Driving down from Nor Cal at Night

[mickey+minnie91]

How bad will it be to drive down to Anaheim at night? About when does the fog roll in? I was thinking about driving down the night before rather than drive down early in the am so we got an extra day in a way. Your thoughts?

 

[merrrydeath]

This is exactly what we will be doing so I'll be curious as to other's opinions as well.

 

[samkj]

Thats actually the best option. The fog doesn't usually come in till morning, so leaving at night it shouldn't be a problem. We drive from Sacramento to SD every December and we try to leave late afternoon-evening in order to avoid the morning fog in the valley.

 

[disney4cam]

I registered just to answer this.

We come from Sacramento, too, and we always leave around 4-4:30am. We always go the week after Thanksgiving, and I've never seen any fog. We arrive at around 11:30, so that's basically a full day in the park.

I think if I drove all night long, I'd be too wiped out to spend the day in the park, especially since you can't get into your hotel until 3pm.

 

[Jenn1116]

Sounds like a great plan to me! Planning to make next Oct trip at night. We've always gone in the early am. But I guess either way, we don't have to worry about fog in oct. I have to travel the dreaded hwy 12 between Suisun and Stockton so I know how important it is to plan for fog, even with the new barriers.

Another plus of night driving, at least for me is that the time seems to go faster, and I make less stops along the way. Maybe that will make a difference for you too?

 

[Jenn1116]

I registered just to answer this.

Welcome!!!!

 

[disney4cam]

Welcome!!!!

Thanks!

 

[DTDkettleCORNfan]

I registered just to answer this.

We come from Sacramento, too, and we always leave around 4-4:30am. We always go the week after Thanksgiving

Hey there disney4cam. We also drive from Sacramento, and always go the week after Thanksgiving too. Its such a great week! But its always been in November on our previous trips, so I'm curious how it falling in December will change things this year. Hopefully it will be just as wonderful as always. Welcome to these boards.....they are super helpful!

 

[pixiewings71]

We drive at night almost all the time. No worries about fog when we drive and we always book our hotel for that night so we can check in when we get there. I do the Hwy 12 stretch that Jenn mentioned above, that's the only place we really hit fog, occasionally thru the Grapevine if it's really cold out but not often. We like driving at night, the girls sleep and there is less traffic. DBF and I get to talk about things and we enjoy the quiet time.

 

[silence]

Our EASIEST drive (until last week....) was leaving Sacramento at around 6PM. We hit NO traffic and breazed right into Anaheim. Kids didn't sleep as much as I had hoped, but it was a great drive down.

Last week, we drove to Long Beach on Thursday. Left Sacramento at 11:30am. Now, we hit the 405 at like 5:30 and I was bracing for the worst. We got checked into our hotel in Long Beach at 6:32PM. I am still in shock at how awesome that drive was!

 

[Matterhorn Eric]

We usually leave the south bay around 5 am or so, and get to candy cane inn around 11:30 or noon. Pretty easy drive. Occasionally we get caught up in LA, but it usually depends on what day we head down.

 

[Katiebell]

This December we are trying a slightly different plan: getting off work early Thursday, napping for the afternoon and evening, leaving the Sacramento area a little before midnight, and hopefully will be in Anaheim about 6:30-7:00 am Friday. Grab some breakfast and hit the park when it opens. Should be able to make it through the day with sufficient coffee, then will probably go to bed on the early side that night. Gonna try it and see how that goes, hopefully traffic will be almost non-existent.

 

[Matterhorn Eric]

This December we are trying a slightly different plan: getting off work early Thursday, napping for the afternoon and evening, leaving the Sacramento area a little before midnight, and hopefully will be in Anaheim about 6:30-7:00 am Friday. Grab some breakfast and hit the park when it opens. Should be able to make it through the day with sufficient coffee, then will probably go to bed on the early side that night. Gonna try it and see how that goes, hopefully traffic will be almost non-existent.

let us know how that works out, maybe my gf and I will try something similar