Seaworld to Disneyland

[MDH]

Going to be in Calfornia from Sept 25th till oct 2nd. planning on doing disney mon tues wed saturday. Lego land thursday and Seaworld Friday. What I was hoping was to get tickets to the halloween party on friday night the 30th for extra disney time. What time would we have to leave Seaworld in San Diego to get to the halloween party. Or i guess more specifically, how long will the drive take on a Friday. Thanks!

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Here's the thing. If there was no traffic at all, it's about an hour and a half drive. But there will be traffic. We once had to leave San Diego around 3:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. We knew it was a bad time, but we didn't have a lot of choice. We didn't pass through the Anaheim area until sometime between 6 and 7 PM. If you Google map the route right now (it's a summer Friday today) then Google says it's a 2 hour and 42 minute drive. Typical ranges it gives for various times I tested out today were 2 hours 10 minutes to 3 and a half hours. Based on my few experiences driving between San Diego and Anaheim, I agree with Google maps.

 

[tlovesdis]

I was going to say on a Friday it's probably going to take about 3 hours or more. The party starts at 7, so I would say leave at 3 just to give yourself time. If you arrive early, bonus! You can get in with your party ticket at 4pm.

 

[MDH]

Thanks for details! Sounds like 3 hours. I need to decide if it makes sense. Seaworld only opens at 10. so we'd have from 10 till 3. Other option is to do disneyland on friday and do the party that day, seaworld saturday. This would limit travel, but would include less time at a disney park and cost more because we'd have to pay full price friday ticket, and a halloween ticket price. Seaworld is free because it is already included in our city pass. My one concern is that the only chance we'll have for some of disney's parades or fireworks is on the saturday because I've read that in off season those only run on weekends. I'm open to all suggestions.

 

[tlovesdis]

Can you do the party on Wednesday? You could do Mon, Tues, and Thursday on a hopper and the party on Wednesday, then travel to SD and do Legoland and Seaworld on Friday and Saturday. That way you aren't traveling back and forth. Just a thought!

 

[MDH]

I would like to do Wednesday but my wife is adamant that we do that as a regualr park day from the morning on because she's read that Wednesday is lowest crowds. Really this couldn't be a more first world problem. I'll be travelling back and forth regardless because our hotel room is booked at the gates. I must admit there's a small part of me that wants to make my last day a disney day, it's my happy place.

 

[Nevada Jen]

How old are your kids and how into Legos are they? A half day at Legoland might be plenty. You could switch your SeaWorld and Legoland days up. The problem with a short day at sea world is that it is a lot of shows. Leaving by 3 might really limit you on the other hand, leaving Legoland at 2 might not limit you much at all and get back to Disney an hour faster to boot.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Do you need to visit Sea World? It sounds like Sea World is complicating the whole thing. I know you get a free day, but the cost of gas and the stress of driving back and forth isn't worth going for free unless you have some other reason for visiting it. I'd be more inclined to do Sea World a totally different day or go there for a couple hours after Legoland.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

It's too bad Legoland isn't open on Wednesday, because that would have been the best solution. I agree with the poster who suggests swapping your Legoland and SeaWorld days if you really want to pack in everything.

Here's what I would probably do though if it was me and I wanted to do all this stuff:

I would definitely absolutely end my trip with Disney, so I would go to Disney on Friday. I also wouldn't especially want to be driving on the freeway and getting exhausted by traffic and another theme park on my last Disney day, so I wouldn't choose to do either Legoland or SeaWorld on Friday.

I would probably do one of the following:
Keep Monday and Tuesday as Disney, move SeaWorld to Wednesday and Legoland to Thursday, and then do Disney again on Friday with or without the addition of the Halloween party.

Alternatively, depending on your arrival time and other planned activities, you could do a partial Disney day on arrival day Sun. Sept. 25, still do Disney on Monday and Tuesday, SeaWorld Wednesday and Legoland on Thursday or do Disney on Monday and Wednesday, SeaWorld on Tuesday, and Legoland on Thursday. Then on Friday, have a leisurely day. Sleep in, use the pool, go to downtown Disney, find another local attraction such as the Cube Museum in Santa Ana. Then do the Halloween party that night. It starts at 7 PM, so you can enter Disneyland at 4 PM and stay until midnight.

Btw, I don't feel there is any hard and fast crowd rule at Disney. I have seen Saturdays that were less crowded than Wednesdays and of course vice versa. I hear that Wednesday is the least crowded comment a lot, but I also hear that off-season is less crowded too. If you look at the pictures of people in the parks last week and compare to some recent off-season pictures, I think there is room for doubt.

 

[MDH]

Thanks for all the great feedback. I'll consider all of it and see what i come up with. It's certainly not a bad problem trying to figure out how to have the most fun

 

[MDH]

I suppose one last question. Are there any rides in disneyland that don't operate during the halloween party. I'd hate to do friday from 4 till midnight as our disney day only to find out big thunder, splash, and autotopia aren't running past 7. My kids love those rides. 4, 9 1nd 10 to the poster earlier who asked the ages. And they love lego.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I suppose one last question. Are there any rides in disneyland that don't operate during the halloween party. I'd hate to do friday from 4 till midnight as our disney day only to find out big thunder, splash, and autotopia aren't running past 7. My kids love those rides. 4, 9 1nd 10 to the poster earlier who asked the ages. And they love lego.

The first time I went to a halloween party, many of the rides were closed. The rides that were open had very long lines.
I cannot remember if the same amount of rides were closed on our second visit. We spent so much time waiting in lines for characters and food, I don't think we did any rides besides HM.

 

[tarheelalum]

I live in San Diego and drive the 5 freeway daily. If I were you, I would leave seaworld at 130 or 2pm (at the latest) to beat the traffic which starts very early on the 5. Friday is the worst possible day of the week for traffic so I would not risk leaving any later. Traffic is bad on the 5 through PB, La Jolla, and especially around Oceanside and Camp Pendleton area. One wreck and you will be sitting there forever. Don't risk it but diffenately try to see the Pets Rule show at Seaworld. It is fantastic.

 

[ParkHopper1]

The website GoogleMaps has a great tool...you enter in your starting point and destination, but you can change the day and time of departure to see typical traffic patterns and estimated times when you wanna go.