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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 13 Dec 20, 11:14 PM  
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#1
LouH
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Planning help for a newbie

Hi!
So we are pretty set on going to the west coast and disney is a definite as if I do not ride the incredicoaster or visit radiator springs I will be sad ;-)
Itll be myself, husband, kids (15.14.12.11.9) and my in laws.

I have no idea where to start!
We have 2 weeks max we have to go in Easter holidays due to school.

We know Disney is a yes, knotsberrt farm for husbands nostalgia and I think 💭 now Ive seen the top gun stuff that we need to go there (thats my all time forever favourite film).

Husband would love San Francisco but I wonder if my kids will be bored (middle child has extreme anxiety and struggles in crowds and unfamiliarity). My oldest son however loves all sea life.

Any ideas of itinerary or places that are a must...

We are really struggling on picking a place (s) to stay as need at least 2 rooms so in laws and us have a little soace :-)

Any help massively appreciated
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Old 14 Dec 20, 12:06 AM  
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cornishfrogboy
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Originally Posted by LouH View Post
Hi!
So we are pretty set on going to the west coast and disney is a definite as if I do not ride the incredicoaster or visit radiator springs I will be sad ;-)
Itll be myself, husband, kids (15.14.12.11.9) and my in laws.

I have no idea where to start!
We have 2 weeks max we have to go in Easter holidays due to school.

We know Disney is a yes, knotsberrt farm for husbands nostalgia and I think 💭 now Ive seen the top gun stuff that we need to go there (thats my all time forever favourite film).

Husband would love San Francisco but I wonder if my kids will be bored (middle child has extreme anxiety and struggles in crowds and unfamiliarity). My oldest son however loves all sea life.

Any ideas of itinerary or places that are a must...

We are really struggling on picking a place (s) to stay as need at least 2 rooms so in laws and us have a little soace :-)

Any help massively appreciated
If you read the California trip report link in my signature, you will find that it covers San Francisco, Monterey (for Sealife), Madonna Inn, Disney, Oceanside (Top gun and Kelly McGillis beach home) and San Diego (Top gun with Seaport and the Kansas City Grill where they did Great Balls of fire and also the USS Midway).. all in the one 14 day trip and with plenty of Top Gun. It was at Easter and similarly limited by time to the School Hols.
This covers all of your bases except for Knotts berry farm. From that report you could delete the bits that you do not fancy and insert other bits that you do!

I believe that a reasonably close copy of that trip would work well for the group that you describe. It misses Big sur etc as it was blocked, but if you look at the pretrip link for 2021 that is also in the signature, it covers this missing bit as it is planned to catch up on things missed in 2018.

Of course, you could do SFO on foot before flying to LAX and saving a few days driving, picking up your car at LAX and onward. You could then do a Whale Watching trip from San Diego. In doing this, you would be missing one of the most amazing drives in the World (PCH around Big Sur, Pfeiffer etc), but could always return.

California is absolutely astonishing and I feel sure that you will not regret it one bit!


Hope it helps!.. and ask anything you like.
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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 10:25 AM.
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Old 14 Dec 20, 09:14 AM  
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Sandraoh40
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The first time we went I really didnt know where to begin. We knew what We didnt want to do but not sure of what we did.
I read as many trip reports as soon could and asked questions. Reading the reports with photos really helped me as I am a visual person.
I do have different circumstances to yourself as in no kids, but you will know whats relevant to you.
Happy planning and I have to say my first big west coast trip is one of the best holidays we have ever had.
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Old 14 Dec 20, 10:08 AM  
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jdouds
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Hi I suppose the first question is are you going to be driving.
So we have done 3 trips now west coast. Having a look at ages etc theres loads to suit everyone.
5/6n days LA Area should cover what you need to see.
1n spend a day going up coast and stay at Santa Barbara or Pismo/Morro bay.
2/3n travel to Monterey and stop at Hearst castle and definitely at elephant seal beach, in Monterey, fantastic aquarium, whale watching trip (one of the best things we have ever done), paddle boarding,17 mile dr, pebble beach especially if anyone loves golf.
Then up to San Fran 3/4 n , Alcatraz, cycle over bridge to Sausalito and back on ferry, Disney museum. Cable car ride, some shopping, Lombard st, park , zoo.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
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Old 14 Dec 20, 10:10 AM  
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400ixl
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Given you only have 2 weeks I would stick to South California with LA and San Diego being the two focal points.

Both LA has Hollywood, Universal, Warner Bros, Brear Pit, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Griffith Observatory, Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park etc. Easily enough to fill 4 days at least, we could fill 2 weeks just in that part of LA.

You then have Anaheim area where you have Disney and Knott's Berry and can also do day trips to places like Long Beach. Depending on how much time you spend in Disney this could easily be a 4 day stop.

San Diego is the a couple of hours away and with a mix of the city with the naval sites and Sealife, zoo, Legoland etc you can do a week there if you wanted.

If you do find that you still have spare days then you could look at fitting in either Las Vegas or phoenix.

You could look at flying in or out of Vegas and LAX to make it work as well.

That then saves you San Fran, Yosemite and Pacific Coast highway for another year. Maybe in the summer when it will all be open and the weather better.
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Old 14 Dec 20, 10:32 AM  
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KarenG
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I would prepare yourself for accommodation costs to be a lot higher than youre used to in FL with your group size (you may know that already but just mentioning in case you didnt!)
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Old 14 Dec 20, 11:09 AM  
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LouH
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Originally Posted by jdouds View Post
Hi I suppose the first question is are you going to be driving.
So we have done 3 trips now west coast. Having a look at ages etc theres loads to suit everyone.
5/6n days LA Area should cover what you need to see.
1n spend a day going up coast and stay at Santa Barbara or Pismo/Morro bay.
2/3n travel to Monterey and stop at Hearst castle and definitely at elephant seal beach, in Monterey, fantastic aquarium, whale watching trip (one of the best things we have ever done), paddle boarding,17 mile dr, pebble beach especially if anyone loves golf.
Then up to San Fran 3/4 n , Alcatraz, cycle over bridge to Sausalito and back on ferry, Disney museum. Cable car ride, some shopping, Lombard st, park , zoo.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
We can hire a van if needed :-)

Sounds fab!
I need to scribble these ideas down now
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