Anonymous wrote:FYI, the Pacific Coast Highway is still shut down south of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. You can't take it from Santa Barbara to Monterrey. For the reason, I would stay in the LA-San Diego area.
OP, you can get away with just one day at Disneyland. I do agree about staying off-site. Easier and cheaper, and you can just walk up to the front gate. A wildly different experience than Disney World!
With the caveat that who knows what national parks will look like in April, Channel Islands and Joshua Tree are the closest ones to the LA-SD area.
You can take it to Pismo and then cut up 101 to Monterrey. It's not bad at all. Just whatever you do even if it's technically faster take do not take 5. Unless you want to be frantically searching for the one stop for a bathroom break.