Any Utah people out there?? You can come in even if you aren't :)

[Tasscrapper]

I'll join in! I'm in Kaysville and we are planning our next trip the very end of September. I'm super excited as it's been about 5 years since we've gone! This will be my youngest's first time (she is 4 yrs old). And I'm super excited NOT to have a nursing baby or diapers to change this time, lol. In the past we have driven all the way there in one day and I think we'll do that again. I'm not sure on the way back... Usually, we are all so excited to go that driving there isn't too bad. We wake up at around 4 AM and try to get the kids to sleep for a little bit in the car. Plus with dvd's in the car...it really entertains the kiddos! The way back is usually harder...so I'm trying to decide if we'll stay somewhere...and if so...where....

Welcome Lkem! That must be really exciting to get to go now your kiddos are all past baby stage. I do miss the days of having a stroller to tote around snacks and jackets though.

I think I find the drive home easier than the drive there. We always seem to have a hard time sleeping the night before a trip so we tend to start out a touch tired even though we are excited. I've hit bad traffic way more times heading into California or coming down out of the hills before getting to the city section of California . . . maybe it just seems that way because by the time you get to the bad traffic you've already been driving for hours and so it seems worse. Plus the roads aren't completely familiar. Does anyone remember doing trips when Vegas was doing tons of road work? It seems like that was when we first started going but I remember going through it several times.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Once we went and hit that lovely california traffic on the way in. It was AWFUL. I feel like we were in the same spot for 2 hours.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Tho we were newlyweds and enjoyed just hanging out so it was ok. Plus the car in front of us had the license plate 4UIPOO

 

[Lkem]

I don't remember ever hitting lots of traffic! Is that weird or what? I must have just been lucky or something. -We usually try to drive in on Saturdays...so maybe thats what helps....

 

[scrapshappen]

I don't remember ever hitting lots of traffic! Is that weird or what? I must have just been lucky or something. -We usually try to drive in on Saturdays...so maybe thats what helps....

Sunday afternoons between Vegas and the California border can be terrible. We either try to avoid driving it on Sundays or if we are leaving from St. George, we get up super early to beat all the people returning to LA after their weekend in Vegas.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

I definitely wish I'd known that HAHAHA

 

[Tasscrapper]

We've tried leaving Vegas by 10 am on a Sunday and it was still bad. Saturday is the day we are going these days.

Our next DL trip is next week!.

Are you back yet Donathius? How was your trip?


So, for our next trip we have planned to drive down all in one day and stay the night at a hotel about 15 minutes from Disneyland. We'll check out in the morning and go to the parks and then check into the hotel we are staying at for the rest of the trip. I am usually the one pushing to get to the parks early each morning but I've been wondering about the wisdom of that for our first day. Check in at our main hotel is at 4pm and we would need to check out of the first hotel by 7 am to have any chance of getting to the parks for rope drop. That would mean getting up early enough to take regather belongings and eat breakfast before checking out. I'm thinking it would be much better to let the kids sleep in, enjoy breakfast and get to the parks when we get there. I would imagine sometime between 10 to 11 am. Even if we miss the first morning we hopefully won't be exhausted before checking into the main hotel and would have the energy to go back after the hotel switch and a rest. The parks will be open until midnight . . . so why push it right?

 

[scrapshappen]

When I say leave early from SG on a Sunday, I'm talking 7 am MST which gets us to the other side of Vegas by 8 am PST.

I say use the time change to your advantage. That's what we plan to do. Since our annual passes are blocked on April 1, we are planning on leaving March 31 after school and driving to SG, staying the night there and hanging out with family until mid afternoon. Then we are driving to a hotel in San Bernadido for the night on Saturday. My plan is to leave my kids on Mnt time, get them to bed and get them up at their regular time, and get to the park pretty near opening. They normally get up around 7 am here, so that's 6 am there so it should work out.

ETA: we are morning people, so we wouldn't stay until close anyway. My 12 yo has a neurological impairment. Nighttime touring is rough on him. I can't count the number of times we've rope dropped but we may have closed the park three times in all our visits and that includes a Halloween party. So take my advice knowing that your family is probably very different than mine.

The other thing we do is pack one overnight bag for the family and one large toiletry bag for the family. That way we only unload those two bags when we are staying somewhere for just one night. Makes packing up in the morning much easier too.

 

[Donathius]

We actually stayed in Primm Monday night and that worked out really well for us.

We've got one more day in the parks tomorrow (did tues-Sat). It had been INSANELY crowded this week. I'm talking 6/7 out of 10 every day. Plus it's been really hot. We've still had a good time but the crowd calendars for this week were dead wrong. I think everyone from Utah is here. I've run into 3 people from my office, one neighbor and there are a LOT of BYU, UofU and even SUU and Weber hats, t-shirts and sweatshirts here.

 

[Tasscrapper]

We actually stayed in Primm Monday night and that worked out really well for us.

We've got one more day in the parks tomorrow (did tues-Sat). It had been INSANELY crowded this week. I'm talking 6/7 out of 10 every day. Plus it's been really hot. We've still had a good time but the crowd calendars for this week were dead wrong. I think everyone from Utah is here. I've run into 3 people from my office, one neighbor and there are a LOT of BYU, UofU and even SUU and Weber hats, t-shirts and sweatshirts here.

 

[Tasscrapper]

Do you think it is the beginning of spring break and that's why it's so busy?

 

[rentayenta]

We are in Utah; Davis County! Southern Californian natives.

We have APs, have for the last 3 years. We are going during Spring Break this year and again in July. We skip UEA but try to go another weekend during the Fall and then again the week after Thanksgiving.

 

[66Goofy]

We are in South Jordan, We like going all the way on the way there and break up the trip back. Does anyone have cool suggestions for sightseeing or neat stops along the way. Such as the popcorn in Scipio or anything else? We occasionally stop at cove fort on the way down, a cool historic Mormon fort. I love to hear more about people making the same trip.

 

[Tasscrapper]

Welcome 66Goofy! We're practically neighbors. I stopped at Cove Fort with my kids once after having passed it more times than I count thinking oh we should do that sometime. We found it very interesting and the kids enjoyed it. DH and I went to Cedar City for our anniversary last year and went again since he hadn't been. We also went to Cedar Breaks National Monument and it was beautiful! I can't remember exactly how long it took us to get there and back from Cedar City but I think it was maybe 45 minutes and we took our time taking pictures and just enjoying being there. I would love to go back. It was so serene when we went. We've passed it so many times going back and forth to Disneyland and Vegas and never realized something so breathtaking was a short drive to the east. Now that I am thinking about it I'm wondering about stopping on the way home in April.

EmmersIsTheMommy has your cough gotten any better yet? I think over the past couple of days, with the warmer weather, mine has.

 

[Tasscrapper]

I had forgotten about this but but yesterday I went to Macey's and there were a few people walking around eating Dole Whips. I don't particularly like them but if any of you do go check out your local Macey's in the deli section.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Welcome 66Goofy! We're practically neighbors. I stopped at Cove Fort with my kids once after having passed it more times than I count thinking oh we should do that sometime. We found it very interesting and the kids enjoyed it. DH and I went to Cedar City for our anniversary last year and went again since he hadn't been. We also went to Cedar Breaks National Monument and it was beautiful! I can't remember exactly how long it took us to get there and back from Cedar City but I think it was maybe 45 minutes and we took our time taking pictures and just enjoying being there. I would love to go back. It was so serene when we went. We've passed it so many times going back and forth to Disneyland and Vegas and never realized something so breathtaking was a short drive to the east. Now that I am thinking about it I'm wondering about stopping on the way home in April.

EmmersIsTheMommy has your cough gotten any better yet? I think over the past couple of days, with the warmer weather, mine has.

YES! Thank you for asking. I'm glad yours has as well. Unfortunately now my kids are passing a cold back and forth no matter how much sanitizing I do. I'm sure they're bringing it in from school or something. I do NOT want a cough for Disneyland!!!