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

[pwdebbie]

All-time record setter (see page 1) dvczerfs is about to extend his total drives record next week when he departs from PA. Stay tuned.

All the best!

Wish I could go stand on I81 S with my thumb out so he could pick me up and take me along. Check in dvczerfs and let us know how your trip goes.

 

[FlatBlackLI]

Hello everyone. We will be doing our second drive to WDW from Long island end of April. First time we took the inland route and left at noon on a friday. It was not how we wanted it but wan no way to avoid that departure time. We found that the inland route does not work for us. We will be taking 95 this time, looking for departure time suggestions. I am thinking leave about 7-8PM on thursday. Still not sure if we will drive straight thru or stop. Do not know where we would be at 7-8am if it is worth it to just keep going or stop. This board was very helpful to us last time and any of your info and or tips will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[dvczerfs]

Greetings from sunny Bradenton Fl. !!!
We had, for the most part, a uneventful trip. I seem to travel at times of natural disaster anymore. Prayers for my friends in the north east. We were leaving at around 11am but something told me, let’s get out of here!!
The local weather had it, at 8am, 1-3 inches on non paved surfaces. I didn’t want to leave early because we go through Charlotte and Billy Graham’s funeral plus the president in town was sure to have traffic interesting.
We took off anyway at 8:30am in the rain. We hit the Harrisburg pa area and it was a wet snow but still not sticking.
We took our time but we hit Charlotte at 5:15pm!! Lol
There is a lot of construction and it was bumper to bumper but it moved. I was surprised.
We drove to Florida welcome center, got there about 11pm. We took a snooze, I have a double bed in the back of our van.
Got up at 3:30 am and hit the road. Jax was empty and no traffic in Orlando at that time on a Saturday morning.
Drove past our exit and said see ya Wednesday!! Trip 66 is underway!!

 

[dvczerfs]

Oh, our daughter is home. She got home from work at 3:30 on Friday and the power was out since 1:30pm. We were lucky, our power was restored at 7pm.
90 percent of our town has no power. No power means no heat. They said by Wednesday everyone should have power.
They had 70 mph winds. Knocking down trees and power lines. The snow has melted.

 

[amcnj]

Hello everyone. We will be doing our second drive to WDW from Long island end of April. First time we took the inland route and left at noon on a friday. It was not how we wanted it but wan no way to avoid that departure time. We found that the inland route does not work for us. We will be taking 95 this time, looking for departure time suggestions. I am thinking leave about 7-8PM on thursday. Still not sure if we will drive straight thru or stop. Do not know where we would be at 7-8am if it is worth it to just keep going or stop. This board was very helpful to us last time and any of your info and or tips will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

What is your total drive time/how far out on LI are you? If you do decide to stop, that will be at 7-8 am? When would you start the second leg of the trip?

For reference, I am about an hour and 10 minutes from the DE Memorial Bridge, and my drive miles are around 1050. I leave early AM (2-2:30) and am in the WDW area around 6:30-7:30 that same day. Naturally exact times depend on the weather, traffic, road construction, accidents, stops....

Here are the times for a trip where things go well:

Depart 2:30 AM
Enter VA 5:30 AM (so avoid DC rush hours)
Enter NC 8 AM
Enter SC 11 AM
Enter GA 2 PM
Enter FL 4 PM
Reach Orlando/WDW area 6:30-7 PM, depending on exactly where you need to end up

Hope this helps.

 

[AaronInWI]

I would plan for a place with a pool so you can chill out in case you don't sleep much in the car and want to just chill. Savannah is a great place to chill, IMHO.

@mrocco90 - to tag on to this, if your budget permits, you might also enjoy having a room with a dedicated sitting area. We were given a free upgrade to a suite at a Drury Inn on our drive home last year (they were having technology issues, and the lady checking us in was very appreciative of our patience). After a long day of driving, we really liked having a couch to stretch out on and unwind while watching TV. Much more comfortable than sitting on the bed. That's our M.O. when we have long drives now. That extra $50 is worth it to us so we're fully refreshed the next day.

 

[FlatBlackLI]

What is your total drive time/how far out on LI are you? If you do decide to stop, that will be at 7-8 am? When would you start the second leg of the trip?

For reference, I am about an hour and 10 minutes from the DE Memorial Bridge, and my drive miles are around 1050. I leave early AM (2-2:30) and am in the WDW area around 6:30-7:30 that same day. Naturally exact times depend on the weather, traffic, road construction, accidents, stops....

Here are the times for a trip where things go well:

Depart 2:30 AM
Enter VA 5:30 AM (so avoid DC rush hours)
Enter NC 8 AM
Enter SC 11 AM
Enter GA 2 PM
Enter FL 4 PM
Reach Orlando/WDW area 6:30-7 PM, depending on exactly where you need to end up

Hope this helps.

Ok so doing a quick GPS search I am about 3 hours from the DE memorial bridge. We took 95 home last drive and went straight thru. We made a few food stops and it took 18 hours. It is 1,127 miles one way.

 

[amcnj]

Ok so doing a quick GPS search I am about 3 hours from the DE memorial bridge. We took 95 home last drive and went straight thru. We made a few food stops and it took 18 hours. It is 1,127 miles one way.

That makes sense, as my drive times are around 16 hours, and you being 2 hours further from DE Memorial Bridge, would be around 18 hours.
So if you leave say 8 pm, then hopefully are passing DC 1 AM, entering NC 3:30 AM, SC 6:30 AM, GA 9:30 AM, FL 11:30 AM and WDW area say 2:30 PM.
Does anyone else know if those times on 95 in the various states pose any problems due to it being a weekday and thus people are commuting to work?

 

[ForeverDisney6793]

I live in South Jersey close to Philadelphia and have left in the past between 7:00 and 7:30 PM. If driving straight thru, I have made it to Disney by 11:30 AM-Noon next day depending on stops and traffic.

 

[amcnj]

I live in South Jersey close to Philadelphia and have left in the past between 7:00 and 7:30 PM. If driving straight thru, I have made it to Disney by 11:30 AM-Noon next day depending on stops and traffic.

Have you done both weekend and weekday drives? Just asking to see if you ran into any rush hour issues during a weekday that next morning. Or during summer months are there any vacation/beach traffic effects anywhere? I haven't run into any leaving early AM, but wondered about those leaving the evening before, like you do.

 

[LMA712014]

Those of you who drive from the extreme North - how many hours do you usually drive and where do you usually have an ‘intermission’? I was thinking of starting the drive in the afternoon to take a chunk out of it, but that has us still in New England at night time in the winter so no RV Park stops (I assume? I’d think most would be snowed in.)

 

[ForeverDisney6793]

Have you done both weekend and weekday drives? Just asking to see if you ran into any rush hour issues during a weekday that next morning. Or during summer months are there any vacation/beach traffic effects anywhere? I haven't run into any leaving early AM, but wondered about those leaving the evening before, like you do.

I have left Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and have never run into any issues other than construction. I make sure not to leave before 7 in order to avoid DC traffic. I have driven at night in March, May, June, July, August and September. No month being different than the other.

 

[BC1836]

dvczerfs has arrived in WDW! As such, the all-time records on page 1 have been updated to note his 66th highway sojourn!

We'll be heading back to WDW next week but our drive is now 60 miles.

All the best!

 

[amcnj]

dvczerfs has arrived in WDW! As such, the all-time records on page 1 have been updated to note his 66th highway sojourn!

We'll be heading back to WDW next week but our drive is now 60 miles.

All the best!

So do you have to subtract one from your total for each of these short drives? You are missing all the snow at your former location!

 

[BC1836]

So do you have to subtract one from your total for each of these short drives? You are missing all the snow at your former location!

If we go by your new "rule," we will have to deduct six drives since we moved here in December. Let's see: 46 - 6 = 40! And next week, it will be "39."

Indeed, the two storms in NJ were terrible; in fact, some of my friends have been without power since the first storm.

All the best!

 

[AaronInWI]

Those of you who drive from the extreme North - how many hours do you usually drive and where do you usually have an ‘intermission’? I was thinking of starting the drive in the afternoon to take a chunk out of it, but that has us still in New England at night time in the winter so no RV Park stops (I assume? I’d think most would be snowed in.)

Would you consider Wisconsin "extreme North"? I would guess not, but I'll chime in anyway. We've driven three times, and have taken three different routes, for various reasons. By far my favorite drive was our first. We left at 3:30 in the morning, and drove for 13 or so hours to Morrow GA, which is just south of Atlanta. We drove on a Saturday, so we didn't have to worry too much about Chicago morning or Atlanta afternoon rush hours. This left us with a nice, easy, six hour drive to Orlando. Our next drive will be in 2019. There's a good chance we'll be leaving on a Friday this time around, so we are definitely going to have to rethink our strategy a bit.

We've also driven east to see the Great Smokey Mountains, with an overnight stay in Greenville, SC. This should have been another 13.5 hour drive, but ended up being closer to 16 due to traffic delays. Greenville is about 7.5 hours from Disney.

 

[LMA712014]

Would you consider Wisconsin "extreme North"? I would guess not, but I'll chime in anyway. We've driven three times, and have taken three different routes, for various reasons. By far my favorite drive was our first. We left at 3:30 in the morning, and drove for 13 or so hours to Morrow GA, which is just south of Atlanta. We drove on a Saturday, so we didn't have to worry too much about Chicago morning or Atlanta afternoon rush hours. This left us with a nice, easy, six hour drive to Orlando. Our next drive will be in 2019. There's a good chance we'll be leaving on a Friday this time around, so we are definitely going to have to rethink our strategy a bit.

We've also driven east to see the Great Smokey Mountains, with an overnight stay in Greenville, SC. This should have been another 13.5 hour drive, but ended up being closer to 16 due to traffic delays. Greenville is about 7.5 hours from Disney.

It’s definitely more in the realm of our time frame so it works! I think Greenville had been on my list of potential stops. Thank you!

 

[rcs]

We're planning to drive from New England to Hilton Head next April. Last time we did it in two days each way and sitting that long every day really wasn't comfortable. It felt like flying center-seat to Europe. Ug!

So, we're looking for recommendations of places along the way so we can break up the trip and do some moving around for a few hours or even a full day.

We'll probably do I-95 down and I-77/81/84 back. We'd appreciate any suggestions you may have for places to stop (or goof-a-traps to avoid!) along the way.

Thanks!

 

[dvczerfs]

We are back. Trip 66 is in the books.
We had a great time in Bradenton visiting the inlaws.
We woke up at 3am on Wednesday morning and we hit the road at 3:30am.
We ventured up I75 and we hit two spots of those, I can't see a thing rain burst.
We did make it to I4 and we hit another rain shot just as we got on I4. The rest of the way to the Poly. was uneventful. We arrived at the Poly. at 5:09 am. Would have been faster but wasn't use to the entrance roads, bridges going into a Magic Kingdom resort. lol Progress.
As usual, we had a great couple of days. We celebrate our 33rd wedding Anniversary. We had diner at Teppan Edo, Narcoossee and also California grill. Lots of sunshine. Bit on the chilly side for Florida but we weren't complaining.
Saturday morning came to fast, as always. We woke up at 3am and we were in the van and heading out at 3:40am.
Yup, MK service station is closed. Lol
Very uneventful trip home, no traffic at all. We made pretty good time, in fact it had to be one of the quickest trips home.
Left the Poly. 3:40am
Hit Sc. 8:13am
Hit Nc. 11:08 am
Hit Virginia. 12:46 pm
Hit Wv. 4:31pm
Hit Maryland. 4:51pm
Hit Pa. 5:03pm
Home. 7:30pm

We did I4/I95/I26/I77/I81/I78.

Septembers two week at Boardwalk Villa in a one bedroom is already booked and most of the adrs are made already.
The packing has started. We are looking forward to another great trip in 179 more days. We can do without the hurricane this year. Lol

 

[Colleen27]

Well, our third driving trip is in the books. It was mostly smooth going, though 95 got smoky south of Savannah on the way down and 75 in southern GA was too (though not as bad) on the way back. The straight-through drive on the way down was a bit rough, mostly because I'm such a lousy passenger that I couldn't sleep even when someone else was driving, but breaking it up on the way back worked really well and we had a great time at Rock City too. I sort of wish we had enough time to drive next time, because it will be with a more entertaining cast of characters, but it looks like our next two trips to the World will be by way of Detroit Metro airport.