What time of day to leave?
This is what I'm debating and I need some opinions! The kids are going to miss 1.5-2 days of school for this trip. Normally, we NEVER take them out of school for a vacation. But we planned this trip when the kids were in a different school district and we switched schools part way through this school year. So now what WOULD have been their spring break at the old school is actually the week AFTER spring break at the NEW school. Ack! And because of my sister's overseas flight and HER trip planning stuff, we couldn't really move the dates.
So here are the options...
I'm trying to avoid hitting afternoon/evening rush hour traffic once we get to the Rancho Cucamonga area. I've run a couple of different options in Google Maps and here's what it looks like:
OPTION 1:
Leave Phoenix 8:30 am
Arrive @ DLH by 3:40 pm.
- Google Maps says it'll take 5-7 hr to drive this. I think that 7 hr is definitely on the long side. If it's ~ 5.5 hours like I think it is, if you factor in 30 min for bathroom breaks, we'd get there around 2pm.
- In this option, the kids skip all of Thursday for school and they do homework in the car on the way to DL.
- My sister has authorized DH & I on the reservation to be able to check in without her.
OPTION #2:
Kids go to school for the morning. DH & I pick up the rental car when it opens at 8 am. We pack up the car, have a nice leisurely grown-ups only breakfast without children, and then we pick them up at 11:00 am and hit the road.
Leave Phoenix 11:15 am
Arrive DLH by 6:35 pm.
- Google Maps says this will take 5 hr, 20 min to 7 hr, 20 min. I think that with the traffic in east LA/Orange County, 6:35 arrival time is probably accurate? What do you think?
- And again, the kids will do any homework in the long car ride to Anaheim.
I'm leaning towards doing Option #1 so the kids will have time to swim the awesome DLH pool during the late afternoon. The last time we stayed at the DLH, the kids were only 4 and 6 years old and not old enough to go on the water slides. Now they're definitely big enough and they can't wait to try out the water slides!
Plus, we have reservations at 7 pm for the 4 of us to do The Void's VR Star Wars experience in DTD! DH doesn't know about this. It's a surprise. He's a huge gamer guy and I know that he'd love it. The kids are both old enough and meet the height/weight requirements in order to do it.
So I want us to have enough time to settle in at the hotel, relax a bit, have dinner, etc. before we do the VR thing!