San Diego Parks Advice Needed

[Cinderellie]

Hello -- my family will be traveling to San Diego before our cruise., and plan to hit Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and the San Diego Wild Animal Park while we are there beforehand.

 

Does anyone have any tips on the best way to work the parks? Is there a best route to get the most done, and wait in the shortest lines? Is there a link you can send us to with tips?

 

We are planning trips during the week to avoid the weekend crowd. And we are so excited -- all the parks are open at NIGHT now!

 

Thanks for any advice you can share.

[Skipgil]

Zoo: a lot of hill walking...wear good shoes! The area around the zoo, Balboa Park, is very nice too!

 

Sea World: all of the featured shoes are good. The 4-d movie is good. Their are two rides. One will leave you soaked! :eek:

 

Both the zoo and sea world could be done in 4-5 hours max, if you were in a rush. One suggestion would be to get to sea world early and open the park. Stay their through lunch and then take a drive to Pacific Beach or the Mission Beach Boardwalk. Spend a few hours over there and then go back to the park in the evening.

 

Wildlife Park: lengthy drive out of town. very, very hot when we were there. Nice place for a visit, just too darn hot during the summer for us!

 

How old are your kids? If they are older than 12, I would suggest that you avoid Legoland in Carlsbad. It is a very nice park, but it is more for the younger crowd.

 

FYI: Mission Valley has a lot of good restaurants.

 

Hope that helps!

[lauram]

I've only done the Wildlife Park and it was nice but as Skipgil said it was very hot! In fact we didn't stay as long as we had planned, just because we were pooped. But I'd love to visit it again but not in summer!:)

[wastin' away]

The Wild Animal Park is the best!!! I cannot speak as to temps in summer, I have only been in Spring... if you are an animal lover, you will LOVE the Wild Animal Park. Everything is so open and natural. The Safari is worth the $$$!!! Hopefully its not too hot for ya'll and you really enjoy the area... San Diego is GREAT!!!:cool:

[lauram]

Oh, another thought, if you do the Wildlife Park, do the safari earlier in the morning. I think the animals are more active then. Have fun!

[zuscruiserz]

San Diego Zoo - do the bus tour FIRST (you have to add this to your package, but it's worth the price!), it will take you all over the park, then you can decide what attractions you really want to walk to (it's a HUUUUGE zoo). It will take you all day to walk it, and you'll probably miss something.

 

Sea World - just make sure you hit the shows as early as possible, they tend to fill up. Map out what you want to see/do beforehand, and keep track of show times. I think you can get a map at the Sea World website - print out everything there!!!

[tinkerme1]

I live in San Diego and have a few suggestions. Obviously, there is more than one way to do these parks.

 

First, I would spend my time at the SD Zoo in the very early hours of the morning. They open early in the morning and the zoo keepers are often seen feeding the animals at that time. Definitely take the BUS first! It gives you the lay of the land and introduces you to the zoo very well.

 

There is a very nice restaurant in the Gorilla area called "Alberts". I highly recommend it. The scenery and ambiance are very nice. Make reservations early to avoid being left out. It is a little expensive, but worth the good meal.

 

Balboa Park is directly behind the Zoo and has some wonderful museums. The Aerospace Museum is a must for kids and has a great planetarium.

 

http://www.balboapark.org/

 

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/

 

The Wild Animal Park, as well as the Zoo, both have nighttime hours and you may wish to see the Wild Animal Park (WAP) at night when it is much cooler and the shows are very good. There are many specialty things going on at night, so check out the above website.

 

SeaWorld is great for a day visit and since they have everything there, including great restaurants, I would spend as much time there enjoying the fun as possible.

 

Each of these Parks require lots of walking and I'm sure you'll get tuckered out early. I wouldn't try to do too much each day, but rather take a break from the heat and rest once in a while.

 

If you need further info, just email me at: xxxyyymicknminy@aol.com Just leave out the xxxyyy due to spam reasons in the address!

[wrp96]

Try buying your tickets for all three online ahead of time. This is a link for San Diego Passport, http://zoodeals.com/156/-/attraction/7, which is a combined package of tickets to various attractions throughout San Diego. For what is offered in it, if you do more than one thing offered in it, then you've saved money (I individually priced several of the attractions that it covers).

 

Otherwise, you can buy a 3 for 1 package that covers the Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, and SeaWorld. Either way, you'll save money over buying tickets individually. Also, you might think about purchasing a AAA membership which will get you significant discounts on tickets.

 

You should do the Wild Animal Park in the morning. It is farther away from the coast and gets really hot during the afternoon. Even though it is open at night, there is more to see in the morning.

 

Sea World is a great activity with kids, but plan plenty of time to get to the shows you want to see as they fill up fast. Also, wear lightweight clothing that dries fast as you will get wet at Sea World.

 

I go to the Zoo with my brother, who goes all the time, which equates to speed viewing the zoo. It takes at least 2 hours for us to see most of the zoo, and that's walking very fast, so plan extra time accordingly. If you want to see the pandas, go see them first as lines form and they only let so many people in at a time.

[PVDCruiser]

I've been to the Zoo and Sea World, and would recommend both. However, I have talked to people who have visited both the zoo and the animal park and found it repetitive.

 

I would also recommend visiting Balboa Park - plenty of stuff there!

 

Coronado Island is also great. It's a relatively small island off the coast of San Diego (there is a bridge). My family stayed at a resort there once and loved it! There's plenty of shopping downtown, and we found it very enjoyable to rent bikes and travel around the island that way. (Beautiful beaches too!)

[tinkerme1]

I know that many here think the Wild Animal Park is redundant, but I seriously beg to differ. The Wild Animal Park at night is really wonderful since you can ride the WAGASA Bush line and see all of the animals out at that time of day. They also have some fun activities that are ongoing during the summer months for kids to participate or watch. Musical acts are also there in the evening as well. Going early in the morning is also just fine, except, this is one time I would actually do it at night so you can do the Zoo and SeaWorld during the day. BTW, there are many individual shows at WAP which are NOT at the Zoo.

 

BTW, check out the prices for a "membership" (family) to the zoo. If you become a member, your admission to the Zoo is paid and so is your admission to the Wild Animal Park which is owned by the Zoo and part of the membership. Sometimes the price of membership is less than individual tickets. Just go to the website I suggested previously to check that out. Also, our COSTCO's are selling tickets at reduced prices if you have a COSTCO card. There are many of those here in San Diego. Not hard to find at all. They have reduced tickets to SeaWorld which looked pretty good.

[kyriecat]

How many days are you going to be in SD? If it's only a couple, all three parks is overdoing it!! If you have young children, or even teens, cramming too much in just makes the kiddos cranky.

 

Hubby and I spent a week there 2 years ago. You may want to consider taking the Old Town Trolley tour since it takes you around town with unlimited on/off privileges. It stops in Balboa Park (Zoo), Coronado Island, downtown, etc. We stayed downtown and used the Trolley for a couple days to get around.

 

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There is plenty to see in SD besides the animal attractions. We took the SEALS tour from Seaport Village and saw several sea lions and seals in their normal environment. Seaport Village has several shops and restaurants to visit as well as a nice view of the bay.

 

There are several museums in Balboa Park and the Zoo. We didn't go to the Wild Animal Park since we went to the zoo and decided two days of animals was too much. I've heard it is nice, though. We got to the zoo in the morning when it first opened and didn't leave until late afternoon. There is lots to see. If you hurry, you might be able to see it all in a few hours, but there are some fairly steep hills so plan on a couple rest breaks.

 

We also visited Old Town. It is a historic park with some of the original San Diego buildings. There are several good Mexican food restaurants around Old Town.

 

Coronado Island is also nice. We walked along the beach. The water is very cold. You can rent bicycles and ride around the island. We rode the ferry over from Seaport Village and spent the day walking around, going through some shops, and eating seafood.

 

We skipped Sea World since there is one in San Antonio which is only a couple hours from home. We figured there wouldn't be enough differences in the two parks to make it worthwhile. If you haven't been to a Sea World, the shows are usually well done. The SA SW has a show with sea lions and otters that is funny. SD probably has something similar.

[tinkerme1]

Old Town is changing! The Mercado has been bought out by a new developer and some of the good restaurants are now being located downtown. It is very sad for we loved Old Town, especially El Pico restaurant. The town is now mostly just shops on the main street.

[kyriecat]

Tinker,

 

That's sad! I liked walking around Old Town. I don't remember what restaurant we ate at, but it was good for Mexican (I'm more of a Tex-Mex person, extra spicy and cheesy). We took the Ghosts tour one night and our guide recommended it so we went back the next day to eat. I think it was either across the street of down a block from a bar that used to have a hanging tree in back.

 

It seems like too many of the interesting places I've been are getting taken over and commercialized. :(