LA and Las Vegas

sandiegojones

New member
Violet Indy said:
*ba-bump*

Guess who's coming back? :p

Got a few questions:

Is Disneyland quite busy around the actual Christmas Day and New Year's Eve? Is it still open on New Year's Eve (as I did find on WkikAnswers, that it is open till 2am, but you know, I just want to make sure)?

Is it really, really cold in December/January in LA? Like enough for 3 or 4 layers worth of clothes, or not that cold?

I'm from LA and my brother-in-law works at Disneyland (he does the canoes around the lake out front of Pirates of the Caribbean).

Thanksgiving and Christmas are the best days for Disneyland. You'll have at worst a 10 minute wait for stuff. It's won't be too cold. It'll likely be high 70's or low 80's, but in the early morning hours it could maybe be in the high 40's. It's usually warms up fast around 10:00 am. Blue jeans and maybe a long sleeve t-shirt should be good unless you're the type who's always cold.

New Years might be crowed because of the out of towners out there for the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade in Pasadena.

The best beach is Santa Monica. The pier is fun and it's near 3rd Street Promenade. Venice is where all the freaks are (if that's what you're looking for). If you go to Chinatown, try "Hop Louie" for a meal. It's kinda greasy but good. I generally only go to Chinatown to buy cheap trinkets (and to see places from moves). Also across the way is Olvera Street which is an old Mexican street with real Mexican food and vendors (kinda looks like the little village Indy & Mutt walk through in KOTCS). Sometimes they have Mayan and Aztec Dancers too. http://www.olvera-street.com/html/olvera_street.html
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Thanks sandiegojones. :hat: What about Long Beach? Is that one ok or is that weird like Venice Beach?

Olvera Street sounds interesting so I definitely look into it.

I didn't do the canoes last time. I did go on the rafts onto Tom Sawyer Island (which I was just reading on one of Disney's websites, that it's now to do with Pirates).

Even if it's crowded, that's where we want to go on New Year's Eve. It's pretty interesting to hear that the queue is going to be pretty short on Christmas Day. I totally thought it would be full on crowded (at least, it would be if the theme parks were opened on Christmas Day on my side of the pond).

As for the Rose Parade in Pasadena. How far is Pasadena from Anaheim or LA? I have seen footage of the Parade, but we always see it later, so which day is that on?
 

sandiegojones

New member
Both my parents grew up in Long Beach! I wouldn't recommend going to Long Beach for the beach. There is a beach, but the coast there gets more use as a harbor. There's some nice restaurants & stuff on Shoreline Drive and you can go see the Queen Mary and get a lot of ferries to go to Catalina, but other than that I wouldn't recommend going out of your way. Long Beach does have a cool Christmas boat parade though (people put lights all over their boats)!

I would say Santa Monica is as good as it gets, unless you go up the coast a little ways to Malibu.

Disneyland's great for Christmas. Main Street is decorated with a a lot of holiday flair. I also love how they decorate New Orleans Square. Very colorful!

Pasadena (lived there too!) is only about 10-15 minutes from downtown LA (with no traffic). From Anaheim it's about 40 minutes or so. The parade starts at 8:00 am on New Years day and then the game is later in the afternoon. Sitting out on the parade route on New Years Eve is fun. Thousands of people camp out along the 5 mile route and party all night. People throw marshmallows, tortillas with whipped cream and other sticky stuff in the street overnight and then when the parade comes by in the morning all of the marching bands and horses have to step in all of that!

I usually would hang out in front of the City College on Colorado Blvd from about 10:00 pm until midnight since they would have fireworks when the clock stuck 12:00 am (but I heard they haven't done that recently). You don't have to have tickets or stay outside all night to see the parade (it can get very cold!). Colorado Blvd is closed after midnight, but you can drive down Foothill Blvd (one block north) at about 5:30-6:00 am and then park on a side street near the college like Hill or Allen Street and make a very short walk to Colorado.

One of my favorite things to do for New Years is to go out on the Star of India (or any of the harbor excursions) in San Diego. They take the boat out into the middle of the bay and the fireworks are shot right over you and reflect off the water!
 
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