Trip Planning - Orlando and/or LA? (Help required)

[Kasimir]

Ahoy there,
How're we all handling the heat/cold, or wherever we are at the moment?

Let me briefly explain my dilemma. A friend and I are planning a 2 week vacation between late September and early October of 2007. Here are the parks we are hoping to go to...

Orlando
Walt Disney World - MK, Epc, MGM & AK
Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure
Busch Gardens Tampa
Wet'n'Wild
Sea World Orlando

Los Angeles
Six Flags Magic Mountain & Hurricane Harbor
Knott's Berry Farm

We will be planning to stay in very simple hotels, not on site with any of the parks but within an extremely close distance. The feasibility of the adventure is fine but since we have both just graduated from college, we would like to build up our finances to establish a solid foundation of money for future endeavours etc, and blowing it all here would be kind of a bummer.

The cost-effective solution may be to attend rather Orlando or Los Angeles, which begs the question... which one would you guys rather go to? Keep in mind that if we do not goto Orlando, then we'd hit up USH, DL & DCA.

Or should we just go all out with both? There are so many pros & cons with each one, so I'd like to hear some other opinions.

Thanks very much for your time & help,
greatly appreciated.

Seeya round.

 

[bekkiz]

Will you have a car? I only ask because Magic Mountain and Knotts are really far apart--maybe an hour drive or more.

Frankly, having been to both of those parks, and all of the Orlando ones, the LA area parks are very dissapointing. If you're set on going to both area, I'd hit LA first so you're not ruined by the great experiances in FL. (although, coming from Australia, LA would make more sense).

However, if you were just going to pick one area, my choice would be Orlando. Perhaps I feel that was because I grew up in CA and have been to all of those parks many times, but I just don't think any of them (esp. when compared to IOA at Universal and the Disney parks) can compare. I also think it might be easier to find cheaper and nicer hotels in FL, there's just a higher hotel capacity near to all of the attractions vs. LA where many of the lower cost hotels are still pretty pricy or even worse very scary places.

That isn't to say LA wouldn't be a good trip. You'd still have a ton of fun and see some really neat things, it just wouldn't be my first choice.

 

[mom2kandj]

If I only had 14 days, I'd choose only one or the other to say on travel days.

Here's my CA itinerary:

Day 1: Land at LAX. Recover from travel.
Day2: Universal Hollywood
Day 3: Sightseeing - Hollywood, Santa Monica Pier, etc
Day 4: Day trip to Santa Barbara.
Day 5: Drive to Anaheim. Day 1 Disneyland
Day 6: DCA
Day 7: Disneyland again
Day 8: Drive to San Diego. Visit OC/SD beachs along the way. Huntington, Laguna, Doheny, Del Mar, etc.
Day 9: Visit San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park
Day 10: Visit Sea World San Diego
Day 11: Explore San Diego - Coronado, Gaslamp, etc
Day 12: Drive to Las Vegas
Day 13: Explore Vegas and see a show
Day 14: Fly home via Vegas.

If Las Vegas isn't your thing, I'd start in San Francisco for three days and then head south through Santa Barbara/LA to San Diego and then return to Anaheim. For this type of itinerary, I'd look into buying a SoCal Citypass.

Keep in mind that visiting CA will involve lots of driving. HTH!

Rose

 

[mom2kandj]

For FL in 14 days, I'd...

Day 1: Arrive FL and rest.
Day 2: Universal
Day 3: Wet n Wild
Day 4: IOA
Day 5: rest
Day 6: Busch Gardens
Day 7 - 13: WDW
Day 14: head home

HTH!

Rose

 

[Tasmen]

On the trip to LA, someone already mentioned the car issue. Magic Mountain is north of Los Angeles and definitely will require some car transport to get there. Another thing to keep in mind is that Six Flags is talking about closing Magic Mountain. I am not sure I would plan a trip so far out for the park in case they do end up closing it. While it's their flagship park, it isn't pulling in a lot of the money they want. Families have stopped going there due to all the teens that hang out there all day and cause problems. Teens will be dropped off at the start of the day and basically roam around the park being disruptive and not spend money. With all the high priced real estate that Magic Mountain is currently sitting on, Six Flags is seriously considering closing the park and selling off the property to help fund their other parks across the country.

 

[Kasimir]

I'm not sure what the law is with drivers licences, as I am yet not on my full licence... so I don't know if we could get a car, most probably not. Just end up catching a cab all over the place or bus.

Some other incentives to goto Orlando are because of the highly praised Halloween Horror Nights. So we might able to get a couple of nights at that event to compensate for missing out on LA. But one of my main concerns is that Six Flags & Knotts have great thrill rides there. Not to say BGA, IOA & WDW do not, but the rides like Tatsu, Riddlers Revenge, Deja Vu, Xcelerator, Boomerang etc. It'd be a little bit disappointing to travel all the way over there and not walk out having done everything that we could have. But yes, if Six Flags MM does decide to close down....would LA then be worth it to include it on the trip?

Cheers for all the input, greatly appreciated. Any more tips or thoughts?

 

[Disney Crazy Family]

Have done both- I personally would not go to LA, everywhere you go it takes you hours on end to get there and back, eats up most of your time.

WDW excellent because you can stay inside a disney resort, all your transportation is right at hand, you dont even have to rent a car. We go for 20 to 30 days at a time and never rent a car. Do your self a favor dont waste your time go to WDW, visit Universal Studios etc.

 

[DOOM1001]

I would highly suggest going to the Florida parks, especially as you might have some issues with transportation.With the Florida parks transportation throughout Disney is provided everywhere you go and you would just have to probably catch a cab to the International Drive area which has Universal and Wet and Wild on the north end and Sea World towards the south, and I-Drive trolleys can get you throughout the area.To get to Busch Gardens there's also a shuttle bus that picks you up in areas around I-Drive.

I've never been to the parks in SoCal, only to the ones around San Francisco,but I feel it's probably more of an issue getting from one park to another.Aside from that I just feel if you've never been to either area, there's just going to be much more in Florida than in SoCal.And Oh yes, if you're interested in Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, it's the biggest and best Halloween event on the planet, you can also check out Busch Garden's Howl-O-Scream, not quite on the same level as HHN, but some of the houses are just as good!!!

 

[Indy's Girl]

If you only go to FL, you will also save some airfare money which you can put towards splurging on a few things like a nice meal, or staying on-property. At WDW you could stay at POP century for not much $ and then not have to worry about transport to/from the airport and to/from the parks. At Universal, if you stay on property, your room key acts as a front of the line pass so you won't wait in any lines at IOA or USO. Just a thought!