How long should we visit?

[becpee]

x

 

[carj]

You have a lot of activities planned, especially if you don't plan on doing something every day.

I haven't been to DLR since I was 7 and I am 37 now, so I am not sure my advice will be helpful but here goes!

We have 8 days in California.
1 day at Lego Land, which after reading here, sounds like that will be okay.
We have 3 DLR days.
We have 1 beach day/Aquarium of the Pacific
We have 3 days which can be part Disney, part beach days. We are thinking about visiting the tar pits.

I have tried to make this trip about more than just theme parks and incorporate a few local things as well. We went to WDW last summer and never left the property, except to fly out!

We are not visiting Sea World because we have that here in Texas. I think that a reasonable pace would be 2 days. You can do one, but you will not see it all. It is really a neat place but we skipped it since we have one closer to home.

The only thing that I think that I am sort of sad about missing is the San Diego Zoo. I just don't see how we could make that fit with our current plans.

We decided to skip Universal because it doesn't seem like there is a lot of stuff for the kids to do there. A lot of the rides seem to have scary themes. We had to eliminate something and this was the easiest for me to drop.

If I were you, I would prioritize what you want to do. What are the must-do activities? Then, let each member of the family have some input.

We made a list of our family's priorities and they were:
Me-Visit the beach- Our kids have never been in the ocean!
DS8-Visit Lego Land
DD5- Eat with Minnie Mouse
DH- Ride the big rides

Then we all got to pick a second thing. Pretty much after the second thing, we had the basics of our trip.

I hope that you have a great time! I am really looking forward to our trip!

 

[tracys2cents]

Well you can skip Tijuana, it is nothing like it used to be.

I would say 3 or 4 nights Los Angeles/Santa Monica....3 nights Disney....maybe 3rd night drive down to San Diego to avoid daytime traffic..... sounds like you'll need 4 nights San Diego....3 nights Las Vegas unless you want to take a full day trip to Zion National Park or Grand Canyon.

For a 5 year old, Los Angeles has a great zoo, The Griffith Observatory, La Brea Tar Pits(fossil museum)..Natural History Museum and the Science Center next door.....Playland at Santa Monica Pier, Universal Studios.

Legoland is definitely worth a day, and in Las Vegas there's a dolphin show, bear cubs, Amusement Park at Circus Circus, Scandia Fun Park, Las Vegas Mini Grand Prix go-carts, Lied Children's Museum, Natural History Museum(dinosaurs!), amazing swimming pool areas, Floyd Lamb State Park, Lake Mead...boat rides etc.

Las Vegas rooms are always double or triple priced on Fri and Saturday so plan accordingly.
I hope you're planning to have a car since all of this cannot be done at all well with a 5 year old and public transportation.