Driving from Detroit to Disney World.

[Cupcakes26]

Hello, I am thinking about driving from Detroit to Disney World in December for our Christmas vacation. Kids are 5,8,9,11,11 me and my mother. Flights are crazy.....anyone does this drive lately? And/or have advice? I'm not particularly concerned I have driven long periods of time before....just any advice? Or cheap flights advice?

Thanks in advance ladies/gents

 

[LadyBeBop]

I’m about five hours south of you in the Cincinnati area. We can do Orlando in one long day. Best to do it in two. With stops, it takes us about 13 hours, so in your case, it will be close to 18. But we drive slow.

Atlanta is your main problem. You have to avoid Atlanta during rush hour. Best thing is to stop just south of Atlanta for the evening (leaving a six hour drive the next day). But that will be a 12 hour drive the first day, plus potentially going through Atlanta during evening rush hour. You could stop just north of Atlanta and leave no later than 6 AM the following morning.

Cincinnati could be a potential problem as well. We have one of our bridges closed until at least November. And there is construction on the main I-75 bridge (the Brent Spence Bridge). That is also supposed to be completed by November. Hoping they’re right, and once again it’s smooth sailing across the Ohio River. But right now, it’s a mess. Check back here in late November.

Snow could also be an issue, especially going through the mountains between the Kentucky/Tennessee border and Knoxville.

Can’t help with cheap flights, except you can try searching other airports sorta near you or on your route. Perhaps Columbus or Cleveland (slightly out of your way). Or even Cincinnati. I wouldn’t fly out or Atlanta. You wouldn’t save much time.

 

[CBMom01]

Hello, I am thinking about driving from Detroit to Disney World in December for our Christmas vacation. Kids are 5,8,9,11,11 me and my mother. Flights are crazy.....anyone does this drive lately? And/or have advice? I'm not particularly concerned I have driven long periods of time before....just any advice? Or cheap flights advice?

Thanks in advance ladies/gents

Have you thought of driving to Chicago and flying from there? There are a huge number of direct flights every day and it’s usually much less expensive to fly from there than other Midwest cities for that reason. Depending on where you are around Detroit, you could be to Midway airport in under 5 hours. O’Hare is about an hour farther but is huge and even easier to find good flights from there.

I’ve never done long term parking at or near an airport so don’t know if that would be cost prohibitive.

 

[StarSeven7]

We usually fly Spirit nonstop from Detroit to Orlando. I know lots of people hate Spirit but we've never had any issues flying with them and their prices are usually much cheaper than other airlines. They have multiple nonstop flights each day from Detroit to Orlando so I feel fairly safe if my flight gets cancelled.

 

[JenBush]

I’ve driven from Ohio to Orlando many times. Atlanta is always the biggest concern. We try to hit it either in the middle of the night or sometime between like 1-3pm. I always have google maps or Waze on to give us a heads up about traffic and possible reroutes. I also try to book a hotel stopping point in advanced because it really sucks when you are driving and ready to stop for the night but all the hotels in the area are fully booked.

 

[wfjny]

We are regulars in the Charlotte to Orlando trip. Not quite as far as Detroit...

I share our normal plan, you might find some of it helpful...

When our kids were younger, for a long weekend trip, we will normally leave after work/school (say on Friday). We will drive to Jacksonville, and stay there overnight. The reason for that, the hotels there are generally cheaper than in Orlando, and we are only about 2 hours away when we wake up the next morning.

Comfortable places to stop: Buc-ee's Travel Center. There are a few, biggest and cleanest restrooms anywhere.

The 75/85 mixing bowl is Atlanta is horrible. As others have said, try to hit off-hours. Or, you may want to to try and take the I-77 to I-26 to I-95 to I-4 route. You would skip Atlanta, and I think it is not much further.

We are a Hilton Honors member, we try to plan our route with a stop that makes sense and is cheaper, For us, I try to get off the road between 10 PM and midnight if I was working that day. I also try to get on the road by 5 AM if it is a driving day. For us, 12 hours is really the limit of what we like to do in one day. We often travel from Charlotte to Disney, and up to NY (family). In both cases, we tend to make it a two day trip outgoing, and a one day trip on return. You sound like a seasoned traveler, one item I would recommend is we have a six port USB charger for our car. You may want two...

My only other comment, we have taken both the slow roll and the power drive. Both have their place. but if you have some planned out stopping points, it kinda gives you a goal. Just a mental trick, but it may help...

Some money saving tips:
If you can get discounted gift cards, do that (Our local supermarket does $10 gas cards every once in a while). Same type of thing with restaurants, if you are into that.

Good luck. Yes, driving is longer, but so much easier to bring what you need, have a car when you get there, etc...

 

[sam_gordon]

Not sure when you're leaving, but three years in a row we drove from Central Ky to Poinciana (just south of WDW) on Christmas Day. The roads were virtually empty. It's about a 13 hour drive for us. We'd leave about 9am and show up around 10pm.

I disagree with pre-planning a stopping point. I know it works for some people, I don't like it. If I'm making worse time than I anticipate, I may not make it to the stopping point, and most hotels have a "cancel by 6p for no penalty". There's no way I'll know if I'm going to make it that early. By the same token, if I'm doing better than anticipated, I can get further than I planned. If I'm travelling with DW, I'll have her get her phone out and start looking for hotels 1-2 hours before I anticipate stopping. That's a wide range, and I've never come upon a time when we can't find a hotel.

Atlanta is key. I'd say you want to get to the northern part of Atlanta after 10a, but before 3p, or after 6p. That's heading South.

Before our last trip, I did create a cheat sheet of where Flying J and Pilot truck stops were on 75. They're open 24/7, have a range of food/drink choices (not exactly healthy, but still wide choice), and clean. There are only two Buc-ee's showing on I75 right now, both in Ga. One is being built in Ky.

With seven of you, I hope you have a comfortable ride. When the kids were younger, we had a portable hard drive that had wifi built in. I loaded a bunch of movies/tv shows on it and they were able to watch what they wanted when they wanted.