We said, “why not!” Traveling is something we have passion for and have always wanted to share with our kids. A good time to start long trips on the road with a little? Every child and family is different and knowing we wanted to be able to jump on the road at a moment's notice we knew starting young would be the best for our lifestyle! I'll try my absolute best to give you the best recommendation and timeline of what this has looked like for us!
Location:
We went to The Happiest Place on Earth: Disney World! For context, We live in Ohio! This drive is from our home to Orlando, FL; exactly 14 hours long!
Timeline To Orlando:
Day 1:
For the first day we knew we needed to start early. The thought was to start early enough that she would sleep for most of the ride as we also had some deliveries to make in NC & FL on the way for work. These deliveries actually added 4 hours to our overall trip and meant we were going to split the drive into 3 total days.
We left our home at 4am and planned to drive until noon/1 o'clock. Best-laid plans? Bonnie had something completely different in mind. We had hoped to just move her from her bed to the carseat and she would go to sleep. Instead she was so out of sorts and awakened from the deepest part of her sleep that she cried for the first two hours of the trip. Which to be honest, we had not planned for at all.
We stopped at the nearest rest stop for all of us to take a moment to reset. I nursed B, we went to the bathroom, drank some coffee and played in the car for about 30 minutes. When we felt Bonnie could get back in the carseat we strapped her in and started on the road again! Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Snacks and toys were the name of the game for the next 2.5-3 hours until lunch time!
Once we made a stop for work, grabbed lunch and moved our bodies some, Bonnie was ready for her afternoon nap! Nap time lasted about 2.5 hours long being in the car and was able to get us to our second and last destination for the day. We had not expected to get that far that day and it set us up really well for the following day ride!
Our trip on day 1 ended at 4:30pm. The rest of that day we played in the hotel room, doordashed food, showered/ bathed and relaxed!
Tip: Bring luggage JUST for the things you want to use for the hotels on your journey. A smaller carry-on so all you have to do is bring in the small carry-on and diaper bag instead of all of the luggage you brought for the majority of the trip! I really tried the hack where you use a shoe door hanger thing to organize Bonnie's outfits and for planning purposes it was great! When it came to folding it up in the suitcase it took up much more room than just packing her clothes normally so that's what we did!
Day 2:
Making some adjustments to our plan of leaving at 4am and just moving Bonnie from bed to car seat. We decided to wake Bonnie up completely at 5:30a. After a diaper and clothing change, nursing, some walking around in fresh air and grabbing coffee at the next door Dunkin, it was time to load up again. This went infinitely better!
Bonnie is a huge fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so we make sure to turn that on as soon as she gets in her carseat to just get her comfy for the start of the trip! We move on to toys and snacks after about 30-45 minutes in the car. The remainder of the day it was like clockwork from the previous day! Nurse, change and stretch for about 20-30 minutes. Secondly; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Third; Toys and snacks. Finally: Nap! We went through this rotation until we ended our trip in Orlando around 5p. Meaning we were able to arrive early and cut off a third day completely!
The second day did feel slightly like a blur. We were so tired after driving and waking up so early both days and just wanting to get our work deliveries over with, to our destination with a happy baby started to feel impossible but we knew we were so close and started on our pre-vacation high that pushed us through!
Timeline Home:
Day 1:
We were in Disney for a full week and stayed at an Airbnb (Which i'm working on a second blog post for that, so stay tuned!) Our day started at 6:30am. Taking some notes from the ride here we decided to wake Bonnie up fully before getting her in the car. Same as before. Change, nurse and fresh air! Then we were all ready to hit the road! After a full week of Disney and a 14hr (plus time for stops) Momma was in NEED of coffee, so the first stop was Starbucks of course!
Bonnie ended up falling asleep around 7:30 and stayed asleep until 9:45am. At this point Walker and I needed to use the restroom and Bonnie was ready to nurse again so we stopped at the nearest gas station to grab snacks to hold us over until lunch & use the bathroom! I know it's starting to sound like a broken record but don't over complicate it! Nurse, change and stretch the legs! Once we were all snack’ed up and stretched out we started on the next leg of the trip home with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, snacks and toys!
Tip: We wanted to make sure Bonnie slept as well as possible at the hotels and Airbnb. We made sure to bring everything she normally has to sleep with at night to ensure the best chances of that!
Lunch time & Bonnie’s first trip to Bucces! This is such a good rest spot for travelers. Plenty of gas pumps, great food (trust me on that!) Very large and clean bathrooms! It's a must stop when we are traveling. Fun Fact: When I was pregnant with B we bought her a whole Bucces outfit with a matching bow. Yup, that's how much we like Bucces! After our little trip to the best gas station ever and some BBQ Brisket Bonnie was tuckered out and ready for her afternoon nap.
Around 2pm we ran into the Atlanta traffic that lasted until around 5p. Completely stop and go and on top of that Walker and I started to not feel so well. Whether it was severe allergies or just a long fun week and road trip exhaustion.
Finally we arrived at our hotel for the night around 7pm and it was a Doordash kinda night for sure! Regardless, We achieved the distance we had originally wanted to accomplish this day so we felt great about our start for the next day!
Day 2:
We had decided to sleep in a little more since we didn't have as far to drive on this day and we were all wiped! We woke up around 7:00 am and woke Bonnie up around 7:30 am! Once we changed her, packed up our things and had one last nursing session, we were off for the last stretch of our trip!
This day seemed to be a rough one for us all. We were all feeling sickly and exhausted including Bonnie. Keeping her busy and happy was harder this day than the others but she still did amazing! We stopped for coffee almost immediately and then a second stop was made when she woke up around 11:30a for us to all eat some lunch and fill up on gas.
We had roughly 2.5 hours to get home and so when we all got back in the car we took a moment for Bonnie to stretch her legs, change her and make sure she would last the full time in the car.
Home arrival was at 3pm! Which is perfect for Bonnie to be able to play for the reminder of the day and go right back into her normal sleeping schedule!
We have learned so much from this trip and have a lot of confidence we can take more like it in the future! We are so excited to get back to traveling!
Benefits & Disadvantages to Driving:
The advantage we had driving vs. flying will, as said before, be different for everyone. Driving may not be for everyone and may see more value in flying. So definitely to each their own on this one!
For us the benefits outweigh any disadvantages (another key part is we had to drive due to work deliveries.) But truly, we would have driven either way. By driving we were able to:
- Save SO much money. In Disney, staying on property although I love it so much, it is outrageously expensive. (There are some pros to staying on property but I'll go over that in my other Disney Blog post.) We chose to stay in an airbnb for this trip. Between food, drinks, gas and even the extra hotel for the travel there and back we still saved so much money!
- Staying in an Airbnb and not having to worry about transportation since we had our own vehicle. This allowed for us to have plenty of space for Bonnie to roam and play vs. a hotel room. Most airbnb’s can arrange to have things like toys and highchairs ready for you to use during your stay. We also had a full kitchen, separate rooms for those that want a separate sleeping space for their littles and our own heated pool! Airbnb’s are much cheaper than any Disney property hotel or resort while still being within 20 minutes of every park.
- Cook our own meals for the majority of the trip- Once again saving so much money! A Disney property meal for one person on average is $20-30. I still think you should try things Disney has to offer as they have some of the best snacks and food but all in moderation for us.
- Bring any and everything we needed for ourselves and Bonnie and not worrying about not having what we needed. This is huge when you have a baby. Again, there are ways to get around this such as rental companies but for us this was much more convenient and less stressful. Lugging around a carseat and stroller in an airport is just not our jam.
- Disney transportation makes it super easy to get to the parks from your resorts. Driving is even easier as they have trams that take you from your parking spot to the front gates of parks (for most of them). Staying on property you'll need to fold up your stroller & carry on your bags as well as your babies to get on their buses… and after fireworks and being all hot and sweaty all day crammed on a bus full of overtired babies and overstimulated parents= not a good time. Note: You can always fly into Orlando for this kind of trip and rent a vehicle as well. Just adds to the cost for us and not worth it when we have our own!
- We can stop and change our plans on a dime to benefit our baby vs. on an airplane we can't really help that!
Disadvantages to driving vs. Flying. Most of these disadvantages have to do specifically with Disney so if you are planning to travel anywhere with a little, feel free to bypass this part!
- Specifically with Disney they make it super convenient with their services they provide. When flying into Orlando they have a bussing system that's typically quick and simple to board and drop you off right at the front door of your resort.
- Each Disney resort has their own “food court” or restaurant with daily eats and drinks so you'll never miss a meal and you don't have to go far to get one! )Get the Mickey waffles!)
- Along with that, their bussing can get you anywhere on disney property
- Obviously flying is much quicker than driving.
- There are rental services where you can rent any baby things you need and have them delivered to your resort!
- Not having to cook on vacation isn't always a bad thing!
- Disney resorts have the best themed pools with poolside bars with all the yummy drinks and snacks
- Disney resorts offer fun activities like bonfires, movies and crafts!
- Fussy babies in the car isn't fun for anyone. Thankfully ours did pretty good!
- This one is controversial, I know, but again to each their own. Bonnie is 10.5 months old and being in her car seat for long days isn't ideal in general.
Recommendations:
For the car we wanted Bonnie to be super comfy and so here are some things we used to help with that! We had her set up!
- Sun shades & lots of them
- Our favorite car camera
- Spacious 360 car seat
- Ipad & ipad holder
- Snack containers that fit in her cup holders
- Readily available Sippy cups
- Comfy Onesies
- Portable sound machine
- Her every night sound machine
- Sleep sack
- All the Toys
