 and then down 75. One time we came back through Tallahassee over to Dothan and then up but that seemed longer. I believe you could make it to Tifton/Cordele the night after drop-off its 4 hours to Disney from Tifton. I would go ahead and get a reservation just to be safe. One time we drove until we were tired and was able to get a room but I you should make a reservation. You should be OK going thru Atlanta on a Sunday Night but may want to try the other route back. Gas around Huntsville is running about $2.35 at the moment.
 
We will be in Orlando in October and we wanted to walk through the new Riviera Resort. Would we have to pay for parking just to visit for a couple hours at the most?
 
We will be in Orlando in October and we wanted to walk through the new Riviera Resort. Would we have to pay for parking just to visit for a couple hours at the most?
There is no charge to park at a resort unless you are an overnight guest.
 


We will be in Orlando in October and we wanted to walk through the new Riviera Resort. Would we have to pay for parking just to visit for a couple hours at the most?

Riviera isn't scheduled to open until December 16th, for what it's worth. I don't think they'll be taking walk-throughs in October.

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Getting closer but still under construction. Pools, grounds, interior work.
 
Now that I live in NC my trip has been cut in half. Used to live in NY. Each move gets me a little closer to Disney lol. We can make it in one day. It’s 9 ½ hours from here. We leave early in the morning and have no problem making stops along the way. This does extend the travel time, but there is no reason not to take a more leisurely approach while starting our vacation.
 
Has anyone driven from Northern IL? My husband insisted on off-site/driving this time. I'm digging off-site honestly. Not the driving. I'm trying to talk him into flying. How bad is the drive? He wants to stop and stay overnight. That's 4 travel days. That's insane to me.
So this may be too late but we come from Wisconsin. It is a 2 day travel trip not 4 day. We get up to leave at 4am so we can beat the traffic in Chicago. We get to Chatanooga about 7pm and that is with plenty of food breaks and mini naps. The next day we drive about 7am-5pm and arrive in Orlando.
 
We prefer driving because with all the limitations and ridiculous fees on checked bags when flying we can load up the car with as much luggage as the cruise line will allow per person without weight limits. Coming from central NJ driving is not a big deal for us although we do make sure that when we stay over night we're close enough to Port Canaveral where we can get there in plenty of time to park at an off-site lot and get to check-in well in advance of your check-in time.
 
We drive from Chicago twice a year in less than 2 days we leave at 5 am central time arriving the next day late afternoon on the ride home we drive straight thru this is not for everyone we are 76 years old and one driver we leave at 5 am eastern time arriving home before midnight we do stop for fast meals usually at gas stations (McDonald’s Arby’s)to make the most of our stops using I65 south we get thru Indiana in 5 hours traveling thru Kentucky for about 2 hours on to Tennessee just about 2 1/2 hours where we connect to I24 east to Georgia to I75 south we stop anywhere past Atlanta for the night we carefully avoid Atlanta rush hour Georgia is a total of 5 hours and we finish it off the next day entering into Florida leaving 3 1/2 hours thru Florida to our destination taking I75 south to the turnpike I find taking 429 south faster than I4 from the Florida Turnpike take the turnpike to 429 South 429 is wide and very lightly traveled
Exit at #267 to state road 429 south this is a toll road but you will pay tolls on I4 also take exit #6 go left this is western way a back door road to Disney
Georgia is a speed trap so travel at speed limits we use Waze app it does alert you for construction as well as police
watch gas prices by using apps like Gasbuddy
I recommend buying gas in Georgia it’s cheaper than Florida when leaving for home I recommend buying gas before the turnpike
 
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If possible - South Carolina as a whole has the cheapest gas so I would fill up there...
 
Hi.

My husband and I have driven to Disney World from northern New Jersey twice. He doesn’t like to fly and prefers to drive. We have done the drive straight through.

We are thinking next time we may want to break it up and stop somewhere to sleep then finish the drive the next day. We are also thinking we may want to move a little further south at some point (closer to Disney and cruises) so maybe we could check out a town on the way.

I’m guessing a little past midway would be South Carolina or maybe the bottom of North Carolina Any recommendations for towns/hotels to stay in? We don’t need to stay at the Ritz but don’t like cheap motels.

Thank you in advance

Noreen
 

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