HELP!! Driving from MI.

[LLL]

Every other time we went to Disney we flew. Since there are no good rates from west MI. we are going to try driving. Kids are 10 and 8 boys. We have bought a tv/vcr for the van. I am not sure if we will be able to drive straight through. What have most of you pros done. What time of day should we start out? It's about 24 hours and 1200 miles. Any help and suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thank you LLL

 

[sanfran22]

i'm from cental ohio and i always drove through...kinda depends on how many people are with you, and how motivated you are...we were always wanting to get there as soon as possible so that served as motivation.....we'll be doing it again in a month and 1/2.........inkbounc

 

[momof2boyz2girlz]

We drove 2 years ago and are planning on driving again in three months. I live in south eastern michigan. We try and leave about 5:00a.m. and then stop in Georgia after about 12 hours. Then on the second day it is not as bad. Coming home we drove straight thru, it took 19 1/2 hours but it was worth it!!!! I cannot justify the cost to fly with six of us. I have a tv/vcr for the car and lots of snacks. It can get tough at times, and when it does, we stop. Sometimes it is just to a mcdonald's for a milkshake, just to get out walk around and regroup. Hopefully they will sleep for some of the ride. Good Luck.

 

[frost5000]

I've taken several long distance drives with my children (both boys, now 9 and 11). We consider ourselves somewhat professionals. We've never traveled with a tv/vcr.
1. I would start out very early (3:00am or even earlier if you can, pack the day before so you only need to put the sleepy heads in the car) This way you can get in some serious driving time before everyone wakes up.
2. We stop once aprox. every hour to hour and a half (that everyone's awake) for a 5 min. stop. Everyone must get out of the car and stretch (I make the boys run around the rest stop), go to the bathroom, and snack (if necessary). Although this takes 5 min. out of every hour or so, it keeps sanity up, and gives everyone a break, and no one needs to whine about going to the bathroom. We don't allow the kids to eat or drink in the car (we learned this lesson the hard (sticky) way), we bring snacks for them to have during the breaks. We NEVER stop if the kids are sleeping. We usually drive a couple of hours straight before a meal break.
3. If we're taking the kids out of school, all homework has to be done before they can play with any toys.
4. All toys, games and diversions are kept by the adult passenger in the front seat in a bag. No one gets a new toy until the old one is handed to us. This keeps the back seat from becoming a sea of toys, and prevents lost toys. We made the mistake of allowing the kids to have the bag this past trip - they destroyed the backseat, lost several toys, and were bored in about 30 minutes. Never again.
5. We try and realize when we are tired and need to stop for the night. We were driving back from Alabama and thought we'd drive through (to Philly). We became exausted in Maryland, about 6 hours from home. I realized I was becoming a danger on the road and got a hotel for the night (although I hated to admit defeat, I'd rather make it home alive).
6. If you decide to plan to divide the trip, we sometimes plan an on the road diversion (a cavern, or state park, sometimes we just stop for something that was advertised on a billboard). This makes the traveling part of the trip.
7. I buy a map for each child and let them follow along (this way our map never gets torn and lost in the backseat). We have the kids compare routes, tell us about the states we're in and find rest stops. We have contests on who can find the best/worst town names, and how long before we get to certain landmarks.

I hope you can use some of this. Have a great trip!

 

[Marypoppinsmom]

The TV VCR was perfect for our trip to Arizona from SE Michigan with a 3, 8 & 10 year old two years ago. It was even better to Florida last May - Radio Shack sells an adapter that you plug into the TV headset jack. You can connect two or three headsets (portable CD player sets or the ones from the Dollar Store worked fine). We traveled without the TV blaring between us and when the older two didn't have to listen to TARZAN the fourth time through. Radio Shack also sells the universal converter that plugs the Game Boy into the cigarette lighter which saved lots of batteries.

We use colored pencils not crayons in the car. We had one melted crayon that melted into the back seat.

We had lots of snack & bottled water. The time went surprisingly fast. My Husband was a saint - on the way home the Kids and I slept almost all the way through.

 

[newmousecateer]

DH and I are from the Chicago suburbs. Had to drive home in September. Even without children we found that we had no desire to drive straight through. I agree with the other post, Georgia is a good stopping point. I know there are a ton hotels, but an FYI, there is a spotless Holiday Inn in Dolton, Georgia. Very nice sized rooms, vanity area with hair dryer, iron, ironing board, separate bathroom area. A nice place to stop over.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[LeahA]

We live in Illinois, just about an hour from Chicago, we always drive down to Disney and always stay overnight 1/2 way. We tried on our first trip to go straight through, then at 2:00a.m. we were scrambling to find a hotel along I-75 because we were both so tired. I would rather arrive at Disney a 1/2 day later and be refreshed from sleep in a bed and shower, than arrive overly tired and cranky, especially with kids. JMO.

newmousecateer-We stay overnight in Dalton, GA as well, but, we stay at the Hampton Inn.

Leah

 

[newmousecateer]

Leah

We are just a hop, skip and jump away from each other.

Dalton GA is a nice "mid-distance" little town. Maybe we'll try Hampton Inn next time!

I am just not an advocate of driving "straight through". Don't know how anyone could be up to enjoying DIS after driving all that time.

inkbounc

 

[LeahA]

new mousecateer,

The Hampton Inn is nice and clean, it's accross the street from some restaurants and an outlet mall. The Hampton Inn also offers a nice deluxe continental breakfast in the morning with your rate. I've booked them on the internet at their website and have gotten some great rates!

Have fun next time you go!

Leah

 

[WDWMom]

We also live in West Michigan and so far we have flown every time ( 12 trips in 8 yrs). We almost always fly out of Detroit, but we have also flown out of Lansing and South Bend. We usually go in March and October. We almost always pay less than $200 and have never paid more than $232. We get good flights, no late nights, or multiple layovers. Check out Spirit Airlines flying out of Detroit. We purchased several months ago for $188 and have recieved two refunds as the price has fallen since we booked. We are paying around $133 per ticket for our flights in March. This price is good between now and the end of April

We have to have 5 tickets so I realize that it isn't cheap , but the extra time in Orlando is always worth the price. Good luck !

 

[BarbOKW]

We've recently started to do a lot of driving (used to fly but now that the kids are getting older we find driving to be fun and we love saving the cost of 6 airfares). The TV/VCR has worked great for us but we've decided it takes too much room. So for our next drive to WDW in March (can't wait) we're going to get one or two of those hand held DVD players, or maybe a new lap top that plays DVDs (the screen would be bigger).

Anyway to anwer your question we find that leaving mid-afternoon works well. We take off right when the kids get home from school, drive until we stop for a nice sit down dinner, then the kids get into their p.j's, we put a movie on and they go to sleep. Then my Dh and I switch over night and get to WDW about lunch time the next day. The only other big stop we make is for breakfast.

Over Christmas we drove to Colorado did the same thing going out, left early afternoon and arrived in the morning, but on the way back we left in the morning. For us leaving in the morning made for a much harder drive. When it got to be late (after midnight) both my DH and I had a harder time staying alert to drive. We found that we were tried from having driven so long already. When we start in the afternoon the overnight part doesn't seem so bad because when the overnight part starts we really haven't been driving that long, so we're not so tired, then the end of trip, when you tend to get tried, comes in the day light when your body clock is saying it's time to be up.

This works well for us, but I'm from Illinois so my drive is probably about 5 or 6 hours shorter than yours. If I had to add that many hours to our drive to our drive, I think we'd opt for a BIG push the first day and leave a short drive the next. I hope this helps and have a safe drive.

 

[NancyIL]

Before giving up on flying, check fares from both Detroit and Chicago (O'Hare and Midway). Southwest Airlines - www.iflyswa.com - often has very good fares from Midway. Depending on where in W. Michigan you are - you might also check fares from Indianapolis.

But since you asked about driving - I would leave as early in the a.m. as possible and stop halfway for the night.

 

[DiznEeyore]

Originally posted by momof2boyz2girlz
We drove 2 years ago and are planning on driving again in three months. I live in south eastern michigan. We try and leave about 5:00a.m. and then stop in Georgia after about 12 hours. Then on the second day it is not as bad. Coming home we drove straight thru, it took 19 1/2 hours but it was worth it!!!! I cannot justify the cost to fly with six of us. I have a tv/vcr for the car and lots of snacks. It can get tough at times, and when it does, we stop. Sometimes it is just to a mcdonald's for a milkshake, just to get out walk around and regroup. Hopefully they will sleep for some of the ride. Good Luck.

We're also from SE MI -- we drove in Sept. (couldn't get a flight -- it was 9/13) and then again in Dec. We also drive to GA (Macon) the first day. That only leaves about 5 hours on the 2nd day. I agree with everything momof2boyz... said!!

 

[dkfogt]

I am also from central ohio! Out of curiousity, how long does it take you to drive down to WDW from Cols? We have always flown, and will continue to as long as we can get good rates (paying $125/ticket on Delta Express non-stop), BUT every trip we toy with the idea of driving to save that extra $$. One of these trips, the ticket prices won't drive and we will hop in the car.......

Thanks for the info!!!

Kim

 

[bcinohio]

Hi from Akron, Ohio. We always drive to WDW. We did it again this past summer. It takes about 18 hours from Akron and we are about 1 1/2 to 2 hours from Columbus. I would say about 16 hours for you. We take the trip in 2 days, have done it straight through but it is long,. We leave at 4am and drive until we get to Richmond Hills, GA just below Savannah. It takes us about 12 hours. Then the second day is very short. Only about 6 hours. We have two boys 7 and 4. We also have a tv/vcr for the van. It really helps.

I hope this helps and have a great trip.

 

[sshatney]

I also live in West Michigan (Fremont). The first year we went to WDW ('99), we drove. We left about 11:00 a.m. & stoppped in Georgia around 11:00 p.m. We got up around 7 a.m., stopped a few times, & got do WDW around 6 p.m. It's not a bad drive, but we're used to driving a lot. Last year we flew in June and got a roundtrip flight out of Detroit for $79 per person. That was much nicer because it's only a 2 hr. flight & you have the whole day to enjoy Mickey. I booked our flight through MLT Vacations. We are going back to WDW this June & again booked through MLT Vacations. They have a section called "Red Hot Deals" where you can get incredible rates for airfare & packages. They are a charter company so the closer to the date, if there is still a lot of availability, they blow them out. We have gone to Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas & Flordia with them & have never had a problem. They also sell discounted Disney passed. Check them out & let me know if you have any questions. If you plan on driving & you find a last minute deal that you can't pass up for flying, then think how excited you'll be.

 

[mhopset]

I live in southern Ohio and always drive to WDW. We leave about 6am and drive as far as Hilton Head SC, so we can stop off at the Disney Catalog Store. The drive from Hilton Head to WDW is about 6 hrs. The drive home is what is a killer. usually stop at Charlotte NC on the way home. You will love the tv/vcr you bought. It is one of the best investments we have ever made.

 

[deno2]

LLL - FYI: I just checked Airtran out of Flint and they have some really good rates, (some as low as $73 each way plus a 5% internet discount). We have flown with them many many times and have always had good service. You may want to give them a try.

deno