planning a trip to DL

[TP2000]

We just got back from our first trip to DL yesterday. It was great. What I liked the best was that the parks and DD are all within walking distance of the Grand CA. There was no Disney transportation to wait for to take you to the park. Also, DL seems more detailed than WDW.....

We want to go back next year, it was great!

The buttons are part of the Million Dreams thing; they just started giving them out today. Since maharet97a will be there on Wednesday, they'll get the button you didn't.

As for doing stuff aside from Disneyland; yes Hollywood is a pit. As a proud resident of Orange County I can smugly state that most of Los Angeles County is a pit. Maybe spend one day up in LA doing the touristy things, or just to say you saw it. But it's nothing a tourist would want to be there for more than 12 hours.

A fabulous beach is Laguna Beach, about a 45 minute drive down the coast from Huntington. Huntington has good surfing, but the crowd there is hard core surfer, with super trendy surf shops and plenty of bars and clubs that can get pretty wild when the sun goes down. Laguna is prettier, set amongst cliffs and rocky coves, and the clientele is ritzier and much safer at night. Laguna has fantastic restaurants!

I recommend tourists, particularly those from back East who would be interested in the different SoCal lifestyle and scenery, concentrate their non-Disneyland SoCal excursions to Orange County and San Diego County. The Citypass ticket is great, with 3 day admission to Disneyland/DCA and then admission to San Diego Zoo, or Sea World or Knott's Berry Farm or San Diego Wild Animal Park. Just take a rental car or Grey Line Tour up to LA for one day to see what is up there, and then hightail it back to the safety and more attractive scenery of Orange County before heading off to San Diego for a couple of days. That way, you get all the beauty and fun of SoCal without the grimy overhyped reality of Los Angeles and the city of Hollywood.

Just my .02 from a SoCal Disney fan. :wave:

 

[MainSt1993]

As for doing stuff aside from Disneyland; yes Hollywood is a pit. As a proud resident of Orange County I can smugly state that most of Los Angeles County is a pit. Maybe spend one day up in LA doing the touristy things, or just to say you saw it. But it's nothing a tourist would want to be there for more than 12 hours.

Just my .02 from a SoCal Disney fan. :wave:

Awww, c'mon TP2000, LA isn't all that bad. As long as you stay in West LA / Beverly Hills / WeHo!! There are plenty of perfectly lovely places there!

That said, I already booked our room at the Grand for next year's half over Labor Day. We're trying something different this time around though. We're flying in from DC on Saturday morning, and staying at DLR until Wednesday. Then we're headed down to San Diego for the rest of the week, returning home that Saturday. Since just one night at the Grand in this particular room is costing almost as much as I spent on our entire 1/2 marathon weekend this year (and yes, we were in a suite), I'm prolly looking to be a little more cost conscious for the second half of the trip. Does anyone have recommendations for San Diego?

One place I was looking at is Paradise Point, in Mission Bay. http://www.paradisepoint.com/ Anyone ever stayed there, or have other ideas?

 

[maharet97a]

We've yet to make it to San Diego, but a stay at the Hotel del Coronado has always been high on my list of must dos. The rates are comparable to the place you mentioned. If you've never heard of it, it's the hotel featured in Some Like It Hot (and many other films) and is the design basis for the Grand Floridian Resort at WDW. Plus it's rumored to be haunted (as all old hotels seem to be). You can check it out at www.hoteldel.com


And as for the buttons, I'm so excited. My friends kids are 10, 8, 5, and 1 and have never been to any Disney park (or any theme park for that matter). And the CM's are wonderful about noticing such things and speaking to kids and making them feel even more special. We're leaving Wed morning, and the kids still don't know that we're actually going to Disneyland. They think they're going to visit relatives.