Need advice from locals and DL experts

[MouseDogMom]

I have family getting married in Fountain Valley with a reception in Laguna Hills on a Saturday in July. Hotel rooms are booked in Huntington Beach. I've only been to DL once for a few hours; DH and DD have never been. We're not even sure we're going to the wedding, but I'm trying to put together a long weekend trip to the wedding and a quick trip to DL. Is it realistic to fly into LAX Thursday around lunch, rent a car, spend Thursday afternoon and Friday @ the parks, do wedding stuff Sat, and be back @ LAX by midnight for the redeye back to NC? It looks like everything is really close, but I'm an east coast girl unaccustomed to CA traffic! We're WDW veterans, so we don't have to do everything at the parks, mainly the attractions we don't have here, but we also avoid going at peak times so we're not used to big crowds. Is this trip worth the time and the money, or would we just end up frustrated and disappointed?

 

[WatchinCaptKangaroo]

I have family getting married in Fountain Valley with a reception in Laguna Hills on a Saturday in July. Hotel rooms are booked in Huntington Beach. I've only been to DL once for a few hours; DH and DD have never been. We're not even sure we're going to the wedding, but I'm trying to put together a long weekend trip to the wedding and a quick trip to DL. Is it realistic to fly into LAX Thursday around lunch, rent a car, spend Thursday afternoon and Friday @ the parks, do wedding stuff Sat, and be back @ LAX by midnight for the redeye back to NC? It looks like everything is really close, but I'm an east coast girl unaccustomed to CA traffic! We're WDW veterans, so we don't have to do everything at the parks, mainly the attractions we don't have here, but we also avoid going at peak times so we're not used to big crowds. Is this trip worth the time and the money, or would we just end up frustrated and disappointed?

That is doable depending how late you stay at the reception. Laguna Beach is about an hour south of LAX without traffic (and there won't be a lot of traffic going for a red-eye). You also may want to look into flying into SNA (John Wayne) airport. It's a lot closer (though more money).

You will be exhausted by the time you get home though. I PMed you.