Southern California CityPASS

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If you have any previous familiarity with the CityPASS brand, or know a little bit about how flexible attraction passes tend to work in destination cities around the world, you’ll notice that the Southern California CityPASS is a fairly unique offering. That’s because it doesn’t let you choose the attractions you want to visit from a list of assorted possibilities, but rather gives you access to just five major Southern California theme parks and attractions: Disneyland Resort, Universal Studios Hollywood, SeaWorld San Diego, LEGOLAND California Resort, and San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.

The Southern California CityPASS has been downgraded. Its now just a list of tickets that are sold with no real discount. Vacation Pass recommends the Go San Diego Pass which includes SeaWorld, San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, Legoland and more. Or you could opt for the Go Los Angeles Pass which includes Universal Studios, San Diego Zoo, Legoland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags etc and more.
SAVE AN ADDITIONAL 10% OFF off either pass with coupon code CMGOCITY10. Offer Expires March 31st

Seeing as how theme park tickets come in all sorts of varieties, with the one consistent factor across the board being that they’re all quite expensive, it’s not practical to provide you with an estimate of your adventure’s potential cost here. Still, no matter which ticket package you select at your theme park (or parks!) of choice, the Southern California CityPASS will save you money when compared to what you’d pay for a ticket purchased directly from the attraction itself. There are far too many possible pass packages to profile here, but in broad terms passes are purchased in increments of days. Each pass will grant you access to certain attractions within a theme park. If you’re looking to visit multiple (or all) attractions within a particular resort, those sorts of “park hopping” passes are available, too.

Top Included Southern California Attractions

3-Day Disneyland Resort Park Hopper (Including the Adventure Park)
Universal Studios Hollywood
SeaWorld San Diego
LEGOLAND California Resort
San Diego Zoo and Safari Park

What’s Good about the Southern California CityPASS?

Like all CityPASS products, the Southern California CityPASS helps you save money as you plan your upcoming vacation. It doesn’t matter which of the numerous Southern California theme park ticket packages you decide to go for, the Southern California CityPASS protects your budget by connecting you with discounted admission passes. Southern California is one of the more expensive areas in the entire United States, meaning the farther you can stretch your travel dollars, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

Southern California is a perennial favorite of vacation goers, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean planning a trip here is simple. In fact, with so many appealing attractions to choose from spread out across a sizable geographic area, plenty of would-be So Cal vacationers find themselves overwhelmed at times as they try and piece together the perfect trip. That’s why one of the best features of the Southern California CityPASS is how it lets you buy passes to multiple theme parks in the same location. This ensures that if you’re looking to purchase tickets to both Disneyland Resort and SeaWorld San Diego, you can use Southern California CityPASS as a means to one-stop shopping—saving you time and money.

What Could Get Better?

This is Southern California we’re talking about: there’s a tremendously diverse number of places to go, attractions to see, and things to do. You just about name it, and you’ll find it here in this special area. However, when it comes to the five attractions available to you as holder of a Southern California CityPASS, you’re looking at four theme parks and a zoo (albeit a zoo with two different experiences). This list of attractions really doesn’t do justice to the immense possibilities of Southern California.

This is even more so the case if you’re an adult traveling to Southern California without children. If you’re a museum person, or into outdoor adventures, or just want to relax on a delightful sightseeing tour or cruise, you’re going to need to take your interests elsewhere. The Southern California CityPASS simply lacks the sort of attractions that’ll likely most appeal to you.

At the end of the day, the Southern California CityPASS is missing the level of savings you’ll encounter with many of their other well-regarded products. In cities like Chicago and Boston, you can save roughly 50% off the price of standard admission when using your CityPASS to go exploring. With a Southern California CityPASS, you could spend several hundred dollars and save roughly twenty bucks. Every penny counts, of course, but the difference in value is worth noting.

Get Your Money’s Worth with Southern California CityPASS

Since the Southern California CityPASS lets you access ticket packages to multiple theme parks all in one place, there is an abundance of options to choose from when contemplating which type of pass to buy. Want specifics? In addition to a single-day ticket to SeaWorld San Diego, there are 16 possible Disneyland Resort ticket packages, 3 possible Universal Studios Hollywood ticket packages, 3 possible LEGOLAND California Resort ticket packages, and 2 possible San Diego Zoo and Safari Park ticket packages. You’ll need to identify the ticket package that best fulfills your needs and interests while staying within your budget if you want to get your money’s worth on a Southern California CityPASS.

To tackle this challenge, decide on your budget. Once you’ve got your budget set, then you can go about determining how many days you can spend at an attraction. Regardless of whether you’re going to be at an attraction for three days or five days or just one precious day, definitely arrive at your attraction right when it opens and stay as late as possible. This approach will go a long way toward maximizing the value of your Southern California CityPASS.

A key note for those visitors interested in purchasing a Southern California CityPASS to use at Disneyland Resort: the Park Hopper ticket package lets you buy a single pass that will be valid at both Disneyland Park and Disneyland California Adventure Park. If you think you want to do both these attractions while in town, this is a convenient route to take. However, given what they include, these passes are by nature really expensive. If you want to get your money’s worth from this sort of ticket, you will absolutely need to experience both parks inside and out.

Southern California CityPASS Insider Tips

Sometimes the best tips are the simplest pieces of advice. Tempting as it is to try and do it all while traveling through Southern California, don’t bite off too much at one time. Seeing everything isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. It’d be a shame to race around this fabulous region while too stressed to enjoy yourself.

Likewise, if you intend to use your Southern California CityPASS to visit multiple attractions, build in plenty of extra time to get where you’re going safely. Southern California traffic is no joke, and the greater the distance you travel between theme parks, the more you set yourself up to encounter serious traffic delays. Everybody feels the squeeze when they have to rush somewhere to be on time, so give yourself some clock-cushion.

Speaking of car travel, don’t forget to save space in your budget for parking expenses. When you’ve got so much other planning on your plate, it can be easy to lose track of something as basic as paying for a place to park your car while you’re out and about having the time of your life. However, these types of fees can add up in a hurry, so set aside some extra money for them ahead of time.

Coupon Codes

SAVE AN ADDITIONAL 10% OFF off either pass with coupon code CMGOCITY10.

Where to Buy It

The card is available at many outlets. You can buy it at Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity or you can buy it once you get to but these are not great options as you may pay more. Its best to buy from the official site.