sunny45 -
I moved this thread over to our Southern California sub-forum (in the California & the West section) and out of the main
Disneyland trip planning forum, as it is not directly related to Disneyland planning. You've gotten a lot of replies and info at this point, so I think that people will follow the thread over to the SoCal section.
I don't know if I missed it somewhere, but did you ultimately decide against a day trip to Catalina Island? I know that at one point you were considering it (you posted in one of my threads about the Island). I'm going there again next month with the Free Birthday Boat Ride promo (3rd year in a row that this promo is being offered, which is incredible), which is what I did last year, and will post photos and a recap in my existing Catalina Trip Report thread (see the blue link in my signature below). So, if you're still interested in possibly visiting Catalina in the future, on another trip, be sure to follow along/check in with the TR if you have time!