just back from california...

[nsyncraider17]

We returned on monday from our 10 day vacation in california. We spent 5 days at DL and DCA, 1 day at the San Diego Zoo, 1 day at Six Flags Magic Mountain, 1 day in San Clemente and a day north of bakersfield in Sequoia National Forest. We also drove around Los Angeles and San Diego and went to several restaurants in those areas.

At DL we stayed in Embassy Suites Anaheim South, and we loved it. It was a beautiful hotel with large rooms and great service, and we really enjoyed the free breakfast.

We were pleasantly surprised by DCA - I've heard so many not so good things about it that I wasn't expecting much, but I actually enjoyed it more than DL.

If anyone has questions about any part of our trip, feel free to ask!

 

[cats mom]

We really like to stay at embassy suites too but have never been to any in the disneyland area. Do they provide their own transportation to the parks?

Also, how was your time at magic mtn? Although we love disney we would like to spend a day there for the 'real' coasters.

Sounds like you packed a lot into your trip!

 

[Grog]

Sounds like you had a great time

 

[nsyncraider17]

cats mom:

Embassy Suites did have a shuttle (it was actually a charter bus) that ran about every half hour. We never used it, because we had a rental van and free parking with our tickets, but it looked like a lot of people used it.

Magic Mountain was...not Disney. We went because my 13 year old brother is a roller coaster fanatic, and my dad and I wanted to ride the coasters as well. They have some great coasters (Scream, X and Colossus were our favorites), but they all have long lines all day. We paid $45 dollars to get "fast lane" passes - for $15 you get 4 of them, and they get you to the front of the line on certain rides. We planned to use them on the river rapids ride, Scream and X...we saved 3 for X and went to ride it at about 9:00 (park closed at 10) and the line was 3-4 hours long, and they told us they don't use fast lane passes! That kind of irritated us...the most popular coaster in the park doesn't use them? Anyway, since we have season passes for a local six flags park, we were able to go back the next morning and ride X after standing in line for nearly 1 1/2 hours (still way too long )

We were also annoyed by the fact that none of the coasters were running at full capacity...especially Batman and X. Both of these coasters have several trains, but were only running one, which increased the wait time dramatically. We actually filed a complaint after riding X, because we saw a girl in line with us faint because of the heat, and my brother and I both felt ill after standing in the heat for so long...they can't help the heat, but they could have cut the wait time in half by adding another train or two. they also had no misters, very few indoor queue lines, nothing to help with the heat.

I'm sorry, I'm sure I'm telling you much more than you ever wanted to know! Basically, we were not impressed by Magic Mountain at all. We may have enjoyed our day more if it hadn't been so hot - it was 110 degrees that day! We essentially went for free because of our season passes, but we don't know if it would have been worth the price of tickets. If you're a really big roller coaster fan and you're willing to stand in long lines, then go, but otherwise, I don't know if it would be worth the time and money. We really enjoyed riding all the coasters, but the overall experience just made us look forward to disneyland!

 

[cats mom]

Becca,

Thanks, I wanted an honest opinion.
I think we'll have to hit magic mountain one day because my 15 yr. old just HAS to go for the coasters - but will probably leave dad and the little ones to have fun in the pool at the hotel that day.