Southern California Southern California Mini Trip Report- Holiday Time 2025

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Hello!

My family visited Southern California from Dec 25 2025- Jan 1 2026. Most of the trip was visiting family but I'll include some of the stuff we did here.

Ill include our time at a children's museum in Temecula, Old Town Temecula, Legoland, Little Tokyo in downtown LA and a children's museum in Pasadena.

Here we are at a diner in Burbank



Oh also we ate at a lounge in the airport thanks to my credit card so that was really cool. We've never done that before. It felt like we were on a cruise.



They had a buffet with two different shrimp dishes and salmon. They had an espresso machine and a fridge filled with cans of different drinks. Plus cookies and brownies. So this was our Xmas dinner since we flew out to CA Xmas night.

 

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Sat Dec 27- Old Town Temecula and Children's Museum

We got to the children's museum in Old Town Temecula about 10 minutes before they opened. The admission is for a 2 hr time block then they close to clean and then they do another 2 hr time block in the afternoon. There was a small line but not too bad.



The children's museum is themed kinda like a steam punk inventors house.



Incredibly different than any other children's museum I've ever been to. I enjoyed just looking at everything and taking it in. The same way I enjoy at Disney.







Anywhere that had a penny and a pickle tells the kids they should try to play with it to see what happens.

Most of the exhibits were somehow science related but my kids just liked running around, looking and playing.

 

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They had a scavenger hunt that DD6 did with DH and "uncle". While they did that DS3 and I watched live science demonstrations. I didn't take any pictures but it was pretty entertaining. They put stuff in the microwave that you're not supposed to. They did a volcano. They used a leaf blower to blow toilet paper on the audience. Plus a lot of other experiments.

DD6 also found the "hidden mouse" so she won a sticker.

 

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At one point I got tired so I got a coffee and drank it in the food area. The tables were cute.



They had riddles on the wall.



Overall best children's museum ever. If anyone has a children's museum they know about that is a little weird like this please let me know!

Next up walking around old town Temecula

 

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We decided to walk around old town a little after the children's museum. Mostly because we wanted to get in n out on the way home for lunch but we weren't hungry yet. Also none of us have walked around this area before and it's like right next to the children's museum.

For some reason there was a line of families to take a picture with this reindeer outside a store so the kids asked to wait and take a picture too



Then we found some stores that looked geared towards kids so we went there.





Each kid got a lovey bought for them by uncle. Trex for DS3 and unicorn for DD6. Neither of them wanted to spend their own money on anything though.

Then we all kinda split up for a little. DS3 and DH sat in a store and worked on a puzzle. Uncle went to find coffee. DD6 and I found an old timey candy store. She likes looking at all the old toys and I offered to buy her a candy so after much consideration (she is very picky), she decided to try a chocolate covered strawberry.

By the time they were ready (they make them fresh(, everyone had found us so DS3 got one too



They both really liked them!

And then we were hungry so we left for in n out

Next up Legoland

 

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Mon Dec 29- Legoland

We got there about 30 minutes before the early entry time so around 830am. We didn't qualify for early entry because we weren't staying at the hotel or paying extra for it but I had read we could still enter the beginning area of the park to look around. (We had been waking up pretty early anyway with the time difference so wasn't too hard.)

We parked and decided to check out the hotel. DD6 had watched ryan world vlogs of the hotel and really wanted to see it- especially the dancing elevator.







We felt awkward going on the elevator just to go but this was what DD6 really wanted to experience so there we are.

And then we waited to get in. They let us all in maybe 10 min late but it was cute they had a little announcement and parade.

 

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After we got in we went to guest services to ask how we use the skip the line service we had pre-bought. Basically we thought we could choose our first ride starting at 8am but he was like no you have to wait for park open at 10am and showed us how to do it.

It's one ride at a time and basically lets you wait for the ride anywhere you want and then you enter a special line.

I took a screenshot of one. It looked like this.



Once you are able to enter the special line, it doesn't expire which is a little different than LLMP. We had bout the medium tier one which means our wait time to enter the line was less but next time we'd probably buy the lowest tier because we had no problem having fun killing time around the park. We just don't like the line part.

We had also pre bought a refillable soda mug for me and DH to share since we read the only drink we could bring to the park is water and we knew we'd need caffeine throughout the day.



And then the kids looked at all the Xmas displays.







And then we looked at the gift shop.




All the lego displays are pretty incredible. They were the best part for me. In the morning DH and I kept looking at them up close to see if they were really made with real legos and they looked like old legos glued together but REAL LEGOS. It's just really cool that people came up with these. Or maybe it was a computer. Who knows.

And look at this silly banana!

 

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Once everything opened at 10am we went to the dino area first since DS3 is obsessed with dinosaurs. But everything already had a long line from the early entry people. So we picked a dino ride to start waiting for on our skip the line thing and kept moving.

We saw a ride with a 5 min wait and headed towards it



They had a fun Lego building station in the line. It's always so nice when there's stuff for kids to do in line.



So it's like soaring but way more intense. DD6 and I both got pretty nauseous. DD6 was so bad she asked for her nausea medicine and needed to take a break. I just chugged the lemonade in my cup since the sour helps.

DS3 and DH played at a nearby playground while we recovered. Legoland had a ton of playgrounds which I thought was so so nice. Because I really think kids especially toddlers feel better after they get at least some run around time everyday. And it was so convenient with our skip the line thing to have them play at a nearby playground while we wait. I wish Disney had more playgrounds.

 

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Eventually we recovered enough to go on the next ride which we used our skip the line for. It was a very slow moving car and I think the story line was like we were looking for dinosaurs on safari but they were hiding?





The kids liked it and no one got nauseous so that's a win.

We booked our next skip the line for the dino roller coaster and went exploring. DH and DS3 went to refill our cup. DD6 and I went to a lego play area.



Then we were headed towards a low wait carousel ride but we got distracted by a different lego build area on the way.





We never made it to the carousel

We didn't do this but I saw mini fig trading. It's like their version of pin trading. And in this area they had a wall of mini figs up for trading



Then it was time for our dino rollercoaster so we headed back that way. We got in the "skip the line" line and waited about 5 min with absolutely no movement then we heard other people ahead of us questioning if something was wrong so we just cancelled this ride and booked another ride.

We started walking towards it since the wait to use it was pretty low and we knew there'd be stuff to look at along the way. Plus potty breaks were needed



This was tiny DC. So cool. And the little marching band actually moved and made sounds.

Then of course the kids wanted pics with Lego Santa

 

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So this next ride was my favorite ride at Legoland. It was a submarine with both real fish and Lego stuff plus there was an interactive like try to find it part for the kids. But they had sting rays and sharks and a lot of cool fish! I just wish it was longer.





Next up was lunch. I picked a ride that had a long wait on the skip the line thing. While in line for the submarine I had tried to figure out if there was any quick service in the park with indoor seating but it seemed like a no. I don't like eating outside and I really wanted a break from crowds by this point too so I requested we walk back to eat at the hotel restaurant and DH agreed so that's what we did.

It was overpriced and just ok food but it wasn't crowded and it truly felt like a break. So that was really nice.



And then the kids played in the play area in the lobby. It was too crowded for them to play there in the morning before park opening.







This was also really relaxing and a nice break from crowds.

For some reason though all the kids in the pirate ship area made fake guns out of legos and then played like a fake shoot at each other game. We've never seen our kids play a game like that. It was kinda odd. There's a strict don't pretend to play guns rule at the public schools where we live which maybe why we don't see it at the playgrounds here?? But I thought California would also be strict with that?? Anyway we just let it go but told them they can't do that at home. DD6 was like yeah I know. I guess it's drilled into her. DS3 made his fake Lego gun (or found it after another kid made it?) out of all black Legos so it was more realistic and DH tried to make him add some colorful legos to make it less realistic looking but then he was like NO THIS IS MINE and DH just let it go and came back to the comfy chair parent sitting area with me.

 

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We eventually decided to head back to the park.

We saw a parade on the way to our ride!



So this ride was kinda like TSM but with your hands...and less accurate...and it made me nauseous enough to take off my 3D glasses halfway through. Everyone else in my family liked it though.









Then we headed to a playground that was on the way to our next skip the line ride.



This playground was awesome except it was hard to keep track of the kids cuz it was kinda crowded









I saw a lot of parents like ripping their kids away for the rides
I also heard a dad say I didn't pay for us to come here for you to go to a playground

Eventually we asked if they wanted to go on the next ride and they said they were so up the hill we went to the dragon rollercoaster which turned out to be the kids favorite ride

 

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The CMs at the dragon rollercoaster were really funny. I forget what the announcer kept saying but DH and I were copying it the rest of the day. It was like mimicing an old timey carnival ride guy. And then the other CMs clapped every time the coaster would come back to celebrate the people surviving and the people waiting in line would clap with them too. It was just good vibes in there all around.



There was also a really funny sign right before the entrance warning people that this is a "real" rollercoaster. It was kinda big. Like maybe slinky dog level. DS3 was definitely the smallest one on it. He put his little hands up at the beginning. Very cute. But then put them down to hold on as soon as we went fast.

Our strategy for the rest of the night was basically just hit all the skip the line rides we could. So we went to the next one.



It was like a little boat you drive....but you really drive it. It's not on a track. We saw people getting stuck a bunch of times while in line which was hilarious and then a CM in waders has to jump in and move the boat back to the circle area it's supposed to stay on.





This might actually be tied with the submarine ride for me actually. Mostly cuz it was so funny to watch people get stuck.

DD6 almost got stuck but she was able to unstuck herself and then she was very serious about driving and didn't even want me to talk to her to distract her.

DH was afraid to let DS3 drive too much by himself but then DS3 got kinda sad that he couldn't do it himself and then didn't want to do it at all so DH just drove.