Planning our 1st trip to CA for summer 2009 with 8 year old triplets

[triplefigs]

My DH went to DL as a child, but the kids and I have never been to CA at all. We want to spend 2-3 days at DL and then visit San Diego. We are considering Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studios, and Legoland. Are these good choices for 8 year olds? Which ones would you say are the BEST? What else should we see in Southern CA (beaches, Catalina Island?)

And does anyone have suggestion on a good place to stay in San Diego (we prefer the Deluxes at Disney World)?

Appreciate any and all help!

 

[familyadventuremom]

I'm mom to a three year old, a four year old, and a nine year old.

After consulting with the nine year old, this was our conclusion:

Sea World is a must!!! I think its going to be the subject of my next guidebook since my nine year old loves it so much. It has fast roller coasters and fascinating aquarium areas as well as exciting shows. If you purchase a fun card, you can return every day during your visit as long as it does not include the black out days. Check out the website for more info. If you decide to go to the zoo or wild animal park as well, there is a combo ticket available at Costco's website

Legoland is a hard one. I love it so much I wrote a book about it, that being said eight is the upper limits of fun for that park if you don't have little brothers and sisters in tow (some how, little ones give your older kid permission to try things that aren't considered "cool". If your kids love Legos, it might be worth a visit. If you are mostly looking for rollercoasters, it might not be the place for your family. There are two exciting roller coaster rides, a few more rides that the kids will enjoy like the Driving School, a very fun water play area, and fun interactive activities like Build and Test and Lego Mindstorms (sign up early as soon as you enter the park). The Hideaways is a fun climbing play area that keeps the kids busy for quite a while. If you are visiting in September and your kids are big Star Wars fans, Lego Star Wars day is really fun. Mini-land is really amazing for Lego fans. I wouldn't recommend the Sea Life aquarium for eight year olds. The Birch Aquarium is also small, but has cheaper admission and is more oriented toward older kids. I'm not familiar with hotels by any of the other attractions, but if you like nice hotels, the Grand Pacific Palisades and The Sheraton in Carlsbad are Legoland Resort Hotels and designed to be kid friendly. (Justin had fun playing Wii at the Grand PPP kids club). Carlsbad beaches are really nice, mostly free parking, great places to boogie board. Life guards are on duty during the summer. We also have a skate park if you kids like to skate and bring their boards and safety gear. Discount tickets are available at Costco and include minature golf.

Hope this helps! San Diego is a wonderful destination for family travel. I know you'll have fun.

-Bridget Smith
Author, The Unauthorized Guide to Legoland California
Family Adventure Guidebooks

 

[ScooterL]

Sea World, the Zoo, and Legoland should be great choices for 8-year-olds.

As for places to stay...I have a friend who stayed at Loew's Coronado Bay Resort in August, and she LOVED it - and she got a great deal on the room through hotwire.com. It sounded very classy - very much like one of the deluxes at WDW. Of course, if you REALLY want to go deluxe, stay at the Hotel del Coronado...which looks like the Grand Floridian (vice versa, though). The Four Seasons Aviara in Carlsbad (close to Legoland, not so close to Zoo/Sea World) is first class, also. In downtown San Diego there's a "W" and a Westin, an Omni, a Hyatt, and a Sheraton.

 

[Hound 109]

My DH went to DL as a child, but the kids and I have never been to CA at all. We want to spend 2-3 days at DL and then visit San Diego. We are considering Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studios, and Legoland. Are these good choices for 8 year olds? Which ones would you say are the BEST? What else should we see in Southern CA (beaches, Catalina Island?)

And does anyone have suggestion on a good place to stay in San Diego (we prefer the Deluxes at Disney World)?

Appreciate any and all help!

3.5 - 4 days minimum at DLR.

Dump Knotts or Universal & stay the extra day or two at DLR. (Best to visit Monday - Thursday).

If you're used to deluxes at WDW then you'll want to stay at either the GCH or the DLH at DLR (imo).

If money is no object, you might want to look at the Del Coronado in SD. (the GF in WDW was patterned after it). Check out KC Mikes DL trip report for LOTS of pics (great report too).

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1864064

Great Beaches (but cold water) in SoCal in SD & in Laguna, Newport & Huntington on your way to DLR.

If you haven't already looked at this.....here's a thread that is essential reading for the DLR newbie. Print the abreviation page first, then plow thru the links:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1520483


Have a great time planning a visit to Walt's Park.

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I agree with Hound, I think you really need a minimum of 4 days at DL, a day at Sea World, a day at the Zoo and a day at Lego Land.

I really know nothing about Lego Land but I hear it's good for boys, in particular at that age. I think Knotts and Universal would be better once your boys get a little bit older.

 

[mousiemom]

Roll Tide Roll! We are doing so good this season!!! we live here in mobile! we went on our 1st so. calif vacation this past june 5-12. i learned a lot on the DL disboard. it was me, dh, and our 8yr dd. we booked our flights thru priceline. we bought our so.cali. city pass on costco.com and they gave us tickets for 3 days in DL, san diego zoo, seaworld, and universal studios in hollywood. well worth it!! now, DL doesn't have the resorts that we do in wdw. they have 3 onsite resorts and they're all like $200 a night. i know that our hojos here are kinda scarry but we stayed in one across the street from the entrance to dl and it was very nice. way bigger than the moderates. we had a disneyview on the 7th floor and watched wishes everynight from our balcony for $74 a night. we bought a pass for grayline bus tours and they picked us up @ hojos and we went to the bus depot and we got on whatever bus. it was so nice not having to drive anywhere and get lost, and have to pay for gas, and you even get to take a siesta on the way back. san diego is an hr away and it is gorgeous! we did seaworld, zoo, and we did universal studios and a hollywood by night tour where we went to the real chinese theater and walked down the walk of fame and went down rodeo dr, beverly hills. the bus drivers were like tour guides so they would point out like bette midler's house and micheal eisner's 2 mansions. we had the best time! every day was an adventure. i like our wdw better cause of all of our parks. you don't do half the walking you do @ wdw. everything is right next to each other. we did 2 adrs(they don't do the dining like we do) so we did blue bayou for lunch by the water and had dinner @ wine country trattoira outside and watched the light parade go by, that was cool. you will see the differences when you go. i missed the lakes we have too. let me know if you have any questions.
mousiemom(Pam)

 

[triplefigs]

Thanks so much for all the info, everyone! I am getting really excited. The kids' b'day is in June, so we thought we'd use the new promo free day and then buy the CityPass. That would give us 4 days at DL. Definitely want to do Sea World, Legoland (I have 2 HUGE Lego fans), and tour Hollywood. Did you do a Universal Studios tour or the theme park? I think we'll go for 8 or 9 nights.

Thanks again for all the help! And Roll Tide!!!

 

[mousiemom]

we did universal studios theme park in hollywood. it was so pretty! they had escalators that took you to all the levels. we go to universal in orlando a lot so we had to go to this one. we went to universal all day and then @ 6pm the bus took us on the hollywood tour. i didn't mention the beaches cause we didn't have time to go to one but i think our beaches in destin are the prettiest. we were out there for 7 full days.
mousiemom

 

[heatherbelle]

If you are interested in visiting the beaches, which we will be doing have a look at Anaheim411.com and they have a woody bus that takes you to the different beaches.

Someone I know did this and they said it was fab.