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Going to be in San Diego for a conference in mid October, will be bringing kids 7 and 10 along. They are sufficiently media-saturated that I suspect they will get as much out of either park now as they ever will. However, I hate hate standing in lines, and am not sure I want to unass the 400$+parking+food+hour or more drive. I've also not been to Disney or Lego land since I was 12, so could be there have been some changes in the last two or three decades. Do I want to spend my only free day and fortune doing Disney or Lego Land with the kids, or would we be much better off poking around the tidepools, watching hang gliders off Torrey Pines, eating tortas, and checking out the museums at Balboa park? What else would be awesome to do with kids in San Diego? What would be awesome to dump the kids with friends and do with one late evening alone with wife?
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Sep 22, 2014 00:32
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| # ? May 7, 2024 13:18 |
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Slo-Tek posted:Going to be in San Diego for a conference in mid October, will be bringing kids 7 and 10 along. They are sufficiently media-saturated that I suspect they will get as much out of either park now as they ever will. However, I hate hate standing in lines, and am not sure I want to unass the 400$+parking+food+hour or more drive. I've also not been to Disney or Lego land since I was 12, so could be there have been some changes in the last two or three decades. I've never been to Legoland, but I've been to Disneyland LA quite a few times and in the 'off season' (mid October) there will be basically no lines anywhere on weekdays, and on weekends not for more than 5-10 minutes, except whatever [today's most popular ride] is. But your 7 year old won't be able to go on quite a lot of rides anyway unless s/he is ridiculously tall for her/his age, so I hope you're going with your wife so that you can split up, otherwise your 10 y.o. will probably get mad at the little sibling. Based on this alone I might recommend against Disneyland; I don't remember 100% but I'm pretty sure 7 y.o.s are going to be hugely restricted on what rides they can go on, based on height/weight, meaning your family will be split up a lot, meaning maybe it's better to go somewhere else and come back when your kids are 10/13.
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Sep 22, 2014 10:11
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Remember, Anaheim is like a 2-4 hour drive from San Diego. Edit: If you want to raise some real kids take them to TJ for real fun.
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Sep 22, 2014 16:14
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Bip Roberts posted:Remember, Anaheim is like a 2-4 hour drive from San Diego. My parents did this with me when I was a kid during a trip to SD and it's a memorably bad experience. It's full of touts and all around uncomfortable, and I imagine the border crossing is miserable in this post-9/11 world. Driving to TJ from SD probably takes about as long as driving to Anaheim. Actually another idea: Why don't you just go to the San Diego zoo? It's like the best zoo in the United States, kids will love it, no issues with the 7 year old being too small, and it's cool for parents too. There is also like a full blown safari park where you ride around and look at elephants and giraffes and whatever from. Never been to that, and would still recommend the zoo, but the safari always sounded neat to me. Then I went to the Serengeti and it kind of lost its appeal so I never looked into it again, but anyway. Saladman fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Sep 22, 2014 |
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Sep 22, 2014 16:24
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Tijuana was not a serious suggestion as a family activity.
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Sep 22, 2014 18:56
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How much do your kids like Legos? Legoland is a relatively small park compared to Disneyland, and a decent amount of space is taken up by their exhibits of Lego re-creations of places like Las Vegas and New York. There's a section where kids can build Legos. I would check out the park map with your kids and see if anything looks reasonably fun. Disneyland is Disneyland. Like someone said, it's a 2 hour drive up to Anaheim. But it's a bigger park with more rides and attractions. You can easily spend several days at Disneyland, which isn't true of Legoland, I think. My suggestion is to spend the day with the kids. Rent bikes and ride around pacific and mission beach. Rent GoCars and do a tour of the city. Go to Old Town and get food at old town mex and then wander around looking at tacky tourist shops. Go to the zoo, if you must go to a park. Take a kayak tour of the sea caves in La Jolla. Take the family to the corvette diner in point loma, and go walk around Cabrillo national monument. Go to the mount soledad cross and get a great view of the whole city. Depending how warm it is, you could even do a beach day. Go to the Public House in La Jolla and get an amazing burger. For you and your wife, go to North Park and find one of the trendy restaurants and then go to Heaven Sent desserts. Other night spots have different crowds: PB is the college crowd, while downtown has the 20-somethings looking to hook up and tourists. Or go to Stone Brewery restaurant in Escondido or Point Loma.
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Sep 22, 2014 21:04
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Take your kids to the aircraft carrier. It's cool as hell for people of all ages.
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Sep 22, 2014 23:44
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Height is a concern! Good thinking there. I'm leaning hard toward staying in SD the whole trip.
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Sep 23, 2014 03:41
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Zoo is by far the best option. Even native San Diegans enjoy the zoo. Go there.
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Sep 29, 2014 01:52
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If you're mobile, do the Wild Animal Park too.
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Oct 5, 2014 10:06
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Blinkman987 posted:If you're mobile, do the Wild Animal Park too. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. If you have the money and can book in advance, see if you can arrange a "safari" thing (do they still do that?). I remember going there and seeing the people who were on the actual safari, while I was walking around, and being jealous as all hell.
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Oct 5, 2014 19:19
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Well, that thing is done. Best times were Point Loma, Zoo/Balboa Park, and the Torrey Pines Gliderport. Also climbing down the cliff under the Gliderport to the beach, and finding out that it was a nudist beach, but once you climb down that far, you are kinda committed. Kayaking the sea caves was limited by weather, not enough visibility to see down to the leopard sharks, and the guide was not letting people into the caves with the waves as high as they were, so we would have been just as well off rending kayaks without a guide. It wasn't bad, but it could have been a hell of a lot better if the weather cooperated. Lego Land was kind of a bust, long lines for lame rides, half of everything that was supposed to move, or squirt, or do something was broken, and didn't. I feel like it was a lot more impressive 20 years ago, but since boxed lego kits have gotten so much better, the difference between what you can do at home, and what they can do with unlimited bricks and budget is less striking. It wasn't bad, but probably should have spent that money on a parasail ride, or the safari park. Thanks for all your help. Pictures:    
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Oct 23, 2014 23:53
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