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Did A/O Drive from Brooklyn to Florida w/kids? WDYD?



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amother


 

Post Mon, Feb 14 2011, 9:20 pm
We are thinking about taking a road trip during the summer from Brooklyn to Orlando with kids ranging in age from 5-15.
My questions are:
How many hours was it?
Im assuming you go through the night and part of the next day?
Did you stop anywhere- if so where?
Where along the way can you find a shul/kosher food/along the route as you get closer to Orlando?
We are thinking of starting out on a Motzei Shabbos and getting there on Sunday- but what do you do in Orlando for the following Shabbos? Or do we drive further to Miami? Then we have 4 more hours back-

So DH says if we go to Miami for Shabbos, than on Sunday/Monday, we should head home and stop halfway and sleep somewhere in a community that has a normal hotel/shul and Kosher Food.

Can someone please enlighten me if you did such a thing, and if so, what did you do to make this work?
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amother


 

Post Mon, Feb 14 2011, 9:52 pm
I'm dying to do that!!! I wouldn't dare do it with kids though LOL but those ages sounds fun actually (I have younger kids)

But dont count on the ride being that "quick". My brother drove there from brooklyn (and he isn't particularly the "slow" driver Wink ) he made it, with no stop, in 20 hours. I've heard people do it with stops in 24 hours. So with kids you have to count on a lot of stops. Wink

I would love to go with my husband, plan like 3 days to drive there, stop wherever we might see something interesting, and continue, be there a few days and head back.

Maybe one day Smile Smile
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Grandmama




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 12:31 am
We have done it, and we researched it thoroughly prior to going.
Basically you have to decide how many hours you want to drive each day, how many days you want to spend driving, how many days you want to spend where, and then you can change along the way as you see fit. We wanted to be in Miami for Shabbos, but there is kosher food and hotel available in Orlando as well.
One tip I got from imamother is to pick up brochures at gas stations and rest stops along the way for great hotel discount coupons. We stopped in Savannah Georgia, which was nice, and we stopped in Williamsburg Virginia. Washington DC is also a nice way to spend a day, but we had done that before so we wanted to go to places we had not seen. We went to the Universal parks in Orlando, and we enjoyed our day there.
Its a 20 hour trip without stops, and of course you will stop often. We took most of the food we needed, and only bought some fruit and drinks on the way.
AAA can provide you with lots of help and brochures, and there is a website with names of hotels near the I-95 so you can be on the road again quickly.
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amother


 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 7:27 am
Thanks-

Anyone else??
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aidelmaidel




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 7:47 am
I have a friend who drives down to florida with all her kids at least once a year if not more.

You have to be organized, and know who is driving what portion and how long. She switches off with her husband and since she is a travel agent she always finds a good deal midway to stop and sleep.

She packs lots of entertainment for her kids - dvds, cds, books, etc. She gives dramamine to the kids that need it. They keep food in a cooler in the car. Cereal and soy milk can be bought at any supermarket and given for breakfast. Because her kids can focus on what's coming at the end of the drive (cousins), they complain less. Smile

If any of your kids are little its worthwhile to have a potty in the car or put them in pullups just in case. (Limit liquids!)

I personally have driven from Massachusetts to Northern Wyoming several times. We would drive everyday until Midnight/1am and then pull over to a chain hotel for the night. We would sleep until 6am, shower, eat breakfast(it was before I was frum) and then start driving again at 7am. You can do it in about 4 days like that, but it's pretty punishing.
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amother


 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 8:50 am
I grew up in Monsey and we drove down four times. (three times before I was married and once after) We were eight kids ranging from babies to high school age. The drive took us depending on who drove abt 18-21 hours with only stopping for gas and bathrooms. We made one bigger stop for shacharis. It was a fun trip as long as we had stuff to do.
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vicki




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 9:10 am
We just drove from NJ to FL and back in January. We have 4 kids from 1 year up to 7 years. We drove straight, meaning no overnights. My dh and I switched off. We left Motzai Shabbos around 7:30 PM and arrived around 4:30 the next evening. We stopped a few times for bathroom breaks, then for about 1 1/2 hours for shacharis and breakfast and another 1/2 hour for lunch. My dh drank lots of coffee and we pretty much shared the driving evenly.
We had a dvd player with LOTS of choices. The kids were great. It's doable but I don't think I'd do this again because the last few hours were VERY difficult in terms of our exhaustion.
We brought all our food with us. Perishables were in a freezer chest.
We arrived at my parents where we had dinner waiting for us. Smile
Home was even faster.
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mama247




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 9:36 am
We've gone the past two years from Ohio to Boca Raton . . . it took us 22-23 hours, so from New York it's probably a couple hours less. Also, Orlando is a few hours north of Boca, so it would be even less. We leave motzei shabbos around 8:00pm and get to Boca around 6pm the following evening. My husband sleeps all shabbos afternoon so he's rested. We make only short stops until we get to Savannah, GA. There's a kosher Kroger's there so we usually stop for about an hour and walk around and get some food for lunch later on. We take a cooler with lots of food, but buy a lot in Florida itself. Never been to Orlando so I can't tell you what kind of kosher food they have. When I did look into staying in Orlando they seem to have frum accomadations (definitely lubavitch at least) if you want to stay for Shabbos.
The car ride is really not bad. My 5 kids are 11 to 3 yrs. old and they did great both times! Tons of DVD's and coloring books, books, etc. When you leave at night a good chunk of the trip is sleeping time so you don't have to do too much entertaining. Also, we don't bring along junk food for snacks . . . I really think it makes a big difference. Pretzels, yogurts, cheese, cereal, fruit. And I think a lot of it is attitude . . . if you go into thinking that you're gonna have a great trip, you will. And always focus on the fact that you're going to Florida for fun and sun!
Hope this helps!
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amother


 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 12:46 pm
we didn't drive but we took the auto train to Florida
with six kids summer 2009 it was an amazing trip
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Mirabelle




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 12:59 pm
Did it last summer with 3 kids under 4 from NJ, but actually we drove further to my family is South Florida (Palm Beach, etc) and then on the way back hit Orlando. I suspect we will be doing the same thing this summer, yes I am crazy!!!
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3Qts




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 12:59 pm
The "are we there yet" starts 2 blocks from my house so I wouldnt attempt it. But as a girl we drove down and I have great memories of the trip except I dont remember anything about the driving part.
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amother


 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 9:23 pm
Mirabelle wrote:
Did it last summer with 3 kids under 4 from NJ, but actually we drove further to my family is South Florida (Palm Beach, etc) and then on the way back hit Orlando. I suspect we will be doing the same thing this summer, yes I am crazy!!!


So can you give me detaila- like whens a good time to leave AM or PM, where are good pitstops, hotels kosher food along the way- any help - please- or do you want me to PM you?
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amother


 

Post Tue, Feb 15 2011, 11:52 pm
My family did it twice. We packed before shabbos, my parents were able to rest on shabbos and we left right after havdalah.
We brought blankets and pillows and slept in the car

My father drove all night and my mother took over in the morning. There is a huge rest stop in south carolina (called South of the Border) where we stopped for shachris and breakfast
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Mirabelle




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 16 2011, 8:39 am
amother wrote:
Mirabelle wrote:
Did it last summer with 3 kids under 4 from NJ, but actually we drove further to my family is South Florida (Palm Beach, etc) and then on the way back hit Orlando. I suspect we will be doing the same thing this summer, yes I am crazy!!!


So can you give me detaila- like whens a good time to leave AM or PM, where are good pitstops, hotels kosher food along the way- any help - please- or do you want me to PM you?


You can PM me. We ended up stopping for two nights on the way, but I think this is because our kids are so little and we needed to stop more frequently for diaper changes (I dont know what it was, but something about the hot weather made for more frequent and more complicated diaper changes, if you get what I mean). We actually found ourselves stopping at Walmarts along the way (there were tons) because it was easy to find packaged kosher snacks and they had clean bathrooms. Also one of our babies (we have twins) at that time couldnt hold her own bottle, so we would need to stop to feed her, as opposed to just passing her a bottle.

We took a cooler with deli, hard boiled eggs, etc so that we could make sandwiches, which worked out pretty well. I think we left on a Sunday morning and spent Motzei Shobbos packing.

DH and I need to figure out if we are going to be driving again or if we want to fly. We didn't fly last time because it seemed that renting a minivan, shlepping car seats, and shlepping porta cribs would be too hard with flying.
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