Trip Itinerary? Would love any advice at all.

[KandyM]

Planning a first time trip for my family (me, dh, boys 19 & 15 and girl 11) and I would love any input or advice from frequent visitors or locals about planning our days a bit. My problem is too many little things we would like to see and do in the area on our non-park days and not knowing how best to try and group these together with minimal driving and maximum sightseeing. I'd like to be in DL on the 16th (birthday) and 19th but otherwise I don't know how best to arrange the week.

We will be in the area February 13-21. Arrive at LAX around 4:30pm on the 13th (Saturday) and leave from LAX about 6:30am on the 21st (Sunday). We will have five day park hoppers but likely will only do 4 full days with maybe an evening use on arrival day or on some other non-park day. We are booked at Candy Cane Inn for all nights but will probably stay nearer to LAX on our last night (have not yet made that change). We are getting a rental car.

Tentative thoughts of an itinerary:
13th Drive out to Anaheim from LAX, grocery stop and check in. Evening at DDD or DL for fireworks.
14th DCL Full day
15th Off park day - Likely hit an outlet mall and or stop by a beach nearby
16th Disneyland Full day
17th DCL or DL hopping
18th off park day with no plans (maybe warner brothers tour or make this our universal day)
19th DL or DCL hopping
20th Off park day. Check out of CCI and check in to new hotel near airport. Is this a good day for Universal? We would have to leave all our luggage in our rental car if we did universal this day, is that safe? I would probably carry our passports or else put them in a locker on site at universal.
21st Leaving

Our non Disney day wish list is:

• Universal studios park
• Warner Brothers tour
• Kids want to "see a TV show get taped"
• View the beach (we are from the Canadian prairies, don't get to see the ocean often)
• Outlet shopping (there seems to be a few locations - not sure which are good or where located)
• Maybe take in a basketball or hockey game (Ducks or Lakers - no idea if tickets are even possible)

Would love any advice.
Thanks.

 

[GrandBob]

DCL is the Disney Cruise Line. Do you perhaps mean DCA?

 

[KandyM]

DCL is the Disney Cruise Line. Do you perhaps mean DCA?

Oops. Yes.

 

[endy]

Myself, I would just do 3 day hoppers. The Outlets at Orange are my go to spot for shopping. It's really close and they have a Dave and Busters. We also like the Irvine Specturm, it's maybe 20 minutes south one the I5.
Maybe combine a trip to beach with a whale watching tour. For these I recommend Dana Point. If you go on a Tuesday it's half price. Parking is or was last time we went free.

Hockey definitely, it's close by and quite different than a game here. We often go to Flames games and last year went to see them play the Ducks for playoffs. Very different feel in the Honda Center than the Saddledome for sure. Tickets shouldn't be an issue, check online the Ducks website.

Can't help with distance from Universal to LAX. I think it took us close to an hour from Disney area to Universal.
Long Beach Aquarium is also a good place if you've never been.

With such an early flight I definitely think staying near the airport is best. Can't remember which one we stayed at but it was right across the street from Budget rental which was great. Returned car, walked across to motel and got their shuttle to airport, we also had a yucky early morning flight. Car rental shuttles regularly circle airport to rental place.

 

[bcla]

Our non Disney day wish list is:

• Universal studios park
• Warner Brothers tour
• Kids want to "see a TV show get taped"
• View the beach (we are from the Canadian prairies, don't get to see the ocean often)
• Outlet shopping (there seems to be a few locations - not sure which are good or where located)
• Maybe take in a basketball or hockey game (Ducks or Lakers - no idea if tickets are even possible)

Would love any advice.
Thanks.

As for hockey, Ducks are in town during your stay, but the Kings are on a road trip.

http://ducks.nhl.com/club/schedule.htm
http://kings.nhl.com/club/schedule.htm

For basketball, the Clippers are now the hot ticket in town, although they're not at home during your visit. However, the Spurs play at the Lakers on Feb 19. You're going to have a tough time finding anything more than a single seat unless you buy from the secondary market. Also - most of your trip is around the time of the NBA All-Star Game and break, so there's no games until Feb 19 anyways.

There's plenty of men's college basketball (women's too if you're interested) in the area - UCLA and USC are the best known, but there's also Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, Long Beach State, Pepperdine, and Loyola Marymount. Colorado is playing at UCLA on Feb 20, although that's 8 PM. You'd have a tough time if you have a 6:30 AM flight in the morning.

http://www.uclabruins.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30500&SPID=126928&SPSID=749889
http://www.usctrojans.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/usc-m-baskbl-sched.html
http://fullertontitans.com/sports/m-baskbl/2015-16/schedule
http://ucirvinesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/2015-16/schedule
http://www.longbeachstate.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/lbst-m-baskbl-sched.html
http://www.lmulions.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/loyo-m-baskbl-sched.html
http://www.pepperdinesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/pepp-m-baskbl-sched.html

Santa Clara at Pepperdine on Feb 20 at 5 PM. I could think of a lot worse places to be than Malibu, although it might not be terribly warm in late February. You could probably hit the beach in the area, although I understand the beachfront homeowners aren't too happy about public access.

 

[bcla]

There seem to be tickets for some TV shop tapings - and Ellen has availability during your visit. The problem with Ellen is that everyone in the audience needs to be at least 14. You're going to run into some issues since a lot of TV tapings have a minimum audience member age of 18.

http://www.ellentv.com/tickets/

 

[endy]

Holy cow I may have to go to see the Ellen show in Feb. We were looking at going somewhere towards the end of January but we would definitely wait til Feb if we could get tickets. Thanks BCLA. Everytime I've looked for tickets it was already fully booked.