Disneyland/San Diego trip...need help!

[pmaurer74]

Hello,

WDW native here going to Disneyland this summer. We have the Grand California booked for June 3-9. I was taking of shaving off a day and spending more time in San Diego. I have some questions about hotels and transportation. Here is my itinerary:

June 3 - travel day
June 4- Disneyland
June 5 - Disneyland
June 6 - Disneyland
June 7 - beach day (Newport, Huntington or Laguna)
June 8 - travel day (maybe go to Legoland on the way down?)
June 9 - Sea World
June 10 - Sand Diego Zoo
June 11 - fly out of San Diego

Airports:
I will be buying airfare likely when it come out next week.
- would it be better to fly nonstop into LAX or a nonstop route into orange county. It would cost likely $60 more per person to fly into Orange county but I have two kids ages 7 and 10 and DH says Orange county airport is much easier to get around.
- Flying out of San Diego seems to be about the same price as Orange county airport

California City pass:
We are getting the Southern California City Pass and adding on the zoo. Is this the best way to go? We do have AAA. Are there black out dates?
- is Legoland worth stopping by for a few hours on the way down to San Diego?

Transportation:
We are terrified of driving and have heard bad things. Thinking of renting a car from Downtown Disney on June 8 and driving to the beach and San Diego the next day. The resorts charge for parking and so do the theme parks. Would it be better to get a taxi?

Sand Diego Resorts:
The resorts I am looking into are near Sea World at Mission Bay: Hyatt, Hilton, Best Western and Wyndham.... does anyone have any recommendations about this? Do you have any other recommendations to make?

Thanks!

 

[PHXscuba]

Legoland is pretty big and expensive to "stop by for a few hours." Your kids are the perfect ages for Legoland IMO. If you can commit to getting up early and being there near open, you can do most of the park from about 10-5 to make it worth doing. Watch for BOGO tickets to get the kids in free.

Flying into Orange County is much, much simpler than LAX if you aren't doing anything up in the LA area. You will shave off more than an hour of traveling that first day not dealing with getting out of LA. If you are arriving early enough in the day, it might even give you back that first evening at Disneyland if you are wanting to go to San Diego sooner.

I don't know whether getting the CityPass is always the best, price-wise. When I priced out everything we wanted to do (including any AAA, discounts, coupons) etc., it seemed to only make sense when we were squeezing in more than one activity per day. My kids were young enough that I didn't see us doing so much, and I felt better about paying as we went in case bad weather, sickness, etc. kept us from the full schedule we had planned. It's enough money total either way that I'd go to the trouble of doing a spreadsheet of activities and prices.

I found the San Diego section of the Trip Advisor forums to be a great resource for discounts/suggestions in that area.

PHXscuba

 

[SMD]

Go to the beach in San Diego. You have 7 full days in CA and 6 of those involve a theme park during the summer. Are you sure you want to do Legoland and Sea World and the Zoo? I'd probably just do the zoo or Safari Park and do another beach day or other stuff in SD.

 

[pmaurer74]

Go to the beach in San Diego. You have 7 full days in CA and 6 of those involve a theme park during the summer. Are you sure you want to do Legoland and Sea World and the Zoo? I'd probably just do the zoo or Safari Park and do another beach day or other stuff in SD.

we are not beach people so an hour of beach is plenty for us LOL

 

[SMD]

we are not beach people so an hour of beach is plenty for us LOL

Then do the beach on your travel day and make Legoland a whole day if you want to go to Legoland. You could probably add a 4th day to DLR and start one morning at the beach and then go to the parks in the afternoon.

 

[ncc1701]

Huntington would be the closest to DL.There are restaurants on Main St across from the pier along with Ruby's at the end of the pier

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

would it be better to fly nonstop into LAX or a nonstop route into orange county. It would cost likely $60 more per person to fly into Orange county but I have two kids ages 7 and 10 and DH says Orange county airport is much easier to get around.

I've never been one to avoid an airport due its reputation. They can all be good or bad depending on your luck IMO, but maybe I'm just used to large airports. But Orange County is definitely closer and traffic from there is *usually* better. Whether or not that's worth $240 is up to you.

- is Legoland worth stopping by for a few hours on the way down to San Diego?

As mentioned previously, it's pretty expensive for a 1 day pass. That being said my 5 and 3 y/o love it there (more than Disneyland). We can go for multiple days, so I think it's definitely worth a stop.

We are terrified of driving and have heard bad things. Thinking of renting a car from Downtown Disney on June 8 and driving to the beach and San Diego the next day. The resorts charge for parking and so do the theme parks. Would it be better to get a taxi?

A taxi from DLR to San Diego is not feasible I don't think. I would rent a car.

The resorts I am looking into are near Sea World at Mission Bay: Hyatt, Hilton, Best Western and Wyndham.... does anyone have any recommendations about this? Do you have any other recommendations to make?

I like staying in the Gas Lamp district, but that is farther from Sea World (but pretty close to the zoo). It has stuff that's open in the evenings, so you can walk around and easily find a restaurant for dinner. I've never stayed near Sea World, though, so I have no comparison.

 

[coasternut22]

We used the Southern California Citypass in April and had almost the reverse vacation as you. With the citypass, you get 3 days of Disney, 1 day of Sea World, and 1 day of Legoland. We bought our city passes through Sea World’s site to get an extra day free of Sea World (option only available when your trip starts with Sea World). We added an extra day of Legoland for only $20. And then we added an extra day at Disney for an extra $25. So you have options.


A 3 day Disney Park hopper is $295 for adults and the citypass is $341. So you are essentially paying $23 for each day at Sea World and Legoland, or if you skip Legoland, $46 for Sea World, which is still better than any deal out there. The $38 add on for the zoo is a $14 discount.


Your situation has a ton of options, but it depends on what you and your kids want to do. Legoland is great for 7-10 year olds. They will want to be there for more than a few hours. It’s an easy 1 hour drive from Anaheim, so it is worth getting up early and driving there for park opening on your way to Mission Bay. It’s also not going to cost you anything ticket-wise, so yes, it’s worth it, but don’t be surprised if your kids want to stay the whole day.


You are going to have to rent a car when you drive to San Diego. You can get away with using a taxi or Uber when in Mission Bay, but there is no other reasonable mode of transportation from Anaheim to San Diego. Plus the San Diego airport rental car center is very close to Mission Bay so dropping off a car would not be terribly out of the way if you want to ditch it when you get there.


Regarding flying into LAX vs Orange County, you really have to decide whether spending an additional $240 to save maybe $50 on a cab/shuttle ride to Anaheim is worth it.


Looking at your proposed schedule, and if your family are go getters, I see nothing wrong with the plan other than making Legoland a full day. Having a resort day at Disney with a couple of hours for the beach trip should be a good mid-week break. Also look into getting an extra day at Disney for the $25 upgrade for that night.

 

[mfleeting]

You can not do Legoland in a few hours. Truthfully we were there from just after opening to close and didn't even see the entire park and barely did anything (the lines were long). However our kids absolutely loved the mini land area (or whatever it is called) and they opted to spend quite a bit of time in that area. I don't think Legoland is really worth the cost but the kids normally love it so thats what makes it better. However, you do need a full day. Plus in June the waterpark will be open is that something yall would do?

 

[Cptnkirky]

we have almost the exact same trip as you, about 2 weeks earlier. We are arriving on Sat, DVC for 4 nights, 3 day park hoppers for DL, then traveling to SD on day 5-8, then back to LA for last day/night to fly back out of LA. We are renting a car and flying into LAX for the cost as well as it gives us a day to see some of LA outside of Anaheim. We are planning to do SW and the Zoo, then other local SD stuff (lajolla, balboa park, old towne, gaslamp area). We have a 4 y.o. so its gonna depend on how they make it. We are WDW natives as well, so this is a new venture!! I looked into the pass, but we aren't going to LL so it didn't work. We got our best tix from LMTclub for DL and are still working on the others (hoping for some good deals in meantime). We should continue to share ideas as wel go along

 

[Purrkins]

I've done Legoland 4 times with my son from opening to close and have never seen the entire park. Yes, the Hyatt by the Bay is a great place to stay. Paradise Point also fun. And the area is "beachy" enough to call it a beach day/hour if you're not beach fans. Driving is fine. I'm not sure what people have been saying about us.

 

[pmaurer74]

Thank you everyone for the replies. We got our airfare and for now it has changed some plans. My flight out of San Diego was too expensive which caught meow guard. The price difference between LAX and SNA ended up being only $120 so I went ahead and did SNA plus the time was better. Right now we are staying in Anaheim for 6 nights and flying out of Anaheim. I still have one free ay that we can visit San Diego if we want to or do a 4th Disneyland day. If the prices go down, I will reconsider staying in San Deigo.

 

[pmaurer74]

we have almost the exact same trip as you, about 2 weeks earlier. We are arriving on Sat, DVC for 4 nights, 3 day park hoppers for DL, then traveling to SD on day 5-8, then back to LA for last day/night to fly back out of LA. We are renting a car and flying into LAX for the cost as well as it gives us a day to see some of LA outside of Anaheim. We are planning to do SW and the Zoo, then other local SD stuff (lajolla, balboa park, old towne, gaslamp area). We have a 4 y.o. so its gonna depend on how they make it. We are WDW natives as well, so this is a new venture!! I looked into the pass, but we aren't going to LL so it didn't work. We got our best tix from LMTclub for DL and are still working on the others (hoping for some good deals in meantime). We should continue to share ideas as wel go along

Right now due to flight prices we are staying in Anaheim for 6 nights at DVC. We still might do a day trip to San Diego. If the prices go down then we might change our plans.