DLR and California Questions

[BroadwayHermione5]

Hi all! BroadwayHermione5 here!
Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe (and watching Craig’s amazing 3 hour vlog on the galactic starcruiser!)

So the title says it all. What was supposed to be a postponed big bday trip (for yours truly-gotta love going into a new decade in life! Someone cue 30/90 from tick tick boom!) to London is now turning into a big bday trip to CA.

I should note of my parents and I-I am the only one who has never been to California but I am also the main planner. BUT I am in the entertainment industry, so I have quite a few friends out there and know of certain things like weather and studios and non theme park things already. Plus we have family in the Bay Area, and my mom has friends from when she lived there as a kid for a couple years. And we have all of you and the dis and a bagillion other vloggers (even the try guys got in on theme parks with Keith Eats around Knotts Berry Farm!) So we have the resources, but we also still have questions and let’s be honest not everything we are recommended we like. And we know the Florida theme parks like the back of our hand, so this is obviously gonna be a problem.

We know we want to do:
*Warner Bros Tour (huge Friends and Big Bang Theory watching household-plus I was raised by cinema fans and am in the industry-we like touring and behind the scenes)
*Academy of Motion Pictures Museum
*Santa Monica Pier
*Griffith park or possibly a zoo or sanctuary (I actually follow a YouTuber who goes to one often in the LA area)
*USH
*Knotts
*4 days DLR


So here are some questions we have:

1)When traveling to florida we usually leave on the Thursday and come home the next Saturday, but we are wondering if leaving on the Wednesday night would benefit us. We would be going for east coast to west coast, so a red eye (also I am the only one who’s flown from a major airport in the past decade-we usually fly out of our local for Florida. Sadly our local only goes as far down as Puerto Rico, as far north as Canada/Maine and as far Midwest and Chicago and Texas (that probably makes no sense, but this is true for every major carrier from JetBlue to Southwest). So would the leaving Wednesday night benefit us?

2) Flying into LAX is the best option, but I’ve heard that we should be coming home from the airport closest to DLR? Is this necessary or can we just fly LAX both ways?

3) Next up is transportation. We know Uber is our friend, but getting to and from the airport(s) and hotels is-gonna be an issue-any recommendations?

4) Speaking of hotels: I’ve heard amazing things about the Hilton universal Hollywood including the continental breakfast and my dads company discount site is known to have amazing deals on Hilton so that’s kind of a no brainer but are there any others you’d recommend in LA? As for DLR as much as we’d love to stay at a Disney hotel, we might be priced out-any recommendations on those or if there is any way to find discounts for DLR (my dads company has those too. It not as great)? And I know that transferring hotels is a pain, but everyone including my friends said it would benefit us to have a place in LA county and a place in Anaheim.

5) in terms of studio tours and park tickets for Knotts and UHS, those my dad has access to and we love using his ticket program. However when it comes to Disney we at least like to book through them. Is Genie plus necessary? We’d probably only IlL for ROTR but apparently photopass is connected to genie plus over there? I also heard it’s necessary and with toontown closing for refurb it’s definitely gonna be necessary.

6) Speaking of necessity: DINING! If we stay at Hilton USH we are close to city walk so that’s a no brainer.Our questions lie in theDLR-I pretty much know you need dining packages for fantasmic and WoC but that’s about it-any recommendations?(as a help to all of you, my mom has a red wine allergy and we are picky with certain things but not horrible and a tapas style would be not well received by my parents either so it’s a delicate balance.)

7) Anything else in LA and Anaheim that is fun or worth visiting that I might be missing that we should consider?


I know this is a lot and I am thanking you all in advance.

Looking forward to seeing your recommendations and tips and tricks!

BroadwayHermione5

 

[l4dyj8]

As far as LA area goes, if Burbank is at all an option for your incoming flight, I would highly recommend that. I know it’s not always an option for all flights/cities. But factor in Uber/Shuttle co. But it’s so close to Universal and the film studios. It’a all in the Valley. But nonetheless, Universal, Warner Brothers, Griffith Park/Zoo are minutes from each other. It will be a great trip splitting hotel stays from LA and Disney

7) what time of year are you planning your trip. There are many things going on that could be fun. But what you have already planned is great

 

[smartlabelprint]

For Disneyland the newest Hilton properties are on Manchester way. Home2suites and Hilton garden inn. They’re in the same building as I understand it. It’s about a 10 min walk to the parks.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

As far as LA area goes, if Burbank is at all an option for your incoming flight, I would highly recommend that. I know it’s not always an option for all flights/cities. But factor in Uber/Shuttle co. But it’s so close to Universal and the film studios. It’a all in the Valley. But nonetheless, Universal, Warner Brothers, Griffith Park/Zoo are minutes from each other. It will be a great trip splitting hotel stays from LA and Disney

7) what time of year are you planning your trip. There are many things going on that could be fun. But what you have already planned is great

Definitely will look into that thank you.

It would either be late august/early September or early October though personally I’d prefer the former.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

For Disneyland the newest Hilton properties are on Manchester way. Home2suites and Hilton garden inn. They’re in the same building as I understand it. It’s about a 10 min walk to the parks.

Thank you! This is actually good information to know and definitely something to mention to my parents as my mom does use scooters due to knee issues.

 

[CoachBeard]

I did the Warner bros studio tour 5 years ago and it was really fun! I’m a local and had never considered it! Well worth the price.

as far as other things to do it depends on what you like to do. If you like cars I recommend going to the Petersen Automotive museum. It is also across the street from LACMA which I believe may be under construction right now but also around the corner are the La Brea Tar Pits. My friend was at the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences museum the other night which is next to LACMA and he highly recommends it.

in that part of town you’re not far from the original LA farmers market and also Canters Deli (as seen on madmen or anything related to Guns N’ Roses or after comedy hang outs)

From Universal you’re down the street from the Baked Potato which is a fantastic and hole in the wall jazz club with world class/famous musicians most nights.

If you have time maybe try to get tickets to see the taping of a TV show in Burbank. I’m not sure the standards since Covid and honestly the last taping I went to was Home Improvement in 1993 haha!

I live near and work in Malibu so if I can be of any assistance please do message me.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I did the Warner bros studio tour 5 years ago and it was really fun! I’m a local and had never considered it! Well worth the price.

as far as other things to do it depends on what you like to do. If you like cars I recommend going to the Petersen Automotive museum. It is also across the street from LACMA which I believe may be under construction right now but also around the corner are the La Brea Tar Pits. My friend was at the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences museum the other night which is next to LACMA and he highly recommends it.

in that part of town you’re not far from the original LA farmers market and also Canters Deli (as seen on madmen or anything related to Guns N’ Roses or after comedy hang outs)

From Universal you’re down the street from the Baked Potato which is a fantastic and hole in the wall jazz club with world class/famous musicians most nights.

If you have time maybe try to get tickets to see the taping of a TV show in Burbank. I’m not sure the standards since Covid and honestly the last taping I went to was Home Improvement in 1993 haha!

I live near and work in Malibu so if I can be of any assistance please do message me.

Thank you so much!

I have always wanted to do the Warner Bros tour and I love that it is more affordable than I thought it would be!

My parents are huge cinema fans so the Academy museum is sort of a must.

i always forget about the Tar Pits! And I’ve heard amazing things about the Farmers Market from my friends and it is something I want to check out.

Sadly Jazz is not any of our thing ( I enjoy it in increments) but I will consider checking it out as I like seeing and hearing new things.

From what I have heard and witness (in what little shows I watch that would use a live audience) a lot of shows are not back to live taping for a variety of reasons (though oddly enough This Is Us showed a live taping in their universe even though it takes place now so who knows lol).

And thank you-I will definitely be reaching out if I have any questions!