I’m going to make this as short as I can. Backstory, I’ve got myself, spouse & two children who will be 4 & 18 months at the time of travel. We went to WDW last winter, spent 3 days & did everything that we wanted to at all 4 parks. We aren’t foodies, we prefer pizza & burgers to anything that I cannot even pronounce on a menu. I’m trying to decide on a two week stay at WDW or flying out to CA (we live on the east coast) and spending 2 days at Disneyland & about 12 on the beach/exploring the area. Either way, I’m going to make the trip to California, I’m just not sure if I should wait until my kids are older.
I’m a little nervous to explore Cali alone (even though I fully want too!) as I come from a small town of about 8,000. I’m comfortable at DisneyWorld with the large crowds because it’s at least slightly regulated & there are obviously no “places to avoid” except MK on Christmas Day. Lol. With that being said, which do you prefer Florida or California? If California, where should I stay? What beach should we visit? What else should we do during our stay out there?
I prefer CA for the weather. Given the age of your little one, I absolutely would do DL instead of WDW. You can stay at the Best Western Park Place Inn right across the street from the main entrance for a fraction of the DL on site hotels. Plus, BWPPI includes free breakfast. AND when your 18 month old needs a nap, it's a 5 min or less walk from the parks' main entrances.
Park hopping between DCA & DL takes < 5 min. No need to wait for a bus to show up.
You CAN see a lot of DL in 2 days, but it'll be frantic open to close commando-style park touring days...which is hard with children that age. I'd recommend that you consider 4 days. It'll allow you to take a more relaxed approach to your DL visit. Rope drop is ideal at DL because most of the visitors there are locals, who often don't show up until 11:00 am. And when the park opens at 8:00 am, you can crank out a LOT of rides between 8-11 am. Then you have lunch ~12 pm and when your 18 month old is starting to go into cranky "I NEED A NAP!" mode, you walk 5 min to BWPPI (or Park View Inn or Tropicana, both of which are right next door).
Then after the kiddo's nap, hit the pool if the weather is warm enough (it won't be if you go in the winter!). Then mid-to-late afternoon, go back to the parks for the rest of the evening.
In pre-COVID times, DL is ideal for character interactions compared to WDW. It's much more fluid and organic. There are no FPs to meet characters. Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and the Mad Hatter often would just roam around Fantasyland in the first 2 hours after official park opening. It's really magical. Peter Pan will play games with young children. It's SO great!
If you decide to go and IF character meals have returned when you go, you should do the character breakfast at the Plaza Inn. We regularly would see 6 or 7 characters there every time we went.
Just a heads up about beaches in So Cal: the water is NOT bath tub warm like it might be in Florida. Don't bother going to beaches in Santa Monica or Venice Beach...too many homeless with drug addiction and mental illness problems.
Orange County, San Diego county, and LA all have some really great other fun family things to see and explore. For example:
- California Science Center in LA - you can see the space shuttle there.
- LA Natural History Museum - literally right next door to the CA Science Center. Children your kids' ages will probably enjoy this.
- Discovery Cube science museum in Santa Ana - this is ~ 10-15 min from Disneyland. LOTS of fun interactive science exhibits which are ideal for children.
- You should consider hitting up the San Diego Zoo or the wild animal park. They are NOT next to each other. It's about an hour's drive between the 2 locations.