Car Trip Packing and Survival About This Page:

[davishomeschool]

Last year when we drove my friend and her family made us a prize bag.

We got a piece of paper that had clues on it and a bag of numbered wrapped gifts. The clues were like:
"when Taylor sees a Merge sign he can open present #1"
"when Brett sees a cow standing in a field he can open present #2"
'when Jennifer sees a person on a bicycle she can open present #3".

The prizes were just dollar store items like candy or hair bows but the bag lasted the whole trip and had their attention off and on the whole time. When we pulled up to the gates of Disney my husband got to open a present that was one of those rubber-like dollar bills that grows to 3 times its size in water. LOL

[davishomeschool]

To address the Dramamine discussion:
My friend just got back from a cruise and they wore a band on their arm. She has a reaction (blurred vision that lasts for days) from the pills or patches. The band puts pressure on a specific point on your wrist and prevents motion sickness. She said they worked great.

[Awdrey]

Hi, I know your excited.

We just got back. We drove and it was a 10 hr. drive for us. ages 13, 10, 7 and 2. I had all sorts of stuff packed for the road trip, but it hardly got used. Gameboys was pretty much all they needed. I think they were too excited to argue or be fussy. I packed us a lunch so we could stop and eat on the way there and stretch out our legs. My plans were to stop at a rest area, but that didn't happen. We just ate on the curb of a gas station. It was fun and refreshing.

On the way back was a different story. We had 4 exhausted, worn out kids. The two year old was probably the worst. We opt to stop at a McDonald's so they could run around. That seemed to do the trick.

Oh, and glow sticks also seemed to work when they got fussy on the way home.

Good luck and have a magical time.

P.S.
FYI stop at a local Wal Mart once in Orlando and buy your Disney ponchos there. Hopefully you won't need them, but we used ours all week long They are half the price at the parks. I'd buy two sets too, they don't make them to last more than a couple of days. If you don't use them, you can always take them back.

[lyonmommy]

Someone asked where to get neck pillows - we got ours at Target for $2.50 in the value section where the dollar stuff is.

Our kids are DS 7 and DD4. Before long trips we use our itunes library to burn individual CDs of their current favorite songs. My kids each have a CD player, not an ipod yet. I print our an album cover for the CD case in color and it has pictures from the CDs the songs are from. Ex: Hannah Montana or Alvin and the Chipmunks pictures. They love it. It also prints the list of the songs. Its neat and inexpensive.

[tdhc]

This sounds like a great idea. Kinda like a scanvenger hunt. Thanks!

[ladikop1]

We are getting ready for our grand gathering on August 9th..we will be traveling by car from Virginia to Florida. In previous trips we have normally left the day before at about 3am in the morning and stay the night at an outside hotel so that we can rest before we check in. For this trip we have about 8 kids between the ages of 0 - 13 years of age that will be traveling with us this trip. For a trip this long we pack just about everything, from ipods to extra set of clothing for everyone. We have dvd players, movies, coloring books, ipods, even computers. We also took the kids playstation that we were able to connect to the dvd player. Luckily our past trips have been uneventful, however the kids were very well entertained. We are looking to the same thing again for this trip. The idea of leaving so early in the morning (3am) and the fact that we try to keep the kids up as long as possible before we leave serves us very well. Because we do that the kids sleep most of the way. Well that is my story of traveling to Disney with kids. Good Luck on those that are traveling to Disney, just plan and be patient it will be over in a matter of hours...

[nick110]

I'd make sure to have baby wipes/hand wipes for inevitable messes and sticky fingers. I also pack an old towel or two in case of spills or unexpected messes. As far as activities, I like the Crayola Color Wonder markers -- the kind that will only write on special paper. And they now have Color Wonder Finger paints that only work on the special paper. I plan to buy the finger paints for our 4 & 5 year olds when we make the trip to WDW in January.

[JDietz40]

I am trying to convince DW to drive when we head to WDW in May. We have driven a few times but not for several years as we have flown most of the time.
I enjoy highway driving and this year DS will be 18 and likes to share in the driving. In the past I have done most or all of the driving. We would be leaving on Friday evening from the South suburbs of Chicago and stopping somewhere around Paducah, KY Friday N. We should comfortably be able to make the remainder of the trip on Saturday. If DS can take an hour or so at the wheel to give me a break it would not be bad. (I prefer riding with DS driving as Opposed to DW) (Just don't tell her I said that)
We would rent an SUV in Orlando if we flew and I was planning on renting an SUV if we drive to give us more room.


John

[JerseyDad]

Originally Posted by JDietz40

I am trying to convince DW to drive when we head to WDW in May. We have driven a few times but not for several years as we have flown most of the time.
I enjoy highway driving and this year DS will be 18 and likes to share in the driving. In the past I have done most or all of the driving. We would be leaving on Friday evening from the South suburbs of Chicago and stopping somewhere around Paducah, KY Friday N. We should comfortably be able to make the remainder of the trip on Saturday. If DS can take an hour or so at the wheel to give me a break it would not be bad. (I prefer riding with DS driving as Opposed to DW) (Just don't tell her I said that)
We would rent an SUV in Orlando if we flew and I was planning on renting an SUV if we drive to give us more room.


John

....don't know what your schedule / check-in day is.....but the first day of your driving will only kill about 5.5 hours if you're stopping in Kentucky...and the total trip is, I think, almost +18 hrs. (1200 miles?) [...sort of have an idea where your located in Chicago...I worked on a shopping center re-build in Norridge a few years back]

We've been driving down to WDW from New Jersey (1100 miles) since 2004...and I also do a 2 day trip. But I do 13 hours the first day, (only me driving) and end up in Brunswick, Ga., about 30 miles from Florida. After a good nights rest (and breakfast at a Cracker Barrel!) we get on the road at about 8:30 am and get to WDW at about noon.

I did a 2 day trip the first time we went in 2004...and only went as far as the NC & SC border. Then the next day we got to WDW at about 3 pm...and I was exhausted.

.....again...I don't know your schedule....but I like to get most of the driving out of the way on the first day. And I also don't know what roads like I-57 / I-24 and I-75 are like? I would guess that they are like I-95...? I can usually cruise at about 70 mph...and not have any problems.

...we're going the day after Christmas this year...and my wife as well as 20 yr old daughter (and 13 yr old daughter) will be with me. So if I wanted, one of them could drive for a while....but like you...I'm not too relaxed when the wife is driving and I am in the passenger seat.

[kimberlym322]

Originally Posted by JDietz40

I was planning on renting an SUV if we drive to give us more room.
John

Before you make the choice I would check to make sure that you can take the car through all the states you will be driving in. Sometimes you can not take them into some states from the one you rent in. Like me when I rent a car here in MD for some reason I can take it to DE, NJ, VA, WVA, NC, SC but not into PA. Dont know why that is but that is how it works. A few years ago we looked into renting one to drive down but we could not take the rental into GA or FL.

I would also check to see if renting a car is a better choice then taking your own car or flying. Most of the time when you take a rental car out of state you get so many miles free a day and then you pay for each extra mile you drive. So say you got 100 free miles a day and you are getting the car for 8 days that is 800 miles you would get free, but then how far you are driving, about 1200 i think someone said, so that would be 2400 miles round trip plus what you drive while there so for this just say that would be 200 miles that would be 2600 miles. take the 800 you get free and then you will have to pay for 1800 miles plus the rental. So say for a 8 days you get it for 300.00 and each mile over the 800 free miles it is .25 so that would be a total of 750.00 just to rent the car not including the gas or hotel to stop at down and back or for the insurance.

IMHO i would say if your car is small or will not make it I would check into air to go.

[chillepepa]

We have made two road trips to WDW, 26-27 hours one way! Definitely need the baby-wipes/handi wipes. Fingers, armrests, etc. always get sticky on a car trip. I also throw in a roll of paper towels & toilet paper. Never know when you need a napkin and sometimes a rest stop is out ( we always check before going).

I had crayons melt in car on a trip to Disneyland one year so I usually give the kids colored pencils or those twistable colored pencil things Crayol makes. We also had a cup of gummie bears melt on that trip as well. It was a little hot in Vegas that summer. We have special coloring books just for road trips. Even at 16 my kids love the coloring on road trips.

[wraddylan]

I agree with this.