San Diego Zoo & Sea World (yay or nay)

[hopeis]

Just wondering if we should visit the zoo or not while down there? We LOVE Calgary Zoo and have heard a few people comparing Calgary and San Diego Zoo. Are they comparable? Are they worth the trip (timewise)?
We went to the Safari at the AK so don't think we'd do the Safari Park.
What about Sea World, friends said it would be better to take older kids (our girls will be 9 and 4 1/2).
Any thoughts? Thanks

 

[Mrs. M. Mouse]

Not comparable at all! San Diego ZOO ROCKS!!! acutally the Wild Animal Park was my favorite but the zoo is so much more advanced than our zoo here !

The Wild animal park though was way way way better than the zoo. My kids 6 and 9 at the time LOVED both parks! we loved getting to see all the different animals, doing all the different tours that come free with your tickets and just checking out all the neat preformances at the parks were well worth the tickets alone.

We went last summer and the girls talk about that trip daily still and have pictures everywhere! one of our favorite trips ever!

 

[endy]

SeaWorld is great for all ages. There are only two big rides, lots for little ones to do in the play area. We've had SW passes for likely 8 years now & love it. We'll be there next weekend. I love having passes as we don't have to just do one power day for everything, we 'll go for the afternoon or evening for most of the week and it's more relaxed.

As for the SD zoo if you haven't been it's certainly worth going. We go every couple of years as DS14 is getting older & it's not thrilling. I love the Calgary zoo & don't get there often enough. It's very hilly so we do the bus tour up to the top and work our way down.

You'll find lots of useful info over on the SoCal board.

 

[hopeis]

Thanks! We will definitely add it to our trip itinerary for next summer. Now we just need to decide when to go ~ July/ August.

 

[Mrs. M. Mouse]

I'm just guessing but you're thinking of Disneyland? It's super busy up until they go back to school in the states near the end of august. We went the last 2 weeks of august last summer and it was busy for the first few days. I think they started back to school on the 20th or so of august. After Californians went back to school the parks were nearly dead. We walked on everything.

Hope that helps in your planning....