Suggestions for my trip?!?!

caimakale

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 1, 2005
Messages
417
I am planning on taking my girls, ages 2, 4, & 7, to California August 13-21. During this time I want to go to disneyland, sea world, universal studios, and the beach.

This is where my questions begin. How much can my 2 year old do??? (she just turned 2). My 4 year old turns 5 on August 20, what would you recommend we do to make the day extra special for her? The reason I ask is, we want to make the 20th the third and final day of our visit to disneyland. Are there certain things we should do on the first two days to get out of the way, and certain things on the third day that can make her day that much better?

Is it better to use an online travle company, or a local travel agency to book the trip? I want to spend a couple nights in a disney hotel, so my girls can get "the full disney experience", but don't have the money to stay there for 8 nights. I would like to stay at a nice hotel close to disneyland for the remainder of the trip.

The way we are planning right now, we want to go to the beach one day, disneyland for 3 days or 4 days (possible buy 3 nights get 4th free deal here?), sea world one day, & universal studios one day. Any other suggestions for the last and final day? If we only do disneyland for 3 days then we will have 2 days to fill.

If it were you, what would you do? This is the first vacation me and my family have gone on, so call me a n00b vacation planner. I want to make this as memorable as possible for my daughters, they are disney freaks!!! I swear we own EVERY princess dress up, maybe two or three of each. Every disney princess movie, and my two year old LOVES "mouse" ::MickeyMo .

Any and all help & advice is appreciated.

Thanks!!!!
 
At DL the 2yo can do all of the dark rides, POTC, HM and things w/o height requirements (rides w/height requirements also have 3 year minimum ages). I would recommend rethinking Universal with a 2yo, though. Not much she can do there and even the tram tour might be too scary (you go through an earthquake and Jaws, Mummy, & King Kong scenes plus over a bridge that seems to be falling apart and there's no way off until it's over and it's an hour long).

For the B-day girl, get her a b-day sticker at City Hall. They have a Happiest Birthday on Earth thing at the Plaza Inn (and it's meant for kids her age).
 
How about reversing your hotel strategy so you're staying at a Disneyland Resort Hotel on your little one's birthday?

The girls are going to be so excited you're going, so you don't have to plan anything out of this world, but maybe you want to go to the Royal Princess Breakfast on the 20th, and have your three girls dress as princesses, or at least your 4 year old. That plus her birthday sticker will get her a lot of attention. Like iceskatejen said, there is a birthday party at the Plaza Inn every afternoon for $10 a person and Mickey & Minnie appear.

Get your 4 & 7 year olds autograph books so they can get those autographs from the beginning of your vacation.

I would rethink Universal Studios -- your 7 year old would be fine with it, but the tram tour has a couple of really intense scenes - King Kong & Earthquake that might scare your two little ones (my little one was scared). She was also terrified of Backdraft because of the special effects.

You MIGHT consider Knotts - they have a Camp Snoopy there that is perfect for your girls - all three of them, plus a couple of mild coasters that your 4 year old & 7 year old would enjoy... some shows, etc. Plus it's only about 10 minutes from Disneyland.

As for booking your trip - check into quotes - quotes are free. Dreams Unlimited Travel can give you a quote, as well as AAA if you have it, and your local agency. You can also go online & price it out individually to see what is the best for you.

I think it's still peak season when you're going, but it doesn't hurt to see if any of the Good Neighbor hotels have the 3rd night free.

Enjoy your planning. :)
 
I would suggest getting the Southern California City Pass, which includes 3 days at DL (including one EE day), Knotts, SeaWorld, and the San Diego Zoo, and is a really good deal, especially if you buy them through Costco.com. Spend your first 2 or 3 nights in San Diego and do SW, the zoo, and the beach. Then go up to Anaheim and stay at the HoJo, I think your kids would like the pool there from what I have read, and go to Knotts on one of those days. Then spend the last couple of nights at the DLH. The 4th night free deal does not start until Aug 28th. Do all the rides on your first 2 DL days, and take it easy on your last day. Do the princess breakfast and have them all dress up, and the birthday party. I agree about skipping Universal, there is really not much for younger kids (from what I have read).
 

I have some tips for you.

First of all, don't use travel agents (Disney's or otherwise)--they only make things more expensive in my experience. Book everything separately, unless you are going to stay at a Disney hotel. If you are going to do that, you can book tickets in a package that is actually cheaper.

If you don't want to stay at a Disney hotel or a Good Neighbor Hotel (the ones nearest the property), try staying in a nearby city. Cities like Buena Park and Santa Ana are surprisingly near Disneyland, and the hotels are MUCH less (at least $50 per night on the peak season). We just got back from Disneyland and stayed at the Embassy Suites in Santa Ana. Disneyland was a quick 15 minutes from the hotel.

Also, pre-purchase your tickets online from Disneyland's website if you aren't staying on property--they cost less and they mail them right to you--which translates into no ticket lines for the kids.

And lastly, since it is your first time, arrive before opening so you can park and be at the gates when the park opens. It's magical and you can maximize your morning time, which is when lines are the shortest.

Have fun!
 
Thank you to everybody for your tips & hints. By the sound of it, we will bag Universal studios and instead go to the San Diego Zoo. I like the idea of staying in SD for a couple days, and then heading North to Anahiem.

So if we go to San Diego, what aiport is the best one to fly into? Is there an airport in general that you recommend I fly into and out of?
 
If you can, fly into San Diego (SAN) and out of Orange County (SNA). That is what we are doing and it was the same as the lowest fare we found anywhere; we also got a great rate on a car rental, but we booked everything over 3 months ago and all the rates have gone up considerably. Otherwise, try flying in and out of SNA, it is just a little south of Anaheim and a little over an hour north of San Diego.
 
Once you get the kids there, they aren't going to want to leave to go anywhere else!!! :cloud9:

I can strongly recommend HoJos if you're interested in doing a Good Neighbor hotel. I don't know if they're running a special with Mousesavers right now or not, but you might join Mousesavers (if you haven't already...it's free) to see what deals are listed.

I agree about buying tickets from Disney. Even as a teacher, they were the cheapest I found because I didn't have to pay shipping charges to them. I also got some perks from buying there...Early Entry and ESPN Zone points, that the other places couldn't offer.

Not having girls, I can't offer many suggestions as far as that goes, but one thing I would suggest is popping for a picture of your birthday girl by herself in front of the castle. I think it would be a wonderful birthday keepsake.

I also think I'd save character dining for the 20th, if you are going to do a character meal. You probably want to call asap to book it, just to make sure you can get what you want. princess:

Have fun on your trip! The only bad thing about going to Disneyland is that, if you live half way across country, it will be awhile before you get to go back again!!!
 
Well thanks to all of you here for your suggestions....I booked my trip last night!

We will be flying into San Diego Saturday morning. We will be staying at The Dana on Mission Bay - Sea World for two nights. It's really close to SW, mission beach, and only about 5-6 miles away from the Zoo.

On the 15th, we will check out and before we go north to Anahiem, we will go to the zoo or sea world (haven't decided the order of our events yet). We will be checking into Howard Johnson later that night after we finish the zoo or SW, where we will stay until the 18th. I got tickets to Knotts Berry Farm, but still don't have anything planned for one day. I got thinking about this though. It might be really nice to have a day in there (Wednesday), where we just relax a little. Maybe go to the wax museum, and then go back and hang out at the hotels swimming pool. That should help get us ready for 3 days of DL.

I decided to go with the GC for our Disney hotel. I upgraded to the Downtown Disney View. The only thing I have left to do is book the princess character breakfast and the birthday party.

We will be flying out of the Orange County Airport on the 21. We are getting our rental car with Budget, and I have made sure we can return it to another location.

Thanks for everyones help, it was invaluable. See you in DisneyLand!! :teeth:
 
We just got back the other night from DL. Stayed at the HoJo which was nice. Last year we were in WDW for my DD's 2nd birthday. I made ressies at the Crystal Palace where they have the Pooh characters and they had a little cake for her. I also told them it was her birthday when I booked at the Contemporary, and they had balloons and signed birthday cards from the characters in the room. I would imagine DL would do something similar.

Last week, we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and my DD, who is 3 now, cried all the way through it. I also had to take her out of the Bug's Life movie. She did both of those at WDW last year and was fine with them. But anything dark and noisy now she is afraid of. Didn't even try the Haunted Mansion with her.

We also did San Diego beforehand and went to SW and the zoo.

I know you will have a great time.

Lynn
 
Wow, you work fast! Sounds like you have a good plan though.

I just wanted to let you know that I've stayed at Dana Inn twice, and we really like it there. We particularly like having breakfast at the Red Hen restaurant there. If you're looking for some place to go at night, you might want to check out Sea Port Village which has a variety of restaurants, and some shops. I also like Horton Plaza for shopping.

For your free day, you might want to spend some time walking around Downtown Disney (if you don't have that planned during your stay at GC). Other options are driving on the coast, or if you like to shop, South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island aren't too far away.

For your San Diego plans, keep in mind that the Zoo can be tiring because there are a lot of hills. I think it might take longer than SW if you want to try to see everything too. I would recommend doing the bus tour first, then going back to see your favorites at leisure. Also, there are a lot of escalators. The advice I was given is to "ride up" and "walk down", meaning, when you're going up hill, take the escalator, and walk down the hills. The drive up to Anaheim will probably take at least 1 1/2 hours, so you might want to factor that into your decision of which park to do first.

Sounds like you're going to have a great trip!!!
 
I like the coast idea! I think we will probably take a drive down the PCH.

We will probably do the zoo the same day we go to anahiem. We have a zoo here in Salt Lake (although it's nothing compared to the SDZ), but they aren't nearly as excited about that as they are about SW. We will probably just see some of the animals we don't have here, and then the "popular" animals, ie. Giraffes, elephants, rhinos, etc... We will definately follow your advice to "ride up and walk down".

Thanks for the info on the dining in San Diego, I didn' have a clue where we would eat, but we will give those locations a try. That is about the last thing we have to do to prepare for our trip is plan the meals. It wasn't a huge priority for us because if there is somewhere near with happy meals, my kids will be content. ;) I definitely want to go to some restraunts, at disney and other locations, McDonalds will do for breakfast a couple of days, mmmm....sausague egg mcmuffin :banana:
 












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