How much time needed?

[morgan loves minnie]

We leave Monday morning for a southern CA trip. We are staying in Anaheim the beginning of our trip and then San Diego the end of the trip.

We bought the Southern CA citypass and were planning to do one day at DL, one day at DCA, one day universal and then SD Zoo and Seaworld when in San Diego.

I have a 4 year old daughter who has been to Disney World twice and absolutely loves all things Disney. My question is, do you think one day in DL and then one day in DCA is enough time to see everything that a 4 year old would want to see. I have not been to DL since 1992, so I don't really remember much. We do have a breakfast res. at Plaza Inn with Minnie and friends and then a dinner res. at Ariel's Grotto for the night we're in DCA, so this will take up some of our "park time". We get 3 day DL/DCA passes with our citypass, so I do have an extra day. I'm considering scraping Universal and doing another day at Disney if it seems like we don't get to everything. This is an extended family trip though and I know my newphew absolutely wants to go to universal, so I'm hoping that you think one day in each park is enough.

I'm so used to my 10 day trips to DW where we do only Disney parks and still feel like we could see more, so I feel like one day at each park is not going to be enough.

 

[bluegrizzlies1]

Do another day at disneyland it will be well worth it.


I tried the aquarium of the pacific and knotts berry farm plus disneyland and I wish I would have done just disneyland parks instead.

Just to much info to process for a 2 or 3 yr old for our family.

 

[trodrigue]

I know I have said it before, but I will say it again. We did City Pass last year with my 5 year old and my 11 year old. We did 3 days DL/DCA and then Universal Studios, Sea World, and the Wild Animal Park. We did this over 8 days, so we had two days off. This schedule about killed us! By the time we were at Wild Animal Kingdom, we were just going through the motions and Sea World the day before was only marginally better.

Just to answer your DL question. Absolutly no way you can do everything in two days. Maybe divide and conquer? Our next trip, my hubby wants to go back to universal, but I am not at all interested. So he will probably go with my oldest and some friends.

 

[PinkBudgie]

I vote for an extra day at Disneyland too. I would think that would appeal more to a four year old than Universal.

 

[Rapunsel]

Can the nephew go universal with some one else? Not much there for a 4 year old. most of the rides are intense and have height restrictions. Also park hop at DL. so worth it..

 

[Jazziered]

I would dump Sea World and go to Disneyland for two days. I did not like Sea World. (I was just there a couple of weeks ago.) Go see the Penguins, dump out to the Penguin store, go see the polarbears, dump out in the polarbear store. To in your face.

Drinks were not cold.

The park felt unclean and shabby after Disneyland.

I wish I had done two days at Disneyland instead.

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

I would ditch Universal. I'm probably going to come off as a bit negative on Universal, but I'd like to offer a bit of local perspective... (I live 5 minutes from Universal and prefer to drive 45 -60 minutes to DL.)

It's a place where even us locals don't go a lot, even though they are constantly offering "Buy one day, get a whole year free" tickets up through September. I find it "a half-day park". Not only will you have to battle our local traffic to get up here from Anaheim, that park is very hilly - not unlike the San Diego Zoo - and is filled with rides the 4 year old just can't do. Parking is also very expensive there and not "easy" if you are doing the theme park (Citiwalk is a little better parking access). There is no tram for any parking, just escalators (and elevators) up to the entry plaza. Remember, too, that it is a working studio in the middle of a working area and there is traffic around that park all of the time. I used to eat lunch with a friend who used to work there as a celebrity personal assistant and that was pretty much the only time I went there. They are also still rebuilding many of the backlots after that fire.

That being said, we make the drive down to Disneyland at least every other week. It is definitely a "local park" and that is what will make you need to spend your 3rd day there. You get a lot of passholder families during the week when school's out and defintely on the weekends. Satudays will usually only be Premium passholders and normal ticket holders, Sundays open up to most other passholders. It's a completely different dynamic that WDW.

I would keep Sea World. I'll take marine life over Jurassic Park any day of the week and most children would agree. There is something about Sea World that amazes all kids - they won't care about the park condition - they just want to see that whale fly through the air and be afraid of the shark exhibit. You'll have a lot of great memories from that!

The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific is small, and if compared to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Shedd in Chicago, I would have to admit it is a bit of a let down. We have a membership and while I have to admit those things, I do feel it is quaint. The exhibits are definitely high quality, but many consider it not extensive enough for the price.

Hope that helps.
Nancy

 

[jason417]

I would agree that Universal is not going to appeal to a four year old.

Many will say that DCA is not a full day park but if you do all of the popular rides, both parades, Turtle Talk, a couple Animation Academy sessions, the Aladdin show, and spend some time watching people get soaked on Grizzly you could easily spend the majority of a day in there.

If you can swing 3 days I'd spend 2 in DL and one in DCA. However, we always do 2-day trips. We spend the entire first day open to close in DL (usually a 2-3 hour break in the afternoon resting in the hotel) and then spend the first 3 or 4 hours of the next day in DL and finish the rest of the day in DCA.

I don't know how good your daughter does in the late hours but you will save yourself an incredible load of time if you do Fantasyland (most of the kiddie rides) from 10pm to midnight rather than during the day.

 

[bluegrizzlies1]

I don't know how good your daughter does in the late hours but you will save yourself an incredible load of time if you do Fantasyland (most of the kiddie rides) from 10pm to midnight rather than during the day.

I agree it is a walk on every ride except peterpan at the closing hours of the park