American Girl

[jasper12]

Hello,

We will be going to DL in November and really want to take a day trip to the American Girl store. Needing suggestions on the best way to get there.

Tour company
Renting a car
Hiring a taxi

Our ideal situation would be to go with a tour company but I`m not really having any luck finding one that could pick us up at our DL hotel and take us to the AG store.

How many hours will we need in the store? This will be our first big trip in over 10 years and our first trip as a family! Looking forward to making memories!

We will be happy to hear some suggestions.

Jasper

 

[SailorsWife]

I drove last time I was there. The mall (The Grove) AG is located in has a huge parking garage, so that won't be an issue. Look online for driving directions and have a good navigator with you. But I-5 north to 101 north and then off onto surface streets. If you are use to driving in a city , no problem. If you are not, this will be stressful. So then it becomes what is cost effective vs. your mental health. Taxi to and from the Disney area resorts to LA will not be cheap. It's about a 45 minute to an hour drive (traffic). 35 miles if you don't get taken some long about way. I don't know of any tour that goes from Disney to this area in LA. But keep looking, just because I don't know doesn't mean it's not out there.

As for time spent there. I had lunch and shopped. We were there for about 3 hours. Less without lunch, more if you want to wander the mall too. Let's see. The store is two stories with the restaurant upstairs. If you want to do the lunch, reservations are a must. Food is pretty good for what you get. But you are paying for the experience too, so the price is a bit high in my mind. I suggest having in mind what you are shopping for because it's tempting to buy a lot. The Bitty Baby has it's own section. Then the historical doll and the just like me section too. There is a picture studio for the girls to have a photo shoot with their dolls. A hair salon for the dolls too. You can look at prices online. Downstairs is the Doll of the Year and all her stuff and the bookstore. Explore the link below.

http://www.americangirl.com/stores/location_la.php

It a fun afternoon. Done it once for my older girl when she was in 1st grade. Perfect for her. My 3 year old was a bit overwhelmed by it all and I plan on going back once for my younger girl when she is older. But I wouldn't plan this being an entire day.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

If you are comfortable driving then I would probably just rent a car from Alamo...they have a location in DTD right by the DL hotel. We want to see Hollywood so I rented a car from them for one day in November for $35.

 

[ConnieB]

You might call the AG store and ask them if there are any tours that come to their store. Most times tour buses make arrangements with stores because they're going to be dropping off a large crowd. I know when I used to arrange trips for our quilt group the tour bus company needed to know ahead of time where we were going to be stopping for meals, shopping, everything so that they could arrange it with the stores.

LA traffic can be a big daunting if you're not used to very heavy traffic and the freeway system is one of the most complicated in the nation, so if you're not familiar with it be sure to either have an adult that is good at reading maps or a GPS....most car rental places will rent you one with your car (look around onlilne because free GPS is often one of those incentives they have codes for). Driving in California is not like driving anywhere, except maybe NYC.