The Disneyland, San Diego, and Vegas, oh my! Trip Report - COMPLETED!! 2/18/11 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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The Disneyland, San Diego, and Vegas, oh my! Trip Report - COMPLETED!! 2/18/11
OK, I’ve got to get started on this thing. If I don’t start now, I’ll never do it. Hopefully this will give me the push I need to finish it as well.
This trip came about as something else to do besides WDW. We’ve been there 8 times, and while we love it (it’s our relaxing vacation – which I’m sure frequent travelers there will understand) we wanted to try something new. Last year was the DCL cruise, so this year was going to be Disneyland. My DH has an aunt who lives outside LA (Duarte) that I’ve never met in our 16 years together, which means she’s never met the kids either. We decided to go for broke, and throw LA (and Disneyland), San Diego (the zoo, WAP, and LEGOland), and Vegas into the mix. When is the next time we’re going to get out there? Who knows, so try so see what we can now! I chose July 16th thru July 30th as our dates. That gave us basically two weeks. Would we survive two weeks together?
I won’t bore you all the minute planning details. Airfare was Southwest, connecting thru Vegas to Ontario, CA. Coming home, we’d be driving from LA to Vegas in a rental car, and then flying back from there. I had reserved a rental car from the 16th to the 27th, and then another one (for one day) on the 27th to drive out to Vegas. For some reason, if I kept the car on the same ressie and went out to Vegas with it, it increased the cost of the rental by $500. Whatever, I wasn’t going to play their silly games (Budget). Hotels were Howard Johnson at DL with the Mousesavers rate http://www.hojoanaheim.com/ , the Best Western Island Palms on Shelter Island in San Diego http://islandpalms.com/ and Excalibur in Vegas as it looked kid friendly http://www.excalibur.com/ . Now, when I booked, I had no idea it was Comic Con weekend in San Diego (comic books and tv shows) otherwise I would have tried to change around our dates. Oh well. That would explain why it was so hard to find a hotel room! I purchased tickets for some things before our trip. Got our DL tickets from Ares Travel http://www.arestravel.com/ DL was running a special promo, so I ended up getting 5 day tickets for the price of 3 days. It would have cost me more to get the 4 day tickets, which is what we were planning on, so I just went with the extra day (and savings). I got our Hoover Dam tickets online as well, and I think that was it. I debated on getting passes for Balboa Park and the zoo online, but ended up not doing it (would that be good or bad?). I did have a bunch of coupons that I got off a California tourism site for the zoo and WAP, so we had those. For LEGOland, the kids belong to Brickmaster, so Alexa had gotten a free day (free child ticket with purchased adult ticket) in the issue near her birthday. Of course, I put it away, and do you think I could find it before the trip? Nope, nada, no where to be found! Then, another issue came the week before we left, and that also had a free pass in it, so at least I had one! Needless to say, I put that one away into the PassPorter pocket for safe keeping! Oh, and I ordered tickets for KA in Vegas online. We wanted to see a show, and this seemed pretty kid friendly (we’ve done La Nouba twice) and better yet, it was The Summer of Cirque in Vegas, where we were able to get great seats for only $55! Score! http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ka/default.aspx I think that was it for the planning! Now, for the trip!
Day 1 – Friday July 16th, 2010 – Travel Day
It’s been hot here in CT this summer. I mean HOT. Couple of 100+ degree days, lots of 90s. It was actually going to be cooler in SoCal than here, so I was really looking forward to that. Extended forecast called for only mid 60s in San Diego, and mid 70s in LA. Then of course, there’s Vegas. 105-110 degrees. Great (not)! Our trip out to So Cal was uneventful. Airport here was pretty empty. We had lunch, and waited at our gate. Matt’s aunt called and said we could use her car while we were out in LA/San Diego, so I decided to cancel the rental and saved myself $350. I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for the ride. The kids has Matt’s laptop and Alexa’s iPod. We were greeted with Shamu, unfortunately he was going to Tampa Bay, and not to Vegas.
The flight was was fine, other than the severe turbulence we hit about 30 minutes into the flight. I really thought we were going to break apart it was that bad (and seemed to come out of nowhere). Lots of white knuckles. Other than the kids asking every 15 minutes how much longer we made it to Vegas on time and without any other issues. We grabbed dinner (Sbarros) and waited for our Ontario plane, which was just a few minutes late. Another uneventful flight (albeit short – less than 40 minutes in the air). Alexa slept the entire way. She wasn’t feeling good, and by now her body was telling her it was past her bedtime. Once she woke up, she felt much better.
Matt’s aunt picked us up at the airport, and our luggage wouldn’t fit into her car (we have two large hard sided cases which I’m going to have to replace one of them because they both don’t fit into any rental car anymore unless it’s a minivan or large SUV). Matt brought one into the front seat with him, and somehow we managed the drive to her house. There was more family waiting there for us when we arrived (Matt’s parents had flown in a couple days before, and his other aunt who lived nearby (who I’ve also never met)) was there with her son, and lots of food. By now, my body was telling me it was 1 AM and I was ready for bed. Got the kids to sleep, had some food, and then went to sleep myself.
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Can't wait to read all about it Marnie. I'm bummed because I was actually in San Diego for ComicCon with Zack! I would've loved to see you again, especially since meeting you in person was the reason I started to post on Passporter. Next time you fly West of the Rockies, I'm there!
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Karen, aka Zack's Mom - Lover of all Things Disney and the San Francisco Giants!
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Can't wait to read all about it Marnie. I'm bummed because I was actually in San Diego for ComicCon with Zack! I would've loved to see you again, especially since meeting you in person was the reason I started to post on Passporter. Next time you fly West of the Rockies, I'm there!
Drat Karen! We did drive down there one night after dinner in Little Italy. Can you say crowded (I can't imagine what it must have been like during the day)! Sorry we missed you and Zack! I think the last time we saw you was either 2004 or 2005!
Yeah ... you're doing a trip report. I have been looking for one. I could not remember when you were doing your trip and thought it might have been in August. I have always enjoyed your trip reports.
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I'm so glad you're doing a trip report Marnie, I've been looking forward to reading all about your trip. Sorry for the rough start with the turbulent flight - boy would I have loved to have seen some photos of that luggage and you all in the car together!
Can't wait to hear about this trip - especially since I leave for Disneyland in 2 weeks!!! I totally understand the luggage dilemma with small cars. Been there, done that! Looking forward to more!
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Tanya
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I'm so looking forward to this TR! We plan to do Disneyland & San Diego in about 6 years or so. DH would actually want to go at this time so he could attend Comin Con and my aunt lives in San Diego.
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I purchased tickets for some things before our trip. Got our DL tickets from Ares Travel 
Then, another issue came the week before we left, and that also had a free pass in it, so at least I had one! Needless to say, I put that one away into the PassPorter pocket for safe keeping! Oh, and I ordered tickets for KA in Vegas online. We wanted to see a show, and this seemed pretty kid friendly (we’ve done La Nouba twice) and better yet, it was The Summer of Cirque in Vegas, where we were able to get great seats for only $55! Score! 
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We did drive down there one night after dinner in Little Italy. Can you say crowded (I can't imagine what it must have been like during the day)! Sorry we missed you and Zack! I think the last time we saw you was either 2004 or 2005! 
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