Traveling with small children

[doulacandice]

We are planning on making the drive with 4 children.. I'm in NC so it's a 10 hr ride for us.. Would it be best to leave at night around 7pm and drive all night while the children are asleep or get up early and leave here around 6am and drive all day??

Anyone have experience in this?

[Wendy L]

Sorry, I've never driven as I live in the UK, but I have been on the road for 8 hours and it was a very long time. I think if I had to do it, I'd probably drive all night, although you would be tired the next day when the children were full of beans.

I think some people have driven and I'm sure they will be along soon to let you know their experiences.

[OKWTink]

I've done both. Driven all night, and then driven during the day.

It truly depends upon you and the children. Will you be ok the next day when they are refreshed from sleeping their usual hours and you've not had any sleep?

Or, would it be best to do daytime driving and all have a good night's rest once you check into your resort?

It's one of those things where you'll have to make the call regarding what is best for your family. :yes:

[uscwest]

When I was much younger I used to do a lot of night time long distance driving. Now I don't think I could stay awake. :) We live in Northern Virginia and when we drive we normally go very early in the morning (between 4 and 5). If we drive straight through to WDW it takes about 14 hours of total time to complete the drive.

[Rosie0610]

We used to drive when I was a kid. For me it was a 21+ hour drive so we had both am and pm driving. As a kid I can say I always liked to sleep in the car and it made the time go by much faster. There were only 2 of us though, not 4. Can't say I know how my parents felt about it. Sorry! Good luck!

[irishmystt]

Our first trip down to WDW was when both my children were very small, infact my daughter was new to the potty. We live in NY so we left early in the morning, around 4am. We travelled half way down to NC and stayed overnight and then continued the next day to Florida. To be honest we had a great time, we had them very well prepared with videos and games and singing yadda yadda. We made plenty of stops so they wouldn't feel trapped for the first leg of the trip. But I have to be honest, it's entirely different with every child. How young are they? Can you bring videos to watch? You can even discuss how long of a drive it is with them ahead of time so they know what to expect. We told them how many episodes of sponge bob or other cartoons it was, lol. At least they'll have a general idea if you explain it that way. It's really was a great trip, we loved driving with them, they did GREAT knowing where we were ending up :wink: .

[Johnie]

We're in Virginia, about an hour from the NC border. It takes about 12 hrs to drive to WDW. We've driven at night plenty of times. My favorite way to drive is leave around 4 or so in the afternoon and drive to Brunswick, GA (8 hrs from my house) and spend the night. WDW is 3 hrs from there and we're all refreshed the next day. I can usually get a really good deal on a hotel via Priceline.

[BevW]

We've done both, drive all night/drive during the day. We much prefer driving during the day now that we're older. I take a portable DVD player and their electronic games and CD's to keep them entertained. We also make stops so the DGD's can run around and get rid of some pent up energy.

[lorettainny]

When I was growing up, we took 2-3week road trips all the time for our family vacation. There were 4 of us kids and our parents. I can't tell you how many memories I have of those car rides. Whenever we get together as a family and start talking about our childhood, car trips are on the top of the list. You can't beat it and we didn't even have electroinc games to bring with us back then or DVD players and such.

We would always start out around 3:00 AM so it was still dark. The kids would sleep for a few hours in the beginning.

Do whatever is right for your family. One thing is for sure...you will obtain some great memories from the car rides. :-)

[disneymeces]

We are planning on making the drive with 4 children.. I'm in NC so it's a 10 hr ride for us.. Would it be best to leave at night around 7pm and drive all night while the children are asleep or get up early and leave here around 6am and drive all day??

Anyone have experience in this?

We have a 10 hr drive the first day, and atleast a 7 hour drive the next day. We usually just leave during the early morning around 7am, for us it is not worth being tired after driving all night, then are kids are up and ready to party and we aren't..LOL...But I learned 6yrs ago, that portable DVD players are great..that works best with our children. And we usually take our time at rest stops to walk around, gets some of their energy out.