Traveling on I-95

[PineyEsquire]

My fiance and I are driving down to Cape Canaveral from NC. We'll be stopping in Brunswick, GA the night before the cruise, and getting up in the morning to finish the drive.

 

I want to allow plenty of time to get from Brunswick, GA to Cape Canaveral, but I don't want us sitting around waiting for hours to board the ship either. . .

 

MapQuest says it'll take 3 hours and 18 minutes, and in my experience with MapQuest, it tends to overestimate. But then, I don't have any experience driving down I-95. . . on Labor Day weekend.:eek:

 

Any tips? We'd like to get on the ship ASAP.

[Caliber1]

Piney,

You should be okay if you get up fairly early, Jacksonville ca be a real mess some times, after that it should be smooth sailing. We got to the port at around 10:30 and were on the ship at around 11:30. Hope this helps.

 

Jess

[bguppies]

Depends on which day over Labor Day weekend you are heading down to port Canaveral.

I-95 can back up heading into Florida both On Friday and Saturday morning and on the back side of the weekend, with all the retirees heading back home after escaping Florida for the long weekend.

(My parents live between Daytona and Port Canaveral and they now refuse to return to FLA. except on the off days. Thursday or Tuesday of holiday weekends)

It's probably 2 1/2 hours or so from Jacksonville to Port Canaveral.

Jacksonville can pose some traffic headaches.

The Daytona area is usually pretty decent trafficwise, unless they have some construction going on. (haven't been down to see the folks this year, so sadly I don't know)

 

If you're heading down on a Saturday morning, I'd go ahead and head down and maybe hit some shops in Port Canaveral/Cocoa Beach area if you do wind up early.

On a Sunday morning (like our upcoming Sensation cruise) I wouldn't worry at all about traffic. Should be a smooth drive.

 

Bill

[time4agetaway]

Be sure to leave early to avoid a mess in Jacksonville, like some else said before. It's better to be early than miss the boat.

 

Are you staying in the Comfort Inn in Brunswick? That's where we usually stay. It's a nice little hotel.

[wmsherwood]

I-95 always has construction going on, but due to the holiday weekend most of it should be suspended. J-ville can be a mess to get through, but that's mostly due to workweek traffic and it generally isn't too bad on the weekend. Mapquest does overstate times, but you should still plan on 2.5-3 hours to get to the lot at the port from Brunswick. It's an easy drive, though not particularly exciting!

 

Enjoy your cruise.

bill

[trvlcrzy]

DH and I live in NC (about 2 miles from I-95), and we drove to Port Canaveral for our Spring Break 2005 cruise. Local schools (I teach) have break beginning Easter weekend. Our circumstances were probably similar -- traveling on a holiday weekend.

 

On the way down, we ran into a huge traffic jam that lasted about 1.5 hours (we were at a standstill). Literally, we both fell asleep (as this stop began at about 11:00 pm). Luckily, this was Thursday night (for a Saturday cruise). My dad is a retired trucker, so we called and asked for an alternate route. We were already under the bridge for the exit we needed to bypass this traffic issue (unable to "back up" to the exit ramp).

 

I would rather be hanging around Cocoa Beach than taking a chance on someone else's traffic accident. There is a small mall in Cocoa (or Cocoa Beach, not quite the same place). Maybe you could hang out in Ron Jon's surf shop for a while. I'd rather be waiting 20 minutes from the ship than hanging around in Brunswick, Georgia waiting to start the last leg of the trip.

 

Happy traveling to you!

[PineyEsquire]

Yeah, I guess it would be better to play it safe and hang around Cocoa if we get down there way to early. Plus, we're actually going to have a bit of a third leg to the trip because we're parking in Cocoa. Florida Highway Patrol is letting us park at their station (so no $12/day parking). . .sometimes it pays be engaged to a trooper! :D

[Muumuu]

Our last trip down 95 last Jan. we were at a standstill in Georgia for 90 minutes. No one moved. Luckily we were going down 2 days early. I hate to think of driving down on the same day and running into a long delay.

[cantw82sail]

I live in Jacksonville and there is currently construction from the airport to over the Fuller Warren Bridge. Definitely expect delays at any time in Jville. Most of the people here can't drive!!!! We are also heading down to Canaveral Labor Day weekend. We depart Saturday, Sept 2nd. We live on south of town near Orange Park so we miss all that construction area. We are planning to leave by 8:00am as it is our first time and we aren't exactly sure of the way to get to the port from I-95

From our house to Cocoa Beach exit is 2 hrs exactly with no delays. St Johns county is always doing road work too!

 

I would say mapquest in this case is pretty good estimate.

 

Also keep in mind that NASA has launch scheduled for Aug 27th that could be delayed until Sep 12th. If it gets delayed expect further delays!!!

 

Hope this helps.

[BlueHerons]

My fiance and I are driving down to Cape Canaveral from NC. We'll be stopping in Brunswick, GA the night before the cruise, and getting up in the morning to finish the drive.

 

I want to allow plenty of time to get from Brunswick, GA to Cape Canaveral, but I don't want us sitting around waiting for hours to board the ship either. . .

 

MapQuest says it'll take 3 hours and 18 minutes, and in my experience with MapQuest, it tends to overestimate. But then, I don't have any experience driving down I-95. . . on Labor Day weekend.:eek:

 

Any tips? We'd like to get on the ship ASAP.

 

I would just go ahead and drive all the way down. You can almost plan on it taking around an hour to get totally around Jacksonville.

 

No matter what time of day or night or what day of the week, I've always encountered some sort of mess on I-95. My husband and I drive it often to Miami (family) and we love to road trip.

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

Recommend you get an early start out of Brunswick (before 8am) and then take I-295 around Jacksonville. There are far fewer delays on the beltway around JAX then if you try to drive through it.

 

Where I-95 has been widened to 3-lanes each way the traffic usually moves pretty good; it's those two lane sections that cause delays. The last time I was on I-95 the 2-lane section in Flagler County was under construction/being widened but I'm not sure if that is finished yet. Expect delays as 3-lanes narrows to 2-lanes. It opens back to 3-lanes in Volusia County (Daytona area) but then back to 2 south of Daytona.

 

Have a map with you and always keep an eye out for where US1 is located in relation to you. If things get bad on I-95 you can always hop onto US1, which is also 4-lanes but does have traffic lights in the towns it passes through. But except from Ormond Beach through Daytona Beach, it doesn't carry very much traffic.

 

From I-95 or US1, SR528 Eastbound will then take you directly to the ships.

 

BobK/Orlando