Flying into Long Beach and shuttling to Disneyland is a great idea. Long Beach is a small airport and easy to get around.

I have not stayed at the Fairfield but have stayed at the Sheraton and they had a shuttle to the park. Is the Fairfield close enough to walk? Do they have their own shuttle? Or would you be relying on the Anaheim buses?

I have stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and enjoyed it very much but not anymore so then the time we stayed at the Sheraton.

You can do Universal in a day. It is a small park and can easily be covered in a day. Make sure you do the Studio Tour - it is an actual, working studio with many sets that you will recognize - such as Wisperia Lane from Desperate Housewives. The Studio Tour was the highlight of our day there.

I don't know about shuttling between Disney and Universal - I've never stayed up by Universal, so I can't really help you an that.

Los Angeles is not an early rising town - there are many times we would to to Disneyland and be there when it opened (usually on Sundays) and it wouldn't get crowded until 11am or so. We went to Universal during Winter Break and again, the crowds weren't bad until later in the day.

I have never been to Catalina - we have lived here for 5 years and it's something we want to do but just haven't gotten around to it yet. If you're not going to make it back this area again - I would definitely take the ferry over to Catalina.

Beaches - the Pacific Ocean is much colder than the Atlantic! The beaches are nice - we live south of the LA airport and go to the beaches in LA County. I've heard that the beaches south of us in Orange county are nice but haven't been to them.

Let me know if you have any other questions.