We have driven to Disney 5 times. Our first trip ours kids were 2 and 4. They are now 5 and 7. We have learned a lot every trip we take. Reading everyones advice gives me more thoughts of things to make the 24 hour one way trip easier!!! So first of all THANK YOU ALL
A thought to add to the small treat idea is your local dollar store. I buy a bunch of toys,craft items whatevers, then I wrap each one individually. I give the kids something new every 2-4 hours and they feel like it is Christmas all over. The key for them is in the wrapping. They love wrapped gifts. The week or 2 before we leave they are given $5 to $10 to go to Walmart with to buy their own personal thing that will be their trip toy. After they buy it I put it away until we leave. They are given that item in the AM when we leave our house. The other way to get treats is cereal boxes. If you can get to the prize before you kids these things are great to pack away until the trip. Thanks to Kelloggs and Golden Grahams I now have 10 free dvd movies that are short but never seen by my children. Our last trip we did budget in 5inch portable tv screens from Best Buy that we plug into our playstation 2 for tv viewing. It paid for itself in one trip as far as I am concerned. When we drove down in May I started collecting stickers, the ones the bank gave the kids that they left behind,ones that came in junk mail, mickey leftovers form our last trip or the ones that had been left behind from birthday parties, DR visit with I put them in a ziploc baggie with a samll notebook. Strange as it may seem that took up an hour of my kids time when I gave it to them. They are never very interested in them when they first received them but with a special notebook and so many to pick from they loved it. They even played a trading game with each other with them. Another great car toy is dynamagz. They are balls and connectors that are magnetic. Walmart now sells a version of them too. I put our set in a tin box I had. For toys we already own that are good travel toys I put them away 2-3 months before we go so they have not recently played with them and again wrap them for a surprise. I could go on and on so I will add one finally thought....When I read about how most of you have minivans or larger vehicles I am jealous. We traveled 4 trips in a VW golf and the last one in a VW jetta. Much like sardines you could say
But worth every trip and we will be on the road again in October
