Quick observations from a East Coast / WDW vet

[mom2aredhead]

We spent 9 days in SoCal, including Disneyland and San Diego. My quick observations and opinions (which are mine only, so please do not take it personally if you disagree )

• People really do drive 100 mph on the 405 freeway
  
  
• They really do put avocado on (almost) everything in CA
  
  
• As much as I love Wishes, the fireworks at Disneyland were much better
  
  
• Apparently, weather is hard to predict in CA? Completely inaccurate the whole week. When I mentioned this to someone, the person laughed and said "we only know its going to rain if we walk out the door and feel wet"
  
  
• Earthquakes are scary. (We were in San Diego on Easter Sunday when Mexico was hit with a 7.2)
  
  
• Hollywood Boulevard, during the day, is not nearly as "seedy" and "scary" as was described here on these boards. (Please note - this is coming from New Yorker, not a suburban or mid-west farm person, so your opinion of "seedy" or "scary" may differ.
  
  
• Disneyland is not "like Six Flags" "too small" "not worth the trip" or "a 1/2 day stop" like so many WDW/East Coast people think. We had a great time and absolutely plan to return...hopefully during the holidays (next year) to see everything decorated.
  

Finally - Southern California is GORGEOUS! Mountains and beaches, bays and oceans - everywhere you look is absolutely spectacular. Had a great trip, and I'm already planning my "to do" list for next time!

 

[Mrs. Toaster]

Your post made me smile! Having grown up in CA, and then moved to New York, and now Atlanta, I could definitely relate! I forgot about how popular avocado is! I don't see that here unless I order guacamole!

 

[Raindown]

Glad you had a good time. The part about the 405 made me laugh. If it there isn't traffic on there it is a treat lol.

I've never been to WDW, but I do love the fireworks at DL. Too bad that the last two nights they have not been shooting off the fire effect during the Indiana part.

 

[oc_tony]

Agree with everything, especially the fireworks part. We are WDW fans, too, but DL is our "home park." Glad you had a great trip to Walt's original Magic Kingdom.

 

[Monkey Monkey]

Glad you had a great visit!

You came to SoCal during a good time (except for the earthquake that is), because we had a pretty rainy winter and this is the most beautiful and colorful spring I can remember since moving here 9 years ago. I don't recall having seen so many vibrant flowers all over the area as there are now.

 

[magicalfoursome]

I am also an east coast WDW vet-- my first DL trip is this July!! I am so glad to hear you had a wonderful time and that SoCa is gorgeous!! My family and I are also visiting San Diego. Bring on the avocados-- love 'em!!

 

[Somegirl]

Glad you enjoyed California. Consider yourself "lucky" to have felt a real earthquake. What timing!
My family of native Californians went to NYC last spring break and we had an amazing time. Loved it!
Hollywood Blvd. used to be a more seedy in the 80s and early 90s, but it's cleaned up a bit since then. Kind of like Times Square has.
BTW, make sure those avocados are California avocados 'cause the ones from Chile aren't as good.

 

[monicatb]

We were in San Diego the same day of the earthquake, after spending 3 days at DLR. Where were you? We were leaving Seaport Village so we were in the car, waiting for the green light infront of a hotel, I believe it was the Embassy, I can't recall very well, but we were still close to the Seaport Village. Then we went to the Maritime Museum and felt the next one.

 

[nana50]

aahhh good times.

 

[Sherry E]

I am a lifelong Los Angeles resident and I agree with everything you said, Mom2aredhead! Great observations!!

Many of the people on the freeway are just crazy. That's all there is to it. They have a death wish. Sometimes a healthy dose of heavy rush hour traffic, while annoying, is needed just to keep these little budding Dale Earnhardts in the making under control so they do not drive 100 mph. It is scary. (They are crazy on the surface streets here in my area of L.A., too!) I even hate riding in my friends' cars when they decide to start zooming along. It makes me nervous.

Avocado is very popular here!! It is a staple among salad lovers and, also, since there is such a large Hispanic population in SoCal, avocados figure prominently into meals. I am probably one of the only people I know who does not like avocados!!

Earthquakes are very scary. Even though I have lived here for 42 years and counting, I never get used to them. I don't like the little quakes, and I really hate the large ones. That 7.2 quake was not fun at all, and I am actually very shocked that it didn't trigger another large-ish quake in SoCal (like the huge Landers quake did in 1992, when it triggered a big quake in Big Bear a few hours later).

Are there actually WDW veterans who think DLR is only a "1/2 day stop"? Wow! I know a lot of WDW vets don't think that DLR measures up to WDW, but I don't see how anyone could get much of anything done at DLR in 1/2 a day!! Even one full day, from opening to closing, is not enough to see and do everything. I have even left DLR after being there for 3 days with things unchecked on my list!!

Hollywood is not that seedy. You're very right about that. It has been cleaned up and spruced up quite a bit since the Hollywood & Highland shopping center opened, and lots of folks go up there to eat at the Disney Studio Store & Soda Fountain. There are some cool stores, too. You could go to portions of Sunset Blvd. or even Wilshire Blvd. that are in kind of seedy sections of town. Hollywood is no worse. There are much worse areas of town.

The weather has been weird this year - but I totally agree with Monkey Monkey about the beautiful flowers. I noticed the same thing in my little neighborhood alone - this Spring, the flowers and plants seemed especially colorful, vibrant and lush...so much so that I started taking pictures of some of them when I would be out walking around or running errands. Temperature-wise, it has been very odd, because we have had several times so far this year where it has been hot beach weather, and then the next day it is cold and gloomy. One day, it is 83 degrees. The next day we are expecting a storm.

SoCal is a beautiful place and a lot of fun - you can literally go skiing in the mountains, hiking in the woods and dipping your toes in the ocean all on the same day. If you haven't already been there, you should try visiting Catalina Island/Avalon on one of your next SoCal trips. It is a beautiful, relaxing little place with fantastic views and friendly locals that is my second favorite SoCal spot (second only to DLR, of course!). You can see flying fish, seals and buffalo all in the same day. It's great for a day trip or a weekend trip.

Make sure to stay tuned in to our "Disney at Christmas" planning/photo/info super thread for pictures and other DLR holiday-related things as you begin to form your next DLR trip!!

 

[PinkBudgie]

I don't think there is enough avacado! It isn't offered as often as I would like. Costco now has the bags of 5 grown in the US. Other times of the year it is from other countries and just doesn't taste as good, so I wait until its local. Yum! Just had some tonight.

If someone was able to drive 100 miles an hour, I'm amazed. Whenever we go down there we are lucky if the traffic allows us to drive at almost the speed limit.

Glad you had fun! Northern California is beautiful too. I know we don't have Disneyland but we have the Disney Family Musuem and where I live we have redwoods and wine country.

 

[ahill004]

Can you tell us a little more about your trip? How long did you go? Where did you stay in San Diego and at DL? How long did you spend in the parks and how long in San Diego? What were the highlights of the San Diego area? We are also planning a trip to So. Cal in July and we are trying to figure out what we should do. THinking 4 nights at DLR and 5 at Hotel Del Coronado or Torrey Pines? I would love to hear about your favorites spots.

 

[Think I'm Tink]

Thank you for that short summary!!!

Is the 405 the freeway between LA and San Diego? My DH has driven in all kinds of traffic situations from the parking lot that I-95 becomes when you are in the DC/Baltimore area (his comment after 2 hours of only a few miles of progress was "Omg we're going to starve to death here" while mine was "I don't have to pee. I don't have to pee. I don't have to pee...." ), to driving in downtown NYC (I swear we were the only private vehicle - everything else was a taxicab or a delivery truck/van), to stormy Rocky Mountain secondary highways in the dark , to the almost bumper-to-bumper 100 mph freeway between LA and San Diego . And he said that last one was the only time he ever felt like freaking out! (Um, you should've experienced it from my point of view dear - at least you had control of the brake and gas pedals).

I love Wishes, so now after reading your observations I am really hoping there will be fireworks when we are at DL in November!! Did I read somewhere that they aren't shown every night? I wish we had more days available to spend there. Last time we went there was no DCA park and we took 3 days to experience DL. Now there's the 2 parks and we only have 3½ days. At least I knew better than to only plan for a day there...

 

[carolinamama]

This east coast/WDW vet thanks you for your post! Made me smile. We're heading out for our first trip in the not too distant future! My experience with CA has only been Death Valley, so I'm excited to see the other side of things.

 

[gethane]

• People really do drive 100 mph on the 405 freeway
  
• They really do put avocado on (almost) everything in CA
  
  ...
  
• Apparently, weather is hard to predict in CA? Completely inaccurate the whole week. When I mentioned this to someone, the person laughed and said "we only know its going to rain if we walk out the door and feel wet"
  
  ....

Finally - Southern California is GORGEOUS! Mountains and beaches, bays and oceans - everywhere you look is absolutely spectacular. Had a great trip, and I'm already planning my "to do" list for next time!

I just had to reply. I lived in the Midwest my entire life, most of it in Nebraska, before moving to the Bay area 20 months ago to attend law school. We took our first trip to Disneyland last month.

I was FREAKING OUT at the freeways down there! OMG! We were driving through LA starting around 10:30 pm and people were speeding like it was a car racing speeding game. And we saw a car on the side of the road full-out on fire, flames shooting up.

Avocado. My pet peeve! I don't "mind" avocado but damn if I'm not tired of getting it on every single sandwich I order. I do not want it on my tuna salad, thank you very much.

And the weather. My husband made what I consider a very astute point. If you are a weather man, you want to go where there is, you know, WEATHER (he was speaking more specifically of the bay area "hmm what's it going to be today? Partly cloudy, fog in the morning, high of 70, what a surprise!") and so the GOOD meteorologists head out to the midwest/south/east where there is actually WEATHER.

We've finally traveled some in California this year and it is just a gorgeous state. I finally understand why people have been moving here like its the holy grail for centuries. We drove up north in October, through the Redwoods, and it was just a beautiful drive.

 

[AmericanItGirl]

[*]Hollywood Boulevard, during the day, is not nearly as "seedy" and "scary" as was described here on these boards. (Please note - this is coming from New Yorker, not a suburban or mid-west farm person, so your opinion of "seedy" or "scary" may differ.

Most of Hollywood Blvd. is very touristy compared to how it used to be, but a few blocks in the wrong direction late at night (mainly east and north) and I wouldn't be caught dead there, and I frequently went to clubs and bars in Hollywood while in undergrad (graduated in 2008).

 

[nana50]

The highway between L.A. and San Diego is the "5". The santa Ana freeway,(no one calls it that though, it's just "the 5". Don't head down to San Diego on a Friday late afternoon or early evening. It will be bumper to bumper with all the Angelenos coming down to San Diego.

What to do in San Diego. Well for one thing, it is much prettier than L.A. and everything is closer together, kinda like the difference between WDW and DL. There are the lovely beaches, Coronado, La Jolla, and Pacific Beach. There is the bay, The Gaslamp at night, the zoo of course, Wild Animal Park, Sea World, and numerous small little gems, like Quail Botanical Gardens, Balboa Park. Whew. Go online to see what to do in San Diego and you will be overwhelmed.

 

[magicalfoursome]

[*]People really do drive 100 mph on the 405 freeway

What??? Where does the 405 freeway take you? We will be driving from LAX to San Diego and then to DL. My DH would love to drive 100 mph but as for me as the passenger NO WAY!! I don't like his driving on highways here in PA so I can only imagine driving with him on an unfamiliar road with everyone speeding along Ohh-- I had better have a glass or wine or something or I will freak!!

 

[magicalfoursome]

The highway between L.A. and San Diego is the "5". The santa Ana freeway,(no one calls it that though, it's just "the 5". Don't head down to San Diego on a Friday late afternoon or early evening. It will be bumper to bumper with all the Angelenos coming down to San Diego.

Thanks! I guess we will be taking the "5". We get into LAX on a Thursday at 12.30 pm and we will be driving to San Diego. We are staying in Coronado. On Sunday we are going to the San Diego Zoo and then heading to DL in the late afternoon.

 

[HydroGuy]

We spent 9 days in SoCal, including Disneyland and San Diego. My quick observations and opinions (which are mine only, so please do not take it personally if you disagree )

• People really do drive 100 mph on the 405 freeway

SoCal freeways are scary. We spent the weekend in SoCal at a wedding (just got back this morning) and did drive the 405 north from LA up the coast. I can't say I saw anyone driving 100 mph or even close to 90, but driving with 7 lanes each direction and people weaving in and out at 70-80 mph is scary. Not for the faint of heart.

• They really do put avocado on (almost) everything in CA
  

We love avocado and I take this in a similar vein to your first comment as an exaggeration for effect. Yes, there are lots of avocado options!

• As much as I love Wishes, the fireworks at Disneyland were much better

DLR currently has four fireworks shows - Remember Dreams Come True which you saw is the best and better than Wishes and Illuminations - combined - IMO. Just a fabulous Disney show. They also have Magical for summer, a Halloween show, and Christmas fireworks.

• Hollywood Boulevard, during the day, is not nearly as "seedy" and "scary" as was described here on these boards. (Please note - this is coming from New Yorker, not a suburban or mid-west farm person, so your opinion of "seedy" or "scary" may differ.
  

I agree. During the day.

Disneyland is not "like Six Flags" "too small" "not worth the trip" or "a 1/2 day stop" like so many WDW/East Coast people think. We had a great time and absolutely plan to return...hopefully during the holidays (next year) to see everything decorated.

Ahhh, I have always noticed east coasters' bias towards the east in every way including Disney. When I read about the anti-DLR bias I always get the feeling it comes from people who have never actually been to DLR - just repeating "what they have heard" in an endless came of "telephone".

Glad you had so much fun and experienced some western Disney magic!

Finally - Southern California is GORGEOUS! Mountains and beaches, bays and oceans - everywhere you look is absolutely spectacular. Had a great trip, and I'm already planning my "to do" list for next time!

SoCal is at its peak beauty right now likely because of all the storms this winter. It has been a long time since I have seen it so green as I did this weekend. Be advised OP if you go back SoCal tends to look more hazy, dull brown in other times of the year.