Gonna have to drive it...

[Nwall81]

Family of 8 here (2 adults / 6 kids).We are going on our first Disney trip (we went to SeaWorld parks a few years back) sometime (March) next year.

When we went to Orlando last time we had 5 kids and we drove, stopping halfway in Georgia (coming from Cleveland, OH). To me it made it worse almost because the kids were so restless the second day of driving.

We had thought about flying down, but with the cost of airline tickets combined with the cost of Disney, it just doesn't fit in our budget.

My question is have any of you with a large family driven down from the Ohio or similar area non-stop? Was it better then breaking it over two days? To us it just seems from our previous trip it would be better just to get the driving part done and over with, at least on the way down.... Any opinions on this?

 

[asmit4]

How old are your kids? I am driving from Buffalo, NY. My mom is flying with my son on the way down and we are all driving back together. On the way down I will be alone and it's the longest- by FAR that I've ever driven alone- even at 34yo. SOOO....I'm dividing it up. On the way back we are dividing it up also b/c we are traveling with a 2yo.

I'd say if your kids are age 4 and up- you can easily drive it straight as long as you have 2 drivers. I would not recommend doing it straight alone- or doing it straight with kids under age 3 but YMMV.

 

[Nwall81]

My wife and i would be taking turns at the wheel. When we drove to Orlando for Sea World parks, we had a 9 month old with us...part of the reason we are thinking about NOT breaking up the drive because this time we will have a 1 year old with us. We of course would take plenty of rest stops...

Kids were not happy with 2 days of driving...and most of them were over 3 years old at the time. They are not going to like the drive no matter what, it's just the how and when is the issue...

Again I am looking for opinions of LARGE families on this...It's a totally different dynamic then just one child..

Kids will be 13, 9, 6, 5, 3, and 1 at the time of the trip

 

[pixiedustmomma]

I don't have a large family, but we drive down from Medina, Ohio. We leave the night before and drive straight through. On the way back we leave early in the morning. First time we did that with kids their ages were 1 and 4. They did great! The way down they mostly slept and the way back they had things to do in the car. Whenever we would stop we would let them stretch their legs. I think if we would have broken the trip into to days they wouldn't have been happy and having things for them to do was a big help on the long car ride. When we go this year the kids will be 7,4 and 10 months.

 

[cruisingmom1977]

I live in NJ and have a 2 year old and 4 year old. We have driven to FL with them about 8 times in the past 2 years (Cruise, Key West and Fort Myers). We always drive straight thru (starting around 3:00 in the afternoon, stopping for dinner around 7:00) and it works best for us. When I was 5 mths preg with my son my sister and I drove with my then 2 year old to Fort Myers. My husband couldn't come and was concerned about 2 women and a toddler being on the road alone at night so we agreed to stop overnight. NEVER AGAIN!!! It was sooo much harder. The stopping, waking kids up to get into hotel, getting everybody situated, waking up early to get back on the road, etc. Not worth it. If you are both comfortable driving at night then I would say drive thru. You can get so much driving done while the kiddos are sleeping. In a side note...we play the comedy channel on XM at night (using a one sided ear phone so we don't disturb the kids) and it helps to keep us awake during the long stretch between 1 am and 4 am.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My coworker with 5 kids did it straight through (it's 1.5 days otherwise from here) many times & then the last 2 times broke it up. Says he'll not do straight through again.


I say take off VERY early on day one and get as far as you can. If you only leave yourself a fee hours for day 2, it won't be so bad.

 

[Meldev]

We drove when I was a kid - I was 9 and my sister was 13 - we stopped in South Carolina and next day wasn't bad at all. (Oh we're from western PA so about the same drive as from Cleveland)
We are flying with our kids - but even our annual beach trek to South Carolina we break up into 2 days - and 8 hr day then a short 3.5 hr day.
We've driven straight through even that 12 hr drive and we (DH and myself) feel like we kinda lose that first day because we're so wiped out after the drive. So really if you can handle it and it won't slow you down - go for the straight through, our personal preference is to get enough rest so we aren't exhausted and have better demeanors on arrival day! ;-)

 

[Tonyslady]

I drove from san antonio tx to Cali and back last summer with 4 kids. On the way there we stopped half way and on the way back i drove straight through(total time with stops was 24hrs). I will never drive straight through again. But weather or not you break it up be sure to take plenty of things to do. We had movie marathons (dvd player in the van) i had an ipad 2 nintendo ds's and crayons/coloring books and plenty of snacks. When you stop try to find a place with somewhere for the kids to run. if you stop find a hotel with a pool and be sure to stop early enough they can go swimming and use up some pent up energy.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We've done it with my kids several times. I have two. We drive from South Jersey.

We once did it by leaving at 6 pm and driving straight through. That sucked for my XH because I don't drive at night. I will fall asleep at the wheel during long distance night driving.

We left once around 5 pm and stopped in NC around midnight, got a room and finished the next morning which was nice. We only stopped because DD was 3 at the time and wanted to sleep. She threw a complete fit in her carseat. XH did not want to stop but she wasn't having it. Once we got into the room she went right to sleep. My DS slept wherever at her age. She loves her comfy sleep and is a complete terror if she doesn't get her beauty sleep.

The best way we found was leaving at 4 am and getting to WDW by 9 pm. That's how we do it everytime now.

 

[mom2att]

Well I only have three, but I have regularly driven from FL to IN in one day, often with me as the only driver. It's definitely do-able, but certainly more difficult with little ones. However, since the choice is to be in the car all day one day, or for the same long hours stretched over two days PLUS the time it takes to stop for the night somewhere along the way, I say get it over with in one day.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I don't have a large family, but last year when we drove from Lexington, KY (close to OH), to Cocoa Beach, we drove straight through and it was nice. I just like ripping off the band aid and getting it over with. We did stop at a nice rest area in GA and have a picnic lunch, which broke up the drive nicely. It allowed our daughter to get out and burn off some energy so she napped a lot ( or course, she was also only 1 at the time)

This year, we are driving from lexington to Disney, with a stop in Atlanta to pick up my niece. Our current plan is to leave at around 4 am, stop in Atlanta and take a 2 hour break at the zoo, then continue our drive. I figure a zoo visit will help calm some of the vacation excitement, plus we love the Atlanta zoo because they have Giant Pandas, and they are beautiful.

Good luck whatever you choose. It is a loooong drive no matter how you slice it. I just like to get it over with. If you do it in one day, you'll just have one day of "are we there yet?" instead if 2!

 

[chris31997]

My wife and i would be taking turns at the wheel. When we drove to Orlando for Sea World parks, we had a 9 month old with us...part of the reason we are thinking about NOT breaking up the drive because this time we will have a 1 year old with us. We of course would take plenty of rest stops...

Kids were not happy with 2 days of driving...and most of them were over 3 years old at the time. They are not going to like the drive no matter what, it's just the how and when is the issue...

Again I am looking for opinions of LARGE families on this...It's a totally different dynamic then just one child..

Kids will be 13, 9, 6, 5, 3, and 1 at the time of the trip

You are right, large family totally different dynamic

I can tell you how 2 of my friends do it, both with 5+kids

Family A: Will break it up. They have one who gets car sick. They take frequent breaks.

Family B: Will drive straight thru. They will also take frequent breaks.

They both pair the kiddos up Oldest with Youngest and etc. So for you it might look like 13 and 1, 9 and 3, 6 and 5. Of course this depends on maturity and how well they get along The 13 would help feed the 1 and entertain. The 9 would do the same for the 3.....

Each child will have a bag. In each bag will be fav toys, electronic games, books. They are responsible for the bag. Bag is sized for the age of the kiddo

Each child has a neck pillow

They also have a huge stack of car games they pull from like license plate bingo, I spy, etc...

Kiddos take turn with movies, taking pics and music

At every stop everyone goes to the potty and everyone exercises to get the wiggles out



My small family of four drives straight thru if it is under 14hrs. DH orders And I gotta deal. I'm the one who gets restless in the car and drives DH absolutely nuts But we still stop frequently and everyone goes to the potty and does some exercises, me alittle more to work out the kinks


So, I think the key would be frequent stops with exercise to work out the wiggles. If you stop over night, make sure the hotel has a pool and get the kids in it. On the second day when excitement is building, have mind challenging/focusing games that the kids can do.

 

[mommy2_3]

we drove last year. we did non stop to. about 35 hrs total. my kids were 6, 5, 3, and 2. we drove from Wichita, Ks, to Davenport, Ia to pick up my bff, then down to WDW! all the adults took turns driving. we had many pit stops to fill up and let the kids stretch and run around. my kids are road trip troopers! they did awesome during the trip. we had snacks, drinks, and tons of disney movies. on the way back, as we were dropping off my bff our whole entertainment system went out. no radio, dvds, nothing. we stopped at an auto zone and they said it was our eletrical. so that was a long trip back (turns out a fuse blew and we had a spare and just needed to change it! A guy at O'Riley's auto parts many many months later fixed it and saved us $1200!) but other than that, we will be driving again. hopefully in May 2015! but our trip will be much shorter, cause we will be going straight to WDW. so that will be about a 21 hr drive. we also have a new baby. she will be 1 when we go!

 

[grafxgirl]

I know you are still further north than us, but we drive non-stop from the Eastern Panhandle of WV to Orlando on a regular basis. It generally takes us 14 hours. What we do is leave in the evening and take turns driving all night while the kids sleep. My husband and I take turns driving for a few hours while the other one naps then we keep the rotation going. It is peaceful and there are less stops.

 

[powellrj]

We only have 3 kids and they are older now, but we did 2 types of trips. We would leave early in the AM and drive straight through or we would leave early and stop early so the kids could swim and relax.

 

[wdwgoofydaddy]

We do the drive from Toronto Canada to Orlando several times a year and we go 24 hours straight with only a few meal breaks and gas. Here is a link yo our post on how we do it.

http://memoriesofdisney.com/post/2014/06/30/how-we-do-the-24-hour-dive-from-toronto-to-orlando

It was tough at first but as we got use to it it has become a lot easier and now our kids are better with it too.

Hope this helps.

 

[BreeCan2]

We've got 6 little ones too (my oldest is 9) and we drive from TX to Cali every year.

It's a 24 hour drive and we usually drive straight through on the way there. The kids are excited, we are excited and well rested.

We get in the car around 8pm. The kids have their blankets and tablets, we stop at a RedBox and they typically fall asleep around 10 or 11 (the babies even sooner)!

In the morning when everyone is waking up and getting restless we stop for breakfast at McDonald's and let the kids run on the playground for an hour. We stock up on snacks and a new movie and get on the road... halfway there now!!

The last 12 hours of the drive is harder as all the kids are awake but there are still some great stops along the way. We really just try to enjoy it and take our time. Lots of Disney singing in the car and keep reminding the kids to keep their eye on the prize!

On the way home it's a completely different story. We are exhausted. The kids are cranky. We try to get half way there and then stop at a hotel with a good pool. There have been trips where it took us 3 days to get home (one of the kids threw up... and then a few hours later another... you get the picture )

Anyhow... that's how we do it!!

 

[mortimor]

1726 miles from our doorstep to All Star Resorts. I have no problem driving for HOURS on end. We have numerous tripss where we drive straight through and it takes roughly 25 hours with stops for gas and bathroom breaks I drive for around 12 hours, take a few hour break when my wife drives then back up and off we go!! The drive there is always easier than the drive home. We drive strictly interstate so set the cruise and go with traffic. Our kids are on iPhone, iPad, iPod and watching movies while we drive. We pack a cooler with healthy and junk food and graze as needed. It ends up costing around 550-600 round trip for gas, so a great savings vs. flying. We bought a new mini-van a few years ago with the sole intention of using it for trips to disney and other destinations and it is awesome to have your own vehicle and to be able to bring with you what you want (Christmas presents, tree, cases of water etc.)

Our thought is that it ends up being a waste of time and money to stop. Checking in, getting to sleep and back on the road all within a realistic time frame ends up either costing us better part of an entire day or is only a few hours that gained us nothing.

 

[wdwgoofydaddy]

1726 miles from our doorstep to All Star Resorts. I have no problem driving for HOURS on end. We have numerous tripss where we drive straight through and it takes roughly 25 hours with stops for gas and bathroom breaks I drive for around 12 hours, take a few hour break when my wife drives then back up and off we go!! The drive there is always easier than the drive home. We drive strictly interstate so set the cruise and go with traffic. Our kids are on iPhone, iPad, iPod and watching movies while we drive. We pack a cooler with healthy and junk food and graze as needed. It ends up costing around 550-600 round trip for gas, so a great savings vs. flying. We bought a new mini-van a few years ago with the sole intention of using it for trips to disney and other destinations and it is awesome to have your own vehicle and to be able to bring with you what you want (Christmas presents, tree, cases of water etc.)

Our thought is that it ends up being a waste of time and money to stop. Checking in, getting to sleep and back on the road all within a realistic time frame ends up either costing us better part of an entire day or is only a few hours that gained us nothing.

Thanks for sharing. It sounds like you do the trip in the same manor we do... Very cool!

 

[kinley10]

I've never thought of using redbox for trips. Such a great idea!