Need help planning trip from Western, Massachusetts to WDW

[Heatherlyn]

Hello. Glad I found this forum--there seems to be lots of great information.

I am traveling down South this summer to WDW from Western, Massachusetts (Springfield area). I've done this drive twice before, but the last time was in '06 and I lived on Cape Cod then so a little bit different of a starting point. I'm having a hard time coming up with a plan of attack. In the past I traveled to MD day 1 and stayed overnight & left there in the middle of the night to get past the DC nonsense well before 6am. Then day 2 I would travel to Santee, SC and stay overnight there, and the next day on to Disney. Coming back I have done that same route and we have also drove straight through before without staying anywhere, so dh is OK driving overnight he's done it before. He is the only one who drives during the trip (I HATE driving on interstates so he does the driving plus he doesn't like being a passenger, so it just works that way with us).

So this time though because of where I live I am closer to MD than before so I''m not so sure if it makes much sense to only go that far. Mapquest puts me at almost 7 hours from where I live to MD, which I know give or take for speed/delays, ect. Usually in the past we have left around 5am, but if I do that I'm gonna hit NY/NJ during rush hour. If I leave later I'll miss rush hour in NY/NJ but then hit it near MD/Delaware which the last time I got stuck in that it was awful. Hubby thought maybe we should leave the night before after supper and drive all night, stop for breakfast the next morning after we get through MD, and then continue on & stay in Santee that night. That sounds good in theory but I also know that is a LONG drive with him doing all the driving & driving overnight & most of the next day. I thought maybe we'd go to Emporia, Va day 1, stay overnight, Brunswick, GA day 2, stay overnight and then to Disney day 3. But if we leave after dinner the night before we'll be in Emporia well before I can check in into any hotels. I'm also traveling with 5 kids. They're used to it (well all but my 17 month old). But the other ones are used to it b/c I won't fly so we drive or take a train, so they're used to long travels.

Coming back is a whole other issue. I always hate that worse than going down. I was thinking of taking the alternate route home that kind of goes around everything. Only problem with that is it looks like it goes through some small towns, and my husband is the type of driver that just wants an open road going a decent speed, and if he gets stuck behind some slow person for 50 miles on some back road, he is going to be miserable. So I'm not sure if that'll work for the drive home.

So I guess I am wondering how you would plan out the trip if you were me. I am leaving from Westfield, Ma on a Thursday and am checking into Disney on a Saturday and I'd like to be at Disney by noon. I am leaving Disney on a Sunday around 11am and would like to be home by Tuesday.

Also, can you tell me anything about what places to avoid stopping at (safety wise) in MD, VA and GA? I've stopped at a couple shady scary places before so I'd like to avoid that.

Any places you could reccomend stopping at?

Oh and we always use the 295 exit in VA that goes around the mess.

[Burt68]

Don't know if you had the chance to check this out. It's right here on the forum. Might help answer some of your questions in reference to travel stops and safety. There is also a restaurants link.

Hope these help ya out. Good luck with the trip!

http://www.i95exitguide.com/stopovers/index.php
http://www.i95exitguide.com/food/

[bostonboy]

Well, leaving from there - I-91 -- if you were to leave there at 7 am, you'd hit New York city AFTER the rush hour.

I would plan a stop at Gold Rock .... now - there is one factor. You're driving with FIVE kids? That results in frequent bathroom stops. You have to decide if you want to spend one, or two nights on the road. So if you spend TWO nights on the road, you might want to stop at Fredricksburg on day 1, perhaps Hilton Head / Savannah on day 2.

With bostongirl and little bostongirl, we made the trip in two days.... leaving here (north of Boston) at 10, arriving at Emporia or Roanoke Rapids at 11 pm -- next day, piece of cake to Disney.

But with five kids -- uh, you may have to take more frequent stops.

For stops in the south -- for bathroom breaks, I strongly recommend stopping at major hotels off of I-95, not gas stations, etc. You're likely to find cleaner bathrooms at a Holiday Inn or a Hilton or a Days Inn than at a convenience store; also, for travel stops, the rule is simple. Look around. You should stop where there's a lot of activity. If you don't feel comfortable, don't get out of the car there, just get back on the road and keep going.

[njnorsky]

I live in Northern NJ, I've done the trip to Hilton Head Island numerous times and to WDW just once. Each time we (me the wife and 2 kids) would leave very early on Sunday morning (3 AM) to start our trip. We'd make it HHI by early evening the time we did Disney we did an overnight in Bruswick, GA and finished our trip the second day.

That all being said, and given that you are starting your trip on a weekday not a weekend, here is what I think I would do:
Thursday:
On the road by 5 AM (at the latest)- this gets you into the NYC area just as rush hour is starting to pick up, however it is the summer so traffic is a bit lighter. Also, I would avoid going thru NYC and take the Tappan Zee Bridge (I-287) to the Garden State Parkway to the NJ Turnpike (I-95) - Do you have EZ Pass?
All things being equal this should get you to the Baltimore /DC area around 1 PM and potentially passed Richmond by 4 PM avoiding the evening rush hours in those metro areas.
I'd plan to stop in the Emporia VA area, perhaps crossing the border to NC. It would all depend on how the passengers are doing. Stopping around Emporia would be about 560 miles, or almost half of your trip. (I prefer driving as far as possible on the first day)

Friday:
Leave Emporia, VA for Brunswick, GA. Another 475 miles or so gone and now only about 4 hrs from Disney!

Saturday:
Leave Brunswick GA for Main Street USA in WDW!
On the one trip that we drove this is where we had stopped and left there at 7AM. We were lucky in that our room at WDW was ready early and by 1PM in the afternoon we had finished check in, dropped our bags off in our room and were walking towards Cinderella's Castle. The smile on my daughter's face made those long hours on the road a distant memory.

You can probably do the trip in 2 days but I would agree to allow for the 3 days in case the drive down does take longer than expected.

I hope this helps.

[Heatherlyn]

This is very helpful, thank you!