For summer vacation, we decided to pack the kids into the car and make a pilgrimage to Southern California. Our mission was to visit Disneyland, Legoland, and Sea World in the span of 7-days. We checked the prices of tickets and all three amusement parks were quite expensive. We ended up settling on the Southern California City Pass. The Southern California City pass entitles you to 3 days at Disneyland/California Adventures, 1 day at LegoLand, and 1 day at Sea World. We actually purchased the passes online from Park Savers. The price of the passes were $279 for ages 3-9 and $329 for ages 10+. We didn’t have to purchase a pass for our youngest because he isn’t 3. My wife found a coupon for an additional $6.00 savings online, so the total for 1 kids pass and 2 adult passes was $931.00. Keep in mind that we had 5 days of amusements parks, which we believed to be a good deal (all things considered).
Now after researching extensively for hotels in Anaheim, we opted for the Marriott Residence Inn Anaheim Resort Area/Garden Grove, located at 11931 Harbor Blvd, Garden Grove, California 92840. Although the room rate was $152.00, there was also an occupancy sales tax, GGtid; CA tourism assesment, and Daily Parking fee tacked on. The total cost was $579.42. The Residence Inn Marriott itself was pretty nice. We opted for the 1 Bedroom King Suite. As with all Residence Inn Marriotts, they served complimentary hot breakfasts. We also opted for their “shuttle service” to Disneyland. If I recall, the price was $4 for 3 days for our son, and $12 each for the parents for a total of $28.00. Aside from having to fold our strollers, the shuttle service was very smooth going to Disneyland. Now returning to the hotel was a different story. We stayed late each night (i.e., past 9:30 p.m.). The first night, the line for the shuttle was so crowded that we ended up walking back to the hotel. Although the hotel was only about 1.2 miles away, the walked seemed like forever. After walking Disney Land and California Adventures, I wouldn’t recommend walking back to the hotel (even if you are trying to log steps on your Fit Bit).
For our lodging near Legoland and Sea World, we opted for the Residence Inn Marriott Residence Inn San Diego North/San Marcos, located at 1245 Los Vallecitos Boulevard, San Marcos, California 92069. After including all taxes, the total for the 4 night stay was $804.46.
