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Disneyland California and West Coast Trip Planning Disneyland California and West Coast Holiday Planning Questions, Suggestions and Tips.

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Old 19 Sep 20, 09:36 PM  
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#11
cornishfrogboy
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Join Date: Nov 10
Location: Falmouth
I plan things in detail and constantly seek best advice from the DIBB. I recommend the trip reports section in order to get ideas. Some of the experience of DIBBERS can prove invaluable.
I even plan in detail for vacations to be booked later in full detail, right down to hotel options.

We have done it once (the single thread report is in my signature). The exchange rate was 1.21 or so. That was SFO, Monterey, Madonna In, Valencia (6 flags), Anaheim, San Diego, Long Beach (Queen Mary) and home. Our boys were 16 and 12. The trip was absolutely amazing.

We planned and paid for a trip for March this year (Cancelled).. SFO, Monterey, SL Obispo, flight to Tacoma, Renton, Vancouver, Home. It is in the pre trip reports section around third one down. The exchange rate was 1.28.

We planned a trip and paid for a trip this August (Cancelled), Phoenix, Tucson, Tombstone, Hollywood, Pismo, San Simeon, Monterey, SFO. It is in the pre trip reports, around second down. The exchange rate was 1.30.

We have now booked and paid for next August, Flights are BA, into SFO and out of Las Vegas (£527pp)... SFO, Monterey, San Simeon, Pismo, Hollywood, Tucson, Tombstone, Winslow, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas. This is the first one in the pre trip reports section and very current. All have all hotels, travel arrangements, attractions etc within them. If the planning and pricing tables are of any help to you, then pm me and I will email them to you.


CARS
12 days car hire (RAV4 ) was £345 for us, pick up SFO and drop at LAS. Many do not pick up their car until leaving San Francisco as you do not really need it whilst in the City, hence only a 12 day hire as we will not need it in Las Vegas either.

With the details you have given, I have found two options, both pick up at SFO on 13 July and drop at LAX on 27 July. Both were Travel Supermarket and then through Argus to the provider.
1. A Nissan Quest 7 seater by Thrifty at £420 with CDW.
2. a Chevvy Malibu full size by Dollar at £410 with CDW.
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2005 onwards.. lots of times!

Index of all my Trip and Pretrip reports..https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...6#post15662196

Edited at 10:40 AM.
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Old 20 Sep 20, 08:15 PM  
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#12
smudgester
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Join Date: Jul 14
My geographical knowledge of West Coast USA clearly needs some work - I had San Francisco, Las Vegas and LA in all the wrong places LOL.

We were also kind of ruling out Vegas due it's location (and sort of thinking drive there from LA and back would be a bit crazy) without even considering flying home from Vegas instead. Though according to the VA site, there is only 1 direct flight (a red-eye) out of LAS on a Saturday. Flying home from Vegas also puts the flight price up by £1k.

Vegas would allow us to include the canyon and dam but what is Vegas like with two under 17's ? Obviously casinos are out but what about shows, etc ?

In terms of the parks ( Calfornia v Florida )... from what I can see, apart from the actual film studio tour, the Universal parks are pretty much the same in terms of the rides, yes ? I am also assuming - though Google doesn't give up much hard information - that thanks to Covid-19, Avengers Campus at Disney is way behind schedule ?

Edited at 08:51 PM.
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Old 20 Sep 20, 09:48 PM  
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#13
cornishfrogboy
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Join Date: Nov 10
Location: Falmouth
If you head out of the back of Hollywood (Universal) to Las Vegas, then it is 4 hours on the i15. My boys of 18 and 15 will not get in Casinos, but will see the 5 miles of amazing architecture on the strip. They also are rather keen on the Heartattack grill. We all want to see the strip both during the day and at night. We would not however simply visit LV on its own.

The Hoover dam is only a little further. The Grand Canyon South Rim visitor centre is several hours further.

We set up this vacation around other things and bolted LV on at the last minute. My aim is to see the Amarc desert boneyard and Tombstone (Gunfight every hour), which are both in the Tucson area. The problem was that flights home from Phoenix (2 hrs from Tucson ) were over 4 times the cost of flights home from a Vegas. Based on this, I plotted the 8 hr drive from Hollywood to Tucson through the desert and past Joshua tree .. and then when we had finished there, a drive up via Winslow (Standing on a corner) to the GC Rim before ending up in Vegas as you can see in my pretrip report. To fit this in, we chopped 2 days off of SFO as we have been before.

We invariably drive over 1200 miles on any vacation these days, even just in Florida as we like Pensacola and also the Keys. This one should top out at around 1500, but 500 are in one day and also the drive from Tucson to the GC is hardly short!

On the BA site, my flights before you add on the Hold baggage upgrade were.. (for one ticket multi centre returns).
LHR to SFO on 18 Aug £256 direct (+£40 for the upgrade).
LAS to LHR on 2 Sept £168 direct (+45 for the upgrade).
To fly home direct from Phoenix was an astonishing £700 plus. (And a further £256 for the out leg to SFO... Plus the baggage upgrades.

Will post the tables in the morning!
__________________

2005 onwards.. lots of times!

Index of all my Trip and Pretrip reports..https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...6#post15662196

Edited at 09:59 PM.
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Old 21 Sep 20, 02:45 AM  
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#14
landandword17
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Join Date: May 17
The kids can’t do the casinos or bars but strangely enough they are only a very small part of what Vegas is about these days. If I had to explain Vegas to someone who has never been I’d say a gigantic Leicester Square/Times Square on acid thrown into a blender and garnished with an unexpected twist of fine hotels and restaurants! Think of everything LS and TS have to offer - lights, crowds, chain restaurants, shows, chain retail shops. Throw in real genuine fine dining and lux hotels that have nothing to do with gambling (some of the lux hotels don’t even have casinos!), layer on pure kitsch Americana - the mini Eiffel Tower, mini NYC skyline, the fake pyramids and fake Venice, throw in the casinos and bars and then top with golf courses and outlet malls. Put a plate of really stunning natural scenery beside your concoction and ... you have something for all tastes. It’s not for everyone. It’s not somewhere I’d be dying to get back to but it is a real experience and I wouldn’t be put off bringing teens for fear they’d be bored or have nowhere to go. Quite the opposite.
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