R.J.
(Used to live down there, have been back for Disney & to visit a few times)
1) You'll need a car no matter what
2) Personally, I'd go to the beach.
3) I'd plan for the beach in the middle, but go last day if we were having too much fun. HOWEVER we tend to have better luck doing 'non-Disney' on day ONE before checking into the hotel (or just dropping off luggage). If this were MY trip, we'd fly in, check in & drop off luggage, head to the beach or the pier for the day, come back, start Disney early the next morning...4 days at Disney -we alternate park and hotel pool to keep refreshed-, shuttle, fly out.
4) Avoid Anaheim. It's a hole. (Drugs, prostitution, gangs, etc). Safe enough to drive through, but you don't really want to stop. I'd recommend dropping over to Huntington and heading south to Seal Beach (lemme check my map for a moment, I also lived in San Diego, and occasionally mix up my beach names! ETA: Yep! Totally got that right. Seal Beach is families, seniors, and surfers... LOL wanted to make sure I wasn't sending you to SD or a party beach. I don't even read the signs, just drive on autopilot from my old house) for swimming... Or over to Venice Beach or Santa Monica Pier for the tourist factor. LOVE the pier. Although, I personally live swimming, more.
5) Plan at LEAST 3 hours ahead to get through LAX if that's your airport. Bad traffic can make that a 2 hour drive (so 5 hours means leaving at 1pm), although Sunday should be RELATIVELY calm... I'd want to be shuttle distance away (with guaranteed arrival time... The shuttle should list out shuttle a leaves at x arrives at y, and the transit times will be different for every day and different times of day). Hence not planning a lot for your last day any distance away.
((The parts of LA that are NOT safe to drive through are East LA, and South Central LA... Just as a heads up. Anaheim is FINE to drive through. Just don't stop there))