Are we trying to do too much?

[TwoOldPoohs]

Help! I've been trying to plan a trip to DL, but I'm having a hard time with it. We've been to WDW so many time I can practically plan a trip in my sleep. But it's been 30 years since I've been to Disneyland, and we want to do it all!

We will have 6 full days (not counting traveling days, since we would be arriving late and leaving early). We want to see:

Disneyland/DCA
Universal
San Diego Zoo
San Diego Wild Animal Park
Sea World

DBF has never been to the west coast, so I thought he'd like to visit La Jolla. I'd also like to take in some of the other sights around San Diego.

Will I have enough time? If I had to leave something out, what should that be?

Thanks for your help and your suggestions!
Ilene

 

[kuusimo]

How many days do you want at Disneyland? It sounds like everything you want to do is included in the Southern California City Pass. The only thing is you need to choose between the wild animal park and the zoo. Costco sells them. (Normal price is $199, Costco is $175) Here is the link to it:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11106759&whse=&topnav=&browse=&s=1

Personal opinon I would do the citypass and you could fit it all in 6 days. We have two little ones and we spent only a few hours at Sea World. You could to LaJolla the other half of that day. I have never been to the animal park, just the zoo. I hear that the animal park is more for grown ups than little children.

Anyone else...

 

[victorandbellasmom]

Where will you be staying? Will you be splitting up your stay between San Diego and anaheim? Or will you stay in one hotel and just commute to the different theme parks daily?
We did a similar itinerary last Oct except we did legoland instead of universal and ours was 12 days. We actually stayed in San Diego for 5 nights and Anaheim for the last 6 nights. We had 5 kids 7 and under so it was our mission to do each and every park from open to close. Surprisingly or not suprisingly I guess, the kids fared better than the adults. We chose to do DL/DCA towards the end of our trip so that we could relax and enjoy DL/DCA and staying onsite.
Each park can be done within a day. We love DL/DCA so we like to devote 5 days there. Haven't been to Universal in over 12 years, but most people say it can be done within a day. We did Seaworld in 2 days becasue we had so much fun, but it can be done within one. We did breakfast with Shamu, and it's before the park opens, so you're the first ones there. My daughter loved the San Diego Zoomainly becasue of the Pandas and the skytram. Dh and I agree with her. If not for these 2 things, we'd like our local Woodland Park Zoo better. WAP was nice. Dh and ds did the photocravan tour with my parents and they had a great time. (this was the highlight of my dh's trip) My sisters and I were with the kids so we took the train around and walked around afterwards. If you had to leave something out, I think you should chose between the zoo or the WAP. We've never been to La Jolla so I can't say anything about that. We did Old Town for dinner in San Diego after one of the parks (Zoo and WAP closes at 5 or 6).
So long as you know what you're in for, you may be able to squeeze everything in. You might need a vacation from your vacation, but that's another story.

 

[bclydia]

Wow! That's a lot to fit in in only 6 days.
I would only go to either the wild animal park or the zoo. We've done both and found that we wouldn't bother with the Wild Animal Park again. The City pass seems to be a good option for you.
I really think that you need 3 days minimum for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park.
Have a great time!

 

[GreenGirl8]

You can do all of it if you have the energy. I have done all of that with my family in 5 days (Disneyland/DCA for one day). It was crazy, but they loved it! The Wild Animal Park is great and I actually like it better than the Zoo. I live very nearby both and visit the Wild Animal Park probably 4 times more. You have to know how to do the park though.

 

[SunshineOR]

We always go and just do Disneyland for a week, so I'm no help! I'd definitely recommend to at least spend two days at Disneyland/DCA or you'll be so rushed you won't get to enjoy the atmosphere. Good luck and have a great trip!

 

[Syn&Bri'sDaddy]

We'll be doing this exact (well, sorta) itinerary beginning this Friday. We're doing the CityPass as suggested by Kuusimo (beat me to it!). We'll be driving in from Phoenix, jumping right in with both feet as we visit SeaWorld "on the way" to our resort (timeshare exchange; in Capistrano Beach on the southern tip of LA, nicely central-ish to everything we're visiting).

Fri: SeaWorld
Sat: DL/CA -- mellow day, just seeing the characters, shows, parades, fireworks, etc
Sun: Universal -- hopefully weekend traffic into LA won't be nearly as bad
Mon: DL -- rides, rides, and more rides, with help from RideMax
Tue: free day....beach for shells? Hollywood Walk of Fame? laundry? nothing? lol
Wed: CA -- rides again, with help from RideMax
Thu: Wild Animal Park
Fri: on the road again, headin' home

The wife and I visited SDZoo a couple years ago, so I for one am not too keen on visiting there again so soon (not meaning that in a negative sense, rather I'll wait a few years for the next generation of animals lol). The kids have been to zoos recently, so I think the WAP will be "different enough" to make the grade. It may not be "extraordinary" as alluded to in an earlier post, but I think it'll be "good enough".

I would say DL/CA/US have the most to offer, so visit them on the weekend to make use of the longer hours. Hours for SW/Zoo/WAP are pretty much the same no matter what day, so a weekday it is. SW (5pm), Zoo (4pm), and WAP (4pm) all close early, so that might leave evenings free for additional LaJolla/SD sightseeing.

If you can still find them, the 2005 CityPass has Knott's Berry Farm instead of Universal, good until the end of March.

Can all this be done in a week? Certainly, but then again, we're psycho tourists. We did all four WDW parks, Blizzard Beach, and a day at the beach in six days a couple of years ago. While our visit to AK was cut short by rain (we can put up with some rain, but it just kept pouring and then it started getting chilly, so that was enough), I feel we got great value out of each visit. We saw most of the characters, rode most of the rides. I don't think we rushed a great deal, the kids stopping for characters helped slow things down (I *tried* to rush, but the best laid plans, as they say lol).

As was said, you know what you're in for, so plan accordingly. Break out a calendar, visit the park websites for their hours, and start plugging things in. Alternate a short day (WAP) with a long day (DL), for example. 3-4 long days in a row could exhaust you. Put a free day in the middle, for doing light stuff (LaJolla) or nothing at all.

Good luck and have fun!
Bill

 

[npealer]

Your trip is totally doable, Your defianently need at least one day ea at DL and CA. I have not been to the others in quite some time, but I would assume that you can do them in 1 day. Enjoy your trip!

 

[TwoOldPoohs]

Thank you all for your comments! Of course, I have some more questions.

kuusimo: Citypass sounds like it will work for us. I'll check in to that. Thanks!

victorandbellasmom: yes, we plan to fly in to one airport and fly out of the other, splitting our stay between the DL area and San Diego so we won't have to drive too far on any one day. We are interested in the photo caravan tour at the Wild Animal Park. It will be hard for us to choose between that and the zoo. We are members of the Wildlife Conservation Society and are frequent visitors to the Bronx Zoo in NYC. (My Bronx Zoo photos) I visited the San Diego Zoo in the mid 1970's and enjoyed it a great deal, but I wonder now if the differences between it and the Bronx Zoo are not enough to warrant another visit.

bclydia: As frequent visitors to WDW, will we still need 3 days to see all of DL and DCA? What didn't you like about the Wild Animal Park?

GreenGirl8: we probably don't have the energy anymore - and certainly won't have any left at the end of that week .. but we're willing to give it a try! Any tips on how best to see Wild Animal Park?

SunshineOR: That's what we love about WDW ... the atmosphere. We certainly don't want to rush through DL and not take in the atmosphere.

Syn&Bri'sDaddy: What's RideMax? Good suggestions there. Thanks! Have a great trip!

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks again for your help!

 

[Syn&Bri'sDaddy]

Syn&Bri'sDaddy: What's RideMax? Good suggestions there. Thanks! Have a great trip!

Go to http://www.ridemax.com for more info. If you've heard of TourGuideMike for planning trips to WDW (http://www.tourguidemike.com), this is similar. I don't have actual experience with using RideMax, but it appears that it'll suit my needs. I'll put it to the test this next week.

Whereas TourGuideMike is totally on a website (access/modify from any computer), RideMax is uses software that you download to your PC (left your computer at home? oops...). What it does is somehow determines wait times for each ride (historical data, I suppose). You tell it what rides you want to go on, it then calculates the most optimum plan for riding them with the least about of line time (including "go get xxxxxx FastPass now"). It's $16.95 for a 90day subscription (one time visit? should suffice), or $26.95 for a year (annual pass, multiple times/year visitor?).

If you decide to try this (or TourGuideMike for that matter), keep one thing in mind: BE FLEXIBLE. I had this great plan worked out for WDW via TGM. It told me which days to visit which park, it told me what times and in what order to ride which rides. That lasted all of about 2minutes until we got inside the gates and the kids saw the characters. It had enough flexibility built in that I was able to modify it on the fly, but it was frustrating until I realized that I had to be flexible. RideMax doesn't seem to be as flexible, but then again I may be trying to squeeze too much into it. lol I'm still working on it tho.

This is why I want to use our first day for hopping between DL and CA, seeing the shows, characters, parades, fireworks, and anything else not ride-related. Then max out on only the rides using RideMax (get it? ride, and max lol) on other days for each park.

Is $17 worth getting you out of two hours in a line? The ~$20 for TGM was worth it to me. Dumbo was the only ride where we spent a great deal of time in line (>1hr). TGM also blows RideMax away by suggesting the best (ie less-crowded) places to see the parades, fireworks, etc. RideMax mentions a couple of tidbits like this, but I think I've gotten more info from this forum. Then again, RideMax is mainly about the rides, and that's fine.

The folks at RideMax are pretty cool as well. We had originally planned this trip for last Thanksgiving week, but our timeshare folks couldn't find us an exchange until now. Of course, my 90day subscription had run out. I emailed them, explained the change in plans, and they extended my subscription through this month. A big to them on customer service.

 

[Judy from Boise]

Even though Dl is smaller, I would plan to spend at least as much time as you normally do at MK. DCA should take as much time as you would devote to MGM. If you would normally just be happy with a day each in these parks, then you will be fine.

 

[darph nader]

Help! I've been trying to plan a trip to DL, but I'm having a hard time with it. We've been to WDW so many time I can practically plan a trip in my sleep. But it's been 30 years since I've been to Disneyland, and we want to do it all!

We will have 6 full days (not counting traveling days, since we would be arriving late and leaving early). We want to see:

Disneyland/DCA
Universal
San Diego Zoo
San Diego Wild Animal Park
Sea World

DBF has never been to the west coast, so I thought he'd like to visit La Jolla. I'd also like to take in some of the other sights around San Diego.

Will I have enough time? If I had to leave something out, what should that be?

Thanks for your help and your suggestions!
Ilene

Sounds ambitious.Of course i'm a lazy old fart.D/L fer sure.At least 2 if not 3 days. days Sea World is a definet(sp?). Just my $.02.Anyway have a glorious and fun trip.

 

[victorandbellasmom]

victorandbellasmom: yes, we plan to fly in to one airport and fly out of the other, splitting our stay between the DL area and San Diego so we won't have to drive too far on any one day. We are interested in the photo caravan tour at the Wild Animal Park. It will be hard for us to choose between that and the zoo. We are members of the Wildlife Conservation Society and are frequent visitors to the Bronx Zoo in NYC. (My Bronx Zoo photos) I visited the San Diego Zoo in the mid 1970's and enjoyed it a great deal, but I wonder now if the differences between it and the Bronx Zoo are not enough to warrant another visit.

The photo caravan tours range form $90-$130. We got a $20 membership discount since we bought a membeship to ZOO/WAP. My husabnd, son, mom, dad, and aunt all took the photo caravan tour and all were thrilled with it. The other kids in our party were too young so we walked around the park with my sisters and their kids. We took my son out of school for our "extended family vacation", so he sure had a lot to talk about whe he went back to school. They got up, close, and personal feeding the rhinos and giraffes. They got lots of great photos. The look on my mom's face as the giraffes' face was inches from hers is priceless. I think you'll have a great time should you decide to do this. I think when my daughter's old enough (minimum 6yo for family caravan and min 8yo for regular photo caravan), we'll all probably do it together as a family. It's hard to chose the WAP over the zoo, if you've never been to the San Diego Zoo, though. It's just one of those local landmarks that everyone should at least see once.

 

[AStamm]

We're also planning our first trip to DL this summer, but after tossing around the idea of touring the entire state, we decided to simplify and just concentrate on DL and DCA. After seven full days there, I expect to have seen absolutely everything--completely different from WDW where even though we've been there 5 times in 2 years I still have hundreds of "didn't do that" items on my list.

 

[TwoOldPoohs]

Thanks again everybody for all your great suggestions. Now we need to figure where we're going to stay, and where we're going to eat and .... oh boy ... we have a lot to do!

One last question ... would you recommend any of the DL tours? We've done many of the backstage tours in WDW and have enjoyed them all. Thanks!