drivjng down talk us into it.

Wonder05

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 5, 2017
Hello,
We we’re going to camp down only have a Coleman popup currently TV is new 2500 Chevy
HD

However, we aren’t sure about taking 3 vacation days just to drive down. So weighing our options. Honestly I’m not thrilled with having to stay in a hotel and possibly have Bedbugs brought home. (I read some things)

Is it worth the drive from the North East? Do you save so much more the deluxe hotels?

Thanks in advance
 
How often are bed bugs an issue..? My wife stays in hotels 2 or 3 nights a week... and has for over 20 years.. she never brought home bed bugs that i know of but i guess there always that off chance... I would not let that discourage me from staying in a hotel.. just pick a nice one...

If you didn't want to waste your vacation days driving, couldn't you fly down and rent a camper locally to stay at the fort???
 
The drive from the northeast is loooooong and tiresome! (We do it twice a year.) It is possible to do it with one overnight, if you really hustle and have more than one driver. But, I would never try to talk someone into doing it.
That being said, I also wouldn't try to talk you into staying in a WDW hotel because we just love The Fort and can't imagine anything else (and we've tried it).
Fly down, rent a camper or stay in a cabin. You'll arrrive fresh and have more days to enjoy WDW and FW.
 
My wife stays in hotels 2 or 3 nights a week... and has for over 20 years.. she never brought home bed bugs that i know of but i guess there always that off chance... I would not let that discourage me from staying in a hotel.. just pick a nice one...

Hi all. We were at the Polynesian from January 6-11th in room 3219.
Had a great time but thought that some Floridian bug was in love with me!! Upon coming home it turned out that I had hundreds of bed bug bites. My husband has some and thankfully our toddler son was ok (in a pack and play)
I emailed as soon as we realized what it was and they started a claim for us. We heard back from them and they sent in a dog and did find bed bugs. We had our home checked and thankfully we didn't bring them home. Disney is paying for our home inspection and money for luggage etc.
I'm happy they were so nice about it but it's just a reminder that even a really nice place can still have these nasty creatures.
They mess with your mind wondering if you have them in your home!
Check your mattress in a hotel friends!

Nothing like snuggling up in your own blanket and pillow. JMHO

Steve
 


Nothing like snuggling up in your own blanket and pillow. JMHO

Steve
Yeah! See my own linens is what I’d prefer. We will have four adults and three would be driving switching off. One is on Kid duty total drive time from PA. Three kids ages 2,4,7.
Three adults were just peachy with driving (truck and Van 8 seater ) but one worries about the drive from Central PA eating up vacation. Three of us refuse to fly.

Lol Quite the conundrum
 
Is it worth the drive from the North East? Do you save so much more the deluxe hotels?
How used to driving long distances are you? Especially towing? I drive down from the St Louis area. 1003 miles from my driveway to the Fort. I normally do it in 1 1/2 days coming down. Driving home, I go straight through, 16 hours or so with stops. But... I am used to driving all over the country, towing a 48ft race car hauler. In 2 weeks, I'll be driving down with my son. He travels better than the DW (less needed stops) and we are coming to Lake Louisa State Park (30 minutes from the Fort) in 1 day. You know your comfort level driving and towing. Not sure exactly where on the East coast you are coming from, but I would think it would be at least a 2 day drive for most people.

As for "worth it", the Fort offers a different atmosphere at WDW you can't find anywhere else. In February, we flew down and stayed at All Star Sports on an AP discount. Flying was great, but the Value resort didn't do it for me. I'm back at the Fort this trip. I have done the math on driving/towing vs flying and staying at a resort. The overall price (camping, fuel, overnight stay) is very close to the same as a Value resort, if I can get cheap airfare. The difference is food. With the camper, I can eat as much of my own food as I want. At a WDW resort, you are eating Disney food every meal. As good as some of it is, it isn't as cheap as my own. Staying at a Moderate or above, is considerably more expensive.

j
 
How often are bed bugs an issue..? My wife stays in hotels 2 or 3 nights a week... and has for over 20 years.. she never brought home bed bugs that i know of but i guess there always that off chance... I would not let that discourage me from staying in a hotel.. just pick a nice one...

If you didn't want to waste your vacation days driving, couldn't you fly down and rent a camper locally to stay at the fort???
Last year there were reports all over the place. And extra difficult to get rid of the hitchhikers.

Three of us refuse to fly and the one that brought it up really shouldn’t.
 
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Yeah! See my own linens is what I’d prefer. We will have four adults and three would be driving switching off. One is on Kid duty total drive time from PA. Three kids ages 2,4,7.
Three adults were just peachy with driving (truck and Van 8 seater ) but one worries about the drive from Central PA eating up vacation. Three of us refuse to fly.

Lol Quite the conundrum

Well we have made several trips from Northeast PA, and one from South Central PA, all of them in two days. We tow our fifth wheel down, I am the only one who drives. I have done 13 hours one day, puts me on the GA/FL border. Have done 10 hrs where it puts me in SC. Both then are about 3 to 8 hours to WDW. Very doable in 2 days, three days only if you are doing under the speed limit, and only driving about 6 hours per day.
 
I would weigh the costs. Put in a trip to a value resort and add it up with plane tickets. Then google your gas money how much you would spend on a three day trip plus food etc on your way down and up plus the camp ground etc. You’d be surprised with the right deals it’s not much more to fly. Or at least not much more to make it worth it for me. It’s just really how much you can spend vs what works for you and your family especially if you have a bigger party then you save more driving down.
 
We drove from Northern California in 2015, doing it again next year. It was great fun! Took us 6 days to get there just stopping to sleep, and we took about 3 weeks to get back home, including week camping at Great Smoky, a few days in the Denver area, and 5 days in Anaheim to celebrate the 60th at Disneyland, including the 24 hr party.

(We're retired, though, so extra days on the road aren't an issue)
 
We have driven from NH with a pop-up with two drivers, three kids.
We've done straight through with one person trying to sleep on the their break; we've also done 3 days, stopping to see sights and making it part of the vacation.
It does suck up alot of vacation days. Our last few trips were just a long weekend so we flew down (a 3 hour flight seems pretty short after 3 day drives!).
 
Three of us refuse to fly.

So how are you hoping for anyone here to talk you out of driving when three of you refuse to fly, and you're concerned about bedbugs on top of that?

FWIW, it's a whole differrent story from PA (rather than true northeast - like NH), lol!
With so many drivers, no sweat.
Seems like it's all decided.
 
So how are you hoping for anyone here to talk you out of driving when three of you refuse to fly, and you're concerned about bedbugs on top of that?
Seems like the choice is to drive, drive/tow or stay at home.

Like I said above, hitch up, head out and wait for the "Welcome Home".

j
 
Wonder05 we are a bit further south than you, here in De. I do all the driving (971 miles). As we go in Dec or Jan and prefer not to travel at night so we look to stop by 4 to 4:30pm every day after hitting the road at 8am. Between potty stops for us and our 2 dogs, fuel and food we tend to stop about once every 2 hours and average @ 350-400 miles each day so we do over 3 days. PaHunter might be a better source for your route and places to stop along the way. We travel straight down 95 once we are done skirting DC if that will be your route I am able to make some recommendations on places to stop that have worked for us
 
4 adults and 3 kids in 1 pop up...!? Tight space.

I would think they put a tent up also on the tent pad, would give them more room that way.

We have taken several routes down to WDW. 81 south to 64 East to 95 south just below Richmond, then I4 to Disney. My preferred route is 81 south to 77 South to 26 east to 95 South, down to 528 which is a toll road, instead of I4. 528 adds 20 mins to the trip, but after being stuck on I4 for 3 hours due to an accident, I avoid it. Views are nice thru the mountain range. Fuel wise it did not make much of a difference, between the two routes, yes I track my mpg for my trips.

Coming out of Northeastern PA we would typically stop at Green Acres in SC, exit 51 I believe. There is also a nice campground at exit 33 in SC that others have stayed at. We have also driven the 13 hours the first day to Jacksonville North KOA, at exit 1, it is on the FL/GA border. As far as fuel stops, I would push no further than 1/4 tank, as I have been stuck in traffic in Charolette, on 26, on 95, and on I4, so I advise never push fuel mileage, plus I am sure with young ones they will need to stop more often anyway.
 
We have done both heading down from NJ. We can get there in 17 hrs driving, however I did the math on flying. My SIL and brother fly down and she likes an early flight like 6 am so they can hit the parks that day, so they leave their house around 3 am and arrive at DW around 10am. If we drive straight thru and leave at 4pm we arrive at DW just before lunch the next AM (we usually hit a brewpub for dinner and Crackerbarrel for breakfast so its more like 19 hrs). Flying they save a couple hours, I know they dont sleep much the nite before, so they are still tired when they arrive anyway.
When we had the popup we would sometimes stop n sleep in the truck a couple hours, we tried the hotel thing on the way, but found it wasnt as restful as it could be, for some of the reasons previously mentioned. Now we have a fifth wheel, we walmart it on the way. We just stop when we get tired or keep going if we want.
Personally I dont mind the road trip, plus dealing with 4 of us getting thru security and all the other airport stuff (like leaving my truck in Newark AP), I’d rather get in the truck whenever I ready and stop and eat what I want. We have done the same going to and returning from the Keys which is a straight 24 hr drive.
One benefit to leaving afternoon is we avoid daytime traffic in areas like DC, altho have hit construction delays overnight in Carolinas and Georgia. On the positive side, thats a nice area to see the sunrise as you drive and as the temps get warmer if its a winter trip. This all makes me want to load up and head south...
 
Hello,
We we’re going to camp down only have a Coleman popup currently TV is new 2500 Chevy
HD

However, we aren’t sure about taking 3 vacation days just to drive down. So weighing our options. Honestly I’m not thrilled with having to stay in a hotel and possibly have Bedbugs brought home. (I read some things)

Is it worth the drive from the North East? Do you save so much more the deluxe hotels?

Thanks in advance

Two of our past trips were 10+ day stays at the Fort. That's what made it worth taking 2 days to drive down and 2 to drive back. We come from upstate NY and it's about 20ish hours of driving for us without traffic or issues. Both times we split the drive over two days doing a looooong first day of about 14-15 hours (with just my husband driving, but he swears he could drive straight through) and then stopping for the night. First trip, we got a campsite and it was a pain in the butt unhooking and setting up. Second trip, we got a room for the night and that was a lot easier. LOL. The second day of driving is only about 6 hours and we try to get an early start so we get there with plenty of daylight to set up and explore/enjoy the Fort.

The key though was that we were there for a total of 12 days counting check-in and check-out days. Then we had 10 full days in between. For us, that was really where we felt we got our money's worth and the most bang for our Disney buck.

Kids are older now and we sold our pop-up last year though so no more camping for us - at least until DH and I retire. Then we'll be back at the Fort. In the meantime, it's back to POP Century for us. :)
 
We drive our motor home from York, PA the day after Thanksgiving every year. The experience of staying at FW is well worth the effort. We take US 15 through Gettysburg to US 17 at Warrenton, VA and then join I-95 at Fredericksburg, VA. This route avoids Baltimore and DC. Green Acres in SC, SoB, and Coastal Georgia in Brunswick are good places to overnight.
 

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