How to plan a week

[David]

We are considering a return to DLR in a year or so. We visited very breifly in 2005 as a two day stop over on the way to Hawaii, but the full day we were in the park there was a small earthquake, so some rides had to be shut down. As a result, we did not get to do a lot of what we wanted to do.

Anyway, if you had a week to spend in the S. Cal area, how would you divide your time? The main attraction, of course, will be DLR but how many days would you spend there and what other area attractions would you suggest?

Would you rent a car, not being familiar with the area, or would you rely on cabs, shuttles, buses, etc?

We stayed at Paradise Pier last trip. Would you stay in a Disney hotel, or a hotel in the same area? If offsite, which hotels would you suggest?

 

[swimmom]

We are spending a week in So Cal in May. FYI - this will be our first trip to CA so we aren't veterans.

First we will be spending a few days in San Diego. Our list of things to do in San Diego are Seaworld, San Deigo Zoo or Wild Animal Park, USS Midway, Harbor Cruise, Point Loma and anything else we have time for. Then we will be spending four days at Disneyland. We will spend a full day in each park, I think we will spend a morning taking the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour, some time spent shopping in Downtown Disney and an afternoon in Hollywood doing the Walk of Fame & Grauman's Chinese Theatre. We have an 11:00 pm flight home, so our last day will be doing anything at either park that we didn't get to or just want to do again

We are renting a car, we got a great weekly rate using an AAdvantage code. We are bringing a GPS, which hopefully will keep us from getting lost!!!

We decided to stay at Paradise Pier, which you would know more about than me since you have already stayed there.

 

[Snapper Bean]

We did 8 days in Southern California during March '06 and here is what we did after arriving Friday night:

Saturday: Getty Museum/Santa Monica Pier
Sunday: DCA
Monday: Disneyland
Tuesday: Universal Studios
Wednesday: NBC Studios Tour/Hollywood Tour/Movie at El Capitan
Thursday: Disneyland
Friday: DCA/Nixon Library
Saturday: Disneyland/DCA

Our goal was to stay out of Disneyland on the weekend days. However, even on the days we went to DCA since Disneyland opened 1 or 2 hours before, we went there first for a couple of rides. I always rent a car on vacation

 

[LadyDarling]

Being a resident down here, I would say plan on 3 days in Disneyland resort, and 2 in San Diego. DEFINATELY rent a car. It's not too hard to navigate.

Things to see in San Diego -
Balboa park (there are a BUNCH of museums there, as well as some one-of-a-kind architecture and there are also exhibits that are free to browse from all around the world for a tiny taste of World Showcase away from Florida. If you hit it during the right time of year, consider taking in a show at the Starlight Bowl or Old Globe theater. The Gaslamp Quarter has some AMAZING restruants. You can also catch a baseball game in downtown, if you are so inclined. Stroll along the waterfront for a far less commercialized version of Santa Monica. If you're all adults, consider booking a dinner/dancing cruise on a Hornblower and enjoy a southern Californian sunset!)
Check out the Wild Animal Park in Escondido (which is near San Deigo). If you come in the summer time, you can do "Park at Dark" which allows you to visit the animals after the sun goes down.

It's really hard to do So cal in a week, but outside of those, I would definately go with the other suggestions to fill up the remaining 2 days.

- J