abbyndrewmom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2001
I thought you might all like to hear our experience driving down to Orlando. we live in Alma, ON (about 25 min north of Guelph.) We left June 21st at 6:00pm and got to Orlando on June 23rd at about 3:00pm. Obviously we made lots of stops. We were driving a 2001 Surburbanand the party was Me, DH, DD 5 & DS 2, here is our report.
June 21st 6:00pm left Alma to Guelph and the 401, got off at highway 6 into hamilton. Stopped at the Wendys just before Hamiliton for dinner and Tim Horton cookies. Got on the QEW drove through Hamiliton, stopped at the Costco in ST Catherines for TV for car ($220.00 Cdn for 13 inch) which was the best investment we ever made!!!! Crossed the border at fort Erie (no problem) and drove to erie about 11:00pm and we had planned on stopping, unfortunatley it was sold out due to a soccer tournament so we kept going, next place we got to was also sold out, so we kept driving finally around 1:30 we found a Howard Johnson about 15 min off the highway that had 2 rooms left, we were about 30 min out of Pittsburg at this point. it turned out to be a nice hotel and we had a little sleep in that morning. $89.00 UDS for the night
June 22nd after a nice hot breakfast buffet at the hotel we left around 9:30am. we went about half an hour then got caught in a construction accident. a dump truck knocked over a power pole about 20 cars ahead of us. We were caught between two exits and couldn't move, after sitting for about an hour we finally followed a group of other cars up the closest exit ramp and found the back roads around the mess. next stop was for lunch in West Virginia, we went to a grocery store and got the kids little lunches to eat in the car (along with a few other snacks) we got Arby sandwiches to eat in the car for Dh and I. I have to say West Virginia was the worst drive of the whole trip, incredibly BORINg and boy did it suck the gas down we filled up at least 3 times through the state. I ended up doing some driving through the hills and it really isn't bad driving just incredible dull. We finally made it to North Carlolina and stopped for dinner at a McDonalds with a play land. this was about 7:15. We were aiming for Savanah GA to stop again but after our delay in Pennsylvania we made it to Ridgeland SC which is about half an hour north of Savannah. We use to live in this area of SC so it was pretty neat to be back there. We stayed at the Ramada Inn and it was clean and had ceral and bagels for breakfast.
June 23rd. Left Ridgeland about 8:30 drove through the rest of SC & GA (this is one of my favorite areas of the country) make sure to stop and get cheap gas in GA. When we crossed to Floridia we stopped in at a Winn dixie to find the blue bell icecream, our favorite and had ice cream cones in the car for a snack. At Daytona we stopped at the Walmart to stock up on supplies for WDW. It was much easier to stop there then to go to the one in Orlando. We did have a cooler in the truck with us so we could transport all our cold food. From Daytona we got on I-4 and went into Orlando. This was the busiest traffic we encountered. It was amazing how busy it was for a Sunday afternoon. One unbelievable things was we saw two cars driving side by side and the passengers were talking to each other out the window as they drove on the freeway. it took us close to two hours to get through the city to our hotel. it was raining so were not in that much of a rush.
we stayed at the Radisoon parkway, this was the first time in ages we had stayed off site. The decision was made because due to the cancellation of EE. We loved the hotel it was great, it is very close to WDW it was an easy drive in and out. i really didn't notice any time difference then when we stayed at Coronado. I had actually booked rooms at POR and waited till the last possible moment to cancel them, but I was really happy we did. i would put the Raddisson above any of The WDW moderates and would even compare it with some of the deluxes. The pool area was gorgeous with a waterfall and big slide as well as seperat hot tubs, kids pool and quiet pool. the lobby and restaurants were very nice and not crowded like Disneys usually are. We always either drive our own car or rent a car so I really couldn't comment on transportation as we didn't use it there or on disney.
(i will post actuall trip review on trip review board, dinning report is already on the dinning board)
The Trip Home: after are few days in Disney we went to TAmpa to stay with the inlaws for a week. so we came home on I-75. have to say I prefer this route and didn't take nearly as much gas.
Day 1 left Tampa 8:30. Really pushed it as we wanted to get through Atlanta before rush hour. just had lunch in the car and stopped only for bathroom and gas. made it to Atlanta about 3:30, we use to live there so we sorta knew our way around. When we hit an accident downtown we were able to use the surface streets to get around it. Unfortunately we hit another accident on 175 north that we couldn't avoid and ended up loosing about half an hour. We stopped at a Cracker Barrell in calhoun GA for dinner and then pushed to London Kentucky for the night, we stayed at a Super 8, (my daughters favorite) which had a nice breakfast.
Day 2 : left London Kentucky about 8:30 stopped in Ohio for some shopping then again in Monroe Michigan for the outlet mall (wish we had stopped in GA the day before.) Hit a detour in Detroit and stopped for dinner at a Dennys (again DD favorite.) we crossed the border from Windsor about 7:00pm and were home about 10:30.
I'll try to answer any questions, i just wanted to say we usually fly to Flordia but we were stuck there last year over Sept 11th so we decided from now on if we can drive we will. It was better then I expected and it was nice to not have to worry about what I was buying, or how much I wanted to bring with me. the kids were a little restless by the time we got home, the TV worked wonders. We did buy quite a few new videos along the way, even I was getting bored of hearing Toy Story 2.
Allison
June 21st 6:00pm left Alma to Guelph and the 401, got off at highway 6 into hamilton. Stopped at the Wendys just before Hamiliton for dinner and Tim Horton cookies. Got on the QEW drove through Hamiliton, stopped at the Costco in ST Catherines for TV for car ($220.00 Cdn for 13 inch) which was the best investment we ever made!!!! Crossed the border at fort Erie (no problem) and drove to erie about 11:00pm and we had planned on stopping, unfortunatley it was sold out due to a soccer tournament so we kept going, next place we got to was also sold out, so we kept driving finally around 1:30 we found a Howard Johnson about 15 min off the highway that had 2 rooms left, we were about 30 min out of Pittsburg at this point. it turned out to be a nice hotel and we had a little sleep in that morning. $89.00 UDS for the night
June 22nd after a nice hot breakfast buffet at the hotel we left around 9:30am. we went about half an hour then got caught in a construction accident. a dump truck knocked over a power pole about 20 cars ahead of us. We were caught between two exits and couldn't move, after sitting for about an hour we finally followed a group of other cars up the closest exit ramp and found the back roads around the mess. next stop was for lunch in West Virginia, we went to a grocery store and got the kids little lunches to eat in the car (along with a few other snacks) we got Arby sandwiches to eat in the car for Dh and I. I have to say West Virginia was the worst drive of the whole trip, incredibly BORINg and boy did it suck the gas down we filled up at least 3 times through the state. I ended up doing some driving through the hills and it really isn't bad driving just incredible dull. We finally made it to North Carlolina and stopped for dinner at a McDonalds with a play land. this was about 7:15. We were aiming for Savanah GA to stop again but after our delay in Pennsylvania we made it to Ridgeland SC which is about half an hour north of Savannah. We use to live in this area of SC so it was pretty neat to be back there. We stayed at the Ramada Inn and it was clean and had ceral and bagels for breakfast.
June 23rd. Left Ridgeland about 8:30 drove through the rest of SC & GA (this is one of my favorite areas of the country) make sure to stop and get cheap gas in GA. When we crossed to Floridia we stopped in at a Winn dixie to find the blue bell icecream, our favorite and had ice cream cones in the car for a snack. At Daytona we stopped at the Walmart to stock up on supplies for WDW. It was much easier to stop there then to go to the one in Orlando. We did have a cooler in the truck with us so we could transport all our cold food. From Daytona we got on I-4 and went into Orlando. This was the busiest traffic we encountered. It was amazing how busy it was for a Sunday afternoon. One unbelievable things was we saw two cars driving side by side and the passengers were talking to each other out the window as they drove on the freeway. it took us close to two hours to get through the city to our hotel. it was raining so were not in that much of a rush.
we stayed at the Radisoon parkway, this was the first time in ages we had stayed off site. The decision was made because due to the cancellation of EE. We loved the hotel it was great, it is very close to WDW it was an easy drive in and out. i really didn't notice any time difference then when we stayed at Coronado. I had actually booked rooms at POR and waited till the last possible moment to cancel them, but I was really happy we did. i would put the Raddisson above any of The WDW moderates and would even compare it with some of the deluxes. The pool area was gorgeous with a waterfall and big slide as well as seperat hot tubs, kids pool and quiet pool. the lobby and restaurants were very nice and not crowded like Disneys usually are. We always either drive our own car or rent a car so I really couldn't comment on transportation as we didn't use it there or on disney.
(i will post actuall trip review on trip review board, dinning report is already on the dinning board)
The Trip Home: after are few days in Disney we went to TAmpa to stay with the inlaws for a week. so we came home on I-75. have to say I prefer this route and didn't take nearly as much gas.
Day 1 left Tampa 8:30. Really pushed it as we wanted to get through Atlanta before rush hour. just had lunch in the car and stopped only for bathroom and gas. made it to Atlanta about 3:30, we use to live there so we sorta knew our way around. When we hit an accident downtown we were able to use the surface streets to get around it. Unfortunately we hit another accident on 175 north that we couldn't avoid and ended up loosing about half an hour. We stopped at a Cracker Barrell in calhoun GA for dinner and then pushed to London Kentucky for the night, we stayed at a Super 8, (my daughters favorite) which had a nice breakfast.
Day 2 : left London Kentucky about 8:30 stopped in Ohio for some shopping then again in Monroe Michigan for the outlet mall (wish we had stopped in GA the day before.) Hit a detour in Detroit and stopped for dinner at a Dennys (again DD favorite.) we crossed the border from Windsor about 7:00pm and were home about 10:30.
I'll try to answer any questions, i just wanted to say we usually fly to Flordia but we were stuck there last year over Sept 11th so we decided from now on if we can drive we will. It was better then I expected and it was nice to not have to worry about what I was buying, or how much I wanted to bring with me. the kids were a little restless by the time we got home, the TV worked wonders. We did buy quite a few new videos along the way, even I was getting bored of hearing Toy Story 2.
Allison
