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Planning
To see our trip plan, head over to One Credit Card Sign Up Bonus = Nearly Free Family Vacation where we dissect how we got there, and all of our plans.
Hotels
We stayed at the Hyatt House Sorrento Mesa for 15,000 points per night. We transferred these from our Chase card. This is the third time we have stayed in this Sorrento Mesa area. The area itself is mostly businesses, but I really like that it’s between Legoland and San Diego proper. I do not love hotel hopping with children, so this fits the bill.
This hotel has one of the largest continental breakfast options I have seen outside of a lounge. They also had an onsite bar and restaurant, and an outdoor pool. The suites in this property are incredibly spacious. The 2 queen room however was much more of your standard squishy hotel room for a family of 5. However, the hotel is very clean, and I always appreciate a clean space.
Other Good San Diego Hotels: San Diego Family Hotels
Stroller Rentals vs. Bring Your Own
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For a stroller we opted to use BabyQuip and it was a great experience. They dropped off the stroller at the hotel, and picked it up at the end of the week. It was seamless, and E-A-S-Y which was what I was going for. I would highly recommend them for all of your baby needs. So much less to travel with, and a professional clean stroller that cost much less than daily theme park rentals.
If you are in this area, Josh and Kara Plummer were the providers we worked with, and you can find them HERE.
Sea World
The Cost
To take a family of 5 to Sea World, the price was $440. When looking at offers we realized if we got one Annual Pass, it came with 2 guest passes we could use, paid for parking, and the photo pass. Then, we only needed to pay for 2 more tickets. This gave us a grand total of $380. We were pleased with the savings.
The Experience
We had a great day at Sea World. I think one day was the perfect amount. Unfortunately they have taken out several of the interactive animal experiences for more rides and roller coasters. Our bigger kids LOVED the roller coasters, but we were a bit sad at the lessened animal experiences. Highlights were the Orca, Dolphin, and Sea Lion shows. We also thoroughly enjoyed, and laughed a lot at the touch pools near the front entrance where they have fish that eat your dead skin.
Legoland
The Cost
For a two day ticket at Legoland, often your best options are the buy one adult ticket, get a kid free. I have also found good discount tickets on A-res travel. This year Legoland had a discount ticket deal, buy one adult ticket, and get up to three kids tickets for $25/piece. Our total for two days of Legoland for a family of 5 with this discount was $480. We had previously received a bank bonus that covered this bringing the grand total to $0!
The Experience
I will FOREVER hold my opinion that Legoland is the very best theme park for young children. Our first day was pouring rain, and the kids still had the time of their lives. There are playgrounds all around the park, as well as building areas dispersed in each section of the park. The rides are perfect for kids of all ages, but our preschool and early elementary kiddos had the best time.
Fun and free activities that we enjoyed:
Pop Badges: The employees at Legoland carry pop badges (plastic buttons), your kids can walk up to any employee in the park and ask if they have a pop badge. Many of the employees produced them for our kids, and all 6 kids that were with us ended up with a lanyard full of lego badges.
Mini Figures: The shops (and many employees) have around Lego Mini Figures that are available for trade. If your kids bring their own from home, they can trade them in these stores or with the employees.
Mini Land: Walking around Mini Land is incredible. The structures the Lego Architects have created are amazing in and of themselves, but then you start to see the details which just make the whole experience more fascinating.
Restaurants
We split our restaurant time between the Sorrento Mesa Area, San Diego, and Carlsbad.
In Carlsbad we ate at:
Spirito’s: This was a PHENOMENAL hole in the wall Italian restaurant. It was easy with kids which made it even better. It was a great stop to take a break in the middle of our rainy Legoland day.
Costco Food Court: Sometimes, you just need Costco Pizza. This is 5 minutes from Legoland, and has outdoor seating (which is generally great in Cali) and a great, cheap, easy meal with kiddos.
In the Sorrento Mesa Area we ate at:
McDonalds: Y’all I love getting good food on vacation, but when you are on a trip with your kids, sometimes the McDonald’s drive through is the very best choice for sanity reasons.
Gravity Heights: This was a really fun restaurant across the parking lot from our hotel. My friend and I went for late dinner/drinks/dessert and had a blast! The food was upscale and delicious, although the prices were a bit higher.
In San Diego we ate at:
Point Loma Seafoods: You will not be disappointed here. This restaurant is consistently my first stop in San Diego. Fresh seafood, amazing tacos, fish sticks for kids…..enough said. Each meal has SO MUCH food and is easily shareable. You can sit and look at the water, and thank me for the peaceful stop after your chaotic airport experience.
The Rain
It rained a lot on this trip. In fact, many of our trips this year have been rained on so we have established a good list of necessities for rainy vacations: Rainy Vacation Must Haves
How can you make this trip happen?
This trip only took us 100,000 Chase points. With one – two credit card sign ups, you could be on your way! We transferred our points out of Chase to Hyatt and Southwest in order to pay for these flights and hotels.
