How bad is the drive to Orlando?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Getting there felt long but manageable. Coming home was miserable. We drove thru the night with minimal stops but it still felt much longer and struggling to stay awake.

Yes coming home is the bigger issue. At least that’s what people tell me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like most people who do the drive don't do overnight? I can't see making the drive with no overnight stop.

Personally, I prefer to do FL (or ME) in a single day. Stopping wastes two days.

I don't know, I feel like you are still wasting time by not stopping. You have to pack the day before and adjust your sleeping schedule to get up super early in the morning. Then the day after the drive you are sleeping in and generally still spent.

I think it is just as good to stay overnight and then time the drive with the check-in time of wherever you are staying. Let's say that the total trip is 14 hours. You could maybe do 2pm-8pm on the road, stay overnight, and then time the next day (8am-4pm) so that it is right at a normal check-in time. That still gets you out of DC before the rush hour chaos and is a more relaxing trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting there felt long but manageable. Coming home was miserable. We drove thru the night with minimal stops but it still felt much longer and struggling to stay awake.

Yes coming home is the bigger issue. At least that’s what people tell me.

That is universal. You don't have the adrenaline of the exciting trip any longer. I remember my flight back from Italy was the longest slog imaginable, and that was what, 7-8 hours?

[Anonymous]

In 2017 we had a flight cancelled the day before a cruise and we didn't see any option for other flights to get there in time so we hopped in the car and drove to Port Canaveral (about the same as Orlando). It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! We didn't leave til about 2 pm. My husband would have pushed through but I wanted to get some sleep so we stopped around 11 (near Savannah). Drove the remaining 4ish hours the next day. The return trip - we left around 8, made a pit stop in Savannah just to check it out. The last hour was the worst because it started pouring rain and my kid woke up grumpy. We pulled into our house around midnight.

If I had to do it all over again - I would have done a one-way rental so we wouldn't have had to drive home. But at the time and in the heat of the moment it didn't seem feasible and we just had to get on the road.

But, it wasn't as miserable as I thought it would be, and I think if you planned it out, had appropriate entertainment in the car, weren't stressed and rushed to get to a cruise, it would be totally manageable.

FWIW we drove to Charleston a week later for the eclipse

[Anonymous]

Auto Train! depending on how many there are of you, you can book 2 rooms across from each other, we did that with 3 and 5 year old and it was a great trip

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like most people who do the drive don't do overnight? I can't see making the drive with no overnight stop.

Personally, I prefer to do FL (or ME) in a single day. Stopping wastes two days.

I don't know, I feel like you are still wasting time by not stopping. You have to pack the day before and adjust your sleeping schedule to get up super early in the morning. Then the day after the drive you are sleeping in and generally still spent.

I think it is just as good to stay overnight and then time the drive with the check-in time of wherever you are staying. Let's say that the total trip is 14 hours. You could maybe do 2pm-8pm on the road, stay overnight, and then time the next day (8am-4pm) so that it is right at a normal check-in time. That still gets you out of DC before the rush hour chaos and is a more relaxing trip.

2pm heading down towards Richmond? Yikes.

And, after all of that, you're still tired the next day. It's adding a travel day to stop.

We also don't like packing an overnight bag. Or leaving all of our bags in our car overnight. Plus, sometimes we bring a cooler.

We prefer to get it all done in one day to minimize travel days, but obviously YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Auto Train! depending on how many there are of you, you can book 2 rooms across from each other, we did that with 3 and 5 year old and it was a great trip

Literally more expensive than flying.

[Anonymous]

We used to live in Palm Beach County and did the drive back and forth multiple times with a dog (and eventually once with a baby). Contrary to what most people here did, we always did night drives. We'd leave around 7, so we missed rush hour in Florida, and drove straight through the night, with a few bathroom/stretch breaks. Typically I took the first stretch, and my husband slept, and then he drove during the middle of the night hours. We hit traffic in VA, but it seems that no matter what time you leave, that happens. Aside from that, it was always an easy drive-except when there is a hurricane coming! We usually got in around 9:00 AM. Downside for a vacation is you lose the first day to sleeping, and may not be able to check into your hotel that early?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Auto Train! depending on how many there are of you, you can book 2 rooms across from each other, we did that with 3 and 5 year old and it was a great trip

Literally more expensive than flying.

+1 why people always suggest this solution is mind boggling.

Unless you are a snowbird who can’t do drives the auto train offers zero benefit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Auto Train! depending on how many there are of you, you can book 2 rooms across from each other, we did that with 3 and 5 year old and it was a great trip

Literally more expensive than flying.

+1 why people always suggest this solution is mind boggling.

Unless you are a snowbird who can’t do drives the auto train offers zero benefit.

I looked into this and getting an actually private room was super expensive. Plus it is like 17+ hours plus loading and unloading time. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like most people who do the drive don't do overnight? I can't see making the drive with no overnight stop.

Personally, I prefer to do FL (or ME) in a single day. Stopping wastes two days.

I don't know, I feel like you are still wasting time by not stopping. You have to pack the day before and adjust your sleeping schedule to get up super early in the morning. Then the day after the drive you are sleeping in and generally still spent.

I think it is just as good to stay overnight and then time the drive with the check-in time of wherever you are staying. Let's say that the total trip is 14 hours. You could maybe do 2pm-8pm on the road, stay overnight, and then time the next day (8am-4pm) so that it is right at a normal check-in time. That still gets you out of DC before the rush hour chaos and is a more relaxing trip.

By the time you stop at check into hotel, get food get settled, no one really sleeps well, then get up get breakfast and getting on road what did you really get out of it.

And don’t leave at 2pm that is risking it .

[Anonymous]

Totally doable. However, if you are trying to go through Orlando/down past Celebration, there is crazy traffic just past Disney.

It really is an easy drive. I left at 5am and we arrived to Orlando about 12 hrs later. Then I had to add another hour and a half to get past that Celebration nightmare because we were driving during the week/rush hour traffic).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just did that for spring break. We were in Orlando by 8pm with generous breaks. Totally doable. Left at 5am.

Wow - you were driving at high speed...

I just posted the same thing, but we didn't take breaks, just gas stops. If you go 9 over, it is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Totally doable. However, if you are trying to go through Orlando/down past Celebration, there is crazy traffic just past Disney.

It really is an easy drive. I left at 5am and we arrived to Orlando about 12 hrs later. Then I had to add another hour and a half to get past that Celebration nightmare because we were driving during the week/rush hour traffic).

We have vastly different definitions of what is "easy."

[Anonymous]

Friends just went for spring break and the worst part was hitting 95N traffic on the way back. They were in a standstill for over an hour. If you time that well, you "should" be okay. It's a long drive but if you're prepared you can make it.