Disney Family Museum detour

[hawkeyesparks]

My family is planning A trip to Disneyland. We will be flying to California. Has anyone ever made a side trip to San Francisco to the Disney museum? If so, what did your itinerary look like.

 

[Micca]

Haven't done the museum as a side trip, but if you love the history of Disney, this is a must

 

[Kit Jackson]

Disneyland and San Francisco are pretty far apart. It is probably not a day trip/side trip like Griffith Park, studio tours, or some other movie related sites/museums in Hollywood or LA.

That being said, the Disney Family Museum is absolutely amazing and totally worth doing, just logistically difficult. You would need to do a Disneyland trip, and then an additional trip (transportation/hotel) to go to San Fransisco to the do the Disney Family Museum.

 

[dina444444]

As others have said it’s not exactly a day trip. It’s about a 1.5 hour flight to San Francisco from the Disneyland area or a 7ish hour drive (varies on traffic). I do highly recommend visiting the museum though.

 

[McNs]

Our 2015 Disneyland holiday started in San Francisco (flew in there) where we visited the excellent museum. We had a few nights there then made our way down highway 1/Big Sur for a couple of nights then across to Yosemite for 2 more nights before finally making our way to Disneyland. It was an excellent trip, some great sights to see in California. We flew home from LAX.

 

[irlandaise]

My family is planning A trip to Disneyland. We will be flying to California. Has anyone ever made a side trip to San Francisco to the Disney museum? If so, what did your itinerary look like.

When is your Disneyland trip and what is your schedule like? Others have mentioned your travel alternatives, so you could add a one-day stop in SF if you fly to or from the Disneyland area, or you'd need to allow two days if you want to see the Disney Family Museum via driving to or from Southern California.

If you decide to drive, keep an eye on the Highway 1 situation. Because there are so few places where it connects with Highway 101, even a small closure on 1 can make a large stretch inaccessible. That's the case right now, for example--and I don't want to give Mother Nature any ideas, but there are better than even odds that the winter storms will cause even more landslides and closures. But if you can do it, it's a real stunner.

 

[LKing]

As others have mentioned, the museum is quite a distance from Disneyland. However, the Disney Studios aren't too far away. You can book a tour of the studios through D23. Regular membership is free. Gold costs, but there is currently a 50% discount if you are a Disney + subscriber. It is probably cheaper to join D23 and purchase tour tickets as a gold member than it is to purchase tickets as a general member.

D23 books tours a couple months at a time. They are currently booking for March & April 2024. Keep your eyes open for future dates. Disney Studio D23 Tours

 

[Porsche4]

Our upcoming Nov/Dec trip starts out with 3 days in Hawaii (we are coming from Australia) then 3 days in San Francisco followed by ten days at Disneyland. We plan on visiting the Disney Museum in SF and have a couple of non park days at DL to play minigolf and go antique shopping. I am so looking forward to this trip it is going to be awesome. Hope you can work the museum into your plans somehow.

 

[PiratesOfTheSea]

It's a neat little museum heavily focused on Walt Disney's life and career but probably not worth a side-trip to SF specifically just to visit on its own.

The Presidio where the museum located is also not that close to SFO, depending on the time of day it might take you longer to get from SFO to there than the LAX-SFO flight time.

 

[irlandaise]

The Presidio where the museum located is also not that close to SFO, depending on the time of day it might take you longer to get from SFO to there than the LAX-SFO flight time.

LOL, good point!

The whole GGNRA area—the Presidio, Alcatraz, etc.—has a lot of natural beauty plus history, so I hope the OP can get there sometime.

Oh, and there's the Yoda statue outside the Lucasfilm complex at the Presidio. That's fun to see, too.

 

[LKing]

Oh, and there's the Yoda statue outside the Lucasfilm complex at the Presidio. That's fun to see, too.

Speaking of Lucas, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is supposed to open in Exposition Park in 2025. I drive by every so often and it is exciting to see the progress they are making.

 

[DizMe]

In case anyone in the SF area is interested, my friend, Laurence Boag, is giving a presentation at the Disney Family Museum next Sat (Jan 20) from 1-3. He's going to talk about his dad, Disney legend Wally Boag, and he'll probably have a lot of funny things to say and likely bring props from his Golden Horseshoe show. I can't wait to see it!
https://www.waltdisney.org/education/talks/behind-wally-boags-historic-tenure-golden-horseshoe-revue

 

[PirateBrigade]

I live near the museum, so I can't really comment, but your itinerary coming from LA would look one three ways:

1) Straight day trip - doable, but not my favorite
You would book a flight early morning from LAX/BUR/LGB/SNA to SFO/OAK (any combination that fits your budget and schedule). It would have to be Thursday-Sunday as the museum is closed Monday-Wednesday.

I would land no later than 9am, eat your breakfast in So-Cal/at the airport or take it on the plane. Officially, it is 35 minutes from SFO to the museum, but allot 1 hour. Take an Uber directly from SFO (rental car not recommended for such a short trip). From OAK, it is 45 minutes, but you would hit AM commute traffic on Thursday or Friday that funnels onto a 5 lane bridge, would not advise.

Museum opens at 10am, make sure you have correctly timed tickets. I'm thinking one can spend 3-4 hours at the museum, or more, it's super dense. Not really small kid friendly.

At this point, up to you what to do -- head straight back to the airport, fly to LA/Orange County, and have dinner? Head into SF itself and grab dinner, then take the last flight out? I would probably not leave the confines of the peninsula (the strip of land from SFO to the south, to the Golden Gate Bridge to the north). If you have time, you can consider flying out of OAK if it better serves your budget.

If it were me, I would take an Uber to the Ferry Building down by the Bay Bridge, and have a late lunch/early dinner at Hog Island (recommend the clam chowder), or Gott's if you're in a burger mood (might I recommend the kimchi burger with gochujang mayo). Once you're done, you can take an Uber back to SFO, or you can actually hop on BART (Embarcadero Station) which takes you right into the terminals at SFO (or OAK via connector train).

I'm pulling random Thursdays in February and you're probably looking at $95-$200 RT per person for airfare, which will be the bulk of cost here. Example: February 22, 2024 on Southwest Airlines I see a $46 fare from LAX to SFO that lands at 7:40am (you'll have time for breakfast somewhere!), and $49 from OAK to LGB on the last flight out. You will spend most of your planning figuring out the flights, because the costs are all over the place because you have compare 6 different airports and their pairings.

2) Overnight
I would use the above template, but instead of heading back to the airport from the Ferry Building, you can probably do one of two things:

(a) Head to Napa Valley -- this is a popular getaway from SF and not too far (maybe an hour ish). Bring a nice outfit and shoes, dine at Thomas Keller's restaurants, drink the finest wine outside of France, etc...

(b) Stay in SF -- depending on the season, catch a baseball game at Oracle Park, go do touristy things, etc...

If you head to Napa, consider renting a car at the airport when you land and drive yourself to the Disney Family Museum, then you can jump off straight to Napa after you are done with the museum (take the Golden Gate Bridge, stop at the parking lots and enjoy the views). Make sure you don't leave valuables in the car and get the maximum car insurance possible, bipping is a thing, and your California Permanent Fleet sticker will be a dead giveaway you are a tourist in a rental.

If you stay in SF, just stick to Uber.

3) Full Weekend
I kind of ran out of steam with writing and have some work meetings, but I trust the rest of the board to chime in with weekend itineraries. You can even probably drive up to SF!

 

[PiratesMansion]

While the museum is very good, I wouldn't recommend going up there just for the museum and then heading back. San Francisco is an incredible city-I just went for the first time this past summer and the absolute worst thing I did and ate was still very good. It deserves a couple of days to appreciate on its own, and is distinctly different in feel than Los Angeles and Orange County.

Otherwise, there are plenty of things to do in LA, the OC, or even San Diego, all of which are considerably closer to Disneyland than San Francisco. I second the Disney Studio Tour if you're able to book it through D23-though note that the tickets tend to be released at random intervals and go fast-or do a Disney history of your own through the LA area. Not sure if he still does it, but Bob Gurr (former Imagineer who designed most of the early Disney attraction vehicles) used to lead a tour of Disney-related sites in LA the third Sunday of each month, which you might enjoy or attempt in a more DIY fashion.

 

[LKing]

Not sure if he still does it, but Bob Gurr (former Imagineer who designed most of the early Disney attraction vehicles) used to lead a tour of Disney-related sites in LA the third Sunday of each month,

At 92, Bob Gurr is still giving tours.

Bob Gurr's Waitland