New visitor to DL & SoCal

[Magalex]

My family & I are thinking about visiting SoCal instead of WDW in June 2011. My DH & myself are early 40's & DS would be 10 at the time. Probably leaning to staying at CCI because I like the photos and the over all good reviews the hotel receives. We will be visiting in 2nd-3rd week of June. We live in Pittsburgh, PA so the west will be a whole different world to us. All us would be excited to visit CA. Anything new in the works for DL and any surrounding attractions in 2011. What is the choice airport for DL/Anaheim area? I know my DH would like to rent a car. Select attractions would be DL, Legoland(DS is a lego fan) San Diego SW or zoo, and a family friendly beachtown to explore(not beach lovers but like to explore and ride bikes). How many days for DL? We are Disney fanatics. It might be year & a half away but I am sitting here with snow outside thinking of sunnier days. Plus I want to know everything to make a decision if a trip to DL is worth it & add it to my vacation budget. We save for all vacations.

 

[Leofoenget]

My family & I are thinking about visiting SoCal instead of WDW in June 2011. My DH & myself are early 40's & DS would be 10 at the time. Probably leaning to staying at CCI because I like the photos and the over all good reviews the hotel receives. We will be visiting in 2nd-3rd week of June. We live in Pittsburgh, PA so the west will be a whole different world to us. All us would be excited to visit CA. Anything new in the works for DL and any surrounding attractions in 2011. What is the choice airport for DL/Anaheim area? I know my DH would like to rent a car. Select attractions would be DL, Legoland(DS is a lego fan) San Diego SW or zoo, and a family friendly beachtown to explore(not beach lovers but like to explore and ride bikes). How many days for DL? We are Disney fanatics. It might be year & a half away but I am sitting here with snow outside thinking of sunnier days. Plus I want to know everything to make a decision if a trip to DL is worth it & add it to my vacation budget. We save for all vacations.

2nd or 3rd week of June will probably be very crowded because it's the last week the So Cal AP's can visit for the summer, and that typically brings then ALLLL out for one last summer visit. I think the last day for both levels of AP's is June 23rd so be aware of the possibility of heavy crowds.

 

[Mrs. Toaster]

LAX is the largest, international airport nearby. It's about a one hour drive to Anaheim from there, just be prepared for L.A. traffic! Our preference is definitely to fly into Santa Ana (SNA) or the Long Beach airport. It all depends on what kind of rate we can get coming from Atlanta.

From what I understand, Legoland is about 1 hour South of Anaheim, which generally means better traffic than going up to L.A. proper. I'm not sure that the San Diego SW is much different than the Orlando one, but I can highly recommend the SD Zoo. It is amazing! All my beach days were pre-kids, so I am no help in finding a family friendly beach. I can recommend visiting an In and Out Burger while you are there. Yum!

 

[BC Disney Lover]

A few years ago we did a trip to Anaheim and San Diego. We stayed in San Diego for a few days then drove to Legoland for the day and went to our Anaheim hotel that night. It worked out great.
We used the Citypass and though it was a good deal. You can usually order them from Costco too.

http://www.citypass.com/city/socal.html

 

[Magalex]

Thanks for the replies! Nice to know that San Diego SW is similar to the one in Orlando. We will pick the zoo to visit. My DH was leaning towards the zoo just because of the fact SW is in Orlando also. We hear so many fantastic things about the San Diego zoo. I will check out the Santa Ana & Long Beach airports. We like to fly with Southwest.

 

[Magalex]

Also a question about weather & crowds/special events. Besides June how about late July/early August. Weather? Crowds? We visit Orlando in June so we know Florida's heat, how about CA?

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Also a question about weather & crowds/special events. Besides June how about late July/early August. Weather? Crowds? We visit Orlando in June so we know Florida's heat, how about CA?

It will be warm, but nowhere near as bad as Orlando with all the humidity! Ca weather is much more bearable unless by some fluke they are having a heatwave, and even the it's a drier heat than Fla. It will be cowded most likely as that is the peak summer time and they have all these new attractions that they are becoming experts at promoting. At least in July/Aug the So Cal Aps are blocked out until the last week of August. OTOH, they are blocked out for a reason because it's the busier time of the year.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Oh yeah if you like SW they fly into SNA (and LGB IIRC) however, just wanted to let you know since they are more regional airports as opposed to the big LAX Internat'l airport, the car rental company choices are more limited. You don't want to arrive too late at night either as they may be closed. I would research my flight arrival times and make sure you find out if the car company you want to rent with operates out of that airport and will be open if arriving at night. HTH!

 

[Magalex]

Oh yeah if you like SW they fly into SNA (and LGB IIRC) however, just wanted to let you know since they are more regional airports as opposed to the big LAX Internat'l airport, the car rental company choices are more limited. You don't want to arrive too late at night either as they may be closed. I would research my flight arrival times and make sure you find out if the car company you want to rent with operates out of that airport and will be open if arriving at night. HTH!

Would it be easier to take a shuttle or town car service to our Anaheim hotel then rent a car at the hotel?
OR
Would be easier to take a shuttle or town car service to our hotel and then use any tour bus service to the SD zoo or Lego Land? Save money with no car at all.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Would it be easier to take a shuttle or town car service to our Anaheim hotel then rent a car at the hotel?
OR
Would be easier to take a shuttle or town car service to our hotel and then use any tour bus service to the SD zoo or Lego Land? Save money with no car at all.

I vote for renting your own car. You can't beat the convenience of being able to go anywhere you want, when you want. Those shuttles add up pretty fast. OTOH, car rental prices have skyrocketed in the last couple of years, so you should do the math and figure out what works better for you. IMO, it's worth almost any price to have the car just because I like being able to fly by the seat of my pants and not have to stress over transportation. It enables us to go way out of Anaheim and explore, eat out, etc., with no worries about how we're going to get there.
Just make sure you coordinate your flight so you get in early enough to rent a car. I haven't flown into SNA in several years, so things may have changed, but I remember stressing that we weren't going to make it before the car rental company closed for the night. We made it, thank goodness, but it's an uneccessary stress. LGB was even worse for car rental selection a few years ago. Hopefully someone with newer info will weigh in with their experiences.

ETA: We drove to San Diego to go to Seaworld and to go to a couple casinos when we were there. It's in my TR below. Traffic wasn't bad at all. Just leave early enough to avoid too much traffic, but not so early that you get stuck in rush hour traffic. I think in the mornings there is more traffic going from SD to LA than the other way around. HTH!