anyone drive from midwest/chicago to orlando?

[sz9144]

We have 2 preschool boys, a minivan with dvd, and a small budget. we do not want to pay $800-1000 in airfare, so we want to drive to orlando from the chicago area.

has anyone made a similar trip? due to my dh's work hours, we cannot leave chicago until a friday evening at 7:30 pm the earliest. we need to be in valdosta saturday night. we thought about stopping in either indianapolis (3.5 hrs from us) or seymour, IN (4.5 hrs from us), and that would leave us 11-12 hrs to drive on sat. Is this do-able? should we just have the kids sleep in the car and drive through the night from chicago to valdosta?

any input is appreciated!

 

[Lenc324]

Wow let me tell you it is a long drive from Chicago. Did you look at Southwest Airlines out of Midway? My son and I get good fares all the time. Last time was 234 round trip for us both. Check it out.

 

[westjones]

We have driven from about 1 hour above Indianapolis to Orlando several times (but I am no good at telling you roads/highway numbers).

What we have done is leave at night and then drive through the night. The kids sleep in the van, so it is quiet. We are SO excited about our trip that we stay awake (with the help of coffee). From Indianapolis it is about 16-17 hours, so if we leave after DH gets off work, we are at Disney by the next afternoon.

Then we check into our hotel and take a little nap (while the kids watch Toon Disney on the TV). After a couple hours, we take the kids to the pool. Then we go to bed early that evening and by the next day we are ready to go.

NOW, on the way home, we stop half away at a hotel. We don't have the energy to make it all the way home (but we did do it once, and we have friends who have done it a couple of times).

We go down through Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, etc. It is much easier getting through these cities in the middle of the night.

You have farther to go than we do, but not by much. I think you can do it if you really want to, but I would look into cheap airfare if it were at all possible. We have stopped our driving to Orlando because we have decided that it was just not relaxing at all and we only get one vacation a year and we want to get there (and back home) feeling good.

Good Luck!
DJ

 

[Traveliz]

We do it three-four times a year from Centrail Illinois and actually due to the roads its about the same driving distance for us as you.

I have done it many many times through the years with children of all ages - my most ambitious trip was two years ago alone (with my 16 year old daughter) and a 6&4 year old niece and nephew.

The key is to be organized for the trip...a mini van is good - we have a full size van and it works great...use that tv/dvd...get a new tape or two just for the trip. Plan out the day in your head...if you can pop a tape in about two or three hours before you want to do a lunch stop it can really make the time go well. Make goodie bags with wrapped presents to open at different places (state lines etc). Encourage comfortability with pillows and blankets.

We stop in Valdosta too and then its an easy breeze in to Disney the next morning.

Btw we just got back and the entire gas bill (down and back with driving while we were there was 400.00). We used hotel points to stay in Valdosta.

Have a great trip!

Liz

 

[westjones]

Btw we just got back and the entire gas bill (down and back with driving while we were there was 400.00). We used hotel points to stay in Valdosta.

Have a great trip!

Liz

Wow! I am so glad you posted how much gas cost! We have airfare for 4 of us from Indianapolis on Airtran in June for $700, and then we are using the free Magical Express shuttle to Boardwalk. If we were to stop at a hotel on the way down and the way back (about $100 each time) and then considering meals along the way, it would cost us about the same to drive as it would to fly!

Makes me feel better about booking our flights! Of course, if you drive straight and carry food to eat in the car you could save a couple of hundred dollars, but flying is so much more relaxing!

DJ

 

[cgcw]

We did several times and then starting flying Spirit out of O'Hare to Orlando. We really were bummed when they stopped their flights.

We have a trip coming up in March and the thought of making the drive again was very scary. So, we hunted and hunted for the best airfare. It doesn't help that we are going the last week of March -- apparently a very high travel time. But, with just a few changes to our plans, we were able to get a flight out of O'Hare to Orlando on USA3000. We have a neighbor who has flown them several times and been happy. Unfortunately, the cost was a lot more than we were just to paying with Spirit -- I don't know if that was because of the timeframe or because of the airline. But, we are going and we are not driving, that's the most important part to us.

It's a long drive from Chicago to Orlando. Depending on how your children travel in the car, it could be even longer. Our youngest gets car sick so we have to counteract that with OTC dramamine. Then he does a lot of sleeping along the way. I am not the best car traveler and the mountains scare the heck out of me. I don't know which is worse, me driving because I know I'm going to kill us all by driving off the side of the mountain or my DH driving because I know he's going to drive us off the side of the mountain. So, the tension is always high from the passengers seat during those trips.

When we did drive, we would leave about 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. Drive into at least Indianapolis before stopping for breakfast. Our goal has always been to at least make it into Florida before we stop for the night. On the way back, we usually try to make it to Indiana before we call it a night. By the time we get there and back home, we are very tired out from driving and sitting in the car all day.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Plutofan]

In order to save money we do the yearly 17 hour drive to Disney from Dallas. We get up at midnight and drive straight through. By the time the kids wake up in the van we already have 8 hours behind us. We usually eat breakfast in the car and stop for lunch. The kids (4,5 & 7) are usually happy watching movies in the car for the rest of the day.

Some other ideas on saving money:

If you go to Disney every year you should look into an annual pass. We purchase one and get two years out of it. One year we go late June and the other time we go earlier in June before it expires. We also do the same for the DDE (Disney Dining Card) which gets us 20% off meals. We usually do a big breakfast, skip lunch, and eat a sit down dinner at Disney. We bring our own snacks and water in each of our backpacks which lasts us all day.

 

[sz9144]

Thanks so much for all of your replies. I think I am actually more convinced now to drive.

I HATE to fly- I despise every aspect of it, from the cab or paying to park our car, to either waiting in line or paying curbside check in to take our bags, then waiting thru security with 2 squirming boys, worrying if they'll make me take off my shoes, worrying someone will snatch my laptop while I am walking thru the metal detector, then paying $30 for a meal at the food court while waiting to board, then trying to keep my kids entertained sandwiched in a seat a foot across, no way to stop, get out and stretch like in a car, then waiting for everyone to shuffle off the plane so I can walk to the tram, walk to baggage claim, walk to the car rental shuttle, then drive to our hotel. (I will not do ME again).

We spent almost 8 hrs in that whole above process last time we flew anyway. We spent $1300 on airfare, $300 on car rental (and I could not drive it because I was so nervous about wrecking someone else's car in a strange city), $100 in cab fare/curbside checkin. So for $400 in gas, plus $100 each way for hotels, I can have the comfort of driving my own car, pack as much stuff as I want, and stop whenever we feel the itch to move around. That's not only a $1100 savings, but peace of mind and the comforts from home. the bottom line is I want my own car, my own stuff, we plan to go to aldi,stuck up on 39 cent veggies and bread, etc, and just buy the perishables when we get there.

anyway, thanks again for all the information.

 

[Pluto4Pres]

You should post this over on the Transportation Board. There are plenty of Chicago drivers over there with experience.

I've made the trip from CT many times and that is a similar distance. I vote for getting the bulk of the driving in before the first stop. So, I would say drive through to Valdosta if you can handle it.

Good luck!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=944330&highlight=chicago

 

[cobbler]

We drive every year. We live in West MI. Airfare out of GR is expensive. We drive to at least the southern burbs of ATL and finish the rest the next day. Kids love watching movies on the DVD and they are used to the long drives by now. It's doable. We also pack a cooler for snacks to make our stops less frequent.

 

[Kick Save]

We drive down from Columbus at least once a year, and it's not that bad, about 18 hours. The boys (6 and 3) watch DVDs in the back and do pretty well. We usually leave on a Fri evening, drive to almost Tennessee and spend the night, then go from there to Ocala (on 75 the whole way). Get up at 8 on Sunday morning, have a bite, and we're at Disney by 10 or so, in the parks before lunch.

This past November I drove to Bradenton, FL by myself with the 3 year old, and hitting Cincinnati at 8AM and Atlanta at 4:30PM is not for the feint of heart. I survived, got to Valdosta after 13 hours in the truck, and was in Bradenton for lunch and some beach time the next day.

Cost wise, I'd say $400 is about right four our round trips. $200-ish in gas, the rest on lodging. To us the $300 or so saved over airfare is worth it to have our own car there, and $300 is a couple of meals once we get there.

 

[rigsby25]

We got nice flights on American out of O'hare. We're leaving early one Saturday and coming back the next Saturday afternoon. It was 178.00 round trip. We just booked a flight for the Everest Expedition opening. When I was at work - around 2:00, it was 158.00 round trip. By the time I got home at 4 it was 178.00 round trip so I booked it. The next night it was 198.00 round trip. I wish I would've booked it at work, but I had to come home and see if DH was up for it. We drove to California last year and had so much fun. Our van was overheating and I think we stopped at every rest stop. But it seemed to me that the trip was one vacation, then in California we had the second vacation, and coming home the third vacation (with a new car).

 

[Val]

We have 4 kids, DDs almost 18, 14 and 8 and DS 10. We have been driving down for 8 years. We leave from Central Illinois about 2 AM and drive straight through....was a fairly hard drive with 2 drivers, but now our almost 18 year old DD (next monday she will be 18!) can help out and it isn't bad at all. When the kids were little we stopped in Valdosta, but now they sleep and we drive. My DH is a night owl so he takes the first stint, then I take over at daybreak. DD takes over once we clear Nashville until the mountains, then DH or I drive. First to spot palm trees wins a prize! We do have a DVD player, and now the kids play their games (gameboy or Nintendo DS) and listen to their MP3 players, which is really nice since that means we can listen to OUR music. Not too bad, really. Going home is always harder, and we tend to stop overnight....guess it's harder to drive back to reality after a week or two of magic!

 

[Crissup]

I much prefer to drive over flying. I generally leave Naperville around 4-5pm on a Friday night, and try to make Nashville by Midnight. I judge when it's time to stop by reading the billboards. When I have to start taking a second glance to read them because of fuzziness, I know it's time to stop.

The route through Indy is I-65. If I were you, I'd look at I-57 to I-24 to I-75 instead. you'll avoid all that traffic through Indy. I'm generally in Orlando by 7pm Saturday night. It's 1,000 miles from Naperville to Valdosta.

 

[OKWJan]

We drive every summer, when we go for two weeks. We generally leave Aurora around 5:00 or so and drive straight through the night, stopping somewere around Valdosta the next day. We get a good night's rest then the drive in the morning is a short one. Flying is a lot faster and easy, but driving gives you more flexibility.

 

[brivers222]

We drove from Detroit to Florida which is sorta similar... about a 19 hour trip one way.

2 years ago we left at 10am in the morning from detroit on saturday and then made it to Tifton Georgia by 3am... woke up checked in at ASMo at 12pm on Sunday!!!!!

This year we are leaving at about 8pm on Friday and then driving until Ohio/Kentucky boarder to sleep. Then saturday we are off from Kentuky to Kissimmee to check in at a Holiday Inn near MK for the night. Then we will rise and shine early to check in at SSR on Sunday morning.

 

[gazeborob]

We have made the drive from Geneva, IL to Orlando several times. Depending on where you live, it might be an easier to take I 57 instead, and avoid the construction on 294. That is the way we always go. You may get as far as Mt. Vernon, and then it isn't a bad drive to where you want to go the next day. I have found this route to have less traffic.

 

[luvsoccer&disney]

We live north of Milwaukee and almost always take 57, too. We've done the trip once when our kids were little and with DVD's and games in the car, we didn't have any problems.

 

[WDWLVR]

We live just North of Chicago and have done both (fly and drive). Difference with us is we have no kids so don't have to worry about the entertainment part of that. We try and leave mid-day and stop in the evening. I don't enjoy a lot of travel at night. We usually make it to Murfreeesboro, TN. Then the next day we get into WDW early evening.


Like Crissup we prefer I-57 to I-65. A bit longer route but much more pleasant.

 

[BCV23]

Another vote for 57 over 65.

It is just a few more miles but can save quite a bit of time. You avoid the Gary corridor mess and potential traffic problems in Indy as well.