Are these all day parks?

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Will be traveling with a 3 and 6 year old. Are these parks places that we would stay the whole day at?

Wild Animal Park
Zoo
Sea World
Universal

Does anyone know of a hotel in the S.D area that would work for the first 3 locations?

 

[BC Disney Lover]

My Dh and I took our 3 kids, 7,3,2 as well as my brother and sister 14,15 to Sea World and the Zoo. Both parks we were there open to close and I don't think we say everything but didn't feel the need for another day at either. I stayed at the hotel with the 2 youngest while everyone went to Universal but my 7 yr old liked it.

Have fun!

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Thank you!

 

[Monkey Monkey]

You could spend a whole day at the zoo and WAP, but probably wouldn't. The area around the zoo, Balboa Park, is an amazing place and is a great way to spend a day and go to museums, and you could leave your car at the zoo while you explore Balboa Park.

SeaWorld however, you easily could spend a whole day there and want to, as there are shows and exhibits.

I would recommend Hotel Circle in Mission Valley for a reasonably-priced hotel that is convenient to the zoo and SeaWorld. The WAP is about 30 minutes from there.

 

[annacali]

My two girls are also 3 and 6 and could easily spend a week at Sea World and not get bored. We love the place! Haven't been to the Wild Animal park but the zoo for us has been a 4 hour tops outing each time we have gone. My six year old loses interest way too fast when there is that amount of walking in between animals. Usually by the 3-4 hour mark she is just done. My three year old could sit and watch one animal all day though, so if your kids are like that then the zoo could easily be an all day event because the animals you do see you get to see really amazingly up close.

 

[mattb65]

I dont think SeaWorld is an all day park at all, you can see everything pretty quickly in my opinion.

 

[Monkey Monkey]

I dont think SeaWorld is an all day park at all, you can see everything pretty quickly in my opinion.

Sure, the exhibits don't take long to see, but if you go to most of or all of the shows, it could easily take a majority of the day. Some people like to go on the rides more than once as well. And with smaller children who may want to spend some time in the Bay of Play, planning on a whole day at SeaWorld is a good idea.

 

[soulbazooka]

I dont think SeaWorld is an all day park at all, you can see everything pretty quickly in my opinion.

It probably depends upon the season you visit and the level of time you spend doing shows vs. riding attractions. During off times with guests who have a narrow focus, we've gotten in and out in about 6 hours. Other times we've actually spent a day and a half.

 

[tonaly]

Our kids are 7, almost 6, and almost 4. We live in Southern California, so we've been to all 3 of the San Diego parks several times. We could easily spend 4-6 hours at the zoo, I HIGHLY recommend doing a kangaroo hopper bus pass - you can ride the bus all over the park and there are 8 stops that you can hop on and off as you want. The zoo is very hilly, lots of walking. Balboa Park has lots of great museums, you could do the zoo & a museum in the same day. The Space museum is a lot of fun for kids.

The Wild Animal Park is in north San Diego, and it is where we go the most since it is a closer drive for us. It's much more spread out than the zoo - lots of open space for the animals to roam. Again I'd say 4-6 hours is reasonable if you do the tram ride (the best way to see the most animals). You could spend longer there if you like to walk a lot. It is hotter up here, so depending on when you travel figure it'll be 10-20 degrees hotter than the zoo or sea world.

IMO, Sea World is a PACKED day, especially if you ride the rides AND watch shows. We could easily spend 6-10 hours there.

We haven't done Universal with kids, I'd say it would be a fairly full day. There is the City Walk mall right outside it if you want to add shopping on to your day.

For San Diego hotels, Mission Valley area is probably the most central, and there are 2 huge malls there (Fashion Valley is great). You could stay downtown, but it's a little harder to negotiate and the hotels are probably a bit more expensive.

HTH!!

Alyson