Things to do in LA for a few hours during the day on a Friday

[lislis77]

My family (four kids ages 5-14), are coming in from a cruise on Friday, March 31st. Our ship gets in fairly early to LA (San Pedro) and our flight leaves around 5 that same Friday evening from John Wayne. Wondering if anyone has found anything you can do realistically (other than the standards shopping, finding a place to eat, etc.) to do for a few hours with kids instead of just hanging out in the airport for most of the day. We looked into Disneyland but it just wasn't feasible for the time we had available. We will also have 2 grandparents with us.

[ruready]

Maybe Battleship Iowa, if you are into those types of things.  Long Beach aquarium?Your flight leaves too early for my first thought which would have been Medieval Times.  I am not that familiar with the OC (born’n’raised in LA), so hopefully others from that area will chime in as I assume you want to do things that are headed more in that direction.

[princeton123211]

42 minutes ago, lislis77 said:

Wondering if anyone has found anything you can do realistically (other than the standards shopping, finding a place to eat, etc.) to do for a few hours with kids instead of just hanging out in the airport for most of the day. We looked into Disneyland but it just wasn't feasible for the time we had available. We will also have 2 grandparents with us.

Agree with you on Disneyland-- it would be a ton of running around and expense for what would essentially pan out to going on about 2 rides if you were lucky. Realistically you'll need to be at SNA by 330ish at the latest so you are really looking at an extended lunch somewhere. 

 

A no brainer would have been going over to the Queen Mary, which is in a soft reopening, but I believe those limited tours are sold out and it won't be fully open until April. Might be worth keeping an eye on that on the off chance it does open. 

 

You could see about getting a day rate at one of the nicer resorts along the coast in OC-- the Lido House in Newport Beach could be a fun option. You could use the pool and grab lunch etc and then it's a quick, easy drive over to SNA. 

[KeepCalmBearOn]

7 hours ago, lislis77 said:

We looked into Disneyland but it just wasn't feasible for the time we had available. We will also have 2 grandparents with us.

 

You don't need to go into Disneyland or Disney California Adventure. You can go into Downtown Disney in between the two parks.

 

You can park the grandparents in the lobby of the Grand Californian Hotel by the fireplace (or in the Hearthstone Lounge if they'd like some California Chardonnay). The shopping area has great Disney logo stores, a huge Lego store, Star Wars Trading Post and more.

 

For dining you have Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen (Creole food), Splitsville Bowling Lanes, Catal, Naples, plus the hotel restaurants.

 

It is an easy way to kill a few or several hours.