13 hour drive for 7 day trip...stop or nah?

[NovaLady]

My DH, 2 kids and mother are going to Orlando for Spring Break and already have our condo (Bonnet Creek) reserved. Flying is out of the question because airfare is $500+ out of the DC area. We are leaving Friday evening from VA ...

My question is should we stop after 5-6 hours (like 1:00am) to stay at a hotel and refresh...then finish the drive in the morning? Or drive straight through?

I'm thinking if we drive straight through, we'd be exhausted when we get to the hotel around 8:00am and check-in is not until 4pm.

FYI..we don't normally drive long distances.

 

[sam_gordon]

My DH, 2 kids and mother are going to Orlando for Spring Break and already have our condo (Bonnet Creek) reserved. Flying is out of the question because airfare is $500+ out of the DC area. We are leaving Friday evening from VA ...

My question is should we stop after 5-6 hours (like 1:00am) to stay at a hotel and refresh...then finish the drive in the morning? Or drive straight through?

I'm thinking if we drive straight through, we'd be exhausted when we get to the hotel around 8:00am and check-in is not until 4pm.

FYI..we don't normally drive long distances.

If I were leaving at that time on that long a trip, I would stop.

If I were leaving any time before ~1PM, I'd try to go straight through.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We drive 14-15 hours from Ohio, and we prefer to leave right after school and drive straight through. However, my DH is a flight paramedic and used to working 24 hour shifts and midnight shifts, so being up all night is not out of his normal routine.

 

[Tallent]

I live just a bit north of you and when we were going to drive (now taking the auto train) our plan was to leave the day before and drive about 6-7 hours. Say from 5-midnight, and spend the night. In the morning we wouldn't have much of a drive left. Have a great drive!

 

[Chelley00]

We drive straight through on the way there. It's usually pretty easy as everyone is refreshed and excited. It's 16-17 hours for us. We usually try and leave at 4am and the kids sleep the first few hours.

On the way home we stop halfway. Our first trip we drove straight through on the way home and we were all exhausted. I was sobbing when we finally pulled in the driveway! Never again

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Wow if you stop you will be spending 4 days of your trip just trying to get to/from Disney. I would leave earlier and drive straight through. Also keep in mind the parks are going to be VERY crowded and since you are staying offsite you need to be at the parks as soon as the open. because you need to maximize your time. Not sure if Bonnet Creek is one of the resorts on the list that they will still allow admittance to the park once the park nears capacity. When it get too crowded at Disney which is what happens every Easter and Christmas they limit who they will allow into the park.

 

[Robert P]

My DH, 2 kids and mother are going to Orlando for Spring Break and already have our condo (Bonnet Creek) reserved. Flying is out of the question because airfare is $500+ out of the DC area. We are leaving Friday evening from VA ...

My question is should we stop after 5-6 hours (like 1:00am) to stay at a hotel and refresh...then finish the drive in the morning? Or drive straight through?

I'm thinking if we drive straight through, we'd be exhausted when we get to the hotel around 8:00am and check-in is not until 4pm.

FYI..we don't normally drive long distances.

I'd say stop, because:
a) you don't normally drive long distances
b) you are correct that you may get there, wiped out, at 8:00 a.m. and the check in is so far out from then.

That's my 2 cents.

 

[emksmama]

For 13 hours I would leave earlier and drive straight through. But it also depends on ages and comfort level driving. DH and I drove from north central Indiana to Ft Myers FL when we were 39 & 42 and our girls were 7 & 8...22 hours in the van. We drove straight through to Indy in 2012 (13 months after our Ft Myers trip) and that about killed us. We left home at 6pm and arrived at SOG at 2pm. By that night at DTD I was so tired I was almost in tears. Never again.

But for "only" 13 hours I would adjust my departure time and drive straight through. It's killing me that we're not doing it this time. We'll leave Sunday morning and I hope to get into Florida before stopping so we only have about 6 hours on Monday.

 

[Redarrow5150]

I would stop. You're all going to feel like crap and tired when arriving at WDW.

 

[Mousemom234]

I'd definately stop, even if only for 4 or 5 hours. Everybody will need at least a short break by then, and as others said, you don't want to arrive dead on your butts

Figure out how far you can drive in 6 hours or so, pinpoint it on the map, and research hotels. You will want a reservation -- and directions.

Trust me -- the last thing you want to be doing at crap-o-clock at night, in an unfamiliar location, is looking for a place to stay
Been there, done that - have the accident report to prove it.

You probably can drive straight home. Have a good breakfast, and slide out of the Orlando area right after rush hour. Swap drivers a few times, have a nice dinner somewhere, and unpack the next afternoon.

 

[starwart]

If I'm not that tired and if I have another driver, I would drive all the way. I'll just stop for gas and food and dunkin donuts coffee.

 

[shell8558]

We drive 12 hours from Louisiana . Two weeks ago we left after the kids got out of school on a Friday afternoon. We drove 5 hours and stopped for the night. ( reason being - we had worked all day and traffic was horrible). However - we always drive straight through on the way home .

 

[gdrj]

My DH, 2 kids and mother are going to Orlando for Spring Break and already have our condo (Bonnet Creek) reserved. Flying is out of the question because airfare is $500+ out of the DC area. We are leaving Friday evening from VA ...

My question is should we stop after 5-6 hours (like 1:00am) to stay at a hotel and refresh...then finish the drive in the morning? Or drive straight through?

I'm thinking if we drive straight through, we'd be exhausted when we get to the hotel around 8:00am and check-in is not until 4pm.

FYI..we don't normally drive long distances.

I am in NOVA and drove straight through to Bonnet Creek, HOWEVER, I am use to driving a lot, and didn't have a "grandmom" with us.

Two things with driving from NOVA:
1- I'm assuming leaving earlier is a no go for you, on Friday 95 can be pretty ugly for hours on Friday from Springfield as far South as Fredericksburg) - that would be my biggest concern. (We left at around 12 at night and drove straight through, napped before driving). With Bonnet Creek if the week prior to your arrival was not a big Holiday week, you might get lucky with early check-in. Our room was ready right away, arrived on 12/21.

2- If you do stop I would recommend driving further so your drive in the morning is shorter. If you are going to drive possibly 6 + hours on day two, IMO it wastes half the day. I'd rather be a little tired at MK or DTD than well rested in the Carolina's at a highway motel.

 

[ajcrusher]

We usually drive straight through (17 to 18 hours) but we have stopped in the middle before. We usually try to leave in the middle of the night so that we're hitting Bonnett Creek around 4:00. If you do decide to stop, I'd suggest packing a small duffle bag with everyone's clothes & necessities for the next day. That way you can leave the big bags in the car & don't have to mess with hauling them in & out.

 

[supergoofy]

The way you have it planned is stopping at 5-6 hours. Lets take 6 hours from a 14 hour drive and you have 8 hours to go the next day with kids who are fresh and alive from a nice night of sleep.


If you could leave earlier and go for say 10 hours and hit a hotel at say 2 am that would put you in a car with semi amped kids for 6 or so hours and a nice quiet ride for last 4 hours.

If you then left at say 10am that puts you at the World at 2 and its just a 4 hour ride with amped up kids.

 

[NovaLady]

Everyone has great input, thanks!

We are still undecided. We can't leave until 7pm because my mom has a prior engagement to attend.

I'd like to leave at 7 and drive until 12 or 1am, then stop. Then leave the hotel at 8 and arrive around 2.

My husband wants to leave at 3am and drive straight through. I don't want to be exhausted when we arrive. Although, we're not planning to do anything on the first day but hang out at the resort.

 

[blessedby3]

We live in VA and have a 12 hr drive. We always leave in the afternoon after school/work and drive as far as we can then stop. Usually by 11 or midnight. Then we get up early, eat the free breakfast and get back on the road. We are not good nighttime drivers and don't want to be exhausted on our first day there.
Just a tip…we pack one suitcase for the overnight hotel. Put in pi's and change of clothes for each family member as well as toiletries and you just have to grab one bag.

 

[metalijojo]

We travel from South Jersey and drive straight through, normally about 14-15 hours. Hubby is the only driver. We normally leave NJ somewhere around 430-5am and arrive around 6 or 7pm. We stopped once and I honestly don't think we will ever do that again.

 

[kerplop]

We drove 12 hours and by that point we were miserable with wanting to get out of the car and to sleep. The next day we drove 4 and it was nice, we got to WDW and we weren't exhausted. My advice? Stay somewhere after 8 hours. Get up the next day, drive 3-4 hours and get there resembling human beings instead of zombies.

 

[NovaLady]

Just an update. We decided to leave at 2 am and drive straight through. We'll stop at 8 or 9 for breakfast since the kids will be getting up around then. Then we'll be halfway there.