For 2,000+ mile round-trip drivers only!

[Marshay]

Our first drive down to FL is in 2 days (we're taking the Autotrain back as something new to do and keep the excitement going). Both of these are new for us, as we always flew in the past.

We're excited about both ways and can report back how everything went (and which we liked better).

Anyone have any updates on latest I-95 Construction, bad spots, speed traps, etc from VA to FL to report?

 

[sharadoc]

im not bc but i would leave at noon. you could pos. beat most of the traffic till you hit dc. leaving at 4, youll sit in traffic 3 blocks away from your house. we are heading down nov. 30th and will get there dec.1st. we will be at okw sheradoc, if you see a guy with a mickey tattoo on his leg and little hair on his head, thats me!!!

Thanks - good point about traffic around home, too. I know 202 South starts backing up early in rush hour and that's what we usually take to 95 in Wilmington.

You have me laughing because seeing someone with a Mickey tattoo and a little hair on his head - describes at least 10% of the population at WDW at any given time!!

Sorry I won't see you at OKW. We moved to BWV on a bounceback saving 45%.

Too many trips to Disney in 2010 combined with snow days means I can't take any more vacation days beyond what we've scheduled already. I figure if I leave at lunchtime on Friday we can pick up the "extra" day by checking in on Saturday rather than Sunday.

 

[sharadoc]

Sharadoc -- leave at 12 noon. You should be fine and only get the start of DC traffic by 2-3pm. Our rush hour really starts to kick in around 4pm. Before that, it will still be busy but not rush hour.

Sounds good - I think the decision has been made! We'll get further that day, too which will make our Saturday drive all the better!

 

[Cando86]

Hello fellow drivers!!

I'm trying to plan out our drive a little right now. We're not planning on stopping (at a hotel overnight I mean) for 18 hours. We just want to go straight through. So what we're thinking is to arrive Sunday night (August 22) and stay in a hotel somewhere outside of Orlando to save some money for the night. Anyone know of any good options?

Thanks!!

 

[disneyfan55]

Hello fellow drivers!!

I'm trying to plan out our drive a little right now. We're not planning on stopping (at a hotel overnight I mean) for 18 hours. We just want to go straight through. So what we're thinking is to arrive Sunday night (August 22) and stay in a hotel somewhere outside of Orlando to save some money for the night. Anyone know of any good options?

Thanks!!

I don't know where you are staying but if I were driving straight through I would just stay at one of the discounted Values for that first night. You might be able to find something less costly, but for the trade off of being right there why not stay there. We have done this in the past if driving straight through (from NJ)

 

[dvczerfs]

Thanks - good point about traffic around home, too. I know 202 South starts backing up early in rush hour and that's what we usually take to 95 in Wilmington.

You have me laughing because seeing someone with a Mickey tattoo and a little hair on his head - describes at least 10% of the population at WDW at any given time!!

Sorry I won't see you at OKW. We moved to BWV on a bounceback saving 45%.

Too many trips to Disney in 2010 combined with snow days means I can't take any more vacation days beyond what we've scheduled already. I figure if I leave at lunchtime on Friday we can pick up the "extra" day by checking in on Saturday rather than Sunday.

yes but im cute!!! i thought you were at okw this trip. my tat has the names mom, dad and chip on it, i know, a needle in a hay stack!! but you never know.

 

[monymony3471]

Hello fellow drivers!!

I'm trying to plan out our drive a little right now. We're not planning on stopping (at a hotel overnight I mean) for 18 hours. We just want to go straight through. So what we're thinking is to arrive Sunday night (August 22) and stay in a hotel somewhere outside of Orlando to save some money for the night. Anyone know of any good options?

Thanks!!

Has anyone stayed at Celebrity Resorts? They seem to offer a ton and are inexpensive and I can't find the "catch".

$53.00 for the night for a family of 6! Pool, kitchenette, fridge, microwave, and its a time share that has all the fixin's (linens, dinnerware, etc.) There is a one time resort fee of 3.99 and its a few miles from disney property. We don't need all that, but its affordable.

We were thinking of staying there our first night. 2 value rooms for us is 168.00!

 

[sharadoc]

yes but im cute!!! i thought you were at okw this trip. my tat has the names mom, dad and chip on it, i know, a needle in a hay stack!! but you never know.

Well, if we're going to overlap dates, then I MUST buy you an adult beverage! And your DW to congratulate her for health triumph!!

 

[dvczerfs]

Well, if we're going to overlap dates, then I MUST buy you an adult beverage! And your DW to congratulate her for health triumph!!

she went back to work tuesday. all the brusing is gone and her eye lid is a bit puffy yet. her eye is opening , it floats a bit yet, dr. said another 6 weeks till the eye ball moves normally again.this december trip is for her.she has had her eye on a ring for the past few years at the market place. its $900.00 and she would never spend the money.well, i have the $900.00 put away for her for the ring this trip as a suprise.ive been putting money away alittle at a time. on wednesday i booked our 8 nights for june 2011 at the contemporary, mk view!!! that trip is for dd grad. from high school. we are going to go 78-81-77-26-95-4 for that trip. we will be leaving on a friday and i want to stay away from the shore point areas. i found a hampton inn in virginia to stay at. stay cool in this heat!!!

 

[Lilysmom]

I might mix up our plan a little. DH was able to get off 10/6. We were originally going to have him sleep during the day and leave around 6 pm and drive straight through, but......

Now with him having the entire day off we can stop overnight if we want. Out actual check in at AKL is 10/7.

If you were going to leave on the 6th from NJ and planned on stopping for the night what time would you hit the road and where would you stay over? I see a lot of people on here stay over in SC and then some stay over in GA. Thoughts???

 

[dvczerfs]

I might mix up our plan a little. DH was able to get off 10/6. We were originally going to have him sleep during the day and leave around 6 pm and drive straight through, but......

Now with him having the entire day off we can stop overnight if we want. Out actual check in at AKL is 10/7.

If you were going to leave on the 6th from NJ and planned on stopping for the night what time would you hit the road and where would you stay over? I see a lot of people on here stay over in SC and then some stay over in GA. Thoughts???

i would hit the road by 3:30am,4:00am at the latest. the earlier you leave the less traffic you hit in the northeast. have the car ready the night before and just put the kids in the pjs in the car in the morning. put a change of clothes in the car and later in the morning, change them out of there pjs. our dd is 17 and she still gets in the van in her pjs and changes later in the morning. if your taking i95, once you hit south of the boarder, you have about 7 hours to go till you hit wdw.

 

[njchilds]

We are making our first drive leaving next Friday (very early Sat. morning) around 3:00 am from NJ. We are planning on stopping in Kingsland, GA but we may decide to drive straight through. I am thinking of making a reservation somewhere near Int'l Drive with a 6:00 pm cancellation policy (thanks everyone for that tip by the way) Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheaper hotel? I priced the values but they were all well over a $100.

 

[BC1836]

We are making our first drive leaving next Friday (very early Sat. morning) around 3:00 am from NJ. We are planning on stopping in Kingsland, GA but we may decide to drive straight through. I am thinking of making a reservation somewhere near Int'l Drive with a 6:00 pm cancellation policy (thanks everyone for that tip by the way) Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheaper hotel? I priced the values but they were all well over a $100.

If possible, try and depart earlier than 3 a.m. since Friday morning rush-hour traffic in greater DC (southern MD/northern VA) is brutal.

Most of the I-95 exit hotels are under $100. Keep shopping.

All the best.

 

[chepic]

I might mix up our plan a little. DH was able to get off 10/6. We were originally going to have him sleep during the day and leave around 6 pm and drive straight through, but......

Now with him having the entire day off we can stop overnight if we want. Out actual check in at AKL is 10/7.

If you were going to leave on the 6th from NJ and planned on stopping for the night what time would you hit the road and where would you stay over? I see a lot of people on here stay over in SC and then some stay over in GA. Thoughts???

We are making our first drive leaving next Friday (very early Sat. morning) around 3:00 am from NJ. We are planning on stopping in Kingsland, GA but we may decide to drive straight through. I am thinking of making a reservation somewhere near Int'l Drive with a 6:00 pm cancellation policy (thanks everyone for that tip by the way) Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheaper hotel? I priced the values but they were all well over a $100.

We live in RI....a little north of you....and when we leave, we leave at 3:00 am and usually drive all day--stopping every 2-2.5 hours for a 15 minute break, and get into the middle of SC by 6:00. This past year (April Vac.) kids said to keep driving so me made it to Savanaha GA by 8:00ish and stopped at a Marriott off the highway. Next morning we get up, eat, and are on the road no later than 9:00 and we are in OKW by 2:00 the latest (depending upon where we stop). this past year we were in disney by noon...the condo was ready...and we were in the pool by 1:00.

Cheryl

 

[piperdown]

We leave in 2 weeks for our first family trip to WDW, and we're driving from Texas. I'm taking a full 2 weeks of vacation from work (DH is a teacher), and we're staying 9 nights. That gives us enough time to take it pretty easy there and back. We're making two overnight stops out and back.

We decided 8-9 hours driving was our max. A couple of years ago driving home from Colorado we drove 14 hours straight....we were NOT happy campers towards the end.

 

[mousebymarriage]

I might mix up our plan a little. DH was able to get off 10/6. We were originally going to have him sleep during the day and leave around 6 pm and drive straight through, but......

Now with him having the entire day off we can stop overnight if we want. Out actual check in at AKL is 10/7.

If you were going to leave on the 6th from NJ and planned on stopping for the night what time would you hit the road and where would you stay over? I see a lot of people on here stay over in SC and then some stay over in GA. Thoughts???

We live in NJ (Bergen county approx. 6 miles from the GWB) and we have stopped in Santee South Carolina for the night, it was exactly 12 hours door to door. We did stop for breakfast in the a.m. approx 20-30 min, and lunch approx 30-45 minutes(both places had a play area so the kids could burn off some energy for a little bit). This was a few years ago because now we drive straight through. We also hit almost no traffic on the way down and it was in April( I think). Oh, and there were a couple of quick stops for bathroom/gas tank refill just maybe 5 minutes each stop. We pulled out of our driveway at 2:30am and pulled into the parking lot at the Country Inn & Suites in Santee, SC at 2:30pm. We weren't going to stop but I had made the ressie ahead of time and decided to stick with the orginial plan. We were surprised that we got there so early but, it gave the kids some time to swim and we were able to relax. It was our first time driving and we weren't sure how things would go. Oh yeah , I forgot we also had a 15 minute stop on the side of the road so i could clean up vomit, my son threw up on himself and the car seat about and hour after breakfast.

 

[kidd_freeper]

Anyone have any updates on latest I-95 Construction, bad spots, speed traps, etc from VA to FL to report?

We drove from CT to Jacksonville, straight-through, on July 3. We are in Kissimmee now.

We drove on a holiday weekend, so our experience might be different.

Worst construction is in Jacksonville. Don't take I-95 through Jacksonville; the bypass interstate roads are just as fast.

Next worst is the DC beltway construction. Take the east side of the beltway.

There is some construction in Georgia, but it is not going to slow you down at all.

We had heavy traffic all the way from DC to the South Carolina border, but that might be related to the holiday weekend traffic.

We saw relatively few police, except those helping clear up accidents. Traffic was pretty consistently going the speed limit+5 mph. I'm told there are traffic cameras on the last 80 miles or so of South Carolina, but I didn't see it.

 

[BC1836]

We drove from CT to Jacksonville, straight-through, on July 3. We are in Kissimmee now. We drove on a holiday weekend, so our experience might be different. Worst construction is in Jacksonville. Don't take I-95 through Jacksonville; the bypass interstate roads are just as fast. Next worst is the DC beltway construction. Take the east side of the beltway. There is some construction in Georgia, but it is not going to slow you down at all. We had heavy traffic all the way from DC to the South Carolina border, but that might be related to the holiday weekend traffic. We saw relatively few police, except those helping clear up accidents. Traffic was pretty consistently going the speed limit+5 mph. I'm told there are traffic cameras on the last 80 miles or so of South Carolina, but I didn't see it.

Indeed: driving on a holiday weekend is a different experience!

I-95 in Jacksonville is not particularly bad in non-rush hour times; we've never had a problem. Of course, the construction there will go on for decades!

But you're there! So forget the traffic for now and "concentrate on those robots."

All the best.

 

[sharadoc]

Indeed: driving on a holiday weekend is a different experience!

I-95 in Jacksonville is not particularly bad in non-rush hour times; we've never had a problem. Of course, the construction there will go on for decades!

But you're there! So forget the traffic for now and "concentrate on those robots."

All the best.

We used 295 around Jacksonville and LOVED IT! It felt so strange to not have all that stress and traffic. I don't think we lost any time and it was so smooth and comfortable.

 

[njchilds]

We are leaving around 3:00 am next Saturday from the Jersey Shore area for our first drive to WDW. I've loaded the GPS with the addresses of hotels etc. and I got directions from AAA. Now I need some opinions from the experts. AAA and GPS have us going west on the DC beltway but I have read that east is the better route. We should hit the DC area around 7:00 AM Sat. so no rush hour to worry about, but which way should we go? Also are there any other areas of concern as we travel down 95? Any opinions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.