First trip to the West Coast

Disneyland
1

This will be our first trip to the West Coast. We depart Wed and Return Saturday. Those were the days for the cheap flights.

We will arrive at Wed 11:30 am pst. My DD and DW want to see the Hollywood sign, and put theirs toes in the sand of the pacific ocean.

I have been toying whether or not to add the 3rd day to our ticket, When they had the evening ticket it was going to work out perfect, but it sold out by the time I found it.

From My guestimate on time,

12:00 Arrive at rental car at

From there i lose it. I’ve been told Huntington beach would be the best for them to see, but that seems out of the way. Santa Monica seems like a better alternative from looking at a map.

They just want a picture with the sign in the background, doesn’t have to be giant.

Any way I draw this up it looks like i’ll spend 3 or 4 hours getting the beach and sign done.

Which makes me really not want to spend Money on full day tickets for an arrival at 4pm at best.

Thoughts or guidance?

Thanks

Shakeout

2 Likes
2

Apparently that’s on a good day with minimal traffic.

What time is your flight out on Saturday? Could you hit Santa Monica pier and beach that day? Not sure where the Hollywood sign is visible from, so no help there.

3

How about a character meal outside of the parks to kick off the trip? We did Goofy’s Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel on arrival night.

4

@SamRothstein I read through most of your post hoping to find my answers.

Lake Hollywood Park is what I keep finding.

The return flight boards at 11:30. So an hour for the trip from the rental car to the terminal. And then an hour and a half buffer for the airport, we do have pre check. Would put us leaving around 9 am or so.

5

She is 12 now so not sure she will have an interest in those. Especially now she has a taste of steakhouse 71 and le celier

6

I assume you’ll have the car the whole time? What about visiting the beach as part of a mid-day break on one of your full days in the park? That would give you another two hours, at least, on your possibly added third day, making it more worthwhile. I do think there’s value to a 3rd day in the parks. You can watch the night shows and parade, and get in a few rides. I wouldn’t bother with Lightning Lane for a partial late day, though.

7

So is there not a discount to buy the package lighting lane out there?

8

We did Santa Monica beach once to start off a trip. At that time, it was super crowded and very slow traffic to get there. I don’t recommend it if you just want a quick beach stop.
Last trip we ended up making an afternoon beach run from Anaheim to Corona Del Mar State Beach - it was really pretty, not crowded (seemed like just local folks) and traffic that way was not bad at all.

9

Yes, there is. If you purchase on line before your visit, you get a few dollars off, depending on the price the day you are there. It’s not enough to warrant having it on a day you won’t get great use out of it. If I’m arriving late in the day, I purchase it only in the park on the remaining days. It’s overall cheaper than including a day where I can’t get good use out of it. If you enter at 2 p.m., and if you are strategic about watching for opportunities that pop up, you might get in 4 headliners and several that almost always have close return times. If you arrive at 4 on a moderate crowd day, you’ll have a hard time getting many headliners on your LLMP. Watch the return times ahead of time and you’ll see what I mean.

10

Sorry. Not sure how that quote ended up there. I was responding to your question about LLMP, above.

11

Thanks. I’ll have bg1 to monitor on the way out there

The lines don’t looks too bad tonight. We will see how tomorrow goes.

Thanks for the help everyone. It is similar enough to world I’m hoping I’ll be ok with the way It works there. Other than I can’t keep a running 3 in my pocket.