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Octobers Fade

Octobers Fade

DEAD inside
V.I.P. Member
Jul 10, 2010
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NoRemorse Cemetery
Hi,
Been away for awhile...

We are planning a trip to Cali this fall and I would really like to hear some suggestions, tips, or secrets on making the most out of the, once in a lifetime, trip.
The trip plans, so far, include:

Driving from Saint Petersburg to Orlando, flying into San Diego or LA, then renting a car a driving to either LA or San Diego depending on where we decide to land.

San Diego-
SeaWorld
HOS (possibly)
San Diego Zoo

Stepping foot in Mexico-
Cerveza

Los Angelos-
Knotts Berry Farm
Knotts Scary Farm
Universal Studios
HHNs

Hollywood Sign-
Photo Op

Anaheim-
Disneyland
California Adventure

Game plans, plan of attacks, "must see," time needed to....and avoids, would be greatly appreciated.
We should be able to get express, if need be.
Does the HHNs in Cali do an Unmasking tour?
Does Knotts do a tour similar?
Tourist Attractions worth seeing...?
Any Haunted Houses in those areas that worth seeing, we want to know!

Thanks in advance,
O.F.
Jim.
 
The biggest suggestion I have is plan your travel around traffic. Just because things look close on a map doesn't mean you can get there in a reasonable amount of time. We went to LA in December and 10 miles could mean an hour and a half drive time. Try to plan driving around times of day that traffic is at least lighter. Not that it is ever light. We ended up doing less than we wanted to as we didn't factor in enough drive time.

As for attractions, we mainly did USH and Disney. USH is easily done in a day. Much less to do there than Orlando. Disney we spent three days at. I felt that was a good amount of time to do it all in without feeling rushed. We weren't there at halloween though. If they bring back Paint the Night at Disney, plan around seeing it. It was a highlight of the trip. As of now though, its been removed.

Other than that, the Walk of fame is worth seeing. Don't try to do the whole thing though. It's really long and gets into some pretty sketchy neighborhoods.

Santa Monica Pier is cool to see and there are some rides there. We didn't do any because it was too cold.

Rodeo was cool to drive down, but we didn't bother parking as it wasn't all that neat. We weren't going to go shopping.
 
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Thanks for your input!!
Traffic is the one thing that is the real question mark, found out how bad the interstate could be in New Orleans.
But we are planning on staying close to attractions as they are the priority.
Thanks again.
 
I would say, that if you have been to Seaworld, it would be wiser to just go to Six Flags for Fright Fest. They have improved on their quality rather nicely, and it is a good haunt event in a strange way.
 
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Yeah I haven't been since they've added USH, but generally the park is underwhelming sans the Studio Tour compared to Orlando. My only tip you didn't mention was the Griffith Observatory. Really beautiful site to see. If you can time your day around being there at dusk it's really something.
 
jtsalien said:
Yeah I haven't been since they've added USH, but generally the park is underwhelming sans the Studio Tour compared to Orlando. My only tip you didn't mention was the Griffith Observatory. Really beautiful site to see. If you can time your day around being there at dusk it's really something.
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I will keep it in mind, thanks!
 
Traffic will be your biggest issue and know that it is expensive to stay close to Universal Studios Hollywood. There aren't any Universal hotels and the ones close are higher end. I think our hotel was over $400 a night, although the room was lovely. I think it was the Sheraton we stayed at and we could walk to Universal. However, the shuttle did not run early enough for the early opening so it was good to be able to walk over.

Knotts is in Santa Ana, closer to Disneyland than Los Angeles.
 
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Sassy Sarah said:
Traffic will be your biggest issue and know that it is expensive to stay close to Universal Studios Hollywood. There aren't any Universal hotels and the ones close are higher end. I think our hotel was over $400 a night, although the room was lovely. I think it was the Sheraton we stayed at and we could walk to Universal. However, the shuttle did not run early enough for the early opening so it was good to be able to walk over.

Knotts is in Santa Ana, closer to Disneyland than Los Angeles.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info! Yeah traffic seems to be the biggest concern
$400 a night not in this lifetime, won't be there but to shower and sleep.
 
I really like the San Diego Zoo, but you might also want to consider the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Its enclosures are much more vast and open. You can take a tram around a really large field exhibit that some of the African wildlife inhabit together. Note that it is a separately ticketed, separately located attraction.

If you want a more up-close view of the Hollywood sign, there are a few trails in Griffith Park where you can hike very close to it.

As noted, USH is much smaller than UO and thus you'll need a lot less time there. A day for the attractions would be plenty. A big chunk of time will just be spent taking the escalators up and down the upper and lower lots! The same would be true for HHN there. I would definitely use crowd calendars as a guide, but I attended there in 2014 and bought express passes. We walked every house in a few hours. Although I do think it has gotten more popular with the opening of Potter, and that has possibly translated to HHN. On the plus side, it's cheaper!
 
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If you do the day/night ticket combo for Halloween Horror Nights out here, you'll gain entry into the park around 3pm. Honestly it's enough time to see all the unique additions of the park and get early entry into the mazes around 5. HHN out here gets horrendously crowded very early on so I definetly would take any advantage of getting into the mazes earlier.
 
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Sassy Sarah said:
Traffic will be your biggest issue and know that it is expensive to stay close to Universal Studios Hollywood. There aren't any Universal hotels and the ones close are higher end. I think our hotel was over $400 a night, although the room was lovely. I think it was the Sheraton we stayed at and we could walk to Universal. However, the shuttle did not run early enough for the early opening so it was good to be able to walk over.

Knotts is in Santa Ana, closer to Disneyland than Los Angeles.
Click to expand...

Knotts is in Buena Park only 10mins down the 5 freeway from the Disneyland Resort.
 
Octobers Fade said:
Does the HHNs in Cali do an Unmasking tour?
Does Knotts do a tour similar?
Tourist Attractions worth seeing...?
Any Haunted Houses in those areas that worth seeing, we want to know!
Click to expand...

Knott's and HHN do not do any behind the scenes ticketed tours. In my opinion, even though HHN is better in Orlando, SoCal is the haunt capitol of the world. Some MUST DOs:

Queen Mary Dark Harbor (how did you miss this??) It's basically HHN with 6 mazes and scare zones and a 4D shooter, minus the theme park but they do have carnival rides, it's totally worth it as long as you get there early.
LA Haunted Hayride
17th Door (be prepared to sign a waiver)
Delusion (not a haunt, but an interactive play through a series of rooms, it's breathtaking)
Motel 6 Feet Under
Sinister Point
Creep LA

These are just my personal favorites.
 
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Aaron said:
If you do the day/night ticket combo for Halloween Horror Nights out here, you'll gain entry into the park around 3pm. Honestly it's enough time to see all the unique additions of the park and get early entry into the mazes around 5. HHN out here gets horrendously crowded very early on so I definetly would take any advantage of getting into the mazes earlier.
Click to expand...
That is good to know, thanks!
With all the similar rides I didn't think we would be a need to go all day.
 
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