Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amtrak auto train is a fun way to go & you take your car. Board in Lorton, takes you directly to Sanford FL.

The longest night of my life was the one spent on the auto train. Hate it with a passion.

Friend of mine told me the same thing. Told me she wanted so bad to find another way home rather than taking the train back. And it wasnt the auto train.

We drove last year and we had planned to leave at 6pm (sleep time), but ended up leaving at 10pm. We switched every 2 hours or so and it was great. Our son woke up at 7am, we stopped for breakfast at 9am and arrived there around 11am. It was really uneventful.

The ride back home was horrible though. We left at 10am and our son was so annoying. He was awake the whole trip and annoying us. We stopped more too.

When I do it again, I will make sure we leave at 6-8pm both times.

Lafayette, IN to Orlando. 16.5 hours non-stop (other than gas and bathroom). 1 speeding ticket in FL.

Love the auto train. Gone down and back twice, sleeper car though. It was great if you want your car there

Anonymous wrote:Amtrak auto train is a fun way to go & you take your car. Board in Lorton, takes you directly to Sanford FL.

The longest night of my life was the one spent on the auto train. Hate it with a passion.

00:03 pp here. Forgot to mention, on our trip back, we sent the 3yo back home with his mom on the plane (cost us $100). She was down there for a work conference and had all her expenses paid and we figured it might be easier to send him back that way with his mom.

the 13 yo stayed with us and we drove straight through and stopped at the ever so tacky south of the border!! I had never been, quite interesting experience I might add!!

Anonymous wrote:Amtrak auto train is a fun way to go & you take your car. Board in Lorton, takes you directly to Sanford FL.

Expensive way to go!

We drove a year ago June and would do it again. We left home around 9pm and drove to Dillon SC, slept, showered, ate and was back on the road and in Orlando by around 6ish I'd say. Worse thing we hit was rush hour traffic on I-4 (I think that was the road, it is the one you take off I-95)

Pro was that the gas cost us like $400 round trip, way cheaper than flying or the train. I would rather have the money for other things.
We stayed off disney property, a hotel in Lake Bueno Vista, got lucky considering it was a last minute trip and paid $55 per night! And it WAS nice having our car there to go wherever, whenever we wanted!

My kids were 3 & 13 when we went, and both did well. And yes, sometimes there are times the 13yo does get bored and starts picking on the 3 yo but heck that is just sibling stuff and easily solved by threatening to put one or the other out on the side of the road!! LOL j/k

Amtrak auto train is a fun way to go & you take your car. Board in Lorton, takes you directly to Sanford FL.

We've done it several times, sometimes driving straight through, sometimes stopping about half way (Florence SC).

The time we went "straight through" our kids were 3, 5, 7, and 9 years old. We left very early in the morning (about 4 or 5 am) and played a lot of videos. I think we arrived in Orlando about 7 pm.

It was a day of hell, but worth it to just get it over and one with...and definitely worth the savings from not buying 6 plane tickets.

You can find a pre-planned road trip itinerary to Disneyland at http://gettingoutofdcplannedtrips.blogspot.com/2013/06/road-expedition-trip-to-florida.html. Hope this helps!

We did it last year, you will get a lot of advice (and it's on last year's threads.) Recommend you book a room halfway there on the way down or as many hours as you think you can stand it. We always stop somewhere near Florence because no matter how late you get started you can always make it to Florence before you fall asleep at the wheel and they have normal restaurants, a mall there etc. not just truck stops and Cracker Barrel. However last year we did not book a room ahead on spring break Saturday night, there was a music festival in Savannah, and we were literally shut out of a room, we ended up at a place near Ft. Stewart, Ga.
Actually Savannah would be a great place to overnight if you are not in a rush.

We have thought about driving as well. However, this summer, we drove 5 hours to VA Beach and 7 hours home. At that point, we felt like we were flipping out of our minds considering driving to Disney. If anyone has done it with a 5 and 7 year old, how did it go?

When we are driving with our kids, we will literally get 30 minutes away from home, and they are already asking how much longer. We have driven twice to see family in TN which is supposedly a 12-14 hour trip which takes us a minimum of 16 hours, so we do it over 2 days. Yuck!

It's a long drive--based on my experience I'd say 14-15 hours?

We did the auto train, which was fun. Otherwise it would have been a 2 day trip for us

How is the drive from here to disney? Looks like about 13 hours so we're contemplating driving instead of paying for 4 plane tickets. Also, it seems like it will be good to have a car since we're staying at one of the farther out resorts on the disney property so that would mitigate the cost of car rental.

Any opinions?