We spent 9 days at Disneyland at the end of August and had a blast. We stayed a week at GCV w/vacation club points and the last two night concierge at Paradise Pier. We are WDW veterans, but have come to love DL for it's compactness and great rides you can not find at WDW. Since we could only get 5 day passes and it was not financially worthwhile to buy annual passes, we found we had a number of days to do offsite things. Here is what we did:
We visited the Queen Mary in Long Beach. This was actually a fun day. We purchased the first class ticket which allowed us to visit a Soviet era sub (dh was in his glory) and the pick a tour, we picked one that concerned the ships use as a troop transport vessel during WWII. It was quite informative (again, dh loved it). We then had lunch in one of the shipe restaurants and looked a a couple of shops. In the afternoon we had a "tour" about the ghosts of the ships. It was a bit hokey, with fake fog and lasers, but was fun. We ended up buying photos they take of you in front of a greenscreen before the ghost tour, but that really wasn't worth the money. We ended the day with a self guided tour of the ship (you get a headset to listen about the different areas). It would have been a great tour, but I was exhausted by then and just let my husband go on without me. We should have done that the first thing in the morning.
We next went on a Grayline tour of LA and Hollywood. We had a fun time. We visited the Walk of Fame, saw the Hollywood sign, had lunch at Fairfax Market drove around areas to see where different movie scenes were film (ds was in his glory - saw Tony Stark's house!). We then had a choice of going to Santa Monica or Venice Beach. We chose Santa Monica and had a fun time on the Pier. Our bus driver was great and had many stories to tell.
We went to Mission San Juan Capistrano and I really enjoyed it, but the rest of the family was bored. It is lovely w/ many gardens and a great audio tour. They had other docent led tours, but the kids didn't want to stay. That same day we went to Huntington Beach. We only stayed a little while, but it was beautiful. It was a weekday and there were very few people at the beach. We only dipped our toes in the water, but boy is the Pacific cold!!
Our last trip was the VIP tour at Paramount Studios. This was the highlight of the trip for ds. It was a 4.5 hour tour and included a wonderful buffet lunch. One of our favorite show, Community, is filmed there and we were able to see the stages where they film (not inside) and a number of outside areas they use. We also were able to go in the lighing area, watch people work on a car that was going to explode in an upcoming episode of NCIS-LA, visit the paint shop where the staff make everything from name plates to cereal boxes to paintball spats. The archive was interesting and ds took tons of pictures of props and costumes. This was a great tour and while a bit pricey ($150 person) well worth it if you have a movie buff in the family. The tour included a movie poster and when the guide, Jocelyn, found out my son loved the movie Super 8, she added it to tube of posters we received. She was a great guide and had many stories to tell us. My dd, who I thought would be bored, had a great time and saw Demi Lovato, which made her day.
We really liked doing things other than the parks, which never happens at WDW, and we hope to go again next year (also California weather is a heck of a lot more pleasant that FL in August). We think we will only do 2 or 3 day trips next time to give us a day or two of just hanging at the our resort.
We visited the Queen Mary in Long Beach. This was actually a fun day. We purchased the first class ticket which allowed us to visit a Soviet era sub (dh was in his glory) and the pick a tour, we picked one that concerned the ships use as a troop transport vessel during WWII. It was quite informative (again, dh loved it). We then had lunch in one of the shipe restaurants and looked a a couple of shops. In the afternoon we had a "tour" about the ghosts of the ships. It was a bit hokey, with fake fog and lasers, but was fun. We ended up buying photos they take of you in front of a greenscreen before the ghost tour, but that really wasn't worth the money. We ended the day with a self guided tour of the ship (you get a headset to listen about the different areas). It would have been a great tour, but I was exhausted by then and just let my husband go on without me. We should have done that the first thing in the morning.
We next went on a Grayline tour of LA and Hollywood. We had a fun time. We visited the Walk of Fame, saw the Hollywood sign, had lunch at Fairfax Market drove around areas to see where different movie scenes were film (ds was in his glory - saw Tony Stark's house!). We then had a choice of going to Santa Monica or Venice Beach. We chose Santa Monica and had a fun time on the Pier. Our bus driver was great and had many stories to tell.
We went to Mission San Juan Capistrano and I really enjoyed it, but the rest of the family was bored. It is lovely w/ many gardens and a great audio tour. They had other docent led tours, but the kids didn't want to stay. That same day we went to Huntington Beach. We only stayed a little while, but it was beautiful. It was a weekday and there were very few people at the beach. We only dipped our toes in the water, but boy is the Pacific cold!!
Our last trip was the VIP tour at Paramount Studios. This was the highlight of the trip for ds. It was a 4.5 hour tour and included a wonderful buffet lunch. One of our favorite show, Community, is filmed there and we were able to see the stages where they film (not inside) and a number of outside areas they use. We also were able to go in the lighing area, watch people work on a car that was going to explode in an upcoming episode of NCIS-LA, visit the paint shop where the staff make everything from name plates to cereal boxes to paintball spats. The archive was interesting and ds took tons of pictures of props and costumes. This was a great tour and while a bit pricey ($150 person) well worth it if you have a movie buff in the family. The tour included a movie poster and when the guide, Jocelyn, found out my son loved the movie Super 8, she added it to tube of posters we received. She was a great guide and had many stories to tell us. My dd, who I thought would be bored, had a great time and saw Demi Lovato, which made her day.
We really liked doing things other than the parks, which never happens at WDW, and we hope to go again next year (also California weather is a heck of a lot more pleasant that FL in August). We think we will only do 2 or 3 day trips next time to give us a day or two of just hanging at the our resort.
