From WDW to Disneyland - What to Expect

[sweetpee_1993]

It's a fabulously fun thing to do, so long as you get off the freeway and drive along Pacific Coast Highway 101 for at least part of the way instead, particularly between La Jolla and Carlsbad where it looks like this...

You'll need to get back on I-5 around Carlsbad, to get through Oceanside and Camp Pendleton. But then you leave San Diego County and enter Orange County and just north of San Clemente you can jump back on Coast Highway and drive up the coast to Laguna Beach and Corona Del Mar, to eventually link up with the 57 Orange Freeway back up to I-5 and the Disneyland area.

Laguna Beach is the epitome of OC beach towns, with lots of good restaurants. There's parking and wonderful cliffside ocean scenery at Heisler Park just north of town...

The kids would probably love exploring Crystal Cove State Beach for an hour or two, with tons of tidepools to discover, a few miles north of Laguna Beach and just south of Corona Del Mar. http://www.crystalcovestatepark.com/

Corona Del Mar is a very tony OC beach town, with good restaurants and a very swanky and huge mall called Fashion Island. If you want to try and blend in with the locals, pull off the highway to the cliffside Shake Shack just north of Crystal Cove and grab a Date Shake, a true SoCal specialty.

For something more substantial, there's a Ruby's Autodiner just south of Laguna Beach that always works out. Kids love it.

I think if you put a little research into it, the drive up from San Diego to Anaheim can take a full day and offer up a lifetime of fun family memories. But whatever you do, make sure and get off that 16 lane freeway and on to the winding Pacific Coast Highway for at least a portion of the trip!

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**thud**

I'm ready to MOVE! LOL! Thanks so much! Last night I was looking more at SNA & thinking the additional flight cost over SAN was still way less than a rental car (since the only public transportation I could find from San Diego to Anaheim was the Amtrak--NOT gonna happen). After seeing these pics I think not only will we add a day for this exploration journey, the rental car will be worth every dime. Another factor is the fact that this is my first year homeschooling my boys (12 & 14 years old) so finding little gems like the tidepool exploration, etc. is riiiight up our alley to add major enrichment to their studies.

Seriously, those are mind-blowing pics. I've never seen beaches like that. Kerby626 & our "home beaches" look more like this:

...and this:

Seeing beaches with cliffs and rocks is all new to me! And it's EXCITING!!! :sohappy:

I'm glad people are contributing to this thread... wasn't sure how it would go over here. It's pretty foreign to me, California! I've never left the east coast... flown east (europe) and south (south america) but never to California. With that, I have no IDEA where anything is or what airports or driving times... like I know Orlando. Thanks for the opinions, keep them coming.

I was hoping I wasn't irking you by posting on your thread so much. Honest, I'm not trying to take over. I'm very much where you are in that I want to go but am totally clueless. The furthest west I've ever been is San Antonio's hill country. I'm an east cost girl, too. With everything I'm reading I think the hubby is right. He lived in Antioch, California a couple years when he was a kid. He's always said he wanted to take me out to California to see it but was also afraid to because he's certain I won't want to leave. I think he's right! :animwink:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

More questions!!!!

I'm trying to nail down some dates. The outlook continues to improve as the hubby sees his current "short term" job extending further & further. WooHOOOO! Southwest just came out with some great airfares, too.

Because our original plan was to see WDW decked out for the holidays I'd like to not let the old man down (since he looooves Disney's holiday decorations so much) and make sure we catch the decorations at DLR. I now know that our original dates in mid-November would still provide for this on the west coast. However, now I'm thinking in terms of park hours. The links on the various sites to see November's park hours last year aren't working so swooft. I have yet to see the hours. One of the things that has increasingly bugged me over the past few WDW trips is the reduced park hours. What should I expect for mid-November during the week? Are we talkin' 10 a.m. park openings??? How does this measure up with say the week after Thanksgiving? Is there a big difference? I really don't wanna do the week of Thanksgiving just because I know the locals will be out & about more. The lower crowds are the happier we are. Any thoughts from the seasoned vets?

Also, if the parks close early-ish like at 8:00 p.m. what else is there to do & see in the evenings that's not far away? Anything??? I know there's Downtown Disney District but once I've covered a shop I'm done. Eating isn't exactly what I had in mind. Any ideas for evening fillers?

Okay. Magic Mornings. I was reading some random DL thread or maybe it was a trip report on another site. The OP asked prior to their trip what morning during the week was the best to use their MM. Then they updated their thread towards the end of their trip saying they had been every morning it was offered. I thought you only got 1 MM. How did they manage to score so many? Or is it the Toon Town early thing that you only get 1 of? I'm confused...not hard to do, I know. :hammer:

Also, (this is something I'm totally doubting I'll find) is there anywhere that does an attendance forecast or at minimum give you an idea of which of the 2 parks is historically best by which day of the week it is? This would be similar to what touringplans.com does for WDW in their park recommendations of best/worst each day. Or am I totally over-thinking DLR in this capacity? LOL!

Okay. That about covers the questions for right now. When I think of more, I'll be back! LOL!

 

[ddbowdoin]

:sohappy:





I was hoping I wasn't irking you by posting on your thread so much. Honest, I'm not trying to take over. I'm very much where you are in that I want to go but am totally clueless. The furthest west I've ever been is San Antonio's hill country. I'm an east cost girl, too. With everything I'm reading I think the hubby is right. He lived in Antioch, California a couple years when he was a kid. He's always said he wanted to take me out to California to see it but was also afraid to because he's certain I won't want to leave. I think he's right! :animwink:

OH NOT AT ALL! I was being serious... whenever I join a new forum I never know how members will react to what may considered a stupid topic, I wasnt sure if this was one of them. Orlando offers a sense of comfort in that most of us have come to know the area, roads, attractions... versus a DL trip to me would be completely new

 

[sweetpee_1993]

OH NOT AT ALL! I was being serious... whenever I join a new forum I never know how members will react to what may considered a stupid topic, I wasnt sure if this was one of them. Orlando offers a sense of comfort in that most of us have come to know the area, roads, attractions... versus a DL trip to me would be completely new

Agreed on all points. There are some on the WDW threads who are quick to flame when a repetitive question gets asked which has always really burned my butt. Seriously. Isn't it true that the only stupid question is the one not asked? That said, I've not really seen people be that way over on the DLR threads.

You're soooo right in that WDW in spite of how much we love & adore it falls very much in our "comfort zone". I'm looking for completely new & completely different. Combine the excitement of something new with something "Disney" and I'm totally stoked! <---trying out my Cali-speak....LOL....just kiddin!

I could be the complete tacky-tourist and drive around taking pictures of family in front of corporate offices or other California places: like by the sign for the Oakley sunglasses offices, Outside the gate to Walt Disney Studios, etc. I'm a nerd. I know. :hammer:

 

[TP2000]

**thud**

I'm ready to MOVE! LOL! Thanks so much! Last night I was looking more at SNA & thinking the additional flight cost over SAN was still way less than a rental car (since the only public transportation I could find from San Diego to Anaheim was the Amtrak--NOT gonna happen). After seeing these pics I think not only will we add a day for this exploration journey, the rental car will be worth every dime. Another factor is the fact that this is my first year homeschooling my boys (12 & 14 years old) so finding little gems like the tidepool exploration, etc. is riiiight up our alley to add major enrichment to their studies.

You are welcome. I'm a native West Coaster, but I spent a few years living in several nice states on the East Coast, and I appreciate what is here in SoCal. I think the most important thing for WDW veterans to realize is that the Disneyland Resort, as wonderful as it is, sits in the middle of one of the most populous and most dynamic megalopolises on the planet. There is so much going on between San Diego and Santa Barbara, with Disneyland smack in the middle, that you will have plenty to fill a 2 week vacation without ever stepping foot in another theme park. SoCal is not Orlando, and you can't plan a trip as such.

San Diego is a fantastic city, and could offer quite a bit of edu-tainment for your family if you fly in there. There's the famous Scripps Institution of Oceanography on the cliffs in La Jolla, with the very good Birch Aquarium. http://www.aquarium.ucsd.edu/

San Diego also has beautiful Balboa Park, near downtown, and site of the 1916 World's Fair. The rather unique looking fair pavilions are reused as a sprawling campus of 14 different museums, and several types of gardens. You can find any type of museum at Balboa Park, from a model railroad museum, to several art museums, to an Air & Space Museum, a car museum, a lovely Japanese Garden, and a tall carillon tower from the fair that performs carillon concerts every hour. http://www.balboapark.org/

And of course there's the world-famous San Diego Zoo. The zoo was started when a few wild animals displayed at the World's Fair were let loose in the canyons around the property when the fair ended. The city began constructing some enclosures for some of them, and it grew into a zoo that after World War II became the pride of San Diego. You can spend a good half-day there and not see everything. It also still has a Disney-esque Skyway ride that glides high above the zoo canyons and exhibits! http://sandiegozoo.org/

I'm not a big fan of Los Angeles, as I find I enjoy Orange County and San Diego County much better. But if you do get up to LA, I highly recommend taking the kids to The Griffith Observatory. It's up in the Hollywood Hills, and they recently restored the 1930's building during a two year closure. Griffith Observatory featured prominently in Disney's The Rocketeer movie. A state-of-the-art underground space museum was just built under the lawn out front, and the new digital planetarium is reputed to be one of the finest in the world with very entertaining performances. The views from the observation decks are wonderful, especially in the evening when the lights of the great LA basin come to life. Best of all, entrance to the building and the museum exhibits is completely free, with an additional charge for planetarium shows. http://www.griffithobs.org/

 

[wild01ride]

Wow - sweet photos and great info!

I've been to SoCal a handful of times on business and have had the pleasure of doing some of the tourist-y things during those trips.
I have been to DLR a couple times and have plans to return.
But, I've never been that familiar with the surrounding area, especially with areas South of Newport Beach and such.
I've known that the Carlsbad/San Diego area was beautiful, but I had no idea how beautiful it really was, or how many amazing experiences there were to do.

Thanks for all the frank insider info!

 

[Kerby626]

I was gonna say Balboa park is wonderful to visit. Lots and lots of museums and education stuff for the boys. He is right you could seriously spend several weeks here and never see the same things twice.

 

[TP2000]

I was gonna say Balboa park is wonderful to visit. Lots and lots of museums and education stuff for the boys. He is right you could seriously spend several weeks here and never see the same things twice.

I think the key thing to remember here is this...

For decades before Disneyland was created, Southern California was a popular tourist destination attracting millions of people. it was a vacation mecca. And if Disneyland and the other half dozen major theme parks in SoCal shut down tomorrow, SoCal would still continue to attract millions of tourists per year to visit the cultural, entertainment and geological wonders of the region.

Before Disney World opened, there weren't a lot of people flocking to Orlando for vacations. If Disney World and the three other major theme parks in Orlando shut down tomorrow, the tourist trade there would grind to a halt.

You could spend two weeks in SoCal doing amazing things on vacation and never set foot in a theme park. But thank goodnees there's also Disneyland to see while you're here! :lol: