Driving to Florida

Be honest... I know it's doable. Heck, I've done it growing up and there were no Ipads or movies. LOL!

DH and I were discussing going in December. I know Disney will be insane, but it's going to be my grandfather's 100th birthday. Flights are crazy and then renting a car is a lot. We were possibly thinking of driving. The time the boys are off is long too. Drive to Orlando for a few days then to Boca (about 3 hours bc we did it before and wasn't bad) to celebrate with the rest of my family my grandfather.

Thanks! Any other time it's so much cheaper, but that's the big season to go.

Driving to Florida

lol

We just booked Disney last night for Dec - first week. We haven't booked flights yet because I'm hoping they go down a bit. However, DH is trying to convince me to drive!!

I think he's crazy and he would get off easy since he will be doing the bulk of the driving. I would be the one dealing with all the 'are we there yet', and complaints, and 'I want to get out of this seat' etc.

Heck, DS complains when we visit friends 2 hours away and DD just hates being in the car to begin with.

I say keep looking at flight info - but as you can see from above, I'm probably not going to tell you its a good idea - at least at this age. If my kids were older I would and will do it...but not now (DS will be 5 and DD will almost be 2).

Message edited 3/13/2015 4:15:44 PM.

Driving to Florida

We just drove down on Christmas break with my DD. I would suggest stopping overnight. We drove straight through but it was tough. The way home we hit traffic we hit bowl season and holiday traffic so just be careful.

Re: Driving to Florida

Re: Driving to Florida

We have done it 4 times in 5 years and my son is only 5.... It is so doable and cheap... You can do it in one overnight to space it out for the kids. I did the drive the last 2 years by myself so I did take 2 nights to go down just so I wouldn't get too tired. DVD players, little games, lots of snacks. we stopped every 3 hours or so. My son does NOT nap in the car. My friend does it and she leaves in the evening and her kids sleep the whole way. They drive straight through (3 drivers)

Re: Driving to Florida

My husband's family use to do it all the time. My mother in law use to keep the kids up at night and leave at 3 am. They use to pick disney movies and snacks to watch till they left. Then they sleep in the car at least for the first half. I know a family that does it now with 3 kids and there middle one has autism. Her kids sleep most of the way too. If you can get your kids to sleep in the car and plan it out I say do it. Flights are crazy we are going first week of December also. We were thinking of driving but I don't have enough vacation days to make it worth it.

Message edited 3/13/2015 5:53:24 PM.

Re: Driving to Florida

We've done it a few times.
After a trip once flying where we were stuck on th runway for 2 hours with 20 month old twins when was 20 weeks pregnant...driving seems like a breeze

We drive to Jacksonville so about 16-17 hours. We go straight through.
Leave around 430 am. Stop one long stop and let the kids run around a bit. All other stops are quick we have a potty for the car and use that because taking them all into a rest stop add lots of time.

New toys, books, DVDs, stickers and we are good to go

We are driving down in3 weeks. Hoping it is smoothe
I always say the car is great...everyone has their own space and no one can fight or tackle each other ??

Driving to Florida

We did it when my ds was 9 m old. We left at 11 at night. Drove straight through 18 hrs to Disney. We were exhausted and tbh it was a scary drive at sometimes I almost felt like I was falling asleep while driving. I would definitely stop over next time. But we are hoping to go down soon and I always think of driving.

Driving to Florida

Just copying and pasting what I just wrote on another thread. It honestly isn't that bad and for some reason I feel like flying will be more of a hassle :

I have driven twice to fl. Once when dd was 5 months and another when dd was 3 and DS was 6 months and that time the both ended up getting the stomach virus you would think after that we would never do it again but we are in October. It honestly isn't that bad. We leave at 11 at night and drive straight through. This year we aren't leaving till 4 am so we shall see how that works out.