California for the first time

[Trevannosaurus Rex]

I'm making my first trip to California in a few weeks, arriving on the 13th April and leaving on the 21st. Planning on hitting the parks.

 

We're staying in a hotel within walking distance to Disneyland and we've got 4 days worth of park hoppers, very familiar with the Florida site....But not done Disneyland, so that part of the trip shouldn't be too difficult.

 

The fun part comes from wanting to get to Knotts, Legoland and Magic Mountain. A taxi to and from Knotts shouldn't be too bad, but there doesn't seem to be a lot in the way of public transport to Legoland or MM. The hotel does run shuttle busses but when we booked couldn't give me some sensible details on the times the busses run. My previous experience with getting a coach to theme parks means getting there an hour after opening and then leaving before the place closes. Which isn't ideal, but it's either that or nothing at all.

 

So if you have any advice on hitting the parks with a limited amount of time in a day, (best days to go and so on, what's worth skipping and so on). That would be much appreciated.

 

Enough slacking off back to work I suppose.

[knottslover77]

Knott's and Legoland are both half day parks. SFMM it depends on what day of the week you go.

 

--Jay

[SharkTums]

^I don't think you can tell someone that especially since we don't know too much about the original poster.

 

Yes you could do the credits at Legoland in one hour and leave, but I feel that would be a mistake as there are so many great, unique attractions and it's a super nice park. As for Knotts, again if you did it smart you could get in and out of that park with all the credits in less than 2-3 hours (depending on day of week) but for a new person if they're interested in some other stuff or like Fried Chicken they should plan to stay longer.

 

As for SFMM, definitely a full day, and buy flashpasses!

[Mechanic]

My limited experience with public transit in Southern California has been horrible. I would suggest renting a car and allowing nearly double what the "estimated travel times" are on any map websites when traveling any distance over 10 miles down there. Of course, there are exceptions and certain times when the traffic has moved much more quickly than I expected, but in general, getting around in LA and San Diego is a real pain more often than not.

[Trevannosaurus Rex]

Thanks for the quick replies!

Unfortunately neither of us can drive, so we are stuck with the chartered buses.

 

I've been to Legoland Windsor and Germany and I heard that California was closer to Windsor than Germany's (which I didn't really like that much). So I'd be going not just for credits but for the whole park as I'm not really a credit whore.

 

Want to get to MM during the week so we can avoid some of the lines. Pretty gutted that X2 will be closed as that looks like fun. I wasn't particularly interested in visiting MM as I'd heard the horror stories of 1 train operation and half the park closed and didn't really want to wait for hours in a queue line full of screaming teenagers, but from the sounds of things I think they are wanting to get away from that old image. Besides Tatsu sounds like fun.

[knottslover77]

^I don't think you can tell someone that especially since we don't know too much about the original poster.

 

Yes you could do the credits at Legoland in one hour and leave, but I feel that would be a mistake as there are so many great, unique attractions and it's a super nice park. As for Knotts, again if you did it smart you could get in and out of that park with all the credits in less than 2-3 hours (depending on day of week) but for a new person if they're interested in some other stuff or like Fried Chicken they should plan to stay longer.

 

As for SFMM, definitely a full day, and buy flashpasses!

 

Sorry, if I came of like a know it all, that was not my intension at all.

 

If you like fried chicken Knotts should be a must.

 

--Jay

[Trevannosaurus Rex]

So I've been working around with dates and the like. Unfortunately none of the tour buses I found do trips to MM mid-week this time of year. (If someone could prove me wrong that'd be fantastic). So we'd need to go to MM on the 19th, which is a Saturday (interestingly they run trips EVERY DAY to Legoland despite it not being open for the whole week).

 

From previous visits could anyone give me a rough idea for lines (and bare in mind the coach will probably arrive after opening as well).

 

Then I think the Friday (the 18th) would be a good day for Legoland with Knotts on the 17th and Disney filling in the remaining time. Hurrah

[therooboy]

Are you only staying in Anaheim? Not LA?

i can recommend trying the Holday Inn in LA/Hollywood,the YHA hostel in Santa Monica LA or Hollywood Hlls hostel for midweek trips.

They have all helped me on various trips.

From what i recall last time i was there they had also started up a normal

buses service that goes up to SFMM from LA.

Not sure for Anaheim though.

 

Good Luck

[evil saltine]

I looked at public transportation from Disneyland to MM on a weekday; you're looking at about 3 1/2 hours to get there w/4 transfers along the way, assuming you leave a little before 6 a.m. I didn't look at the return trip (you would be leaving early for sure though), but round-trip cost would be about $26/person.

 

I would only do this as a last resort though.

[bflag]

You should rent a car. Its about an hour from DL to MM.

[dougr]

It's pretty easy to get from Knott's to Disneyland, there's public transit and almost every hotel in Anaheim is on an Anaheim Resort Transit route, all of which stop at the DLR main gate.

If you don't have a car, it is REALLY HARD to get around the Los Angeles area. Your best bet would be to find a hotel near Magic Mountain with a shuttle. There might be a hotel near USH that has shuttles to USH and MM.

[What Now]

Have you looked at www.metrolinktrains.com ?

 

There are trains stations in Santa Clarita and Anaheim.