Just back from Disneyland and San Diego

[laughinplace199]

We had a blast! Thanks for all of the advice I received from posters on the DIS.

If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

 

[ADisneyFamilyof5]

We are debating if we should do San Diego when we go to DL next year. What attractions did you do? Can you recommend a hotel?

Also, Did you rent a car? We would have to rent a car and I don't know what is the cheapest way to do that, either fly to Anaheim and rent and return there, or fly to San Diego and return in Anaheim. Any advice?

 

[laughinplace199]

Originally, we wanted to fly into LA and out of San Diego, but we found the flights and rental car to be considerably more expensive when starting in one city and ending in another.

We ended up flying into LAX and rented a car through Budget. We got a great rate by booking early and using a code found on mousesavers.com.

We are DVC members, so we stayed at GCV for 3 nights (did DL, DCA, & beach those first few days).

Then we drove to San Diego (stopped at San Juan Capistrano mission on the way). We stayed at Best Western Plus Island Palms. It was nothing fancy, but it was clean, had two small pools, a decent restaurant, and beautiful views of the marina.

While in San Diego, we went to the zoo, the USS Midway, and some museums in Balboa Park. Our hotel was a short (less than 15 min) drive to each of these attractions.

We then drove back to Anaheim and checked back into GCV for a few more days, did Disney parks a couple more days as well as La Brea Tar Pits and some touristy Hollywood stuff.

 

[whoever]

Me too!!! great combo.

 

[surfmontana]

How were the La Brea Tar Pits ?

 

[ADisneyFamilyof5]

I hear a lot of people go to the USS Midway, how was it? Our boys will be 8,5 &1. I am interested in hearing about the tar pits too.

 

[AussieCaribou]

We did the Tar Pits and the Midway last year.

Tar Pits were interesting (and smelly, lol). We have never experienced anything like it. I wouldn't say that it was the same wow factor as Disney or the SD Zoo but it was well worth the drive. We spent about 2 hours there.

LOVED the Midway. Hubby is huge military buff, so it was perfect for him. DD who isn't into 'war' even enjoyed walking around and seeing the planes up close. The views were nothing to sniff at either.

As an interesting aside...we also did the SD Maritime Museum while at the Midway. We returned the next day to do the sail on the Californian...wow...just wow...

 

[laughinplace199]

The Tar Pits were really interesting. We took a tour of the outdoor area and then visited the museum inside (The Page Museum). It was so interesting to learn what types of animals lived in the area way back when. We spent about 2 hours there and it was the perfect amount of time.

The USS Midway was really cool too. You get a free audio tour with admission and there are different codes to type in to hear about what you're seeing. There's an adult version and a kid version and there's a little game/questionnaire that goes along with the kid version. DH, DD15, & DS13 listened to the adult version and DS7 and I listened to the kid version. When the kids are done with the questions, they bring their paper to the info booth and get their "wings." Also, on the flight deck, you can sit in some of the planes, which the kids loved!

 

[Itinkso]

We think the Tar Pits are fascinating, too! To be driving down Wilshire and seeing the tar pits is amazing.

How long do you think is necessary for the Midway? We'll be in SD next month for the Paul McCartney concert and would like to do some sightseeing in the Harbor area.

 

[laughinplace199]

We think the Tar Pits are fascinating, too! To be driving down Wilshire and seeing the tar pits is amazing.

How long do you think is necessary for the Midway? We'll be in SD next month for the Paul McCartney concert and would like to do some sightseeing in the Harbor area.

We spent about 2-2.5 hours there. We didn't see everything, but we saw most of it. The one mistake we made was not going to the bridge first. We went in order of the kids questionnaire and by the time we got to the flight deck, the line for the bridge was way too long. I'd go straight up there first, then come down and do the rest of the ship.

 

[Itinkso]

Thank you! That's great info to know!

 

[Mkrop]

We just did this same trip at the beginning of Aug!

We flew into San Diego, stayed there for a few days than went to Anaheim.

We rented a car from Alamo at the airport in SD and then returned it to DTD, very easy and convienent.

We stayed in the Embassy Suites in SD, our view was of the USS Midway. They offered a free breakfast each morning. It was walking distance to the Midway obviously and to Seaport Village, which is a quaint little shop and eating area.

We toured Midway, did the bus tour (a little long) and the Seal Tour. The next day we drove to Cabrillo National Monument, the views of the ocean were awesome. We also drove to Coranado but it was a weekend and really crowded.

The final day we went to the San Deigo Safari Park, this place was awful, too hot, too spread out, not enough places to cool off. We are totally spolied by AK in FL.

We had done Seaworld and the SD Zoo before so we wanted to try other places


And I agree go right away upstairs to do the tour of the bridge on the USS Midway. We got that done before the lines got really long then we toured the rest

 

[rainyday77]

We are debating if we should do San Diego when we go to DL next year. What attractions did you do? Can you recommend a hotel?

Also, Did you rent a car? We would have to rent a car and I don't know what is the cheapest way to do that, either fly to Anaheim and rent and return there, or fly to San Diego and return in Anaheim. Any advice?

For some reason I think there is a fee (at least $100) to rent from one location and return it at another. We have rented a car at SAN in April and it is quite a bit more than we pay at LAX so I would price out the 2 options to see how much difference it will be. I'm thinking flying into and renting from lax will be a lot cheaper but I could be wrong.

 

[laughinplace199]

For some reason I think there is a fee (at least $100) to rent from one location and return it at another. We have rented a car at SAN in April and it is quite a bit more than we pay at LAX so I would price out the 2 options to see how much difference it will be. I'm thinking flying into and renting from lax will be a lot cheaper but I could be wrong.

This was definitely the case for us.

It turned out that I really liked having the San Diego portion in the middle of our time in Anaheim. It was fun being in San Diego, but it was also fun knowing we were going back to DL for a few more days!

 

[ADisneyFamilyof5]

For some reason I think there is a fee (at least $100) to rent from one location and return it at another. We have rented a car at SAN in April and it is quite a bit more than we pay at LAX so I would price out the 2 options to see how much difference it will be. I'm thinking flying into and renting from lax will be a lot cheaper but I could be wrong.

I will look into LAX. I know sometime the airfare is cheaper from PDX then to SNA. Maybe it just means we add on Universal Studios too!

 

[ADisneyFamilyof5]

This was definitely the case for us.

It turned out that I really liked having the San Diego portion in the middle of our time in Anaheim. It was fun being in San Diego, but it was also fun knowing we were going back to DL for a few more days!

I was thinking the same thing! SD will be fun, but we must end our trip at DL!