MoreTravels
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 7, 2012
We have decided to make a last minute trip to Disney and did not want to spend $3000 to buy the air travel tickets. It was not easy.... let me share some experience for the first time drivers.
1. Timing: If you are going to visit Orlando theme parks, you most likely have small children. You should be prepared to start with a delay. We were aiming to wake everyone up at 6am and to leave at 7am. It turned out no kid can wake up on time. Then someone needed to do number 2 just before leaving. Someone forgot to pack this and bring that. By the time we were ready, it was 10 am departure from Toronto.
2. Breaks: You will need three types of break stops: food, gas (or electrical charging), and washroom. Except a few states (WV and PA I believe), they do not have En Route all-in-one style of rest stop. The government rest stops only have washroom and vending machines. They are creeping and perhaps dangerous to use after dark, as your family may be the only people in an unattended area. The gas stations usually have dirty washroom, ok for boys to stand to use but not really for girls to sit down. Then you have to go into an adjacent town for food. So the most likely scenario becomes.... washroom every 3 hours, gas every 4 hours, and food every 6 hours. You have to coordinate your stop. With small children, if you have 4 stops per day, you should be prepared to add 2 hours (ie, 30 minutes per stop) to that daily drive.
3. GPS: This is what really got me. Most people use Car Play or Android Auto to run Waze or Google Map. The problem with these programs is that they are "dynamic" and change your route to optimize drive time without your knowledge. We were led to a small town in Pennsylvania, with no street light, along houses that looked rundown and dangerous neighborhood. I was praying not to have car troubles because it was literary like a horror movie where if your car breaks down, then zombies come out looking for you. Maybe I am too chicken but I just cannot understand why those GPS would send me away from major Interstate highway to small 3 digits country roads, just to save 15 minutes? My suggestion is to have a paper map and ignore re-routing suggestion to stay on major Interstate highways.
4. Road Choice: When I left, I picked Windsor, I-75 through Kentucky all the way to Florida. When I came back, I followed GPS (see my last point). Despite my preference for easy drive, it sent me to I-4, Daytona, Jacksonville, then the WV moutain roads. I will tell you my experience.
I-75 takes longer but is more stress-free to drive. If you have a less experienced driver in the family (spouse or teenage kids) that wants to share the driving, please take I-75. Your instruction will be, from Michigan just take I-75, as long as you are on I-75, then you are on the right road. There is NO toll at all (except the Windsor border bridge) until Florida. Then you can go to sleep.
With I-77, I-79, you have to change roads multiple times. If you miss an exit ramp or leave too early, many highways do not allow you to make a u-turn for the opposite entry. For example, I was at I-79 looking for food. I saw a McDonald sign and exited the wrong one. It turned out that exit connected to I-76. For 30 minutes, I could not find another exit to turn back. I had to change my route completely using GPS to find my way. The example would be if you want to go from west end of GTA to the east end... you can either take 401 toll free, no need to change, or you can take 403, QEW, 427, 407, 412, then 401.... and if you are not from Toronto, you would not know what those 400's highways are. With a small screen dynamic GPS on Carplay, you may end up in a undeveloped subdivision of Oshawa that has no streetlights or rest stop. In Canada, I don't think it is a big deal. However, I do not want to be lost in a middle of pitch dark place at night in an unknown small town in USA.
Also, highway I-77 was horrible, almost like highway 400 (people from Barrie would know) in GTA, there are frequent car accidents and road closure. I was stuck 3 minutes (about 50 cars) behind a major crash. There was a police chase ended up with truck trailer rolled over at Statesville in NC on I-77. The police actually placed spikes on the road to puncture the targeted car tire! The highway was closed for 2 hours. I am so lucky because I just took a restroom break before that. If I did not, I might be part of that crash. I was hoping to save 2 hours driving I-77 and I-79 vs I-75, well it turned out it took much longer due to the road closure. We turned off the car and waited on highway for 2 hours under the stars. We were almost prepared to sleep overnight on the highway. When they reopened the highway, there were metal debris everywhere on the road at the crash site. I was so worried to have tire puncuture from it. Luckily, it did not happen. Here is the news.
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article265322521.html
My conclusion... next time, I will just take I-75... less expensive, easier to drive, less chance of taking the wrong turn, and maybe less chance of getting stuck on road blockage.
1. Timing: If you are going to visit Orlando theme parks, you most likely have small children. You should be prepared to start with a delay. We were aiming to wake everyone up at 6am and to leave at 7am. It turned out no kid can wake up on time. Then someone needed to do number 2 just before leaving. Someone forgot to pack this and bring that. By the time we were ready, it was 10 am departure from Toronto.
2. Breaks: You will need three types of break stops: food, gas (or electrical charging), and washroom. Except a few states (WV and PA I believe), they do not have En Route all-in-one style of rest stop. The government rest stops only have washroom and vending machines. They are creeping and perhaps dangerous to use after dark, as your family may be the only people in an unattended area. The gas stations usually have dirty washroom, ok for boys to stand to use but not really for girls to sit down. Then you have to go into an adjacent town for food. So the most likely scenario becomes.... washroom every 3 hours, gas every 4 hours, and food every 6 hours. You have to coordinate your stop. With small children, if you have 4 stops per day, you should be prepared to add 2 hours (ie, 30 minutes per stop) to that daily drive.
3. GPS: This is what really got me. Most people use Car Play or Android Auto to run Waze or Google Map. The problem with these programs is that they are "dynamic" and change your route to optimize drive time without your knowledge. We were led to a small town in Pennsylvania, with no street light, along houses that looked rundown and dangerous neighborhood. I was praying not to have car troubles because it was literary like a horror movie where if your car breaks down, then zombies come out looking for you. Maybe I am too chicken but I just cannot understand why those GPS would send me away from major Interstate highway to small 3 digits country roads, just to save 15 minutes? My suggestion is to have a paper map and ignore re-routing suggestion to stay on major Interstate highways.
4. Road Choice: When I left, I picked Windsor, I-75 through Kentucky all the way to Florida. When I came back, I followed GPS (see my last point). Despite my preference for easy drive, it sent me to I-4, Daytona, Jacksonville, then the WV moutain roads. I will tell you my experience.
I-75 takes longer but is more stress-free to drive. If you have a less experienced driver in the family (spouse or teenage kids) that wants to share the driving, please take I-75. Your instruction will be, from Michigan just take I-75, as long as you are on I-75, then you are on the right road. There is NO toll at all (except the Windsor border bridge) until Florida. Then you can go to sleep.
With I-77, I-79, you have to change roads multiple times. If you miss an exit ramp or leave too early, many highways do not allow you to make a u-turn for the opposite entry. For example, I was at I-79 looking for food. I saw a McDonald sign and exited the wrong one. It turned out that exit connected to I-76. For 30 minutes, I could not find another exit to turn back. I had to change my route completely using GPS to find my way. The example would be if you want to go from west end of GTA to the east end... you can either take 401 toll free, no need to change, or you can take 403, QEW, 427, 407, 412, then 401.... and if you are not from Toronto, you would not know what those 400's highways are. With a small screen dynamic GPS on Carplay, you may end up in a undeveloped subdivision of Oshawa that has no streetlights or rest stop. In Canada, I don't think it is a big deal. However, I do not want to be lost in a middle of pitch dark place at night in an unknown small town in USA.
Also, highway I-77 was horrible, almost like highway 400 (people from Barrie would know) in GTA, there are frequent car accidents and road closure. I was stuck 3 minutes (about 50 cars) behind a major crash. There was a police chase ended up with truck trailer rolled over at Statesville in NC on I-77. The police actually placed spikes on the road to puncture the targeted car tire! The highway was closed for 2 hours. I am so lucky because I just took a restroom break before that. If I did not, I might be part of that crash. I was hoping to save 2 hours driving I-77 and I-79 vs I-75, well it turned out it took much longer due to the road closure. We turned off the car and waited on highway for 2 hours under the stars. We were almost prepared to sleep overnight on the highway. When they reopened the highway, there were metal debris everywhere on the road at the crash site. I was so worried to have tire puncuture from it. Luckily, it did not happen. Here is the news.
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article265322521.html
My conclusion... next time, I will just take I-75... less expensive, easier to drive, less chance of taking the wrong turn, and maybe less chance of getting stuck on road blockage.
