Brand new here, where to start?

[mom2buzzandbelle]

Hi guys. I posted this on the Disneyland board, but I'll post it here too.

We're planning our trip to CA in May. We have 2 kids, 3 and 4 yrs old. We'll be driving from the midwest to get there. We have a budget of around $1500-$2000, so it needs to be a fairly frugal trip. I'm sure we'll be staying in a hotel off the Disney property. (Any suggestions?)

So what things would you highly reccomend we do while there? Anything you feel is a waste? How many days should we plan on visiting the theme park? Park hopper passes?... Can someone explain those? And what other parks would you reccomend?

 

[S. C.]

WELCOME TO THE DIS.

I've never been to disneyland just WDW. I'm sure someone will be able to help you out.

 

[webprinter]

We purchased the Southern California City Pass in Dec. It gave us 3 days of parkhopping at DL and one day at Sea World, The Wild Animal Park (or the San Diego Zoo), and one day at Knotts Berry Farm. I think it was around $169 or $179 for adults and less for kids. It kept us very busy as we only had 6 days in Anaheim. It saved us a lot in admission costs and we were able to see parks we hadn't seen before. I have older kids and they loved Knotts. My 13 year old daughter liked everything. Debby

 

[Taja]

Budget certainly is a good starting point!

Lodging: Check out the Howard Johnson's and Candy Cane Inn near Disneyland. They are supposed to be within walking distance. I used to live an hour away, so Disneyland was a day trip for us. I'm looking at both of those for a December, 2005 trip. I've heard good things about both of them on these boards.

I think there is a Disneyland forum on these boards--I'm just starting to plan my trip, so I haven't paid too much attention to it. You'll probably get more responses there.

Disneyland and California Adventure with their parking lots will fit into the parking lot at MK in WDW, or so I was told by a CM at WDW in August, 2003. They are much more manageable, so you don't need as many days at the parks. Three days with nap breaks should work well.

A trip to the beach would be terrific. Check out the official website for Santa Barbara and see if you can find a reasonable rate for a night or two there. It's a university town, and quite laid-back compared to Los Angeles.

Knott's Berry Farm is a possibility, particularly if you get the City Pass. This is the first trip that I've had to deal with tourist stuff, so I'm learning along with you! It has Camp Snoopy and some rides for little ones, but I wouldn't buy a separate ticket for it with two preschoolers. I wouldn't recommend Magic Mountain (in Valencia) for preschoolers either, although they used to have an area for little ones. But, if you purchase a City Pass and it's an option without a lot of additional expense, you may want to try it. It's about 1.5 to 2 hours north of Anaheim. Time frames depend on traffic!

You might want to plan a trip to San Diego. Give or take a bit, it's about 1.5 to 2 hours away from Disneyland/Anaheim. There is a lot to do there. The San Diego Zoo (very different from other zoos I've seen) and Sea World to start. LegoLand is in Carlsbad, about 30 minutes north of San Diego. I wouldn't recommend the Wild Animal Park (Escondido) for preschoolers. It isn't frightening, but I don't recall that there is much for little ones to do there. They would enjoy it more when they're around 8 or so.