Driving To WDW Straight Through?

[Bass T-bone]

... plus the fact that you'll be wasted (tired) when you get there and will need some re-coop time. Not a good value for your money...

If your gonna drive, break it up.

Just my

[PETE FROM NYC]

Don't try to kill yourselves.
Dw and I did a 2700 mile 23 day road trip this past September.We left on Sunday morning,9 AM, and went to Virginia where we were to spend a couple of days at the theme parks there.Then back on the road Wed AM til we overnighted in So Carolina.Then on to Orlando.I was the only driver, and considering some of my health issues, this worked out good for us.
We plan on doing the drive again next fall.

[CiaoBella312]

We do this drive each year, and are from central NJ. We have tried leaving at different times of the day, and going all the way without stopping. What we found works best for us is leaving at 5 or 6 in the morning, and planning on stopping in Brunswick, GA in the evening, getting up early and driving the 3 and a half hours that remain of the trip to arrive at the World by 10 a.m. Most hotels have "free breakfast" which is good enough (cereal, danish, some have yogurt and bagels) and you don't lose a day or feel too exhausted to go to the parks.

Think about how long it takes you to get to Washington, DC and the day of the week you are leaving. There is a tremendous amount of rush hour traffic in that area, so you want to drive either ahead or behind that. You will find the traffic continues/lags between Richmond, VA and Washington, DC (Virginia is the worst traffic of the trip we have found) so I suggest leaving very early in the morning or if you don't want to stop anywhere leave in the evening and drive overnight.

When we do the trip the way I described above with the 5 or 6 a.m. departure, we are in Brunswick by 7:30 or 8 p.m. Interestingly, we always go completely home from Disney without stopping; it normally only takes 16 hours, and that is WITH the traffic in Virginia.

Drive safe and good luck!

[#1donaldfan]

....we always drive down....it's about a 12 hour haul, including gas n fast food.....it's not too bad, DW can't ride or sleep in car, so I get to navagate and sleep, She'll get tired 1/2 way down and I get my chance to drive a bit.....

[Nascfan]

We drive thru also, and especially the way you plan to do it, is not too bad. You'll be able to sleep in a bed for most the first night, and wake up at WDW! Go to bed early the night before and try to get some sleep.
We've found a good trick is when we start to get tired to break it up in shorter shifts between switching drivers, even if it's literally to stop, switch, and go.

[hubbyofadisneyholic]

We are in the far north suburbs of Chicago and have made the drive straight thru many times (we will be doing it again in January).
What works best for us is to leave about 8am. We usually fast food lunch and have a decent dinner. Because of meds I am on we have to make pit stops every couple hrs switching drivers about every 6 hrs until about 11pm, then I drive the rest of the night.
We usually stop for a couple hour snooze at the rest area on I-475 just outside of Macon, GA.

My goal is for everyone to be waking up when we hit the Florida Welcome Center. Then my wife drives for the last couple hours.
That way we all have gotten a chance to sleep and are ready to go when we hit WDW.

Admittedly this was a lot easier to do back in the 1980s than it is now (downside to getting old, I guess) but it is still fairly easy to do.

[KylesMom]

Well, we've made the drive on three separate occasions from suburban Chicago - leaving our house around 2 am. Each time, we had lofty goals of being able to drive straight through. However, about an hour before Valdosta, GA, both DH and I were so exhausted that we just decided to keep our ressie at Days Inn and get a few hours of sleep. It was a good move for us each time.

On one occasion we decided to drive home straight through - and it was a debacle. First we got stuck in a 4-hour horrific backup from a semi truck accident in TN, then we got lost around Bloomington, IL due to road construction. It ended up taking almost 24 hours to get home! We both decided that if we ever drove again, we'd never try to push it that hard!

On the way back we drove straight through to my parents who live in Decatur, which was an awful ride. I would not recommend doing a straight through drive without more than 2 adults driving. The last 5 hours of our trip were horrible and we should have pulled off, but didn't.

Amen, Gary!

FYI - with only necessary rest stop breaks, it usually would take us 15 hours plus the one hour time change to make it to Valdosta. It still took 3 1/2 hours to make it to the CR, going well over the speed limit! So 18-19 hours is a pretty good estimation . . .

One last thing to add - DH and I spend a total of approximately four hours each day combined commuting to work, so it's not like we're not used to being behind the wheel!

[hokies4life]

In August we did a straight through drive of 900-950 miles with 2 drivers. I know we ended up getting in around 4pm, which would mean we left home around 2am, which sounds about right. We would only pull off to make quick potty breaks and food stops. We would eat in the car though to make sure we didn't lose too much time. We always seemed to run into traffic on 95 in GA. First time there was construction and then the next time just traffic, I guess. Now we plan on it.

We are driving again in January, this time with 3 drivers since my Mom will be with us too. I don't know if we'll be able to leave that early though so we'll probably end up getting there around 5 or later. Definitely not a park day since most close between 6-8.

[kakn7294]

We drive straight through from Pittsburgh. It takes us about 15.5 hrs if we leave around 7pm and drive all night with a stop for a nice breakfast. We usually arrive around 11:30am the next day. In March, we left home around 8:30am and drove all day, stopping for 3 meals, all fast-food. Traffic was much busier during the day and we didn't arrive until 1:30am. I think the actual driving time was about the same but we arrived about 1.5 hrs later than I had hoped.

[DisneyKim22]

Ideally, we'd love to drive straight through, but about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way, we start getting cranky. Sure, it can be done, but you have to know yourself and what you and anyone else in the vehicle can handle. We usually stop in Nashville or around Chattanooga at an inexpensive hotel. We seem to enjoy the vacation better that way. We're more likely to drive straight through on the way home - but I'd only recommend this if you have a free day before you have to go back to work/school. You'll be mighty tired!

[TheMartellFamily]

We head out late at night at 10 pm or early morning 5 am missing all Chicago traffic, do not forget there is always construction. We budget time in the manor of 22 to 24 hours straight through. That is with stops, eating, gassing up and other unexpected things that may come up. Driving down to WDW is so much easier because of the excitement of everything, coming home a stop is always a must for us. 6 hours of shut eye can do wonders.