This past summer I went to San Diego with my family. Seeing as there are no updated trip reports I decided to write one, sorry it’s a bit late.
We flew with JetBlue and received free EMS seats. This was great, flying with two kids is not easy and it certainly helped. For my older daughter we packed an entire suitcase of activities and games to keep her busy. It wasn’t easy, but she was fine for most of the flight. The baby was tougher, but she took a 2 hour nap in the doona. All in all it was worth the flight hassle.
I booked the Park Hyatt Aviara using 25K points per night and used a suite upgrade to confirm into a real suite. Despite it being a bit far from the interesting attractions, it is close to beaches and being a 5-star hotel, I figured it was worth it. When the bellboy came up to our room to drop off luggage he immediately made up the sofa bed for my daughter. When I mentioned we eat kosher, he told us he would send up a fridge. A few minutes later, a small sized fridge and freezer was brought up. All our food fit into it, and it even had a good freezer! Best of all they didn’t charge us a per day charge as some hotels do.
A microwave was preplaced in our room along with water, a fruit basket and a little note welcoming us to the resort.
They have a zero-entry pool and sprinklers which the kids really enjoyed daily.
For dinner we went to Chabad all you can eat bbq. It was ok, nothing special.
The hotel offers a turndown service, during which they give out water and chocolates. The chocolates have an OUD.
We decided to stay on the NY schedule as much as possible, as we were there for less than a week. This would make it easier on the kids, rather than trying to fight the time change now and again a few days later when we returned. We put the kids to bed by 6pm CA time, and they were up every day by around 5am.
Monday morning as soon as the restaurant opened, we took a pot and a little oil down to the breakfast buffet. They seated us and gave the kids menus with pictures and crayons to keep them occupied. The chef was superb! He knew exactly what we needed, was happy to help us, and tried his best to accommodate us.
He gave us fresh uncut fruit and vegetables, found kosher almond milk and gave us a closed bottle every day, made us omelets and pancakes daily (we brought along pancake mix) and overall was the best breakfast experience I had in a hotel!
This was all comped as a globalist.
We then went to splash around a bit at the pools before heading out.
For attractions, I had brought two Go City San Diego passes at 50% off, and added on one for my daughter.
The first day we went on a whale watching boat ride. It was a bit of a bummer as we did not get to see any whales at all, however we did see some dolphins. They did give us free vouchers to return, however we opted not to as it’s a long boat ride and the kids didn’t enjoy it too much.
On the way back we stopped off at Parisien Gourmandises. They had some delicious baked goodies, not to be missed!
We then returned to the hotel and found a basket of kosher nosh! It was a nice thoughtful gesture, and something that makes me want to go back again!!
The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was amazing!! Lots of animals were close by and had good viewing points. We only covered half the zoo, and it took over 3 hours! They do offer free refills on drinks, so you can buy water at any kiosk and get it refilled at any kiosk at the zoo. We only found this out towards the end, we wished we knew sooner as it was nice weather but very hot!
On the way back to the hotel we went to broad street doughnuts. They have a large variety of many flavors, all were delicious.
We headed back to the hotel and after changing, we headed out to Moonlight beach. We got free bottles of water from the valet, as well as chairs and sand toys. The beach was nice, but it was a difficult walk down, and after spending 3 hours walking around the hot zoo, we didn’t stay too long.
Jet lag had us all sleeping nice and early anyway, so we decided to head back after a few minutes.
Wednesday, we headed over to SeaWorld. We didn’t do any of the rides, just saw the animals and watched all the shows. The dolphin and orca shows are incredible! We all absolutely loved it. My daughter loved the feed the sea-lions exhibit. When we got there, they had no more food available for purchase, but she got a kick out of them coming up to the side of the exhibit and barking. They have a nice turtle house, and again it is HOT!!
After seeing the fish, we went to the Sesame street bay of play, where they had a meet Elmo going on.
The kids loved it and the guy on stage agreed to take a picture on my phone, so I don’t have to pay for the one they took.
Seeing how much they enjoyed the little Elmo exhibit we decided to do Sesame Street the next day. Our flight was in the afternoon so we only had a few hours. We did a few rides, (they didn’t let my baby come into the lazy river without a life vest, and as she refused to wear one, she couldn’t go into any of the water stuff.) and took a bunch of pictures with different sesame street characters. Then all the characters put on a cute and fun show, which was the highlight of my daughter’s trip.
We headed back, took showers, checked out and headed to the airport home. We took a night flight, BH kids slept through.
It was an amazing trip, full of memories. Although it is a bit far to fly with little ones, they enjoyed it so much that it was worth it.
