I'm taking my family to the US at Easter this year and would really appreciate any helpful advice for visiting Las Vegas and Disneyland Anaheim.
We're from Australia and there are limited fun parks here. We literally have kangaroos eating the grass in our front yard as I type this message, so a visit to the US will be a big eye-opener for our kids.
We have 6-year-old twins (boy and girl). The boy absolutely loves roller coasters. When we visit the Gold Coast, he spends a lot of time riding the roller coasters at DreamWorld, SeaWorld and MovieWorld (any park with the name "World" in it). Height is the only current restriction as he is only 118cm (approx. 46 inches) tall. When at home he spends a lot of time watching TPR videos and playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3.
First, we're going to stay in Vegas for 4 days (over the Easter long weekend) at Treasure Island. I heard it was kid friendly. My wife and I have been to Vegas a couple of times for conferences many years ago, but that was B.C. (Before Children).
Any suggestions on what to see and do in Vegas? We had thought of taking a helicopter flight out to the Grand Canyon, but most flights appear to be around $400 per seat. In Aussie Dollars, that's almost twice the amount. Maybe it might be cheaper to take a bus tour or even hire a car (although Americans all drive in the wrong side of the road). Some of the tours seem to drop you somewhere around the canyon and let you go walkabout for 4 hours. Not my idea of fun with young kids. I might see how much it is to hire a Limo for the day and let a driver take us to Hoover Dam, the SkyWalk over the canyon, and any other points of interest (at least we could do things at our own pace).
I've seen YouTube videos of a roller coaster ride at NewYork NewYork and some coaster at the top of a really tall spire in Vegas. Perhaps they might be worth a visit?
After Vegas, we're flying to LA and staying in a hotel near Disneyland at Anaheim for 6 days.
On the net, I found a site for a product called Southern California CityPass. It is a bundled ticket which includes a 3-day pass to Disneyland, and one day at each of Universal Studios, San Diego Zoo & SeaWorld. It appears to be pretty good value when compared to buying each ticket individually.
Disneyland will be a wonder for 6-year-olds. From what I could find on the Disney web site, the kids should be tall enough to go on most of the rides.
Waiting in line is never much fun, but when you have young kids, it seems to take twice as long. When you finally get to the front of the line, the kids suddenly decide that they urgently need to go to the toilet.
I'd really appreciate any helpful suggestions on what to see and do, as well as any strategies on how to get onto rides quickly at any of the theme parks.
Thanks from Down Under.
