Logistical Challenge: What would you do?

[RuthlessBoss]

I also think this is a good idea! Chances are you can get a super cheap hotel off the hwy, sometimes those coupon books at the rest stops have great deals.

 

But, if you want to drive straight through, I vote for A.

 

My thought is similar, drive part way, motels in the south are cheap (I use the coupon books too). Make reservations at Park n cruise at $64 a week, they drop you off at your terminal door.

[Colorado Kat]

Option A. I just prefer extra time for problems, or miscalculations.

[golfadj]

Think we solved this one time to move on to the table cloth question.

[SnowshoeCat]

 

One option would be to drive some of it on Friday night (maybe 3-4 hours) and leave the last 2 for the morning. That would be my choice with your time frame.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. Break the trip up somewhere in the middle, get a good night's rest and then a leisurely drive in the morning.

 

Safe travels!

[realtrip]

I would say "A" because I would actually get some sleep the night before the cruise. If it were me and I tried to do the "B" option I would just lay in bed thinking about everything and telling myself "you need to go to sleep" and still be awake when the alarm went off. Then I would be really tired and miserable that first day. Have a great trip.

 

OMG!!!!!

 

You are so right!

You'd worry about every possible thing that could wrong. Definitely go for option A.

[Iandidar]

With that long a drive I'd probably either do it the night before or split it up myself.

 

We're 4 and a half hours drive from our next cruise, and planning on leaving around 5am day of.....and that makes me nervous, even with 4 or 4 1/2 hours of slush room.

 

Good chance we'll chicken out and drive down the night before anyway. lol

 

 

Now our next Carnival cruise we're about 30-45 MINUTES from the port, so we'll drive that same day.

[cyntil8ing]

For a four hour drive to port, we've done it both ways. We were driving form MD to NJ and the cruise left on a Sunday. When we drove up the day before, we hit terrible summer-time Saturday beach traffic and active road construction. The drive took over seven hours. At first, we congratulated ourselves for leaving a day early, but then we started thinking that the traffic and construction probably wouldn't be an issue on a Sunday morning. So the next time, we left early Sunday morning and breezed right up I-95 in less than 3.5 hours. Next summer, we'll go Sunday morning.

 

For an 8-9 hour drive (MD to Charleston), both times we did it, we split the drive. We left early Friday evening and drove until around 1:00am, found a hotel and finished the two to three hours left to drive in the morning. We were onboard before noon both times. Easy-peasy.

[UTVolsFan4Life]

Thank you everyone! There are so many comments and I have enjoyed reading each and every one of them. I am in no way allowing the members of Cruise Critic to make this decision for me, but it’s nice to hear from some other people who have had some experience in this area. I especially liked the insight from Tapi being that we are not too far away from each other in driving distance. Based on everyone’s comments here are some thoughts:

 

My thought with Option B is that in my experience at driving on the interstate at night is that from sundown to say midnight the traffic seems to be a little crazier. To me it’s a big pain to drive it during that time. Leaving at midnight or later would make the roads a lot less crazy and hopefully I would not have to share the road with too many people.

 

I had not thought of our new Option C. Drive part of the way on Friday evening and then the rest on Saturday morning. This is something that I will need to look into further. Depending on which route I take I could find something outside of Jacksonville close to St. Augustine or around the Ocala area. I don’t know how cheap I could find a room since it will be Valentine Day, I am sure that’s a reason to jump up the rates. My only concern other than the previously stated is that I am the type of person that when I get on the road, I want to get to my destination. I don’t know that I would get any sleep on Friday night worrying about if we would make it to port the next day.

 

I like Option A better at this point. I think what I might do is work it out so that I could pick up my wife’s vehicle from work, drive it home, and then just meet her at 4 PM and if I have to wait then that’s fine but this way we will be ready to hit the road as soon as she gets off work. That should save us about 30 minutes of time. Also, I thought that might could bring or pick up dinner before I went to pick her up so we could eat an early dinner but then have some snacks to keep us full. This would hopefully limit us to one stop to use the restroom on the way down and save us 30-45 minutes to stop for food.

 

It would be nice if my wife could help with the driving but there are several reasons that I would not want her to drive:

 

· We are taking my car as it’s cheaper on gas. For liability and insurance purposes she is only allowed to drive my car in an extreme emergency situation. Plus, she hates driving cars.

· She has never drove on the Interstate and while she wants to learn, I don’t feel this is the right timing since we are on such a tight schedule.

· She has a vision problem and even with glasses, her eyes cannot take a lot of bright lights (ie. Headlights). She only drives on local roads when necessary at night.

 

I think what I will do is call the Radisson Resort at the Port and book the Park and Cruise Package. I will have a few days to cancel beforehand if something comes up that changes the situation.