Orlando V's California theme parks

Hi

Instead of our usual hols to Orlando we have decided to go further afield this year and are going to California.

My question is to all of you knowledgeable people is would it be worth a day trip to Disney or Universal or would we be safer spending a day at a totally new park. Basically question is is there a big difference between parks in Orlando and LA

Orlando V's California theme parks

from what i understand, there isn%26#39;t a big difference.

in CA, disney only has two parks. disneyland is just like the magic kingdom, but i believe it%26#39;s smaller. it has mostly the same rides. the other park is california adventure. this is different from the orlando parks, but i believe it also has many clone rides such as tower of terror.

universal in CA doesn%26#39;t even compare. it doesn%26#39;t have IOA. it has all the same rides, most of which are on a smaller scale. the only good thing is the backlot tour.

so i would just do the new parks. knottsbery farm and six flags magic mountain are good i hear. but for more info you may want to post this on the LA forum.

Orlando V's California theme parks

Have been to Disneyland, California Adventure, all WDW parks. If you%26#39;ve been to WDW, I would not spend money for CA parks - they are smaller and, as noted, have many of the same rides (biggest and best, IMO, in California Adventure is ';Soaring';, which is at WDW). I loved Knotts Berry Farm - much more than I expected, one of the best all wooden roller coasters I%26#39;ve ever been on!

I have been to the parks in both states and agree with the others posters. WDW is ten times more worth your time and money.

However, Universal Hollywood has a VIP tour that costs $200 and you get free food for the day, front of the line passes to all the rides (we got to ride every ride in the park by 5 p.m.) and - this is the best part - an exclusive tour of the backlot. You are not on the tram as the regular backlot tour people are, you walk around sets, touching things, taking photos, etc. I went in July (and wrote a long trip report JUST about the Universal VIP experience) and it was a great experience if you love the magic of movie making and television. We saw the sets of Desperate Housevies, some CSI sets, War of the Worlds (amazing airplane crash scene), and we had a personal tour guide who was great. So, although Universal Orlando has more rides and bigger rides, I still give my vote to Hollywood for it%26#39;s authentic moviemaking atmosphere. And the $200 is beyond worth it, but read my trip report for more on that. Search my name or the Hollywood forum.

Well, I%26#39;m going to go against what most people are saying. Despite the CA Disney and Universal having similar rides to their FL counterparts, I thought it was a totally different experience to the Florida parks. Disneyland is very similar to the Magic Kingdom, but it is a lot more compact. But as it is the %26#39;original%26#39; Disney, it%26#39;s that little bit more unique, and you have to go if only to experience the Matterhorn!

Again with Universal, despite it having a lot of similar rides, it has some more unique features that make it worth a trip. The Backlot tour is great, very interesting, and the Waterworld stunt show is great.

The only other CA theme park we went to was Six Flags Magic Mountain. Although it has lots of great, huge coasters, it doesn%26#39;t even compare to Disney/Universal for the whole %26#39;experience%26#39;; if you ask me, it%26#39;s a very bland, corporate-feel park. Not that it would stop me going back of course ;-)

Universal LA is a lot better than Universal (Orlando) but you have to exclude IOA from the comparison.

Disneyland is similar to MK at Disneyworld, but more compact and its the original Disney park that Walt built.

I would recommend Universal LA and if you like coasters, Magic Mountain. I have posted reviews of both parks.

We toured California last year instead of our usual jaunt to Orlando. Not a lot of difference between Disney and Universal in terms of rides and attractions. We also visited the Six Flags park which had rollercoasters and other rides that where leaps and bounds better then what Disney and Univeral have to offer. Don%26#39;t forget that San Diego is a few hours drive away from Disney where you can visit Sea World and the world famous San Deigo Zoo.

If going to California, I%26#39;d skip the theme parks and concentrate on seeing the real parks there....the national parks.

For one, Yosemite National Park is amazing and awesome!!

I totally agree with alanjonesbath, although the CA parks are smaller, they definately offer a different kind of experience, which I would say is worth giving them a visit for. I thought Universal Hollywood was much better than the FL one. Much more of a studio feel to it and a MUST do. Also as others have mentioned there are Six Flags and Knotts Berry theme parks, again worth visiting. There are also a few water parks but the Florida out do the CA by a mile!

Are you doing a driving tour of CA? If so, I guarantee you will fall in love with the places you visit. Without a doubt, I believe it is the best holiday experience you can get. Like yourselves we swapped the usual FL trip for CA and were blown away with it. Although I love Florida it does not compare to CA. It has fatastic cities, breathtaking national parks, fabulous beaches and the weather is superb, loads of sunshine without the rain and humidity you get in FL.

The CA forum is an excellent one and will help you with anything you need to know.

Happy planning and enjoy!

I lived in Los Angeles for 7 years before moving to Orlando, and I was an annual passholder at both Universal and Disney while out there.

alanjonesbath and holidaynut! are right about the California parks offering a different but very worthwhile kind of experience. Disneyland is the original theme park and totally worth a look. It is less than half the size of the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, but it has many of the same rides. They also have some classic ones that Orlando doesn%26#39;t, like the Matterhorn, and new attractions like the Nemo submarine ride. I actually prefer Disneyland to Magic Kingdom because it is just so much more intimate an experience.

California Adventure was always a work in progress. It seems like they could never get it quite right. That%26#39;s probably what has led them to do their $1 Billion dollar overhaul of the park. They have some great rides - Soarin%26#39; Over California, Tower of Terror, California Screamin%26#39; roller coaster, Grizzly River Run, etc. And they had a cute Bug%26#39;s Life children%26#39;s area that my family adored.

Universal Studios Hollywood is pretty comparable to Universal Orlando, except as mentioned in the studio tour. It is FAR superior in Hollywood, and you actually have a shot at seeing celebrities on that one. (We saw Jim Carey while he was shooting the Grinch movie, and Rob Zombie when he was shooting House of 1000 Corpses.) And we saw a lot of TV actors when we visited during the TV taping months between August and March. You actually see the house exteriors that they used for a lot of classic movies and TV shows - and they%26#39;ve put them on the same block! It%26#39;s so funny to see the Cleavers house from Leave It To Beaver right next to the Munsters house.

Knotts Berry Farm is a great park as well with a good mix of rides. They do a great Halloween event called Knotts Scary Farm that is a lot of fun. Universal used to do a Halloween Horror Nights while I was out there, but they stopped doing it when 9/11 happened and visitors dropped off. I don%26#39;t know if they%26#39;ve started it up again.

The one park I would AVOID is Six Flags Magic Mountain. They had a HUGE problem with gang members hanging out there. They do a promotion every year where you can get an annual pass for $45 or so, and it seems that every punk kid in the San Fernando Valley gets one. If they don%26#39;t get in, they hang out in the parking lot. Every time we tried to visit, the lines for roller coasters ran between 2 and 3 hours long! No exaggeration! And there were several instances of fights and even shootings in the parking lot. It%26#39;s also pretty far out of the way out past the San Fernando Valley, so just avoid that trip altogether.

If you get out that way, I would instead recommend Sea World San Diego, the San Diego Zoo, and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. San Diego is only an hour and a half to two hours south of Los Angeles.

Or another great day trip is the Queen Mary in Long Beach, which is only 45 minutes south of Los Angeles. It is an old ocean liner that saw a lot of action - including during WWI, as I recall. They do a tour of the ship that is fascinating and a lot of fun. They also have some wonderful restaurants on the ship.

The Napa Valley is many hours north of Los Angeles, but the Temecula area outside of San Diego also has some wonderful vineyards where you could do some tastings. And there is some wonderful shopping in Santa Barbara. One of the absolute best things to do is to rent a convertible and just drive up the Pacific Coast Highway.

And the above poster was right about the weather. It%26#39;s the thing I miss most about L.A. It%26#39;s warm most of the year, but without the humidity. You can%26#39;t beat the weather in California anywhere in the U.S.

As far as disneyland goes I think there is a major difference in the park from the magic kingdom in florida.

I think this for many reasons. The park is the original theme park not only for disney but for the world. The whole resort area is smaller only 2 parks and a downtown disney. Yes most of the rides are the same but diffent. There is also rides that the Magic Kingdom in Flordia may not ever see like the Matterhorn. This is a really great ride it is fast and fun!

I would recomend if you choose to go to disneyland to get a 1 day park hopper of if you have more time a multi day parkhopper. This allows you to visit disneyland and California Adventure. The Oark in California Adventure is small but is very cool. It only has 2 rides that WDW has Tower of teror and Soarin. They are fun but so are some of the other rides here. This park is themed to all of california so if you have never been here you can see the whole state in one day with the disney magic added to it!