Another visiting San Diego thread...

Relaxing at the pool at your hotel one day   Though I'm not sure how old your kids are, when mine were younger (grade school and below) our most successful vacations always included some down time. Actually now that I think about it no matter what our ages we do better when we put in some down time!

Legoland can definitely be an all day activity!

For your other days I would take a your of the Waley House (it's a haunted house in Old Town) check out museums at Balboa Park and spend a day relaxing at the pool! The Naional History museum has an exhibit on pirates right now that looks really cool. The Reuben H Science Center is interactive and there is an IMAX theater. The Museum of Man is always interesting too.

Sounds like you got it covered and just wanted to say as someone who just came from a trip to San Diego and did both the Zoo and Safari Park..I think you might enjoy the zoo more. At least there are more animals that can be seen and they do have the pandas, polar bears, etc and the big plus here is there is lots of shade and some buses that can be utilized if anyone gets tired of walking.

The Safari Park is hot and dry. They have larger areas of the animals (most of what can be seen at the zoo) and will say the benefit here is the Tigers, Lion Cubs and the Cheetah run plus the more expensive caravan that is 3.5 hours long where you can go in depth to the animals but again, its very hot with some shade but not as much as the zoo. I will say there is a nice lagoon with misters to sit at for a break from the sun and a small water play area by the cheetah run. My two cents any hoo. You will have fun either way I am sure.

DH & I went to San Diego for the July 4th weekend. We live in Orange County and have taken lots of day trips down there, but wanted to take a long weekend trip somewhere and San Diego was close. We stayed in the Gaslamp District. On one of the days, we took the Trolley to the Santa Fe Station and walked to the Midway. We got back on the trolley and went to Old Town. We could have spent the whole day in Old Town, it's really interesting. On another day, we went to Balboa Park and visited the museums. We bought the ticket booklet for $53 per adult that has tickets for all the museums. The Air & Space (or Aerospace) museum has a Ripley's Believe It or Not! exhibit going on right now. It's an extra 5 bucks to get into it. The Natural History Museum is okay, but a huge amount of the space is being taken up with the Real Pirates of the Caribbean exhibit that's quite pricey. The art museum has an exhibit of a Spanish painter named Joaquín Sorolla. DH isn't a big art museum fan, but I talked him into it because of 2+ hours in the aerospace museum. He was blown away by Sorolla's work. The Museum of Man is my favorite at the park. They have a really interesting exhibit on the history of beer.

Is there a reason you're so set on Legoland and the waterpark? I'd recommend skipping it. Legoland is okay, but it's really best for little kids. Your son might like it, but I think your daughter might be a bit too old to really enjoy it unless she's all into Lego sculptures. I don't know where you're from, but there are water parks all over the country. I think the beach would be a lot more fun for your family than a water park. Honestly, there's so much to see & do in San Diego, I don't think you'll miss out by not spending the money on a pricey theme park. Obviously, if your son's heart is set on it and you've promised him you'd go, then you go.