Aug 09 trip, would like some suggestions

[Ed J]

Been to WDW a bunch of times love it.

I have a work thing for So Ca.Edison in Irwindale coming up in Aug. Mon to Wed. Plan is to have DW, DD DN (niece) meet me at the hotel wed. Head to DL for a few days.

I'm looking for a free hotel (have over 200K priority club points) so I'm asking what Crowne Plaza or Holiday Inn is the best choice for DL?

How many days should we set aside for DL?

We will have a car, but is leaving it at the hotel and grabbing a cab easier?

Other stuff to do? DD says SD zoo, good choice? We're flying in & out of LAX if that makes any difference.

I'm open for naything, looks like we're flying home on Monday so we have 4 full days with maybe half a day on Wed.

What would you do or have you done with a similar time frame?

[DLR29]

Not sure about hotels because the general consensus is that you should stay at a hotel within walking distance and there are no Crowne Plaza or Holiday Inns that close. I don't think there are any Crowne Plaza's nearby, but there is a Holiday Inn relatively close, but I would never walk that distance.

For a complete DL experience, I would set aside at least 3 days to see most of the major highlights and fun stuff.

Parking is $12 I think, so if you can get a cab for like $6 one way, it might be better. Plus, the parking structure can be a little crazy, especially at opening. You might want to see if the hotel has a shuttle. According to the AAA book, that Holiday Inn does have a shuttle to the DLR. Once at the DLR all you need is your feet to walk. The parks are within a 3 minute walk from entrance gate to entrance gate, and Downtown Disney is also.

As for other stuff, you might want to check out the So. Cal CityPass, if your DD is thinking of the Zoo. It gets you 3 days of DLR, 1 day at Universal Studios, 1 day at Seaworld, and 1 day at the zoo or the wild animal park. Now if this seems like too much for 4-5 days, then you might want to consider buying tickets separately. But if you want a small taste of everything (you will not see everything because all of those parks are huge), then you might want to consider the Citypass.

The zoo is really nice, but very big and it takes a full day to really see it all, especially with the new exhibit that is opening up this year (May I believe). Seaworld is great if you like to get wet. The Shamu show is fun and there's enough to spend a whole day there too with all of the exhibits and some rides. I've never been to Universal Studios, but from what it looks, it seems as though it wouldn't take as long to see the highlights.

[Ed J]

Thank you for the info , we're looking into staying on site after your post and other reading we have been doing.