Driving to Disney: From Southern Ontario.

[dancin Disney style]

This time I'm going to drive down I-75 and drive back the I-79 route for a comparison.

I have friends that are VERY young snowbirds and they drive back and forth three times per year. They have said that the I-75 route adds 3-4 hours on to the drive. Any comfirmations? I have to do the fastest route possible.

BTW, they are bringing me a copy of this really great book called 'The Next Exit'. It lists everything that is at each exit...ie:hotels, gas, restaurants, RV accomodation, shopping. Not that I intend to do this drive often but the book is only $15 and it looked interesting. I want to see how it compares to my GPS.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

I have friends that are VERY young snowbirds and they drive back and forth three times per year. They have said that the I-75 route adds 3-4 hours on to the drive. Any comfirmations? I have to do the fastest route possible.

BTW, they are bringing me a copy of this really great book called 'The Next Exit'. It lists everything that is at each exit...ie:hotels, gas, restaurants, RV accomodation, shopping. Not that I intend to do this drive often but the book is only $15 and it looked interesting. I want to see how it compares to my GPS.

Yes thats correct if your closest crossing is the peace bridge. If you live near Windsor that way is faster. A good way to explain it is the added 3-4 hrs is in driving the 401 and 403 to and from Windsor to Hamilton. So if you live in London Ontario it is six and one half dozen to the way you go. Same difference Approx 22hrs. 20 hrs from Windsor to Disney via I75 route, 20 hours from Hamilton to Disney Via I79 route.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Yes thats correct if your closest crossing is the peace bridge. If you live near Windsor that way is faster. A good way to explain it is the added 3-4 hrs is in driving the 401 and 403 to and from Windsor to Hamilton. So if you live in London Ontario it is six and one half dozen to the way you go. Same difference Approx 22hrs. 20 hrs from Windsor to Disney via I75 route, 20 hours from Hamilton to Disney Via I79 route.

Thumper...I'm also in Oakville. I hadn't thought of the extra few hours being the drive to Windsor but of course that makes perfect sense.

 

[Jejual]

We have driven twice from st. Catharines. The 1st time we drove straight through. That was a mistake. DH and I were so tired for the next couple of days. The second time we stopped in S.C. That worked out much better. It took us about 22 hours of drive time.

The best suggestion I have is if you belong to CAA go and order a triptic. It will give you the best route to take and tell you where construction is, and where speed traps are.

Hope this helps

 

[Jejual]

We have driven twice from st. Catharines. The 1st time we drove straight through. That was a mistake. DH and I were so tired for the next couple of days. The second time we stopped in S.C. That worked out much better. It took us about 22 hours of drive time.

The best suggestion I have is if you belong to CAA go and order a triptic. It will give you the best route to take and tell you where construction is, and where speed traps are.

Hope this helps

 

[Shir Kahn]

why torture yourselves with the drive..and cut into your vacation time! i hate driving!
we are flying out of Buffalo in April $627 for the 3 of us. No renting a car, gas, hotel fee during stop-over...stress of the drive!

Torture? I absolutely love driving down and I drive from Winnipeg, which is about a 32 hour drive! It combines a great vacation with a road trip and I look forward to many more! To me, there really is no stress driving. Most of the time, the cost is less than flying too, even counting hotels, meals and gas. I would drive every time if I could. Unfortunately, this next trip is during spring break and my DW works for the school division here, so we don't have 2 days on both sides of our trip to add on. Our summer trip though, that's definitely going to be a roadtrip!

 

[OatsZoo]

I would suggest checking the flights first. It doesn't eat up vacation days that way. You may save $200 on driving but you need to take 2-4 extra days of vacation to drive. We flew in March/April last year for $459 on SW for 2 adults and 2 kids out of Buffalo. I don't think you can drive for that price. Also our neighbours thought they would drive down and spend more than we did. Don't forget to consider extra vacation days used into your pricing factor if you would rather use vacation days for something else during the year.

Also they took 8 days off work to go and only had 6 days in Disney in the end, where we took 5 days (with one weekend) and had 8 days in Disney. Early flight in and late flight out. I would rather spend 2 extra days in Disney than in my car. The sights of Disney is much better than the sights of the highway.

 

[digskat]

driving costs an extra 2 days, less if you have any kind of a drive to the nearest USA airport. For us to fly out of Detroit at 8am, we would have to leave at 3 am, to allow for border crossing, parking, luggage check-in, etc., checking in around 1 pm that afternoon. Driving, we leave at 4am, and arive the next day at noon. Return, is the same, arrive home the following afternoon.
Cost Park-n-fly $120, gas $40, supper $40, flights $566 for a total of $766.
Gas $300, hotels $160, meals $70 total $530
saves about $230, and allows us our own vehicle for shopping and trips to universal, etc.
We enjoy the drive, so it hasn't been an issue in 4 years.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Every summer my family and I always take Interstate 75 and this what we do. We either leave our house at 2:00 AM or 3:00 AM and drive all the way to Cleveland, Tennessee and stay at the Hampton Inn over there. Instead of arriving to Clearwater Beach in late afternoon or early evening the next day, on our 2nd day of driving we then drive all way to Valdosta, Georgia and stay at the brand new Hampton Inn & Suites location. This way we can arrive in Clearwater Beach the next day in the early afternoon.

 

[pkitty]

DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE. I can't say it enough as you already know.
we've driven for the past 7 years and have no regrets. It only takes one etra day on each day which is not a big deal for us since I have more than enough vacations days to get it in. If not it will make more sence to fly because we all know time then is money and you will probably break even.

Driving for us is all about the money. It makes so much sence finacially not to fly and saves us about 700.00 to a 1000.00 dollars.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

We love the drive. 2 days down 2 days back. The scenery is awesome. We plan on the way down and rest on the way back. We take 2 weeks total for our trip. If you only have one week I can see flying. There are a few draw backs to flying. One your limited on space for bringing things back. 2 They may say 7 day trip but by the time you fly down on your flight you either miss half or most the first day for the parks. Then on the day you fly home you miss most of it again so no parks again. When you drive you can be there for park opening. You check into your hotel before park opening and head to the parks before you get your room. We drive yes there is more hotel costs but that's still cheaper than flying anyday, and to us more enjoyable. This is a personal choice. Our mind wont be changed as people who fly there minds cant be changed. Either way there is one thing in common. We all LOVE DISNEY.

 

[JackJack08]

Our best reccomendation is to start your drive after dinner that way the little one/child can sleep for the longest part of the drive. We do this each and every drive. We leave around 6:30-7PM and the kids all sleep till we get to the GA welcome centre. So the next day they are only awake in teh car for about 8 hours till we stop in Valdosta for the night. Plus this way we are at the bottom of GA when we stop for our hotel stay and the drive the next day is only 4 hours or so.

This is what we do too. I would never do it any other way again! We leave at around 6:00 from London area and drive until about 4 am. Then we get a room and sleep until about 9 am or so. Works out great so the kids don't get so bored.

 

[canadianmom2three]

We've gone down every year forever, mostly not to disney though, but farther south - fort myers...we fly sometimes, but drive often. We've tried a lot of different driving options. Here's the highlights
1.) straight through (SW ontario-Fort Myers =22 hrs, orlando would be even less!!) Get up early in the a.m. and drive like crazy all day and all night - we drive in 3hour shifts during the day and 2 hours shifts at night. This is the best of the straight thru driving options imo as you start off well rested, and really by midnight you only have 6 hours left - 2 driving shifts for DH and one for me. Best part is when the sun starts to come up and you are there!
2.) straight thru option #2 - leave after supper and drive straight thru the nite, and then all day the next day. I HATE this method because you have been up all day packing, then up all night driving, then up all the next day still driving with your cranky kids who have not slept well...
3.) break it up into 2 days of driving, stay over one night (usually just past atlanta for us, maybe not even that far if only going to orlando) this is 2x 12 hour days really, but it's nicer than the all nighter imo, and less dangerous too.
4.) break it up into 3 days driving - this may be very relaxing, but you spend half your vacation getting there and the other half getting back...lots of driving, and the kids get cranky and bored. Would rather go straight thru than take this long to get there!
5.) FLY we do this now whenever possible, in fact, we are headed out in 3 days and I am GREATLY looking forward to spending 2.5 hours on a plane instead of 25 hours in a van

When we drive, the kids love it if we wrap up little junky dollar store toys and then once every hour or two we let them unwrap one. Also we print off maps for each of them, and they can keep track of how far we have driven (this cuts down on the constant " are we there yet!") Would highly recommend the guide to I-75 booklet you can get at any bookstore, tons of fun facts that entertained the kids and also DH and I. Have a great drive!!!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Would highly recommend the guide to I-75 booklet you can get at any bookstore, tons of fun facts that entertained the kids and also DH and I. Have a great drive!!!

Don't forget about his other book which covers the Florida Interstate exits, which is the exact same formart. So in this one you get the exit information for I-75, I-95-, I-10, I-4 and the Florida Turnpike.

 

[Newcastle]

For those of you who drive through the night with young children, do they actually end up getting any sleep? There is no way that my kids will sleep more than an hour or two strapped into their car seats because they like to move around a lot when they sleep. Are your kids just super sound sleepers or am I missing some tried and true technique for getting them to sleep through the night leg of the trip? The last thing I want to deal with is a bunch of cranky, sleep-deprived chidren! Any thoughts/advice?

 

[dancin Disney style]

For those of you who drive through the night with young children, do they actually end up getting any sleep? There is no way that my kids will sleep more than an hour or two strapped into their car seats because they like to move around a lot when they sleep. Are your kids just super sound sleepers or am I missing some tried and true technique for getting them to sleep through the night leg of the trip? The last thing I want to deal with is a bunch of cranky, sleep-deprived chidren! Any thoughts/advice?

My kids will sleep anywhere...but they are a bit older. Even when they were toddlers they would sleep. We let the kids lay down either on the seat or on the floor (we have a van).

 

[JackJack08]

For those of you who drive through the night with young children, do they actually end up getting any sleep? There is no way that my kids will sleep more than an hour or two strapped into their car seats because they like to move around a lot when they sleep. Are your kids just super sound sleepers or am I missing some tried and true technique for getting them to sleep through the night leg of the trip? The last thing I want to deal with is a bunch of cranky, sleep-deprived chidren! Any thoughts/advice?

DS5 is a mover but he doesn't really wake up that much. Usually just when we stop for gas, under the bright lights. But we get a room around 4ish and we all go sleep well, for the rest of the night. I love doing it this way....DH and I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway...we are always on a Disney high!!

 

[F4disneyfan]

DS5 is a mover but he doesn't really wake up that much. Usually just when we stop for gas, under the bright lights. But we get a room around 4ish and we all go sleep well, for the rest of the night. I love doing it this way....DH and I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway...we are always on a Disney high!!

That is the same with our kids we found a way to combat this when stopping and starting at night. We had some curtains made for the windows of our van and put the blackout backing on them. We then bought 8 screw type adjustable curtain rods to hang them on and we put them on the windows when we stop in Windsor for our pee break before crossing into the US. This way it blocks out all the light at the service centers and the kids don't wake up. Then when we aren't in the van we use a few of them in the kids bedrooms for curtains. I will have to get some pics of them for people to see. My mom made them for us we just bought the material at lens mills and the rods at Wal Mart it cost us about 20 bucks total.

We don't bother with the room till the next day around 4 in the afternoon I drive to the GA welcome center then the ids get out and eat and run around and I have a nap in the van. Then I wake up to help get the kids in and settled and then the wife drives from the GA welcome center to the rest area at the Macon bypass. I pretty much sleep from the top of Ga to just after Atlanta then after our lunch break I take over the drive again. I think I drive all but about 5 hours of the trip.

Newcastle our kids are big time movers when they sleep. Our oldest gets the back seat and keeps her seatbelt on and the other 2 have car seats that recline a bit so we tip the seats back for them to help them sleep. They do not have an issue sleeping in the car at all other than as said the bright lights at the service centers when we stop for gas but we found a remedy for that with the curtains.

 

[Disneyof3]

Like the above posts the kids are pretty good in the car when it comes to sleeping. The seats in the van recline and they make do. They may not sleep deep for long but they aren't cranky when they do get up. They are pretty good for about 4 hours then from there on it is little cat naps through the rest of the day. We have driven 4 years in a row the first potty training my youngest and it as been a breeze. The kids know it takes a long car ride and they know the more they ask "How long now", the worse it is. That is why we always leave at night around 5pm so they are asleep and it is dark for most of the trip. Best of luck, and enjoy the scenery along the way..

 

[JackJack08]

The curtains sound like they work great! We, this year, will have the new Caravan with the table and wireless headphones for the DVD. I am super stoked about that! The windows on the passenger sides, actually come down as well, so I may try to rig something up with a blanket or towel. I don't mind the drive at all really....the drive home kind of sux though.....all the fun is over! We also recline the kids carseats as far as they will go, and this yesr DD just has one of those boosters, that go under your butt, so she will get a better sleep than last year. We were going to drive straight through (DH can stay awake for days...LOL) but just got too tired. We don't plan that part at all...we just kind of go with the flow.