The Disneyland, San Diego, and Vegas, oh my! Trip Report - COMPLETED!! 2/18/11 - Page 13 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Colin was feeling better as the day went on, and ate some food, so not sure what happened this morning. I forgot to mention that we loved, LOVED, the WAP. Seriously the highlight of our trip! Anyway, we finished up at the WAP, and headed out to Shelter Island to our hotel. We passed a lot of farms along the way, the most interesting being ostrich farms. We finally made it to the hotel (after dealing with rush hour traffic, which thankfully we were mostly going against) and checked in. http://islandpalms1-px.trvlclick.com/ Now, not knowing when we originally planning this vacation that it was Comic Con weekend in San Diego, hotel rooms became very scare, and hence the reason that we were so far out from the main downtown area. No matter, the hotel was beautiful and in a nice, quiet area. Only about a 15 minute drive to downtown San Diego.
We just decided to hang out at the hotel tonight. We weren’t sure how Colin was going to do, and frankly we were all tired. Dinner was at the hotel at the Blue Wave Grill. http://islandpalms1-px.trvlclick.com/downtown-san-diego-restaurants/index.cfm I don’t remember what we ate at this point, although I do know that I ordered tiramisu for dessert, but the waitress warned me that it wasn’t defrosted well but I could try it (nice to know they don’t make their own ). It wasn’t defrosted, and she didn’t charge me for it, so that was nice. I think the kids also went swimming in the pool before dinner. I’m sure Matt was taking a nap.
Saturday, July 24th, 2010 – The Zoo, and a great Italian Dinner
This morning we headed to the San Diego Zoo. I had a coupon that I had gotten online, so we saved some money. We hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, so we ate once inside the park. It was horrible! And expensive. And they didn’t get the order right. Don’t eat breakfast in the park. We decided to do the bus tour first since that was included in our tickets.
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I’ll probably get flamed for this, but the zoo was just okay for this. Maybe because we’ve already been traveling for a week, there’s only so many animals you can look at, and we were just tired. We go to the National Zoo in Washington DC once a year, if not more, and found it very similar to that. After the zoo, we drove around San Diego a bit. And down to Coronado. The kids were cranky, so we didn’t get out!
Then it was back to the hotel for a swim, since the sun was out!
Matt went to take his nap, and I took the kids across the street where there was a playground. Someone hurt themselves, I’m thinking it was Colin, but I can’t remember what happened. Then we just walked around the waterfront until it was time to wake Matt up again.
Dinner was downtown in the Italian district. I don’t remember the name of the place. I can check to see if I have the receipt still. We sat inside, and had a great meal. The service was fast. I know we had fried calamari, the kids split a pizza, and I don’t recall what Matt or I had for dinner (other than a glass of wine for me )! I know I had some more tiramisu for dessert, and I think the kids had gelato. We ended up taking some sweets home as well for breakfast the next day (there was a bakery inside the restaurant)! YUM-O!! We drove around downtown San Diego after dinner, amazed at the crowds at Comic-Con! DH also wanted to stop by the Midway to take some pictures, even though it was closed. Otherwise, it was back to the hotel for bedtime, as tomorrow we were planning on LEGOland. And as luck would have it, we were watching TV that night and I saw a commercial for Burger King, giving away vouchers for free kids admission to LEGOland with a paid adult admission. Score! Guess where our first stop tomorrow would be?
Coming up next: Vouchers in hand, more cloudy weather, and a full day at LEGOland.
I'm so glad you're back to tell us more about your trip! Your pictures of the Wild Animal Park (yeah, I know it by that name too!) look great and makes me want to head out there! I can't even remember the last time I was there, but it sure looks like there's a lot to do and see!
I agree that the San Diego Zoo food isn't so great...I don't recall ever having a good meal there.
Looking forward to reading about more of your adventures!
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Glad to see you're back to writing this TR, Marnie. We loved the WAP too! My DSis and I were just talking today and we agreed that when we go back to San Diego, we want to do the sleep over at the WAP . I remember seeing those Ostrich farms, too. Someone in my party (prob. DS) wanted to stop and buy an ostrich egg. What a great score on the Legoland tickets. Can't wait to hear how you liked Legoland. We loved the models ! The rides were just okay, but the models were amazing. And we had the best theme park counter service meal ever there!
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It is SO good to see you writing again Marnie - and my goodness, you have been busy! Great updates - I think you know how much I've been enjoying reading about this trip.
So glad to hear about the rest of the trip!! WAP (or whatever it's called now) looked fantastic. My friend and I skipped it, now I wish we had done that instead of the zoo. Because I also agree with you - the zoo wasn't all it was hyped up to be. It's still a very nice zoo, don't get me wrong! With pandas and koalas, very cool. But overall, we weren't impressed with it! And the food. Geez. I did love how close the zebras were though, and the polar bears were fun to watch!
Your hotel looks really nice. I'm glad Matt's still getting his naps.
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It was so great to see you back writing your TR Marnie! Loved all the pictures and stories behind them. My DH and I are planning a trip probably next year to California to go to the Ronald Reagan Library and also Disneyland. I'm hoping most of the construction will be completed by Fall 2012. The crowd control during the shows is sometimes crazy there. I remember dealing with that the last time we visited and tried to watch Fantasmic. We finally gave up and just went on rides during the show. Your WAP pictures were wonderful and I have to say they made Disney's AK look so small! I loved how you could be so close up to the animals and there were so many of them! I agree with you about San Diego Zoo. It's an awful lot of walking and I always find the trails very confusing even with the maps. Can't wait to hear about Legoland. Are you going to write a TR for your Alaska trip? I would love to hear about it as it's a state that we hope to visit one of these days!
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Linda - Yes, I will be writing a trip report for Alaska. That's one reason why I'm trying to finish this one up, as I don't like to leave them hanging. I will finish them, sometimes it just takes me a bit! And yes, we got lost many times at the zoo. Couldn't figure out the maps at all!
Sunday, July 25th, 2010 – Vouchers in hand, more cloudy weather, and a full day at LEGOland
I apologize in advance for this update. It is packed full of pictures. PACKED.
We loaded up the car for LEGOland (suits included since they had a waterpark). First stop was BK to get our vouchers. Good thing we had the food from the bakery for breakfast as well, because breakfast at BK was horrible! Not having good luck with breakfasts this trip. We made it to LEGOland, bought our tickets (I think we saved about $140 with the vouchers) and got ready to go inside. We originally had left the sweatshirts in the car, but I sent Matt back for them, as it was another cold day (so much for sunny California).
I do know we did the rollercoaster first thing. I ‘ll have to scan the picture when we get home, because Colin’s face was priceless! Otherwise, we just made out way around the park.
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You will see from the last few pictures, it’s now dark. We opened this park, and we closed it down. Hands down, a great day! The attention to detail is stunning. However, if you have kids over 12, I really don’t think they would enjoy it, as the rides are more geared to the smaller ones. There are a few rollercoasters, and a 6 degree freedom ride, but otherwise, if you’re older, and not into LEGOs, this probably isn’t for you. My only complaint was we found the merchandise to be lacking, especially for a LEGO park. There seemed to be more selection in the LEGO store at DTD at DL than here. But otherwise, a great day and we’d do it again in a heartbeat! After we closed down the park, we stopped at PF Changs down the road for dinner, and then headed back to San Diego. Time to pack up, as we were headed back to LA with a quick stop in DL again to use the last day of our tickets. The kids didn’t really want to do anything else in San Diego, and with Disney calling their name, they’d rather do that.
Coming up next……..Last day in the Disney bubble and loads of laundry
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). It wasn’t defrosted, and she didn’t charge me for it, so that was nice. I think the kids also went swimming in the pool before dinner. I’m sure Matt was taking a nap.
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)! I know I had some more tiramisu for dessert, and I think the kids had gelato. We ended up taking some sweets home as well for breakfast the next day (there was a bakery inside the restaurant)! YUM-O!! We drove around downtown San Diego after dinner, amazed at the crowds at Comic-Con! 
DH also wanted to stop by the Midway to take some pictures, even though it was closed. Otherwise, it was back to the hotel for bedtime, as tomorrow we were planning on LEGOland. And as luck would have it, we were watching TV that night and I saw a commercial for Burger King, giving away vouchers for free kids admission to LEGOland with a paid adult admission. Score! Guess where our first stop tomorrow would be?
. I remember seeing those Ostrich farms, too. Someone in my party (prob. DS) wanted to stop and buy an ostrich egg. What a great score on the Legoland tickets. Can't wait to hear how you liked Legoland. We loved the models 
! The rides were just okay, but the models were amazing. And we had the best theme park counter service meal ever there!
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Great updates - I think you know how much I've been enjoying reading about this trip. 
My DH and I are planning a trip probably next year to California to go to the Ronald Reagan Library and also Disneyland. I'm hoping most of the construction will be completed by Fall 2012. The crowd control during the shows is sometimes crazy there. I remember dealing with that the last time we visited and tried to watch Fantasmic. We finally gave up and just went on rides during the show. Your WAP pictures were wonderful and I have to say they made Disney's AK look so small! I loved how you could be so close up to the animals and there were so many of them! I agree with you about San Diego Zoo. It's an awful lot of walking and I always find the trails very confusing even with the maps.
Can't wait to hear about Legoland. Are you going to write a TR for your Alaska trip? I would love to hear about it as it's a state that we hope to visit one of these days!
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