It is just Disneyland, Anaheim trip with one night stay at disney resort(must) andCA-1 drive with one night halt at one of the beach towns. that was my initial plan to celebrate my daughter (Arshiya)'s delayed birthday there. in real it took its own turns. if anything happens as planned in real, i believe it won't be called as LIFE.
I left my HOME with open itinery except 2 nights stay at Anaheim 1 mile distance away from Disneyland resort, i could not get hotel reservation at Disney itself(even if i consider, price is no BAR, crazy...). i left San Francisco bay area few hours before noon. I took one big Break, around an hour, near bakersfield rest area to stretch a bit and have lunch. And immeditely at grapevine after for 20 - 30 mins for Gas. It was around 4 PM when started at grapevine and ETA was 5:30 something like that.
I know how crazy Santa Monica and LA traffic will be in peak hours. I used to drive San Diego to Bay Area and back and forth very frequently. When i entered LA outskirts, traffic picked up and slowly ETA is increasing one mins to hours. We are in traffic for more than an hour and half. Before sunset we are in Anaheim and checkin to hotel. after relaxing a bit, went out for a walk. still i have no plan of action. i thought i can enquire a little bit about Disneyland activities at Hotel kiosk. After talking to lady at kiosk, i confirmed myself one day trip to DISNEYLAND is not that worth for first time with family especially with KID(s). 
Luckily or unluckily, i did not buy any tickets at kiosk for next day or so. i enquired about the resort timings and kiosk opening timings And decided i can buy tickets next day morning that gave me sometime to think and plan something better. After having dinner, i did some research for available options, my daughter requirement was Disney and Legoland and from mysids Disney is minimum two day activity. after lot of permutation and combinations, decided to go with Southern CA City Pass(that covers Disneyland with any 3-days Park -hopper option within 14 days, 2 days at Legoland and one day at Sea World). i thought buying City Pass is worth, and finally bought on the same night.
though 3-day park hopper pass, has magic morning option(means pass holder are allowed one hour before into the park before it is fully open for ALL), for somehow we did not utilize.
Next morning, had breakfast and walked to resort with very excitement, a mile passed just like that may be because of our excitement or different crowd and atmosphere. We reached gate, crossed security checks and collected 3-day park tickets at the entrance and went to Disneyland park first.
I really wasted lot of time on first day, i could have spent extra time on disney park and its activities. As it is our first time trip, we really does not know what exactly we want and what all Disney park can offer. we just took map and started at one corner, thats it. first 4 hours pass just like that, more than 3/4 times waiting in line and covered just 2 rides with lunch break.
We went to Mickey/Minnie town crossing fantasy land, took photo with God Mother character. Then we went walk through for two or three castles inside. She enjoyed the short animations inside castles, as we used to read the stories for her, she sees first hand know. But her real excitement was when she goes to take autograph and photos with them. Finally, we went to toontown and we saw goofy on the way. it was our first experience with real Disney Character , though we met God mother just before, she was OK,not fully excited. But after seeing Goofy, she is fully excited and patiently waited for 30 mins to take an autograph and photo with Goofy. then, my wife and daughter went inside mickey house to see mickey items in house as he was not in house. But after 15 -20 mins, Mickey came inside, line halted pretty and later moved very slowly. it was almost 4:30, by the time we came out after taking autograph and photo with Mickey. Then rushed to see parade, I have not idea about parade, what it is looks like. But, understand it is one of the not to miss disney activity. I think is very unlikely to miss, even for the first time visitors, because of lot of activities along the parade route, will temporarly halt till parade complete. We sat at the end point of parade route, It is so much live and fully of energy from artists it keeps our eyes glued to parades most of the time. Arshiya was full involved with music and enjoying with full dancing/jumping. She throughly enjoyed the evening parades. it is known clearly, next day or so, we cannot miss parade. 
After the parade, we hardly covered on ride i think jungle boat ride and one tree house walk thats it. then returned for parade with electric bulbs, our expectations increased after seeing evening parades. I finally settled in front of fantasy main entrance/castle. We don't know that is the best spot for fireworks to watch. But Electric parade we watched from bit long but i think it is OK. We stayed in the same place for fireworks too. Still it i snot clear with, there are any fireworks that day, because of windy at higher altitude. Finally 5 minutes later than the actual time, fireworks started. it was one of our best fireworks watched with family. it is the best fireworks Arshiya enjoyed, may because of Tinker Bell flies on top of castle for few times. Finally our first day ended high emotionally note. Then we disperse to Hotel. we had one long walk hotel. just going to hotel, had dinner near to hotel. 
Next day, it is simple cover as much as in Disney California Adventurous Park. if miss anything cover next day and leave by noon to Legoland. with that rough high level plan, we started exploring next park. As we entered Buena Vista road we saw 3 to 4 Disney characters But we got a chance to take autograph and photo with only one character. By Now Arshiya was in full autograph and photo mania when she sees any princess or Disney animation characters ONLY, definitely not male action characters. She was so reluctant to take a photo with Spiderman and Captain America. 
Finally, we went to take photos with her favorite frozen characters(i don't know how many times i have read a FROZEN story for her before putting to sleep in nights). She is always ready to listen/to read few lines with us, if we read FROZEN story. She really likes ELSA, ANNA, CHRISTOF and OLAF. 
We went to the waiting place where frozen characters will be giving autographs and allows to take photos with them. we were told it will be more than an hour wait time, still we decided to wait in the line. we waited for 30 mins, line hardly moved 2-3 meters, still we are lined behind 20-25 families. 
While waiting, we came to know there is turtle talk show going on next door, i took Arshiya there, it is interactive show. kids can ask question to Turtle or Turtle will ask question to KIDS in the room. it goes very interactive. it went around 10 15 mins hardly. By the time we finished, line move little bit, and we have bonus of taking photos with Christoff and Olaf too. Finally in next 30 mins we finished taking pictures with Elsa and Anna. Then, we walked throw hollywood land, we saw Spiderman, Arshiya was not at all interested to take picture with Spiderman, in her terms it is boy's character and she hates all boys characters. 
Luckily, it is not started until we settled just in front entrance grate of parade begging gate, it is one of the best viewing spots for Disney Character Parade. Arshiya fully enjoyed again dancing to their parade music tunes. After that, we went to few rides one of the ride we like is small world ride. it is a boat ride inside a building full of puppies with dancing, flying, jumping. few more rides and finally settled at small world for electric parades and fireworks. we saw electric parade very close up and fireworks view is also very good, except that we could not get a view to see Tinker Bell flying on the sky. we are so tired and we slowly walked till Hotel room. 
our main agenda it to get some more Disney characters autographs and take Arshiya photos with them. by hopping back and forth for 3-4 hours and took lot of pictures finally settle at one place for evening parades after that little shopping and go to CAR and leave for Carlsbad/San Diego. I could not get hotel rooms near to Legoland, instead i got at sea world so i decided to go Sea World directly. we stayed around half a mile away from Next day park. 
Sea World:
We have taken Arshiya to Sea World many times when she is kid, it is bit relax one for us. we were there by 11AM at gate, then first thing we did we covered shows. Shows are totally disappointed, Shamu show is pretty much canceled it seems, Big Shamu stadium is under renovations. First thing we noted look and feel and atmosphere inside the park has changed a lot. When we were in San Diego, we feel like it is more family and Kid friendly park. Now theme is changed, i see many new food stalls, where light alcohol is been served. may they are experimenting with new thing to attract people.
There many new rides we found, lot of new construction is going on in the park. I believe Seems after Shamu trainers incident and Polar bears(snow flake and Szenja) separation after 20 years of together. Snow flake is transferred for breeding purpose, seems Szenja died of depression. all these things are added up to to already damaging Sea World brand after release of 2013 controversial documentary 'Blackfish'. 
We are there in Sea world till 7 and i thought of gong to Carlsbad beach for night stay. But we missed sunset because of fog. We did not see sun for the rest of the day.
Legoland:
Legoland is the surprise element for us, I think it is mainly build for kids in mind. most of the rides and activities are allowed with kids 5 or 4 years too. 3-5 years old kids has modified version for them.
I and Arshiya did lot of new activities,
walking long hours, kids roller coaster, building moving lego vehicles.
i thought half day is more than enough, we took Arshiya to almost all rides except very few missed. Lakshmi player couple of games won a prize in one. Finally we are in lego land for one and half days.
I need to put hard deadline on time on 2nd day, i need to drive back to San Francisco Bay area from lego land. we left Legoland just past noon. we took many short breaks for gas, food and restroom breaks. On I-5 southbound, there was very big accident happened near LA after we started the driving. seems very big fire(few vehicles got burned out including a big truck) and lot of vehicles piled-up. 
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