Hey Utah DISers! How long does it take to get to DL from American Fork?

[colbybug]

We have ALWAYS flown....unfortunately, we must drive if we want to go there this summer.....but it might just kill us. Seriously, we have a 7 yr old boy that has no attention span and can't sit still. He thinks the hour flight to Long Beach is "WAY TOO LONG" and "boring" How can he be bored on Jet Blue? He has a TV, music, a Nintendo, etc!!!

The longest he has been in a car is about two hours. For us, it's a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that we decided to buy AP's for Christmas. The bad news is that my hubby was laid off two months later....so we must drive. We did just score the $59Entertainment Rate at the HoJo's however!!! And, we have Disney dollars from our Disney Visa that will feed us (mostly). So now I am trying to mentally plan how to get us there....in one piece....without harming the 'lil guy. Just how long is the drive??? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Kathy

P.S. I think we are going to try and break the trip up by either staying in St. George overnight or perhaps Las Vegas (I have a brother there who may let us crash there for the night).

 

[disneyfanzz]

Our kids are 8 and 12 and have we have driven to Disneyland at least once a year since they were babies. It is a 10 hour drive from Salt Lake - with stops we plan on 11-12 hours. We like to leave at 4 AM and have breakfast in St. George around 8 AM. Sometimes the kids actually sleep until 8. We then drive the next 7 hours only stopping a few times at rest stops and a quick lunch. With the time change we usually are in Anaheim by 2 or 3.

With our annual passes we just want to get their as soon as possible. I would hate to stay a night in St. George or Las Vegas when we could be at Disneyland. We have left at 4 AM before and we were in line to ride The Matterhorn at 3:30 PM. Get a DVD player and some movies. Five 2 hour movies and you're there.

Have a good time!

 

[shishigirl]

Dont you love annual passes! We upgraded to them last oct over uea and have used them 4 times since(and people thought we would never use them!)!!! Love them! We are about an hour north of you and mapquest and GPS have it at 11 hours, but we have two little ones 3 and 4 and it usually takes us about 12 1/2-13 hours (we move SLOW at potty and eating stops!!) If you can break it into two days, I would do it! We have stayed in st george at the new la Quinta inn (right of the freeway) and it is really nice and not to expensive(though not sure with the Tuacun Theater running in the summer if the prices jump). We have also stayed in Henderson, right outside of Las Vegas, and have liked that too. Good luck on the drive and have fun when you go!!

 

[disneyfanzz]

Shishigirl,
Where do you stay in Henderson? On our next trip we are thinking of going to the parks until noon or 1:00 and then heading home. We might need a spot to stay overnight.

 

[wendithepooh]

I am in Cache County so we have a 12 hour drive. We usually stay in St George to split it up. Depending on when we can get away, we will also stay in Vegas (the Orleans) or we will stay in Primm, Nv. We also have annual passes. It is our 2 time having them. They are awesome and it is also nice to brag-haha. I have a DD8 that is fine when we drive. We buy a bunch of stuff at the dollar store and put them in a disney bag of some sort. We don't let her see what is in there and she is so excited. She keeps herself occupied pretty well. She has a DS and watches movies too.

We also stop at the Disney Character Warehouse in Vegas to break it up as well.

HTH.

 

[shishigirl]

We stayed in the Hawthorne Inn and Suites in Henderson. We have stayed there twice thru hotwire and priceline and have enjoyed it. No bells and whistles, but its clean, good pool, and has a great breakfast. It is NOT right off of 1-15, so you do backtrack a bit. We liked not being right on the strip though. We are going in June and booked the Wingate by Wynham thru hotwire for $39.00 for our overnight stay on a sat night. Looks like it got pretty good reviews on Tripadvisor and not so far off I-15. There is a website betterbidding.com that helps with placing bids on hotwire and priceline that has helped get us great rates around vegas on the weekends. Also, I agree with wendithepooh...stop at the disney outlet stores on the way down. We have done the disney store outlet and loved it. We are going to try the Disney character warehouse this time as I heard there is more actual Disneyland items vs. Disney Store items. Sorry to ramble...have fun!

 

[Brady's Mom]

We are in Orem and drive with a 4 yr. old, 7 yr. old and 12 yr. old. Our first trip was when our youngest was 2. That was not an easy drive. We have 2 separate portable DVD players so older and younger do not have to watch the same movies. Our older kids read and the youngest gets sort of bored and whiny. Legos work for him and so do small cars - he has a good imagination. I have all boys, so they are not always into coloring quietly. I haven't had one that really likes to color at all.

It takes us about 10 hours and we have done straight through and also stopped in Vegas. I like driving straight through on the way there, since we have AP's and we can use them as soon as we get there. And since we are usually wiped out on the drive home - I like to stop and stay the night somewhere in the middle. This way we can even get in a few hours of DLR before we have to drive in the car, and we might hit a few favorites.

We like to leave VERY early in the morning (4 or 4:30) - but my boys don't want to wait for breakfast in St. George, so we usually have something we can eat in the car. And they NEVER fall back to sleep in the morning, but will sometimes doze in the afternoon before we get to DLR.

Good luck with your trip and hope your drive is good.

 

[Mugglemama]

just make sure to make ressies somewhere if you're going to stay in st. george....sometimes they have car shows and such in the area, and all the rooms in all surrounding towns fill up FAST.

we had stayed in st. george a couple of times (we live in boise), and because it was such a small, quiet town we never thought we'd need reservations. then the last time we tried to stay there, on our way home from DLR, we couldn't find a room ANYWHERE. by the time we found a room, i kid you not, we were in beaver!!! 4 kids in the car and with all the stops in various towns, it took us something like 2 or 3 hours to finally find a hotel room. NO FUN.

so, just be sure to get your room before you go!

 

[UtahDisneyFan]

We LOVE going to Disneyland. We do it at least once a year. We always leave when husband gets off work and drive to Primm, NV and stay at Buffalo Bills. We don't usually get there until 11 at night. Then we get up around 5 and we can spend a full day at Disneyland that day. Last time we went, we got a $5 hotel room (can't beat that). On the way home, our two little kids (6, and 4) are so tired they sleep the entire way back.

 

[imjen]

Wow, UtahDisneyFan, that is a cheap rate. I like the idea of driving down in the evening and staying over. How did you get such a great deal on the hotel? What's the hotel like as far as quality goes? I'm driving down from Provo this summer and haven't done the drive in a few years. I was just thinking of leaving early in the morning and driving straight through, but this sounds better. Does anyone know when traffic starts getting bad in the LA area on a weekday in the afternoon?

 

[colbybug]

Thanks for all of your replies!! We still haven't decided if we are willing to be captive in a car with our little Tasmanian devil....but I appreciate all of you sharing your experience and suggestions! Keep 'em coming!

Kathy

 

[fronkfam]

We are in Orem. Our kids are 12,9,6,2. The first time we drove to Disney, we stayed over in St. George, the second time we drove we stayed in Vegas. We much prefer staying in Vegas. It made for a shorter day of driving before Disney. We couldn't do the whole trip in one day because one of our sons has disabilities and can't do that much time in the car, so this is a good way for us to do it. Our van is always bursting with stuff for everyone to do!
Hope you have a blast!!

 

[UtahDisneyFan]

Wow, UtahDisneyFan, that is a cheap rate. I like the idea of driving down in the evening and staying over. How did you get such a great deal on the hotel? What's the hotel like as far as quality goes? I'm driving down from Provo this summer and haven't done the drive in a few years. I was just thinking of leaving early in the morning and driving straight through, but this sounds better. Does anyone know when traffic starts getting bad in the LA area on a weekday in the afternoon?

I just went to expedia and they had the cheapest rate. I didn't expect much from the hotel. The beds aren't too comfy, but for $5, I didn't complain. It was fine for crashing at night and getting up early the next morning. For the drive down, we just stayed in the carpool lane almost the entire way and zoomed right past rush hour traffic.

 

[clb79]

We usually try to drive the entire way from Northern Utah County. We leave in the late afteroon or early evening. We usually get dinner in Beaver or St. George depending on how late we left home. The combination of it getting dark outside and there being nothing to see out the windows usually puts the kids to sleep within an hour or two after dinner and they sleep the rest of the night (except for a few potty breaks along the way, but they fall right back asleep) and they wake up in the morning just as we start to renenter the more populated part of the drive for breakfast in Barstow or Victorville. St George isn't even half way so its almost doesn't even feel like it breaks the trip up for us.

If either of us, especially me (as the primary driver) feel too tired before we leave, or we get delayed leaving we will jump onto Hotwire or Priceline and book a room in Vegas, literally 5 minutes before we leave. WE have got steals at nice prominent locations on the strip for around 25-40 bucks. That becomes our backup plan, if we get to Vegas and are tired we have a place to stay, if we are still feeling good enough to keep going then we are only out the 25 bucks and we keep on driving.

Here is a list of other pros that we have for staying in Vegas over St George:

Don't have to worry about potential delays in the canyon when passing from Utah through AZ (we have got stuck due to accidents and/or construction, not a good way to start the "2nd half of the trip"

Don't have to worry about navigating all the way across Vegas in morning traffic.

You get a longer block behind you the first part of the trip. (I always prefer when I am in control of splitting something like a drive or work shift to get the bigger chunk taken care of before I take a break)

Hope that helps.