Driving from Winnipeg to SoCal with Kids - Any Advice?

[flyingjay]

Has anyone driven to Disneyland from the prairies before? We are planning on doing the drive with our four kids after Christmas. Ages are 9, 7, 5, and 1 year old.

I'm specifically wondering...

• Route recommendations? Because it's winter, I'd like to keep it on four lane if possible.
• Any stops to make on the way? Activities? We don't mind going to an awesome museum or something for a day to break the trip up. I really wanted to do yellowstone/Old Faithful until I found out the roads are only open to snow vehicles in winter (boo!)
• How would you break up the driving? Two days? Three days?
• Any tips on booking hotels on the way down? Should I do this well in advance or take my chances doing last minute on expedia/priceline/hotwire?
• Any tips for keeping the kids entertained on the way down? We have tons of DVD's and are able to setup our WiiU in the van...the kids are excited about that. But any other suggestions are appreciated.

 

[TammyLynn33]

Has anyone driven to Disneyland from the prairies before? We are planning on doing the drive with our four kids after Christmas. Ages are 9, 7, 5, and 1 year old.

I'm specifically wondering...

• Route recommendations? Because it's winter, I'd like to keep it on four lane if possible.
• Any stops to make on the way? Activities? We don't mind going to an awesome museum or something for a day to break the trip up. I really wanted to do yellowstone/Old Faithful until I found out the roads are only open to snow vehicles in winter (boo!)
• How would you break up the driving? Two days? Three days?
• Any tips on booking hotels on the way down? Should I do this well in advance or take my chances doing last minute on expedia/priceline/hotwire?
• Any tips for keeping the kids entertained on the way down? We have tons of DVD's and are able to setup our WiiU in the van...the kids are excited about that. But any other suggestions are appreciated.

I have no clue but God bless you for even attempting I’m not much of a driver I have about a 3 hour limit and being single mama to 4 we fly outta necessity . Pls keep us updated . DL is incredible . Big kid and i did it this summer .

 

[jcourtney]

Following! I'm from Regina and have wanted to make this drive for years but my husband is reluctant. I'm watching to see if anyone has any good advice for you

 

[flyingjay]

Thanks @TammyLynn33 We have done the trip to Jasper a few times with the kids (not the one year old) and they handle it pretty well. So it certainly won't be their first long road trip. But we are certainly more nervous about how the one year old will handle being in a vehicle that long.

I have family in the Anaheim area who let us stay with them, so we go to DLR regularly. But we've never driven down. DW is on mat leave so we want to take our time and have our own vehicle while we're down there. I'm hoping someone will have some experience to share with us. But I realize it's not something that many people do. I may have to be the first and report how it went once we get back.

 

[isabellea]

No experience with this specific drive since we live in Montreal but we drive to FL every year. It's a 21-25h drive (up to 30h with stops) depending on where we go. First time we did it was when my youngest was less than 2 yo. She had zero interest in movies or tv shows so I was worried. At the end, she was very good. In fact, it was probably easier than now because she slept most of the way since we tried to drive during her naps and overnight as much as possible. Her favourite toys to keep her entertained were Mega Blocks, her baby doll and a cookie sheet with homemade Disney magnets. Now that they are older, they only need their iPad.

When we go on a road trip in the USA we always use the app The Next Exit to decide where to stop for breaks, meals and hotels (if we stop for the night). I like this particular app because it's very user friendly and doesn't take any data. It is very plain but I don't mind. Now that we have data with Roam mobility when driving down to FL but even with data available I still use The Next Exit.
https://thenextexit.com

 

[DLfan4]

We drove from Winnipeg to Disneyland back in Christmas 2018.
You can view my trip report here
https://www.disboards.com/threads/c...-it-to-have-a-great-time-trip-report.3728523/

 

[FigmentSpark]

After Xmas? Through the Badlands? Hopefully, you'll have good weather.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

“Hey kids, finish your juice and then we’ll get in the car. Not sure what you mean by ‘the juice tastes funny’. It’s a new juice that I created for you myself. I call it ‘NyQuil and Scotch’. See you in three days...”

 

[Sue M]

Good luck to you! I don’t even like driving from Vancouver to Seattle in winter. A 3 hr drive! And usually don’t. But last January I did, Against my better judgment, not being able to resist a really cheap flight. On the way home got caught in a storm.
It was amazing how quickly the snow covered the road, blowing snow, poor visibility, I-5 went to a crawl. Scared stiff watching the car in front of me swerving all over the place. Have to worry about what kind of tires others have.

 

[flyingjay]

So...we did it. We were gone Dec. 30-Jan. 17. I should probably do a trip-report but I don't have the time right now. But I can give a few highlights.

• On the way down we stopped in Rapid City, Denver (saw the Jets play), Vegas, and then Cali.
• On the way home we stopped in Vegas and Rapid City.
• Did the Black Hills and there were literally two other people (other than park rangers) there the entire time.
• The Waitiki Waterpark in Rapid City was super fun for the kids. We stayed there two nights on our way home.
• Kids had a blast in Vegas. Stayed there four nights on the way down and three on the way home.
• Stayed at the Cortona in Anaheim. Nice place. Reasonably priced. They had a Canadian discount. Basically was just a spot for us to sleep while we went to Disney pretty much every day.
• DVD's were a lifesaver. Kids would know how much driving they had left in the day by the number of movies they had to go through. Kids played the WiiU once and didn't play again. I won't be bothering with vids again unless I buy them a switch.
• Cali hotel was booked in advance through Cortona website. Stayed at the Wynn in Vegas through their slots app. The other hotels on our route were all booked through hotwire. We were very pleased with the deals we got. Many were less than $40/night and were good hotels!
• Winter tires were a lifesaver. The road after Denver (on the way to Vegas) was insane for around four hours. Passing lane had three inches of snow with no ruts. Main lane had ruts. I was mentally exhausted after driving that stretch. Utah was 80 MPH for pretty much the entire state!
• The winds of Wyoming are no joke.
• DW was pretty sick for the first week and a half which sucked. The minute clinic in CVS was awesome though. Way cheaper than I expected. She got better within a couple days. It was respiratory related. Wish I took her to the clinic sooner.
• We had an amazing trip! Definitely looking to repeat it again next year. We may try Florida instead...but we just love love love our trips to SoCal. We have lots of time to decide

 

[isabellea]

Sounds like a fun road trip!

 

[DLfan4]

Sounds like a fun trip.

 

[StarWarsNerd24]

We did it years ago from Edmonton. Our kids were 7 and 4 at the time. Glad we did it once but never again. There are lost of interesting sites and things to do along the way but it was not a fun drive by any stretch of the imagination. I vowed never to drive in LA ever again because of that trip.

 

[mousetrailer]

We did it years ago from Edmonton. Our kids were 7 and 4 at the time. Glad we did it once but never again. There are lost of interesting sites and things to do along the way but it was not a fun drive by any stretch of the imagination. I vowed never to drive in LA ever again because of that trip.

Can you expand more on this? We were going to do this drive this summer (pre covid). My kids are 6 and 10 right now. It was going to be an epic 2 week road trip but I’ve never done something like this with kids before. What was bad about LA traffic?

 

[isabellea]

We went to LA and did a short South California road trip 2 years ago and while LA traffic was bad, we didn't find it to be worst than Montreal and Toronto traffic at rush hour. More impressive yes but not worst imo. If you mentally prepare yourself for it, it's really not that bad.

 

[flyingjay]

Can you expand more on this? We were going to do this drive this summer (pre covid). My kids are 6 and 10 right now. It was going to be an epic 2 week road trip but I’ve never done something like this with kids before. What was bad about LA traffic?

LA traffic definitely sucks, but whenever we had to actually go somewhere (for us it was usually to San Diego) we would plan the drive around their rush hour. If you're staying near Disney or Knotts, the traffic really isn't too bad. My Aunt lives near Fullerton and the drive to Disney ranged from 12-25 minutes depending on traffic. 90% of the time it was 15 minutes to the Toy Story parking lot.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I'd go the south route through Denver, west on the 70, then through Las Vegas. Reason being, Colorado west of Denver and especially through Glenwood Canyon and pretty much all of Utah is GORGEOUS going that way. Be prepared for a really dull time all the way to Denver. I'd even consider driving through Nebraska and Eastern Colorado at night just to muscle through it. St. George Utah is a great place to stop. I detest Las Vegas - I woudn't stop in Las Vegas (detour and drive the strip if you must) and definitely don't drive Las Vegas to Baker CA on a Sunday night. Gamblers returning from Las Vegas - don't get me started.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Can you expand more on this? We were going to do this drive this summer (pre covid). My kids are 6 and 10 right now. It was going to be an epic 2 week road trip but I’ve never done something like this with kids before. What was bad about LA traffic?

I wouldn't sweat LA (So Cal) traffic. It's intimidating but there are far worse places to drive. If the final destination is Disneyland you won't even see the worst of it in downtown LA. Just use WAZE as soon as you start hitting traffic - it works really well here.

 

[Kaadk]

We did it years ago from Edmonton. Our kids were 7 and 4 at the time. Glad we did it once but never again. There are lost of interesting sites and things to do along the way but it was not a fun drive by any stretch of the imagination. I vowed never to drive in LA ever again because of that trip.

Can you expand more on this? We were going to do this drive this summer (pre covid). My kids are 6 and 10 right now. It was going to be an epic 2 week road trip but I’ve never done something like this with kids before. What was bad about LA traffic?

We went to LA and did a short South California road trip 2 years ago and while LA traffic was bad, we didn't find it to be worst than Montreal and Toronto traffic at rush hour. More impressive yes but not worst imo. If you mentally prepare yourself for it, it's really not that bad.

LA traffic definitely sucks, but whenever we had to actually go somewhere (for us it was usually to San Diego) we would plan the drive around their rush hour. If you're staying near Disney or Knotts, the traffic really isn't too bad. My Aunt lives near Fullerton and the drive to Disney ranged from 12-25 minutes depending on traffic. 90% of the time it was 15 minutes to the Toy Story parking lot.

Not relevant to the original topic, but when we did DL, I just booked a shuttle to the hotel from LAX (and that took a while to find one that didn't require us to bring car seats with us). I choose the shuttle route because I had been in LA previously to a head to a client site (actually in Pasadena), and had to take a rental car to get there. I've been in Toronto traffic, I've been in NY traffic, I've been in a Detroit Traffic, Chicago traffic, Atlanta traffic... I've driven on the AutoBahn. I've driving in Paris. Nothing scared me more than LA traffic. The problem might have been that I wasn't driving during rush hour, but at the time I drove there, I encountered very unsafe driving on the highways. The speed limit was 55 if I remember correctly, and the traffic was doing either 20 or 80. I can handle everybody moving fast, I can handle everybody moving slow. I can't handle extremely fast people weaving in and out of extremely slow people. It's a way too dangerous set of conditions.

Mind you this was in say, '09 or '10, (don't remember the exact year) and things may have changed by now, but I'd still be avoiding driving in LA if I can avoid it.