Anyone driving from Texas?

[momof2intx]

We are driving from the Dallas area. Leaving around 7pm on Thursday May1. Do you think we will make it there by Friday evening?
My parents used to drive me all the time when I was younger but I cannot remember how long it was. We would sometimes stop in Mobile and get a hotel for the night, but the DH and I are going to trade off and try to drive straight through.

Jennifer

 

[Deb & Bill]

We live in Shreveport. One time we left around midnight and arrived at WDW in the early afternoon. It takes us about 14 hours (not including the time change, just actual driving time). Add about 3 more for your trip. If you could leave a little earlier, you might even be able to get a stop to sleep in there. Daphne, AL has some nice hotels - Comfort Suites, Hampton, Econolodge - right along the interstate. Daphne is just across the bay from Mobile. It takes us about 8 hours to get to Daphne from Shreveport. We either take I-49 to I-10, then stay on I-10 (except for the I-12 bypass of NOLA), to I-75. Or take I-20 to Jackson, then SH 49 to Mobile. Then pick up I-10.

 

[deirdrefitch]

Our next trip is planned for June 3rd-13th. This will be our third time driving to Disney. From Cameron, TX is takes us approx
21 hrs to drive straight through to Orlando. We usually leave early one morning, and stop in Pensacola, FL for the night. This usually takes aprox 12 hrs. We finish the trip the next day.
Try using mapquest or other maps on the internet to tell you exactly how many miles and hours your trip will take. Dallas is a 2 1/2 hr trip from Cameron, so I would say using the interstate to get to Houston, you are probably relatively the same distance as we are. We really enjoy the drive. Interstate driving all the way.
Plenty of places to stop and stretch your legs. I hope this helps you out! Have Fun!

 

[Belle5]

and it always seems to take us about 19 or 20 hours. We do stop and sleep in Mobile or Pensacola, however. Also, we take a LOT of potty breaks and have at least one sit down meal like Cracker Barrel each day. We find driving through Houston to be a waste of time. We drive over to Shreveport and go down 49 to Lafayette and then go over to I-10. Much faster in our experience! Good luck. You might consider breaking it up. It's much safer to sleep and you don't show up at WDW exhausted!

 

[Planogirl]

I drove it once from Dallas with just DS and I was exhausted by the end of the drive! It's not a hard drive though just a long one and I would think that it wouldn't be too bad with someone else sharing the drive.

 

[timbud1]

We're heading down in three weeks...plan on going a different way. We've lived in the Jackson, MS area before and strongly believe it is up to an hour faster to go there on I20 and down HW 49 to I10. I'm not sure which engine it is, but the map on my computer gave these directions as well. Never made this drive, but we plan to get to Pensacola the first day and hope to only have about 7 hours to finish the trip. I'd love to hear any other ideas from experienced drivers!!

 

[mommystieg]

We are also driving from Irving in June and have split the drive over two days. We plan on leaving Thursday around 5 or 6 pm and stopping in Jackson, MS. We have 2 dd's (10 and 3) so we decided it would be best not to try and drive straight through. When I used Mapquest it came back with a driving time of 19 hours

 

[m&m's mom]

We have always flown but airfare pretty much stinks now.
We are planning on leaving DFW about 1-2:00 pm on July 11th and getting as far as Pensacola that night. Next day splash around and play there and get to WDW early afternoon Sunday.
In Oct. '01 half of our group flew and half drove (had tickets for all but MiL was worried about flying so close to 9/11). I was definitely w/ the flying group! My DH said it was not a bad drive at all. Of course, when we had a vacation house in San Diego he would drive the whole way by himself w/out stopping for the night. Ugh!
Anyone know the best way to determine if there is any road construction going on?

 

[WebmasterKathy]

Another Flower Mounder here!

I have driven Dallas to Mobile a number of times- that's about halfway to Orlando. The drive wears me out... I just can't imagine driving to WDW. The thought of the drive back after a week in the parks sounds depressing.

Hey!! Maybe we need to charter a luxury party bus for a special Flower Mound to Orlando round trip! I have my AP's ready to go at a moment's notice!

 

[susy]

I am in south FL and my sister used to live in Springtown, TX (just west of FT Worth). We drove to visit her ONCE ( I was pregnant at the time). Here is my advice:

Do plan to stop! I agree that you don't want to be driving that BORING stretch of I-10 in FL when you are tired! Plan a mid- way break. There are plenty of hotels -I like Best Western when I am traveling, but Comfort Inn is okay , too. Anoether trick is to leave aroun 4 am on each travel day. You will make such GREAT time in those 4 hours before 8am.

When my DH and I did that drive to TX, we left around 4am and went all the way to Lafayette, LA by 7pm (don't forget the hour time change). We were able to go for a nice dinner and relax (as opposed to stopping somewhere at 11pm, exhausted)We did go the long way (oh well), but by leaving again around 4am, we were at my sister's house by noon. Also, when you stop in the early evening, you have your choice of hotel, rather than stopping late and just taking anything because you are so tired.

 

[wahoo776]

Hi,
I noticed that people are recommending that you drive I20, we met up with a family we met here on the boards for the MK Fireworks cruise, and they had driven from Oklahoma. And did like 6 hours on a 10 mile stretch. This was in March, so the constuction may be over by now, but I would recommend that you check the Department of Transportation sites for each of the states you will be driving thru, they usually offer some sort of go around option.

Also, we have now done this trip both ways, driving straight thru and stopping, I highly recommend stopping. When we drove straight thru leaving Fort Hood, TX at 11pm, We arrived at our WDW resort at 7pm the following day and thought we would be swimming by 8pm at 11pm we were finally placed in a resort. It was a mess and EVERYONE in the party was way to tired to deal with it, I just wanted to turn around and go home!

This time we stopped in Pensacola area and then again once we got to Kissimee, so we would be fresh to check in, the extra cost was worth every dime! We had to switch resorts due to a husband who wasn't sure whether he would be with us or not and it was no big deal, they switched us from French Quarter to Riverside and even upgraded us to a Waterview room, it took them like an hour to do all of this, but it was no biggie, we were rested and willing!

 

[Deb & Bill]

We have gone both ways, through Jackson on I-20 and down I-49. They both took about 14 hours. When you go through Jackson, you hit roads that are not interstates, so it can be a little slower because of the stop lights and cross traffic.

If you break your drive up into two days, try to cover as much as possible on the first day, otherwise you will be driving what seems like forever on the second day. We usually hit WDW late in the AM or shortly after lunch, but we always get up way early for the second day.

We have flown once and prefer driving.

 

[LIFERBABE]

We are leaving (driving) on May 30th from Fort Worth.
Our plan is to leave around 9p.m. and stop in the Pensacola area for some rest and beach time friday before completing the trip. We dont checkin until Saturday so we have time.

We have driven 1 1/2 times (we flew down and drove back once).

I spoke to truckers and they recommended the I-20 to 49 S to Loop 12 to I-10 route for our trip last year. There was construction last year when we got to LA but it moved swiftly.

We made it in 20 hours and drove straight thru. We left at noon and arrived 8 a.m. the following morning.

I just got back from a biz trip to D.C. and DFW was a nightmare! The baggage claim line was at least 2 hours long and the security checkpoint line another 35. Luckily I had carry-on. D.C. National security was not so bad go figure!

Thanks for the tip on the DOT websites, I will be sure to check prior to leaving.

I want to ride on the Party Bus too!

Lifer

 

[Deb & Bill]

The Pensacola Beach area is a good distance from I-10. It will take you nearly an hour to get to Pensacola Beach from I-10 if you hit any traffic at all. What you may want to do it head straight to WDW, then use the pool for some swim time.

 

[Imelda in TX]

We'll be driving from Harlingen, way down south in the Rio Grande Valley. It took us about 24 hours to drive straight through. Although I don't recommend that. Instead, this year we plan to leave at about 7 PM on Friday, May 30 and drive through the night. We'll get to Tallahassee on Saturday at about 2 PM. We'll stay there for the night.

We'll have about a 4 hour drive on Sunday morning to get to WDW. We did this route the last 2 times, and it was much better than driving through.

 

[mommystieg]

Hi Imelda--what a drive!! Isn't the worst part of any driving vacation getting out of Texas? It seems like it takes forever to cross the Texas border....

 

[Aristocath]

We drove last year from Fort Worth and left on May 1st, too. We left at 5:30 in the morning and stopped for a roadside picnic breakfast just before reaching Louisiana. Our DS were ages 2 1/2 and 4 at the time. Stopped for another picnic lunch in Mississippi and reached Pensacola by 6pm. Since it seemed so early to stop, we had dinner in Pensacola and drove on to Tallahassee by 10:30. The boys did great. We got up the next morning and the boys were so excited. We arrived at Disney by 1 pm. Honestly, it was not a bad trip at all. We stopped for plenty of potty breaks and I had entertainment bags for the boys for the trip. The trip back was great- after 10 days of Disney, the boys slept four hours straight .

 

[LIFERBABE]

It would be great to know the best places to stop when driving from DFW. Like nice rest stops, picnic areas, restaurants, best exits etc. Maybe we could all post our driving preferences and stops when we get back.

 

[wahoo776]

Hi,

Having just done this, I will give up the best gas prices we found and the best rest stop.

Going to WDW

1. Taking 190 to 610 to 10, Orange, Tx had the best gas prices at 1.49(this was in the middle of March).

2. We made it to the Florida Welcome center/rest stop, but they were closed, they are only open from 9am to 5pm. This rest stop/area is my favorite! It is beautiful and it has room for the kids to stretch/run around.

3. On 4 or 10, the cheapest gas we could find was at exit old 66 at 1.63.

4. On 27 to 192 gas was as cheap as 1.61.

Coming From WDW

1. Gases prices in Missippi where the best we saw ranging from 1.46 to 1.50

2. Stopped at the Gulfport, MS, IHOP and I recommend passing this one by, the service was horrible. We signed in for a table like 20 minutes before another group and they put there group together and split ours into 2 tables. The waitress took our order then proceeded to take this other tables order and they didn't know what they wanted so we waited almost an hour for our food. Then most of the order was wrong, we got charged for stuff we never got and when we told the waitress she proceeded to argue with me. I finally went to manager, who proceeded to argue with me . I think this was the point when I knew we had left Disney property. I just paid for the meal and thought, I will save someone the heartache of dealing with these people again!

Side Note:

If you are a military family and willing to go a little, and I mean like 45 minutes or so, out of your way. Destin, Florida has a beautiful Military outdoor rec area. It is ran by Fort Benning, GA and soldiers stationed at Fort Benning get priority, but we got there at 7:30, you have to check in between 4pm and 8pm and it was nice and well maintained, and it only cost $35 for a room with 2 double beds. In-Season it is $45 and the best way to get a room there is to call 24 hours before, they have alot of cancellations according to the woman I talked to on the phone.

Good Luck and I hope this helps!

 

[Mad4Mickey]

I have never driven there myself .My DD went with her best friend last year and her parents switched off the whole way . They made it in 15 hours. I live in Arlington and I cant imagine driving that whole way . Air has been on sale off and on from DFW-MCO. We bought 4 tickets for Oct for 224.00 each . Good luck and have a WONDERUL and SAFE trip !!!!!