Car Trip Packing and Survival About This Page:

[pita]

Suprise goodie bags are fun too.

and we have some CDs of disney songs and the kids favorite CDs...eventhough we get tired of listening to them...I figure it is a trade..they get tired of sitting in the car.

[blondie]

We have a 24 hour+ drive each way to get to WDW with mom doing most of the driving as dad can't drive for more than an hour at a time. We like to see the sights on the way down so we will take a week to get there. This time we are going to stop in Baltimore, Washington, Charleston, SC and Brunswick, GA. These are tremendous opportunities for the children to see historical sights and actually get an education. We find that taking our time on the way to WDW gives us time to unwind from the grind and stress of life. When we finally get to WDW we take the first day to relax and catch a dinner or show out of the parks.

Anyway, we survive by having a dry erase board for the artistic child, a StoryREader for the child that can't read so he can listen to stories by himself, the game boy advance, a license plate game, lots of snacks and juice boxes. We stop at every state welcome center to get maps and brochures that are also very entertaining until the next state line. Also on the list is our National Parks Passport to have stamped at whatever is on our route that is a National Park or Landmark. The kids love to get these stamped!

On the way back, we are usually looking forward to going home, so we take 2 days to get back, driving as far as we can the first day, stay overnight somewhere and then drive until we hit home. The kids usually sleep a lot on the way home!

[DisneyMom23Boys]

Hi!!

I just thought of a vital item that I haven't seen on anyone's list!!

DRAMAMINE!!!

My oldest ds (11) is usually fine in the car, but when we put on a DVD and the car's moving...that's a different story. Will probably have all of us take a dose about an hour or so before we leave home.

I may even check into "the patch" for motion sickness, as well.

During our stay at WDW I usually take a Dramamine on the days that we'll hit the "wild" rides.

Have fun planning!

Deb

[myles&alecmom]

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

[myles&alecmom]

Me again this is to Disneymom2kids....Thank you for the jumprope idea. This summer my youngest has worked on learning to jump. The rope will take up very little space at someones feet but will use up lots of energy

[myles&alecmom]

Post it notes are another hit with my guys. Those with a cool new pen or pencil. They have fun making little drawings or notes then sticking them around the car. Easy to clean when they are done and inexpensive. I even found a pack of mini ones in walmart that were in different colors.

[jakenjess]

Thanks for all the great tips, everyone! We'll be making the long drive from Maine to WDW next week, so I'll be putting a lot of your wonderful ideas to work! My DSIL, who is riding with us, has made up goodie bags for the kids. They get one for each state line we cross. She got a lot of stuff from the Disney Store when they were having a big sale a few weeks back. We also just got a new van with a DVD player, and that will probably be a life saver!

[ADisneyMom]

for all the great tips! I am only EIGHT days away from my road trip to FL! We are staying at the Westgate Resort, Lake and Spa. Driving from the DC area it takes 14hrs to get to FL and now that I have additional ideas to keep my 2yr old happy, I'm sure it will be an even better adventure. Thanks all!

[mrskpete]

Looks good! You might want to have some chewable car sickness tabs just in case or other supplies in the event one gets sick. I never had a car sick kid and then out of the blue they popped up. I now have toddler who gets extremely car sick just on a trip to Walmart! We are traveling by night to help alleviate this.

[mrskpete]

[ QUOTE ]
This is a great article I read from "Organizedtimes.com". When Are We Going to Be There?
Whether your kids are 2 or 12, they are clueless when it omes to space and time. Telling them repeatedly "soon, dear" does not give them any more indication of an ETA (estimated time of arrival) than saying that Christmas is in December to a 3-year-old. They just don't get it.


[/ QUOTE ]

For this we use Sesame Street hours. This show is an hour long and most of my children have a feel for it's length. So when they ask how much longer till we stop or whatever, I reply "2 more Sesame Street hours". This may not be as accurate as adult time for their little minds, but I found it does help. You could substitue your childs favorite show just remember its length. Plus I would start using the system before you leave so they get more of a feel for it.

[mrskpete]

[ QUOTE ]
Suprise goodie bags are fun too.

and we have some CDs of disney songs and the kids favorite CDs...eventhough we get tired of listening to them...I figure it is a trade..they get tired of sitting in the car.



[/ QUOTE ]

We were visiting Chrlotte NC to see relatives and stopped in their mall while there. I bought some Mickey Mouse Song Collection volume 1. On our way back home to VA (5 hour drive) we listened to the new CD. The kids had a blast naming the song, character who sang it, and movie it was in. Became a game and killed a little over an hour. Even my husband enjoyed it. They have seen Volume 2 and 3 in the Disney Store and have been bugging for it. Think I will go buy them both but stash them away for the drive to FL. We can play the same game and kill more than 2 hours now!

[BabieeMelly]

Wow, thanks for all your tips. We'll be driving to Orlando from Brooklyn, NY next July. My brother and I are older (I'll be 18 at the time and he'll be 16) so we don't need anything special to help us keep track of the time and mileage, but we're still trying to think of things to do on our 18-hour drive! We have a Dodge Intrepid which is pretty big but it's still a normal car (meaning we don't have a van) and it'll be me, my brother AND my dog (a small shih-tzu) in the back seat, as well as my dogs blanket and a toy or two. We're renting a condo in Orlando for a month so we'll have a ton of luggage (we're buying a luggage rack for the roof of the car) and I'm sure some of i is gonna ind up in the backseat with us. We'll also have the portable DVD player, our CD and MP3 players, magazines and whatever else we're bringing to keep us busy, as well as our overnight bags for our stop at a hotel in SC. Wow, this drive is going to be INTERESTING, lmao! My friend has a house in Tampa and drives down twice a year and tells me there is never a problem, and it's also great to hear that so many of you make the big drive without a glitch. Hopefully things will work out as well for us!

[natalie]

Check out this link for anyone travelling I95
www.usastar.com/i95/homepage.htm

I ordered his book and it was so helpful. It lists restaurants, lodging and GAS on every exit.

[rescuesk]

This is an awesome thread!

We are 2 adults that have driven twice from PA. We don't have the same entertainment issues, although DH does get a little cranky about 10 hours into the trip! lol. Last trip, I bought a collapsible (sp?) cooler from WalMart (only $16 on clearance) and filled it with ice, water, soda, etc. It took up much less room then our regular coller, as we could fit it on the floor behind the driver's seat. (We didn't want it behind the passenger seat as the passenger was sometimes reclining and sleeping while the other drove.) It also has outside pockets, so I stuck my disposable wipes, snacks, etc in those pockets for easy access. We drove straight through (18 hours), and it kept everything cold all the way to WDW. I would recommend one of these over a traditional cooler for anyone travelling!

[Ct_TiggerFan]

We will be driving down In aug 2005 from CT
3 days on the road as I will be the only driver.
8 year old daughter and wife along for the trip.

Keep those tips comming, all are great.