First trip report. Very late (3 months). But, I so appreciated all of the help. I wanted to share our experience.
TLDR; LEGOLAND wins
We went to California the last week of May. 2 adults, 2 elementary aged children. Disneyland, Legoland, Knotts, Huntington Beach - 3 hotels
Airport - SNA - easy
Rental Car - Alamo (following the return address in the app was wrong!), brand new car, no strange fees
Hotel #1 - 4 nights- Howard Johnson (HOJO) Anaheim across the street from DLR. We walked across at the first light/corner and traveled the sidewalk adjacent to DLR. Yes, there is a break in the path at the crosswalk into the Bus Loop. We cut through the very bare bus loop each day to avoid any chaos at the main entrance crosswalk. It worked well. Not sure we saved any time.
We liked the HOJO. We had a two room suite in building 1. Bunk beds in one room with pull out couch and it’s own bathroom. Adjacent room with King bed and bathroom. Lots of seating for eating in the room. We were told all suites face away from the park. We faced the highway but it was not loud unless the balcony door was open. Slept well. I liked having enclosed hallways. Our room was quiet. Elevators were fast. Staff were kind and responsive. Room was clean although there was a urine smell near the bed in the kids area when we arrived. It wasn’t the bed. Airing the room out didn’t help. Reported it in the morning and it was gone when we returned from the park. The room remained fresh smelling for the rest of the stay. Not a cleaner smell. Just fresh. Paid for parking which was close to the room.
Even though we walked the opposite side of the street, we did see individuals experiencing homelessness, which I wasn’t sure my kids would handle well. We would see the same man each day going through a garbage can on the corner. We were followed by a woman who was yelling to get our attention one day. She was in the Courtyard parking lot and followed us across the street into the HOJO parking lot. We did not stop and the kids did not notice. She followed us into the HOJO parking lot, but not any further. She may have had something very valuable to talk to us about and she was not aggressive. But, we just kept moving. Just adding this information because it is something I wondered about.
Disneyland - 2 days, DCA - 1 day
As a WDW regular and now Universal fan, Disneyland was meh for me. There were more rides down than I expected. Fantasyland was too crowded for us. Toontown was our favorite for just being a fun place to be. And we love Runaway Railway. I did like seeing so many characters everywhere. That was lovely. We met a lot of characters that we had never seen before. Ariel just walked up to my youngest and said hello while we were sitting on a bench. Lovely!! We did get to build lightsabers in Galaxy’s Edge. For a limited time (I think) they were letting kids do the regular lightsaber experience for free. We had fun doing that, just had to explain to the kids why we couldn’t take them home like some people did. Was disappointed in the marketplace staff in that land. There is a scavenger hunt and we asked for the booklet for that. The cast member was disinterested, gave no instruction or information other than telling us she had no pencils and to try another stall. Eventually another cast member explained how it worked with getting stamps and a prize sticker in the end. It just took us too long and we didn’t finish. Kids didn’t care, which is unusual. I think the questions were too hard. DL food was not remarkable. I spent a lot of time watching food videos (important stuff). The things we got were just ok. Nothing I remember. There was just not a lot of magic for us. My youngest lost their favorite hat at/around Pooh. I walked our entire path between Pooh and Tiana’s Palace looking for it immediately. Some cast members were helpful, but one actually said ‘I’m not lost and found. You’ll have to go the front of the park’ and he seemed offended. I literally just asked him if he had seen a hat and showed him a picture. We did go the front of the park, followed the directions and the hat was never found. It was a very specific and unusual hat, so that was disappointing. Cast members were mostly kind, but the ones that were not, stuck with us. We have high expectations for that. If vacations are about making great memories, we just didn’t make many at Disneyland.
We enjoyed California Adventure! This is in part due to having a positive experience with Lightning Lane Multipass and single pass. Carsland was super fun and we all raved about Radiator Springs Racers for days! We met so many awesome Marvel characters, got to do the Monster’s Inc ride, etc. Soarin was still great. Web Slingers was down nearly all day. This allowed us to keep booking it and keep getting passes for other rides when time expired. No staring at my phone all day and stressing about ride times. We nearly always had an open lightning lane available for whatever we wanted to ride. Glorious! Web Slingers came up around dinner time and we finally got to ride. It was an awesome day. We did everything we wanted. Pyms chicken sandwich was not as good as I had hoped.
LEGOLAND - 2 days
Hotel - Castle Hotel- 3rd floor wizard room
My kids are begging to go back to LEGOLAND. Pop badges stole their hearts. IYKYK. If you don’t know, you must find out before going. They asked nearly every staff member for pop badges and they were not disappointed. Mr. Gold was found. Space baby was traded for. Ninjago coins were received, mini LEGO sets were received. We had the very best time. We never made it to the Water park (which we paid ahead for) because kids were having so much fun in the main park. I tell people that after LEGOLAND my kids don’t even remember going to Disneyland. My wallet remembers Disneyland! I wish I had split them into two trips. The LEGOLAND staff was incredibly nice! Conversations were genuine and pop badge tips were insightful! The hotel is so well themed! Being at LEGOLAND is our most valuable memory of the summer. The rides were good. Nothing too thrilling or technical and certainly fewer than DLR. But, still good enough to be fresh and novel to us. Galacticoaster was way more thrilling than I expected. Basically an indoor coaster. We would have liked to find a build class or see a master builder. We did not see any of those opportunities. Tip: We saved money by getting one Elite pass for one adult during the Black Friday sale. This saved us lots on hotel and food. It more than paid for itself and we’ll use it for LEGOLAND Florida. Food was expensive! Kids meals more expensive than Disney. We only ate lunch in the park, not dinner. Speaking of food, we had Urban Plates delivered to the hotel. Wow, was it good. Best mac n cheese of our lives. Everything we got there was incredibly good and held up well to delivery. Kids meals were enough to satisfy adults. Highly recommend.
Knott’s Berry Farm- meh Knott’s didn’t stand much of a chance because we live very close to our Six Flags home park. It was free with our Six Flag passes. The kids area was very similar to our home park. There were no shows for the day, which is really what we came for. The few rides we did were fun. The train ride with ‘bandits’ was rushed and fairly lame. We only lasted half the day and drove to our Huntington Beach hotel. Knott’s food was good though.
Huntington Beach - We stayed one night at the Kimpton. I love Kimptons! Smallish, free smores, beach gear to borrow, fun atmosphere, kind staff, great food. The one thing I didn’t like was our specific room. We did a blind booking, which wasn’t very blind due to the details they did give. It was a great rate and the only way it fit our budget/room size needs. I could tell that this room was the ‘low cost’ room. AC woke me up repeatedly, bathroom door didn’t fully slide closed. But, for one night it was fine. It was right across from the pier. We watched the surfers, had some great meals, had lunch stollen by a seagull on the beach. Fun times! The hotel lent us towels, blankets, and sand toys. Anything we could want. We ate at Sandy’s Beach Shack and it was really good!
I’m going long now. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much to everyone who answered all of my questions. Knowing the details made for an exceptional trip. Now, to plan for LEGOLAND Florida.
