Driving to Disney....[from Boston; any tips?] - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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My suggestion for getting through the NYC area is to do the 287 Tappan Zee Route described by Jersey Dad. We travel frequently to the area in have never hit much traffic. going by the GW bridge is horrible and 95 can be a mess for hours before getting to NYC,
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Ours is a 12 hour drive and we actually quite enjoy it! We left last year at 4 am and made it just outside Disney by 5:30. We only stopped for bathroom breaks and lunch because we were so eager to get there. We decided to book a separate hotel for the first night because we didn't want to spend so much of a precious Disney days away from the park! That ballooned into a two day mini-stay and a day at Legoland, which was a wonderful way to start the trip!
We keep lots of snacks and drinks for the kids, but we have a DVD player in the van and they get to watch lots of Disney movies! We also hooked our Wii U up so they could play video games, too! We barely heard a peep out of them unless they needed a stop.
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I'd stop before Savannah. That's a long long drive for the first day. How about stopping around Florence which is a couple hours shorter instead?
Good luck with the drive!
I agree that Savannah would be a really long drive especially since your dreading the drive and the end part of that day is through the longest state to drive thru. I would stop in Santee or even Walterboro SC which would leave a 5-6 hour drive the next day.
I still want to know how to hook up game systems in the car!?? That would be awesome
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Our old Oldsmobile van actually had places to plug game units in. We used to hook up our GameCube and it played on our VHS screen (this was before DVDs).
You'd have to be able to plug the game unit into your car, probably with a converter and then have some sort of screen that you could watch on (and attach to).
In all my trips to WDW, I've only flown one time (pre Magical Express, back in the 1970's when I was too little to really remember much). We have about a 14 hour drive from where we live. We leave in the middle of "oh my God this isn't human time" around 1 am in order to get the bulk of the driving done before the trio of little me's wake up. Typically this gets us close to the Georgia border.
I use the Gasbuddy app, but we also have a GPS that helps us find restrooms, etc. We travel I-75, so there's a great I-75 website that highlights reststops, etc.
We make brief stops for gas, slightly longer stops for breakfast and lunch (we pack a cooler so we only need to supplement with coffee for me, or an occasional treat for the boys).
We give each kiddo a small bag with a DVD player and movies, coloring books, and a few car games like magnetic travel bingo. I also hide surprises like Disney Pez dispenser's and other non melting, safe to eat candy.
Last trip, we also gave the boys a road map (Thanks AAA for this idea ) and a highlighter and they "marked" our route as we passed various pre circled landmarks.
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The Fun, Old-Fashioned Family Vacation, 3.0 http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...ml#post4472933
Ch-Ch-Changes July 2015
[URL="http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/sharing-adventure-disney-world-trip-reports/288847-ch-ch-changes-ptr-july-16-24-a.html"]
Take the route that Jersey dad said. We did 84 to 684 to 287, etc. It wasn't bad. Be careful going through New Jersey. We went one year at night and didn't understand why there were so many cars on the side of the road until we hit a tire remnant form an 18 wheeler and ripped the whole top bumper thingy above the tire off the jeep! We went as far as Savannah Georgia and stayed the night (stopped to visit friends). Just take your time!!!
I figure if we leave about 9-10 pm, we'll get New York and DC traffic out of the way.
My husband will drive a little, but not much. The majority will be me, because I'm a far better driver than I am passenger. Mt daughter can drive, but she's still leery on highways, and I love my car, so she probably won't drive much.
Last trip, we also gave the boys a road map (Thanks AAA for this idea ) and a highlighter and they "marked" our route as we passed various pre circled landmarks.
Don't do I-95 straight thru Wash DC ...you'll not recover from the aggravation!! I'd opt for the 495 Beltway around DC ....the sign will say "95-495 South_Washington_Richmond". This is the eastern leg of the loop around DC ...and gets you back onto I-95 near Alexandria, VA.
Stay on I-95 thru Richmond ....it's a city SO big ...that if you blink or sneeze ...you'll miss it!!
Yes, under no circumstances take 95 through DC; go around on the east side of the city. And really, Richmond is no problem even during their "rush" hour; we usually hit the evening one coming back from Florida and it's 20 minutes from one side of the city to the other, no problem.