Welcome to this month’s Blogorail Blue Loop. Today we are sharing some tips to help you plan your Disney vacation.
Disney 101 – Tips for Driving to Walt Disney World
Some people prefer to fly to Walt Disney World, and some people prefer to drive. Our family is in the “prefer to drive” camp. While in many cases driving can take longer than flying, driving can be cheaper than flying. For our family of four, it is cheaper to drive, more often than not. There are several other reasons we prefer to drive to Walt Disney World.
1. You don’t have to go through security to drive. With our son being on the Autism Spectrum, we try to avoid things that really bother him. Security was difficult the last time we flew, and it traumatized him.
2. You are not limited to “just” Walt Disney World. Believe it or not, there are more things to Orlando and the surrounding area than Walt Disney World. When we flew, we took Disney’s Magical Express to Walt Disney World and never left until it was time to go back to the airport. On our last trip to Florida, we drove and visited some of the other sights…
One of the things we did was to visit Winter at Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater. We had a great time there!
One day, we went over to Jetty Park near Port Canaveral and watched the ships sail. It was easy to see the quality of Disney Cruise Lines compared to the other companies.
3. But more importantly, the drive becomes part of the vacation. Even though we may be in a rush to make it to Florida, the drive also gives us more family time together. We watch the scenery as we move from state-to-state. We talk and catch up on things that have been going on and future plans.
But, you are here for tips, so without further ado…
PLAN
We often build a binder full of information on our upcoming trip. It has cheat sheets about various things we are doing, and I also include things like confirmations and tips. The kids enjoy looking through the binders building up to our trip.
We also try to plan our hotel stays for the trip down and back in advance. We don’t pick hotels that require payment in advance because it is sometimes difficult or impossible to cancel them and get the money back. We usually reserve hotels that allow cancellation until 6:00 pm. This allows us to cancel and choose a different hotel if we feel we just can’t make it as far as we planned or if we want to push further than we planned. Having all of this information in one place makes it easier to change things quickly.
Plan your route. Do you really WANT to go through that big city, or do you want to go around it. I personally don’t like to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic, so I will veer out of my way to avoid a big city.
While we love the kitty, a road trip is NOT the place for this co-driver. Make sure to plan either where your pet is going to stay or who is going to drop by to watch your pet.
Practice packing. This time, we are taking a smaller vehicle. We needed to make sure what suitcases would fit and how they would fit in. Don’t forget that your suitcase won’t fit the same once it is loaded up.
Also, make sure to have the car maintenance performed and your car checked out. There is nothing worse than having car problems along the way, and it could even ruin your vacation.
ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE RIDE
While we do spend time talking, it is also important to have some “me” time. The kids like to take iPads/iPhones with to play games, watch movies, or read. They even do some planning along the way and discuss different things they read in their Disney books. It is also used for music, and they often “fight” over who is going to control the music. This gets spread around…
Favorite snacks are another great thing to have along. It seems like as soon as we leave the driveway, Marvel Boy is asking for something to eat. He is a growing boy. Well, we are almost to the teenage years… Anyway, we usually pack quite a few snacks to avoid the temptation of picking up the snacks at gas stations. This time, we will likely take a picnic lunch to have the first afternoon driving, so we can avoid an extra meal in a restaurant. If we only had enough room for a cooler…
Don’t forget to bring your child’s favorite stuffed friend. Marvel Boy says he is bringing Baymax and Duffy on our next trip. I’m glad I’m sitting in the front seat because it sounds like the back seat will be crowded!
What other tips do you follow before heading out on the open road to visit Walt Disney World?
Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail Blue | Disney 101 Loop:
- 1st Stop – My Pixie Dust Diary | Choosing a Resort
- 2nd Stop – Trips with Tykes | Tips for Flying to Walt Disney World
- 3rd Stop – Disney with Toddlers & Preschoolers | Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
- 4th Stop – Family Travel Escapades | Benefits of Staying on Disney Property
- 5th Stop – This Roller Coaster Called Life | Tips for Driving to Walt Disney World
Driving is DEFINITELY the cheaper option, and we really don’t mind the drive – I guess we’ve done it so many times that we’re used to it and it really doesn’t seem that long. We always break it up with a hotel stay both down and back (or an overnight visit with a friend who lives along – or not far from – our route! That makes the trip even more special!)
My kids are all good travelers so the drive really isn’t that bad. Having a van that they can spread out in helps. With my kids being so spread apart in age, they do tend to get a bit annoyed by one another when we’re in a tight space for a long time!
Great tips!
One night stay each way is about right. I know people make that drive without stopping, but I can’t do that. It’s too long, or I’m too old at this point. I’m not sure which is true. 😉
Love these tips! Disney World is too far for us to drive but we’ve started driving a lot more to Disneyland (6-7 hrs) instead of flying and the experience has been great. I love the flexibility of road trips.
Leslie, we used to live 8 hours from Disneyland, and it was a great distance!
For us driving is so much easier because it’s only five hours from our house to Mickey’s. It’s so much easier with three kids being able to stop as needed instead of being contained on a flight too. I’m also an overpacker so driving enables my overpacking easier than flying does 🙂
These are great tips Naomi! We started flying a couple of years ago, but before that we drove and stayed one night on the road each way. I was so afraid to fly! I am mostly over the fear now, but I’ve been able to get cheap deals with Southwest Airlines and my husband hates to drive. I will keep your tips in mind though since this applies to any road trip. Your point about there being more in Orlando than Disney World is true and now that we don’t have a car, we never can go to Legoland. I used to want to go to Sea World but my husband didn’t want to and my son and husband want to go to Universal some time so maybe we should drive and go to many places some time.
What! There is more to do beyond Walt Disney World!!!?? 🙂 One thing we love is having extra cargo space so we can hit the Disney Outlets.
Well, as I sit here in a room facing Cocoa Beach…. 🙂 I plan on hitting the Character Warehouse to fill up my cargo space when I make it to WDW later.
We drive 12 hours every year but we have started breaking up the drive usually at the 7 hour mark. My kids just cant stand the 12 hour drive straight. We enjoy seeing fun places on the way, one year we visited St. Augustine and that was a blast! Road trips can be fun if you come prepared 😉 Plenty of snacks and new movies that the kids haven’t seen before is always a plus.
We first made our 24 hour drive from Ontario, Canada to Florida in February of this year with our then 10 month old. It was a great trip! We stayed in a hotel overnight on the way down and back. We are already planning for 2017, he will be almost 2. We just told ourselves to go with the flow. If we had to make frequent stops we did. The drive down is very much part of the vacation. Thanks for the great tips! 🙂