Disneyland, legoland, or San Diego zoo?
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Anonymous
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If you had to choose one, which would you choose?
Ds is going to be 9 when we go. He's been to disney world once. He loved it and always says he wants to go back. He also has always LOVED animals and going to the zoo. And he is really into legos right now. I don't think we will have enough time to go to more than location (plus the cost, it's our last part of a trip to 4 destinations). |
Anonymous
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Definitely Disneyland. We did all three of these last summer. Legoland's rides are for little kids by and large. It's also not run like a well-oiled machined the way Disneyland is; you can really waste an hour to go on 1 single ride at Legoland. The structures they've built with legos are cool, but I don't think kids really dig it as much as we do.
San Diego zoo is great, better than DC to be sure, but still essentially just a zoo. Disneyland is amazing. That would be my vote for a 9 year old. |
Anonymous
| Disneyland. No question about it. |
Anonymous
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Here is a recent thread about bringing a 9 year old to Legoland
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/408491.page#5647423 I am the poster at 12:23 that said I thought 9 is borderline too old for Legoland. So, my first recommendation would be Disneyland. If you do decide on the zoo, I would actually visit the safari park instead. It's owned by the zoo but I think you get a more realistic habitat for most of the animals. http://www.sdzsafaripark.org/ |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| Thanks! I appreciate the personal experiences. I've never been to any of those places, so I had no idea! |
Anonymous
| With a nine year old, I'd spend some time looking at the websites together and let him decide (assuming you as parents have already decided you are okay with either option). Also, do you have any plans to return to WDW, or would this basically be the only way DS will get to go to Disney again? If you might go to Orlando again, then it's a "Disney things specific to Disneyland/California Adventure" vs zoo decision, which is a little different than "Disney" vs zoo. |
Anonymous
| You can do all three in one trip can't you? We are planning to do that next year. |
Anonymous
| Not the San Diego zoo. It's nice, but it's just a zoo. |
Anonymous
| I would also not go to Legoland with a 9 year old. Disneyland/California Adventure get my vote. |
Anonymous
We kind of wanted to surprise him. We may or may not go to disney world again, it's hard to say.. We probably will just do Disneyland this trip based on the responses here. |
Anonymous
I wish we could, but there won't be enough time. Plus, we are going to be in LA for a couple days because we will be coming back from being on the other side of the world. So, it's not like it's our destination for our vacation. It's kind of a 3 day long layover before flying back home. |
Anonymous
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We just went to the zoo and California Adventure with a 10 year old in August. He loved both, but if yours is adventure seeking then definitely Cal Adventure. The zoo was awesome--so many animals to see, one after the next. The safari park was not as good--harder to see animals, except on the actual safari which is only a small part of your day. and Hot.
If you are going to be LA based then skip the zoo--don't waste your time on the roads. Plus that traffic can be a nightmare! |
Anonymous
Gotcha. Unless your son has a particular fascination for a species well represented at the San Diego Zoo and not in DC (and I know some kids in that age range who would pick certain zoos over Disney!), I agree Disneyland/CA are your best bet. Would you do both parks? If not, try to figure out which one is most likely to appeal to your son. DL is the classic Disney experience, but CA skews a little more tween-friendly. |
Anonymous
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Having just done all 3 this summer, but with younger kids, I would definitely vote for Disneyland.
And if you only have one day, California Adventure wins over Disneyland, hands down. |