For those folks driving!

[crazy4wdw]

NCDOT website says all of I-95 in NC is now open:

RALEIGH – Interstate 95 through North Carolina is now reopened to all traffic, Governor Roy Cooper announced Sunday night.

Floodwaters that covered the interstate following Hurricane Florence receded quicker than expected, allowing the N.C. Department of Transportation to complete the inspections and repairs needed to reopen the road.

https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2018/2018-09-23-interstate-95-reopens.aspx

Just coming over here to post, all of I-95 in North and South Carolina has reopened.

 

[mrsap]

Just coming over here to post, all of I-95 in North and South Carolina has reopened.

That’s wonderful news, thanks!

 

[deedeew80]

Hi everyone! We will be driving down to Disney from NJ the end of November. We will arrive the evening before we are to check in to our Disney Resort. I have been trying to get a room there but there is nothing available. So I am looking for a nice, but affordable, offsite hotel for 1 night. Some I have found are pretty pricey. Would cost more than staying at a value on site. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[crzy4dsny]

Deedeew, here's another suggestion to consider. In the past we have stopped in Kingsland GA, it's right on the border of Fl, on our drive from Long Island. From there it's about 2.5 hours to Disney. It breaks the drive up nicely, we would get up and leave the hotel around 7:00am and be in Disney by 9:30-10:00am.

 

[jimmytammy]

deedee
I second crzy4dsny on the Kingsland GA stop! Lots of places just off 95 at exit 3. We like the Microtel. Queen beds, clean, and folks are friendly. Good restaurant and fuel options if needed at this exit. Its roughly 3 hrs from WDW at this point.

Another option depending on arrival time and if you are willing to drive on, we like the Springhill at Flamingo Crossings near WDW. Its not far from the AK area, if you are familiar with Western Way(Blvd?) thats very near Coronado Springs Resort, you take that maybe 3 miles off property. Not much congestion with traffic out that way, very nice and still fairly new place. It has a sister Towneplace next door and they share a pool and lounge area. So either one IMO would make a good choice

 

[deedeew80]

Deedeew, here's another suggestion to consider. In the past we have stopped in Kingsland GA, it's right on the border of Fl, on our drive from Long Island. From there it's about 2.5 hours to Disney. It breaks the drive up nicely, we would get up and leave the hotel around 7:00am and be in Disney by 9:30-10:00am.

deedee
I second crzy4dsny on the Kingsland GA stop! Lots of places just off 95 at exit 3. We like the Microtel. Queen beds, clean, and folks are friendly. Good restaurant and fuel options if needed at this exit. Its roughly 3 hrs from WDW at this point.

Another option depending on arrival time and if you are willing to drive on, we like the Springhill at Flamingo Crossings near WDW. Its not far from the AK area, if you are familiar with Western Way(Blvd?) thats very near Coronado Springs Resort, you take that maybe 3 miles off property. Not much congestion with traffic out that way, very nice and still fairly new place. It has a sister Towneplace next door and they share a pool and lounge area. So either one IMO would make a good choice

Thank you both for your suggestions! The plan is to leave NJ at 3am and drive straight through. I do have some hotels and places in mind in case we decide we cannot go any further. I’m hoping we will be fine though. I want to do minimal driving the next day so we won’t be so tired for the parks that day! Lol! Hoping to at least stay within 40-30 mins of WDW!

 

[Sunelis]

I need suggestions from folks who drive long days to get to Disney. What kind of food/snacks do you have in your car? I will only stop for gas/pee breaks and an hotel room at night so I need stuff easy to eat while driving.

 

[Maroonag1]

I need suggestions from folks who drive long days to get to Disney. What kind of food/snacks do you have in your car? I will only stop for gas/pee breaks and an hotel room at night so I need stuff easy to eat while driving.

We hit up Costco when we are packing. I munch on jerky and trail mix while I'm driving. For the girls we usually have either trail mix or fruit chips.

 

[mrsap]

I need suggestions from folks who drive long days to get to Disney. What kind of food/snacks do you have in your car? I will only stop for gas/pee breaks and an hotel room at night so I need stuff easy to eat while driving.

We pack a big ‘snack bag’ - Pringle’s, Combos, Twizzlers, little boxes of cereal, granola bars, candy, Goldfish, cookies, applesauce pouches, popcorn, carrots, bananas, etc. Bottom line - lots of junk! LOL Enjoy!

 

[Dawn68PA]

I need suggestions from folks who drive long days to get to Disney. What kind of food/snacks do you have in your car? I will only stop for gas/pee breaks and an hotel room at night so I need stuff easy to eat while driving.

We pack sandwiches, chips, beef sticks, chocolate, string cheese, stuff like that. Once we leave PA we will stop in VA for breakfast then just drive all the way to Florida, except for gas and bathroom breaks.

 

[rg35]

We usually bring breakfast items (donuts or bagels and juice) and eat breakfast in the car (we leave NYC around 4am for our drives). I usually eat breakfast right away. The kids generally fall asleep quickly once we're in the car and eat when they wake up.

My wife packs snacks like chips and stuff like that for the car, and we bring a gallon of water that we keep in a cooler bag and refillable water bottles. We try to limit intake of junky snacks so nobody gets stomach issues in the car.

We stop for lunch in southern VA or just inside the NC border (fast food - Chik-fil-A, Arby's, etc.).

For dinner we seem to have developed a tradition of stopping at Cracker Barrel. There aren't really any around here so it's kind of a novelty thing. My wife loves it and it's also really cheap. They are plentiful so we kind of just find one nearest to where we are stopping overnight and get dinner before checking into our hotel.

Since we're not doing the drive all the way through, we're not in a huge rush and don't mind stopping to eat.

On the return trip, we typically do that in one shot and so we do more snacking. We generally stop for a fast food lunch, but we do not stop for dinner. "Dinner" usually consists of whatever everyone wants to grab when we stop for gas in the middle of VA on our way home.

 

[princessfionasmom]

I’m looking for tips driving down to WDW from just south of Boston. I was going to try take the train again but my family is dead set against it. I apparently am the only one in my family who really enjoyed the auto train. Anyway, we’re heading down for April school vacation week, probably leaving Thursday night 4/11. We will have 4 people driving, me, DH, DS18 and his friend who will also be 18.

Looking for:
Best time to leave:
Best stops along the way:
If you have driving straight thru before, any regrets and/or things you’re glad you did?
Recommendations for stopping overnight on the way home?

Any advice is greatly appreciated! We’ve driven back before straight thru but it was just me and DH and it was exhausting. Hoping with 4 drivers it will be a bit better.

Thanks!

 

[deedeew80]

Starting to freak out a little bit!!! We leave in 2 weeks. We check in the Saturday after Thanksgiving 11/24. We are driving from NJ (about 16hrs) the plan is to leave at 3am Friday morning, drive straight through, arriving in the Disney area sometime Friday evening. We will be staying offsite that night. Anyway. I’m afraid of hitting holiday traffic!! Are people going to be out on the roads the day after Thanksgiving heading back home? I originally thought traffic would be low since most people are off work the day after Thanksgiving. Ugh! Everyone says we should leave earlier, like after Thanksgiving dinner and drive through the night or at least as far as we can go. I honestly wasn’t keen on this from the start because I know I will NOT be able to sleep in a car and I’m afraid my kids won’t either. Everyone says they are kids they will eventually fall asleep. I don’t know what to do! Should we leave the night before or stick with our original plan? Any advice? Thank you!

 

[jeff_h]

Starting to freak out a little bit!!! We leave in 2 weeks. We check in the Saturday after Thanksgiving 11/24. We are driving from NJ (about 16hrs) the plan is to leave at 3am Friday morning, drive straight through, arriving in the Disney area sometime Friday evening. We will be staying offsite that night. Anyway. I’m afraid of hitting holiday traffic!! Are people going to be out on the roads the day after Thanksgiving heading back home? I originally thought traffic would be low since most people are off work the day after Thanksgiving. Ugh! Everyone says we should leave earlier, like after Thanksgiving dinner and drive through the night or at least as far as we can go. I honestly wasn’t keen on this from the start because I know I will NOT be able to sleep in a car and I’m afraid my kids won’t either. Everyone says they are kids they will eventually fall asleep. I don’t know what to do! Should we leave the night before or stick with our original plan? Any advice? Thank you!

Thanksgiving Thursday, Friday, or Saturday is not bad going through VA, it's the Wednesday before and Sunday after that are the nightmare days!

That seems like quite a lot to tackle in one day, 16 hours seems optimistic when making the regular stops for gas and meals.

You may want to see if you can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner then leave that evening and drive that evening to somewhere in NC and stay the night there, then Friday's drive will be much easier and your family will be ready to hit a park on Saturday. Good luck and wave to Pedro for me...

 

[Dawn68PA]

You should be fine. Any traffic you should hit will be going the other way.

 

[jimmytammy]

Looking for alternate route rather than I 95 I 4 from NC. Any thoughts?

 

[Tracilyn]

Looking for alternate route rather than I 95 I 4 from NC. Any thoughts?

We just drove to WDW from central NC last week. Not sure what part of the journey you're wanting to avoid, but we rarely have any problems until we hit Orlando just by taking I-95 to I-4 and using I-295 east to bypass Jacksonville. I-4 through Orlando is always the worst part by far so this time we tried the 429 toll road, exiting I-4 near Altamonte Springs. Total tolls were around $5 and it might have even added 5 minutes to the trip, but was totally worth it to avoid the construction mess downtown!

 

[bluezy]

Thanksgiving Thursday, Friday, or Saturday is not bad going through VA, it's the Wednesday before and Sunday after that are the nightmare days!

That seems like quite a lot to tackle in one day, 16 hours seems optimistic when making the regular stops for gas and meals.

You may want to see if you can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner then leave that evening and drive that evening to somewhere in NC and stay the night there, then Friday's drive will be much easier and your family will be ready to hit a park on Saturday. Good luck and wave to Pedro for me...

I agree about possibly starting the drive on Thursday evening. We have a 16 hour drive from PA and we always split the drive over at least 2 days usually doing 12-14 hours the first day (we stop for lunch as well as several bathroom/stretch breaks along the way) and then have about 3-4 hours the next morning (check-in day). That allows us to get a good night's sleep the night before arrival and we're well rested when we get to Disney. No matter how chill our touring plans are, we find Disney to be an exhausting vacation. The last thing we want to do is arrive already exhausted from driving 16-17 hours the day before we get there. Our adult son and his wife did the straight-through drive one year and said never again. They ended up skipping half a day of touring at Disney because they were so exhausted by day 2 and just needed to sleep. I know the straight through drive works for some people, but it wouldn't work for our family.

 

[jimmytammy]

Tracilyn
I am actually looking for roads that get me off of 95 sooner than 4. I realize the 95/4 route is faster but I am looking for the road less traveled, less traffic. Im getting and so are my eyes its getting tougher to drive, see at night, dealing with rainy roads, etc. So before I totally give in to flying from Central NC, just weighing options.

We have driven at least 30 times. One route I will suggest, 417 toll then take exit 3. Will get you off I 4 sooner

 

[Laz]

Tracilyn
I am actually looking for roads that get me off of 95 sooner than 4. I realize the 95/4 route is faster but I am looking for the road less traveled, less traffic. Im getting and so are my eyes its getting tougher to drive, see at night, dealing with rainy roads, etc. So before I totally give in to flying from Central NC, just weighing options.

We have driven at least 30 times. One route I will suggest, 417 toll then take exit 3. Will get you off I 4 sooner

I am coming down I 95 from Charleston. It would normally take around 6 hours, but my biggest worry is that I am traveling to WDW on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Your suggestion of 417 seems like it may help, unless someone has a better idea. It looks like 417 runs right into the WDW property. Any other suggestions would be appreciated