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Old 29 Sep 14, 11:44 PM  
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meandmyboy
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Me And My Boy SoCal Adventure - Solo parent travels with a 4 year old - TRIP CANCELLED

I thought I would try and get a pre-trip report started for our upcoming trip to California next year as I’m starting to get really excited about it and I would like to do a trip report afterwards so I’ll have a personal record, and also in case it helps anyone else thinking of or planning a trip with a young child, or as a solo parent.

The cast:

Me: Caroline, 37, self employed wedding and portrait photographer working from home (or mostly Dibbing from home)
My Boy: Jacob, 3.5 (will be just turned 4 when we go), loves vehicles of any kind and dinosaurs. Favourite Disney film is definitely The Lion King and he goes to bed every night with his pal Simba.

Here is a picture of us in Florida last November on our first Disney trip:



I love to travel and have been to lots of places around the world over the past 15 years or so, many of them solo travel trips as unfortunately not many of my friends share my love of travel and I’ve been single for a long time! One of my favourite past times has always been planning trips to various destinations that capture my fancy...sometimes I’m lucky enough to actually take the trip...other times not!

After discovering the delights of Disneyworld last year I knew I wanted to take Jacob to Disneyland in California because he would love Carsland in particular. I was lucky enough to visit California with a friend in April 2001 where we did a 9 night trip staying in San Francisco, Yosemite and LA, and during that trip I visited Disneyland (and Universal Studios). Going back with Jacob I knew that I didn’t want to revisit any of the places I went to the first time (other than Disneyland of course!) and also that I wanted to keep the traveling distances short so that we could spend longer in each place. I had a rough plan drawn up for a trip focusing on Southern California to be taken ideally in 2016 when Jacob would be 5.

Then Norwegian started flying direct to the US and their amazingly cheap airfares tempted me so much that I just couldn’t resist...and ended up impulsively booking us flights for March 2015 at the bargain price of £714 for the two of us (should get £18 cashback from Quidco for them too). This really was a silly thing for me to do because I already had trips booked for Florida this November and for Oct/November 2015. But I just felt it was unlikely I’d ever get direct flights this cheap ever again so it had to be done.

Since booking the flights back in May I’ve been on a bit of a roller-coaster of emotions over this trip because really it has stretched my finances a bit too far, what with the other planned trips, and I’ve come incredibly close to cancelling it in order not to spend any more money. However I just can’t bring myself to do so as I would lose pretty much all of the money I paid for the flights. So recently I’ve just decided to try and cut back a little on some of my plans for the other two trips and embrace this fantastic opportunity for a holiday in California with my boy!

Having come to this conclusion I now feel the time is right to start my pre-trip report!

So what’s the plan? Two weeks in Southern California, flying with Norwegian from 11th March to 25th March 2015.

Wed 11th March - We arrive in LAX in the late afternoon after what I hope hasn’t been a nightmare flight (Jacob’s first international flight to Florida last November was a terrible day that I like to keep blocked from my memory!) and we’ll take a shuttle bus to the Travelodge LAX for an overnight stay to make things as easy as possible (£78 booked and paid via Expedia with 12% cashback from Quidco).

Thu 12th March - I plan on taking a taxi to the car rental place to pick up our hire car (not yet booked) and then we’ll head south out of the city stopping in Long Beach to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific. Then it’s onwards down the coast to Newport Beach - where we’ll spend the next 3 nights at the Newport Channel Inn (booked direct and not yet paid for - will be $338 so about £211).

Fri 13th March - The plan for today is a yummy breakfast at the Beachcomber Cafe at Crystal Cove, followed by whale watching off Dana Point. I’ve been lucky enough to watch wild whales a couple of times on my previous travels and would love to give Jacob the chance to see them too. We should also get to see lots of wild dolphins too which will be fantastic as we both really enjoyed seeing these last year at Clearwater Beach on Little Toot. At the risk of being controversial after my visit to Seaworld last year and then subsequently watching Blackfish and reading Death at Seaworld, I’m very much anti-cetaceans in captivity...so there will be no Seaworld visits for us ever again - I want to appreciate them where they belong!

Sat 14th March - We’ll probably spend today exploring Balboa Island and Penisula and generally taking it easy.

Sun 15th March - Today the plan is to visit the Dana Point Ocean Institute and possibly go tidepooling and then we’ll drive south to San Diego, where we’ll be staying the next 5 nights at the Best Western Plus Island Palms Hotel on Shelter Island (£424 booked and paid for via otel.com - with £25 cashback from Quidco). If there is time I’d like to visit Balboa Park this afternoon to see the little train and carousel outside the Zoo which only runs on weekends.

Mon 16th March - Definitely hitting up the Zoo today - I’m really looking forward to seeing the pandas as I’ve never seen one before.

Tues 17th March - San Diego - not sure of exact plans - probably exploring the museums at Balboa Park, especially the Natural History Museum for the dinosaurs!

Wed 18th March - San Diego - not sure of exact plans - maybe the trolley tour, visiting Seaport Village or the USS Midway.

Thu 19th March - San Diego - not sure of exact plans - maybe visiting Old Town and/or Cabrillo National Park.

Fri 20th March - We leave San Diego today and head to Anaheim where we spend our final 5 nights at the HoJo Plaza Disneyland (£330 booked but not yet paid for with zleeping.com). On the way the plan is to visit La Jolla and see the seals. I am thinking of booking us dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel for tonight to get some character interaction.

Sat 21st March - Our first taste of Disney and today it’s California Adventure where hopefully we’ll get to enjoy Radiator Springs. Jacob loves Cars and we’re both very excited after watching YouTube footage of the rides.

Sun 22nd March - Disneyland today!

Mon 23rd March - Our second visit to California Adventure.

Tues 24th March - Our Magic Morning day for Disneyland.

Wed 25th March - Our final day and I think I’ll book breakfast at Disney’s PCH Grill at the Paradise Pier Hotel just to get as much Disney as possible before we have to leave. If I decide to ditch the hire car after arriving in Anaheim then we’ll be taking the Disneyland Express shuttle to the airport for our evening flight home.

So that’s what I have planned so far. I need to make my mind up about the hire car - whether to keep it for our time in Anaheim or not - and firm up my plans for our San Diego days. I also need to research a bit more our plan of attack for the Disney park days.
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Nov 2013 - POFQ, Clearwater Beach & Rosen Inn PO
Nov 2014 - All Stars Music Trip Report
Oct/Nov 2015 - Pop Century & Bradenton condo
Oct/Nov 2017 - SoCal and Hawaii Adventure Trip Report

Edited at 06:16 PM.
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Old 30 Sep 14, 10:58 PM  
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Sounds great! Looking forward to the trip report so I can get excited for my trip in May!
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Old 1 Oct 14, 02:15 PM  
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meandmyboy
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Relaxing at the Grand Floridian
 
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Originally Posted by stuffandfluff View Post
Sounds great! Looking forward to the trip report so I can get excited for my trip in May!
Thank you for reading! Are you doing a report for your trip?
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Nov 2014 - All Stars Music Trip Report
Oct/Nov 2015 - Pop Century & Bradenton condo
Oct/Nov 2017 - SoCal and Hawaii Adventure Trip Report
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Old 6 Oct 14, 10:12 PM  
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Yes I will be, first one and it will be a rather long one...

Will you be?
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Old 10 Oct 14, 02:28 PM  
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meandmyboy
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Originally Posted by stuffandfluff View Post
Yes I will be, first one and it will be a rather long one...

Will you be?
Yes I plan to...I just hope that life doesn't get in the way when we return home!
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Nov 2013 - POFQ, Clearwater Beach & Rosen Inn PO
Nov 2014 - All Stars Music Trip Report
Oct/Nov 2015 - Pop Century & Bradenton condo
Oct/Nov 2017 - SoCal and Hawaii Adventure Trip Report
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Old 9 Jan 15, 04:36 PM  
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meandmyboy
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Sadly I've decided to postpone our California trip as I just don't think it is the right time for us. The plan now is to go in October 2017 to celebrate the year I turn 40, and when ds will be 6.5 and better able to handle the longer flight and busy days. I'm also toying with making a few changes or extensions to our trip (well it is my big birthday trip!) so will up date this report as the new plans come together.
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Nov 2013 - POFQ, Clearwater Beach & Rosen Inn PO
Nov 2014 - All Stars Music Trip Report
Oct/Nov 2015 - Pop Century & Bradenton condo
Oct/Nov 2017 - SoCal and Hawaii Adventure Trip Report
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Old 9 Jan 15, 08:49 PM  
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CrispyA
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That's a shame but probably the right decision. You'll both enjoy it more when he's a bit older and more able to cope with the travelling and everything else. Will you be able to get much back for your flights?
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Old 9 Jan 15, 09:06 PM  
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meandmyboy
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Originally Posted by CrispyA View Post
That's a shame but probably the right decision. You'll both enjoy it more when he's a bit older and more able to cope with the travelling and everything else. Will you be able to get much back for your flights?
Yes I'm sure things will be a lot easier when he's that little bit older. I'm not sure what I'll get back for my flights - they are non-refudable but I should be able to claim the taxes back (which is about £200 when you look on the booking pages but have no idea if I'd get anywhere near this much back). At the moment I've decided to wait until the week before we were due to fly in the hope that maybe one of us catches a bug or chicken pox or something that might let me claim against the insurance! Lol!

All of our hotel reservations were fully refundable where I'd already paid, so I've cancelled those already.

I see in your signature you're off to Texas! That's one of the places I'm considering adding on to our 2017 trip. Will you please do a trip report?
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Nov 2013 - POFQ, Clearwater Beach & Rosen Inn PO
Nov 2014 - All Stars Music Trip Report
Oct/Nov 2015 - Pop Century & Bradenton condo
Oct/Nov 2017 - SoCal and Hawaii Adventure Trip Report
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Old 11 Jan 15, 11:11 AM  
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CrispyA
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Originally Posted by meandmyboy View Post
Yes I'm sure things will be a lot easier when he's that little bit older. I'm not sure what I'll get back for my flights - they are non-refudable but I should be able to claim the taxes back (which is about £200 when you look on the booking pages but have no idea if I'd get anywhere near this much back). At the moment I've decided to wait until the week before we were due to fly in the hope that maybe one of us catches a bug or chicken pox or something that might let me claim against the insurance! Lol!

All of our hotel reservations were fully refundable where I'd already paid, so I've cancelled those already.

I see in your signature you're off to Texas! That's one of the places I'm considering adding on to our 2017 trip. Will you please do a trip report?
*fingers crossed* for chicken pox!

Yes, we will do a trip report on Texas - very excited about it!
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Old 11 Jan 15, 04:10 PM  
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LLKJDisney
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Sounds Great! We head out 28th March and are all very excited too

Our little one is called Jacob too

Have a great time and will look forward to reading your trip report when you return x
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