Driving from NJ to Disney!

WinnieAndMinnie17

Mouseketeer
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Hi all, my wife and I are planning to drive to Disney on the 21st of November. We will be driving straight through! Any tips for us? This will also be our first time driving there, anyone also know the actual time to get there?
 
Google Maps will give you an approximate duration.
This^^^^^
And if you use google maps on a phone for GPS then do what it ways if you want the fastest route. It may not be the easiest (traffic) but it's usually the fastest. Waze is a different story.
 


I've driven from CT, I recommend breaking the drive up into two days. Depending on what part of Jersey you're from (North or South?) I would try to reach South Carolina the first day and finish the drive the next day. Reserve your hotel room for the drive in advance because the hotels do fill up, especially around thanksgiving. On the return drive I would recommend trying to reach Fredericksburg, VA for your rest night. Have fun!
 
Thanks, and we are driving straight through! Wife wants to get there haha, we are from North jersey and will be splitting the driving. I am a night guy so the overnight is good for me. Would like to fly but the holiday makes it impossible and more room for souvenirs!
 
I've driven from CT, I recommend breaking the drive up into two days. Depending on what part of Jersey you're from (North or South?) I would try to reach South Carolina the first day and finish the drive the next day. Reserve your hotel room for the drive in advance because the hotels do fill up, especially around thanksgiving. On the return drive I would recommend trying to reach Fredericksburg, VA for your rest night. Have fun!
Also, the reason I say stop overnight is you're driving down the day before thanksgiving so traffic will be awful and add delays to your driving time, especially when you hit the DC metro area. Good luck!
 


Also, the reason I say stop overnight is you're driving down the day before thanksgiving so traffic will be awful and add delays to your driving time, especially when you hit the DC metro area. Good luck!

Yeah, I-95 will be a nightmare unless you leave Jersey in the middle of the night. Maybe.
 
Yeah, didn't think about that lol, maybe we will leave later. Just want to get there by like 3pm or earlier on Thanksgiving.
 
Also, the reason I say stop overnight is you're driving down the day before thanksgiving so traffic will be awful and add delays to your driving time, especially when you hit the DC metro area. Good luck!

Agreed on the traffic.

The last 12 times I've driven the i-95 corridor through DC, I've been stuck in traffic from a minimum of 45 minutes up to a maximum of just under 2 hours. And I've caught it all times of the day and all days of the week. Definitely budget an extra 2-3 hrs for traffic along the route, as you'll probably hit some construction delays in the Carolinas as well.

The trip may be exhausting, so keep your first day in Disney light and don't plan on rope drop. ;)
 
Yep, we are only doing a dinner show as its my birthday on the 22! We will be doing rope drop the 23rd though so we should be well rested.
 
Yeah, didn't think about that lol, maybe we will leave later. Just want to get there by like 3pm or earlier on Thanksgiving.
I wouldn't leave later, if anything earlier. I'm now a DC local and I fly out of baltimore for the holiday weekend, it takes me 2 1/2 hours to get around the beltway and get to the airport. Ironically my flight is less than an hour, lol. Anyways, DC has traffic at all hours of the day, its always bad but the holidays make it worse, haha
 
I wouldn't leave later, if anything earlier. I'm now a DC local and I fly out of baltimore for the holiday weekend, it takes me 2 1/2 hours to get around the beltway and get to the airport. Ironically my flight is less than an hour, lol. Anyways, DC has traffic at all hours of the day, its always bad but the holidays make it worse, haha

Words of Wisdom above...Beltway (or Annapolis if you come down Rt. 1 in DE and then over the Bay Bridge from the Eastern Shore on 301) and South can be iffy even at slow non-holiday times. Good luck and safe travels.
 
Past postings say the DC rush hour is 3-7pm. So if you are leaving 6 pm, I assume you won’t be in that area till after 10 pm anyway.

For reference, I am about an hour and 10 minutes from the DE Memorial Bridge, leave around 2:30am, pass DC at 5:30 am, and arrive in the Orlando/WDW area 5:30-8:30 pm. The range is mostly due to choices in stops (a 1.5 hour sit down meal versus 20 minute fast food stop), as well as traffic/accident or weather issues. The total drive is about 1060 miles.
 
I did that trip mid August to Drop the kid off as she just started the Disney College program. We did it in two days. The first half of the trip or the first 650 to 700 miles took right on an average of 60 mph. That’s including stopping at South of the border gas stops, bathroom stops, and getting fuel. Once you get into the Carolinas it’s really easy to average over 70 mph as the roads are straight and for us the traffic was light. Our second day we were averaging well over 80 mph and crossed into Florida and we actually stopped at the World golf Hall of Fame to kill time because we were actually way ahead of schedule due to making such good time. Actual driving time was right at 16 1/2 hours to Orlando.

People saying they are doing it and 12 to 14 hours, I simply don’t believe that because if you do the averages, you would have to be sustaining 90 to 100 miles an hour for hours at a time and I find that hard to believe. South Carolina and Georgia highways were the best for making good time with our average speed through Georgia be in between 90 and 95 miles an hour with no problem. The one problem that I want to point out is after going through the Carolinas and Georgia and driving 95 which is for the most part dead straight be wary of hitting the cities in the northern part of Florida because the roads are not even close to being straight.

This is the first time I’ve driven down to Florida in more than 20 years, and I really don’t like doing it in one straight run. Especially driving through the night the night before starting a vacation kind of takes the enjoyment out of that first day. I’ve seen a lot of meltdowns because of those overnight drives and tired people the next day. So keep that in mind while planning you trip.
 
Safe travels!
I was doing an Opposite trip last year.. was 2 hours in.. in my home state!!!
pulled over, I’m truly embarrassed to say how fast I was going. Not being reckless.. honest and also not in a hurry, just wasn’t used to the new vehicle and how smooth the ride was.. ugh!
needless to say... had to take an online class, pay a $$$ fine and didn’t live that down for a while.
Thankful that was all, never thought of a blow out or accident ...it can all go wrong so fast.
So, Be Safe.. especially with thatOvernite driving and
Have a great Visit!
 
Past postings say the DC rush hour is 3-7pm. So if you are leaving 6 pm, I assume you won’t be in that area till after 10 pm anyway.

For reference, I am about an hour and 10 minutes from the DE Memorial Bridge, leave around 2:30am, pass DC at 5:30 am, and arrive in the Orlando/WDW area 5:30-8:30 pm. The range is mostly due to choices in stops (a 1.5 hour sit down meal versus 20 minute fast food stop), as well as traffic/accident or weather issues. The total drive is about 1060 miles.

I'm on I-95 south of DC every day.... DC afternoon rush hour is 3-7pm most weekdays, on the day before Thanksgiving, the afternoon rush hour is more like Noon-10pm and that's not exaggeration due to so many locals getting out of town to drive elsewhere and for many out-of-staters (like yourself) driving through the area. So if you are making the big drive be sure to do it early morning like the plan noted above - and if you plan on driving back through this area on a Sunday afternoon or evening, count on that same killer traffic jammed up on I-95 trying to get back northbound to NJ, PA, NY, etc... on the way back you may want to get on US301 north from I-295 around Richmond and drive through the countryside (well much of the road is that way) and that will take you up to around Bowie MD then stay on MD3 northbound which turns into I-97 and goes up to I-695 around Baltimore and then take I-95 north from there.
 
We drive down from NY (actually our next trip is 9/21) and we break it into two days. On Friday we are leaving at 4am (we’re from the city area) and completely bypass the morning traffic. By the time we get to DC we’ve missed the traffic down there and it’s usually smooth sailing down I-95 from there. The only traffic we hit is usually from road work or an accident, not from congestion. We stop in South Carolina for the night around 6:00 - usually after about eleven or twelve total driving hours. Then the next day we’re off at 8 and driving right into Disney around 1:30.
 
Seasoned NY to WDW driver here and if your a night owl best thing to do is start a around 7:30/8pm. If you drive straight thru switching off with wife early morning hours you should
be pulling up to the resort at around noonish give or take depending on your speed and how long you take for fuel breaks. You will miss all the traffic everyone talks about doing it this way.
Done it more times than I care to remember with most recently middle of May drive down and drive home. (westchester county ny)
 

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