Another driving question and LA traffic

[mabird1980]

We (DW, MIL, DD 8, DS 6, DD 2) live in Clovis (Fresno area) and drive down to Disneyland fairly regularly. In the past our mode of operation would be to get on the road at 2:30 am and we could make it to DL around 6am missing most of the morning traffic and giving us time to get something to eat and get ready before the park opened at 8:00. For our next trip, Monday Nov 2nd the park doesn't open till 10:00am so leaving at 2:30 would be overkill. We still want to be able to stop somewhere and eat and have some buffer time to get the kids out of their PJ's and ready to head into the park at opening. Any idea how much traffic delays I should account for going through LA? Are we better off going straight to DL area and getting breakfast there or should I get breakfast before hitting LA?

 

[SMD]

The last time I did this I passed Magic Mountain around 7am and didn't get home just north of LAX until 9:30 with one stop for gas. Of course, I had to detour off I-5 and go through regular rush hour, which didn't help. I think if you plan for an 8am arrival you'll be fine. I think any later and you'll hit traffic and get diminishing returns on your start time. But I wouldn't stop before Anaheim for breakfast if you're shooting for a 10am park opening, as the traffic will likely just be growing ahead of you.

 

[mabird1980]

The last time I did this I passed Magic Mountain around 7am and didn't get home just north of LAX until 9:30 with one stop for gas. Of course, I had to detour off I-5 and go through regular rush hour, which didn't help. I think if you plan for an 8am arrival you'll be fine. I think any later and you'll hit traffic and get diminishing returns on your start time. But I wouldn't stop before Anaheim for breakfast if you're shooting for a 10am park opening, as the traffic will likely just be growing ahead of you.

I guess that was more what I was getting at. To get to DL by 8:00 am, what time should I plan to be passing by magic mountain? Oh and what route would you commend? We usually take I5 but again we are usually passing through before 6 so traffic is still fairly light.

 

[MoDa65]

We (DW, MIL, DD 8, DS 6, DD 2) live in Clovis (Fresno area) and drive down to Disneyland fairly regularly. In the past our mode of operation would be to get on the road at 2:30 am and we could make it to DL around 6am missing most of the morning traffic and giving us time to get something to eat and get ready before the park opened at 8:00. For our next trip, Monday Nov 2nd the park doesn't open till 10:00am so leaving at 2:30 would be overkill. We still want to be able to stop somewhere and eat and have some buffer time to get the kids out of their PJ's and ready to head into the park at opening. Any idea how much traffic delays I should account for going through LA? Are we better off going straight to DL area and getting breakfast there or should I get breakfast before hitting LA?

This is an old post but I'd like to reply to see what worked for you and how things went on the timing?

I can chime in pretty well and relate because I'm also from Fresno/Clovis, and in the north area so the timing is probably similar.

We literally hit the road before 3AM hit the clock. It was anywhere from 245-3AM if I recall. We just used the Waze app. I highly suggest it. It provides better traffic updates and will reroute based on traffic. Waze is owned by Google and it is the community of people who use it on a daily that provides the traffic info so it is really updated especially in populated areas such as most places in CA. Anyways, our goal was to be at the park right when it opened. With no stops once we left, we got to the Mickey and Friends parking structure entrance around 630AM. They didn't even let us in yet because as you know, they open 1 hour before operating hours of the park. In which case was 8AM.

As for traffic, this was Friday morning. Traffic was smooth. Although you can tell it was already starting to build up in the LA freeways, but no way was it stop and go. Even though there was, what many would consider, a lot of cars already on the freeway, people were jamming--obviously they too wanted to get to their destination before any traffic hit. I think if we had left any later from Fresno/Clovis area... say 4-5AM, traffic would have been bad.

We were in Hollywood in like 3hours from North Fresno. Didn't realize how one could easily do a day trip to socal from there.

FYI, was driving no more than 80MPH the entire way.