Best time to drive from Disneyland to Universal?

[soma151]

We are doing one day at Universal,( mONDAY) don't have early entry and park opens at 10am, looking for a good window to make the drive and not hit to much traffic? If that is even possible? Picking up rental car at 8 from DTD.

 

[Darkbeer1]

I would pick yup the car the night before if you want to be in line at park opening. I would say the drive,which can take about 1 hour in light traffic is closer to 2 hours that time of day. Then you have to deal with parking at the park, which is mainly a set of large parking structures,and then walk through CityWalk and go through security, I would plan for 30 to 45 minutes for that segment.

So I would leave at 7 AM and while the I-5 to the 101 is the straight route, it does have construction going on and only 3 lanes in parts of the freeway in LA County (Orange County has upgraded its freeways over the last few decades.

If you are stuck with the 8 AM pickup, then have the group ready to go at the Hotel Lobby, and get to the Rental place shortly before 8 AM so you could be the first to get a car, and then just pick up the group, and head out. Also using a GPS or a smartphone app with live traffic updates (which will re-route you if their is an accident, etc.) is a great help. If you want coffee, etc, get it before picking up the car.

And I presume this is a weekday.

And a hint, start your day at USH on the Lower Lot and its rides, and then head back to the Upper Lot, saving Harry Potter until the end, as that gets you away from the majority of the guests, who start at Harry Potter and then go to the rest of the park.

 

[soma151]

I would pick yup the car the night before if you want to be in line at park opening. I would say the drive,which can take about 1 hour in light traffic is closer to 2 hours that time of day. Then you have to deal with parking at the park, which is mainly a set of large parking structures,and then walk through CityWalk and go through security, I would plan for 30 to 45 minutes for that segment.

So I would leave at 7 AM and while the I-5 to the 101 is the straight route, it does have construction going on and only 3 lanes in parts of the freeway in LA County (Orange County has upgraded its freeways over the last few decades.

If you are stuck with the 8 AM pickup, then have the group ready to go at the Hotel Lobby, and get to the Rental place shortly before 8 AM so you could be the first to get a car, and then just pick up the group, and head out. Also using a GPS or a smartphone app with live traffic updates (which will re-route you if their is an accident, etc.) is a great help. If you want coffee, etc, get it before picking up the car.

And I presume this is a weekday.

And a hint, start your day at USH on the Lower Lot and its rides, and then head back to the Upper Lot, saving Harry Potter until the end, as that gets you away from the majority of the guests, who start at Harry Potter and then go to the rest of the park.

This is what i was worried about, was thinking leaving as soon as we pick up car and going to breakfast and taking off about 9:30 or 10 ? Would this help with traffic? I would rather be late to the park and not sit in traffic two hours? What about return trip?

 

[Darkbeer1]

NO, have breakfast BEFORE 8 AM, get in the car and head north ASAP and get to the park. What I would do is plan for a full day in the park, and then dinner at Universal Citywalk next door. And don't leave until at least 7 PM, if not a bit later to avoid the afternoon/early evening rush hour. This is my normal end of day plan. The 101 going southbound through Hollywood and Downtown LA is known to be bad.

But most of the rush hour traffic will be done by 8 AM, and you are getting into typical all day heavy but moderate traffic, which will take about 90 minutes anytime until about 3 PM, when it gets worse again.

A hint, once you get your rental car, take it east on Katella, then south on Haster a couple of blocks to Gene Autry Way. There is a special carpool entrance to the I-5 there, and places you directly on the left side of the freeway, and stay in the lane until it runs out just past the Orange County border. (One of the reasons you will see construction past the ending is for a new Carpool lane in the area, plus a general widening of the freeway and basic improvements.)

 

[bumbershoot]

We did basically what darkbeer said and it worked out.

However, get to the rental place before it opens! We got to Alamo on katella a little bit later, and there was a line and things were taking an inexplicably long time. Finally another rep got to work and he helped me, and because I was sweet and smiley (there were three groups of us in that line all heading to Uni that morning...as the day went on I saw all of them at the park!) he put us in a brand new Fiat which was awesome.

But I would have rather gotten to Alamo earlier and received an Escort to get to USH before opening!

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

NO, have breakfast BEFORE 8 AM, get in the car and head north ASAP and get to the park. What I would do is plan for a full day in the park, and then dinner at Universal Citywalk next door. And don't leave until at least 7 PM, if not a bit later to avoid the afternoon/early evening rush hour. This is my normal end of day plan. The 101 going southbound through Hollywood and Downtown LA is known to be bad.

But most of the rush hour traffic will be done by 8 AM, and you are getting into typical all day heavy but moderate traffic, which will take about 90 minutes anytime until about 3 PM, when it gets worse again.

A hint, once you get your rental car, take it east on Katella, then south on Haster a couple of blocks to Gene Autry Way. There is a special carpool entrance to the I-5 there, and places you directly on the left side of the freeway, and stay in the lane until it runs out just past the Orange County border. (One of the reasons you will see construction past the ending is for a new Carpool lane in the area, plus a general widening of the freeway and basic improvements.)

What time would you recommend leaving if we want to be at Park by 9:00? And should we also start at lower level before HP area? Thanks!
Sorry to hijack

 

[Darkbeer1]

OK, you want to be at the Main Gates prior to 9 AM, and as mentioned,theat requires parking the car, walking to the Security Check area (which was recently redone and well laid out, though now larger, but that allows more station for the screening.

So let's say 8 AM getting off the freeway.

So I would look at leaving by 6 AM, and that is with someone that has a live traffic device (GPS/Smartphone App). I prefer the GPS that uses radio waves to get the updates. It doesn't eat my battery up, no big worries about losing the signature/data network, and allows the SmartPhone to be used for other things. (I use TomTom with voice commands that will speak using the actual names of the streets).

Here is something I wrote over at TA earlier this week....

>>OK, plenty of good options of places to eat in/near Universal.

As a regular visitor, let me say what I would do,first make sure you get there early.Take advantage of Early entry, and understand that parking and security check will add to the time you need to get there. There is a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at Universal CityWalk that is good for a light breakfast if you get to the park a bit too early (and that is better than stuck in traffic. Also, the food inside the Theme Park itself is much better than 20 years ago, a lot more variety and much "fresher".

As for visiting the park, my first option is to opt for the VIP Experience, by the time you add a light breakfast, a cruise ship like lunch buffet, valet parking, a front of the line pass plus a much longer and nicer Backlot Tour,it is the way to go.

Second would be getting the Front of the Line pass.

But if you opt for a GA ticket, here are some hints. First off, you will need two days to do all the main features, so decide what is important in Shows and work around those times (You need to usually be in line at least 45 minutes before the posted times, sometimes an hour).

Since it seems everyone heads to Harry Potter first, the best thing to do, go straight to the lower lot and do the following in order, Transformers, Mummy and Jurassic Park. Do anything else you want,as you won't return (it takes a good 15 minutes to go between the Upper and Lower Lot) Take advantage of Single Rider and Child Switch if appropriate all day).

On the way up, check out the wait boards (or install the park app).

At this point, I would head to the Tram Tour if the wait isn't too bad. Save the Wizardly World until late in the day, when the lines tend to be the shortest.

But just make sure you are in line when the shows you want are getting ready to allow guests in (and most have a good pre-show).

As for the drive back, I try and make sure to have a meal at CityWalk and start thinking about getting in the car around 7 PM, never earlier, even weekends.<<

Let me add, grab a ShowTime when entering the park, and check out the specific times they are offered, you need to work those in the schedule and then plan around them (And don't miss out the big three WaterWorld, Special Effects Stage and Animal Actors).







Hope that helps.

 

[soma151]

OK, you want to be at the Main Gates prior to 9 AM, and as mentioned,theat requires parking the car, walking to the Security Check area (which was recently redone and well laid out, though now larger, but that allows more station for the screening.

So let's say 8 AM getting off the freeway.

So I would look at leaving by 6 AM, and that is with someone that has a live traffic device (GPS/Smartphone App). I prefer the GPS that uses radio waves to get the updates. It doesn't eat my battery up, no big worries about losing the signature/data network, and allows the SmartPhone to be used for other things. (I use TomTom with voice commands that will speak using the actual names of the streets).

Here is something I wrote over at TA earlier this week....

>>OK, plenty of good options of places to eat in/near Universal.

As a regular visitor, let me say what I would do,first make sure you get there early.Take advantage of Early entry, and understand that parking and security check will add to the time you need to get there. There is a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at Universal CityWalk that is good for a light breakfast if you get to the park a bit too early (and that is better than stuck in traffic. Also, the food inside the Theme Park itself is much better than 20 years ago, a lot more variety and much "fresher".

As for visiting the park, my first option is to opt for the VIP Experience, by the time you add a light breakfast, a cruise ship like lunch buffet, valet parking, a front of the line pass plus a much longer and nicer Backlot Tour,it is the way to go.

Second would be getting the Front of the Line pass.

But if you opt for a GA ticket, here are some hints. First off, you will need two days to do all the main features, so decide what is important in Shows and work around those times (You need to usually be in line at least 45 minutes before the posted times, sometimes an hour).

Since it seems everyone heads to Harry Potter first, the best thing to do, go straight to the lower lot and do the following in order, Transformers, Mummy and Jurassic Park. Do anything else you want,as you won't return (it takes a good 15 minutes to go between the Upper and Lower Lot) Take advantage of Single Rider and Child Switch if appropriate all day).

On the way up, check out the wait boards (or install the park app).

At this point, I would head to the Tram Tour if the wait isn't too bad. Save the Wizardly World until late in the day, when the lines tend to be the shortest.

But just make sure you are in line when the shows you want are getting ready to allow guests in (and most have a good pre-show).

As for the drive back, I try and make sure to have a meal at CityWalk and start thinking about getting in the car around 7 PM, never earlier, even weekends.<<

Let me add, grab a ShowTime when entering the park, and check out the specific times they are offered, you need to work those in the schedule and then plan around them (And don't miss out the big three WaterWorld, Special Effects Stage and Animal Actors).







Hope that helps.

Thank you so much you have been very helpful. So you really think 2 days is need? do you know if you can upgrade to front of line passes or VIP? Is the $35 parking any better then the $18?

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

Thanks darkbeer. Would your advice be the same if we aren't riding the mummy ride? Makes me nervous to wait for Harry Potter until end of day, that's the main reason we're taking DD and would hate to miss it. 6 am, yikes! Not a morning person

 

[Yukonjack]

We are essentially doing the same thing. I have a rental car reserved with Avis (and if you have Avis Preferred, you just walk up, look for your name on the list, go to your car and drive away). I am picking up our car the day before so we have it and can blast out. For some reason it takes almost as long to rent a car as it does to buy one for Pete's sake!

We have an early entry on the day we are going (Vets day), so we expect it to be busy, but are also planning on leaving at like 5am to get there before early entry begins. Its going to be a long day, but we expected it to be. We will probably stay as late as we can stand it so that we get the most out of our time there. We get to decompress the next day as we are staying at a hotel on the beach at Huntington for two nights

BTW, I was told that we should go directly to HP World to get into Olivander's because that gets busy and stays that way for the day, is that right?

 

[bumbershoot]

do you know if you can upgrade to front of line passes or VIP?

you can upgrade ot those.

A big part of VIP is the breakfast, so you do want to be there EARLY if you're going VIP especially if you're trying to upgrade after you're there.

We added on VIP to our Costco APs while in the park when we visited with DH. It was *almost* worth it. We can be pretty poor tourers at times, some funkiness happened that made the VIP passes not worth it on a couple things, and DH can't go on everything b/c of his size, so that's why it was *almost*. DH feels the upgrade was worth it in every way. So does DS. I'm the holdout.

 

[felice]

You might possibly look at trying Alamo in DTD, around the corner from the Earl of Sandwich. Hardly ever any queues, there may be one other group / person doing the paperwork before collecting their rental car, but apart from that - no worries.

We haven't had to wait too long at this particular office to collect our car, at least. The staff in there are very friendly too

Also, a useful point to note is that on the junction of Katella Av and Haster St, there is a rather useful fuel station, that my wife and I have both use when we've had the need to fill up our rental car with fuel. Prices are good too.

 

[soma151]

You might possibly look at trying Alamo in DTD, around the corner from the Earl of Sandwich. Hardly ever any queues, there may be one other group / person doing the paperwork before collecting their rental car, but apart from that - no worries.

We haven't had to wait too long at this particular office to collect our car, at least. The staff in there are very friendly too

Also, a useful point to note is that on the junction of Katella Av and Haster St, there is a rather useful fuel station, that my wife and I have both use when we've had the need to fill up our rental car with fuel. Prices are good too.

This is so good to hear, this is who we are using due to being able to bring the car back at any time. Thanks for all the tips it chaged my whole game plan.

 

[Catvondita]

We drove there on the 4th of July. My fiancé picked up the rental car in the morning which was around 8:30 and we were on the road at 9AM. We got there much faster than I expected. On the road for a little less than 45 mins.