1) Meet with surgeon and make sure you're comfortable with each other. This is also an opportunity for the surgeon to evaluate whether or not your surgery is appropriate for their facility.
2) You'll need to be there a week before surgery for all the required x-rays/blood/urine tests etc.
3) Then the surgery which you obviously need to be there for.
In between that, you can just FedEx the surgeon molds when your ortho thinks you're ready, which is what I did a lot of the time. Even though it makes us, as patients, feel better to be in the office and talk to the surgeon, they don't really need us there. They can assess everything they need to just by looking at the molds and can answer your questions via email. You can email the admins too regarding setting up dates and finances, forms, etc. Also keep in mind that even the procedure itself is up in the air until its time for surgery. I went from being a double-jaw procedure, to a lower-only, back to a double-jaw throughout the process. I don't think they even know exactly what the best procedure is for you until a week before hand when they start practicing on your molds and see what fits best.
Plus, the UCLA facility is not exactly glamorous (you're not there for the decor) so why hang out in a dingy waiting room anyway?
Although from what I understand they are currently building new recovery facilities so if you timed it right you could end up spending the night in one of the new pads.I found both my ortho and my surgeon to be easiest to reach by email anyway and they actually both preferred to consult with each other via email.
Post op will be more difficult for you and will depend on how you recover of course but at a minimum (assuming you recover without issues) it would probably look like:
1-week follow-up to have your jaw unbanded
3-week follow-up to have your splint removed
6-week follow-up just to make sure everything's cool
3 to 6-month follow up
1 year follow up
Maybe your ortho could substitute some of those appointments and relay progress/issues to your surgeon but you'd probably be better off making the effort to make it to UCLA so they can look at you.
I hope that helps a little bit and gives you some hope. It wouldn't be ideal but if you could afford it and make it work than it could make the surgery a reality for you.
EDIT: BTW, if you have no insurance whatsoever, the UCLA consultation fees are $65 a visit, plus $8 parking if you want to add that to your cost calculator. Probably not bad in the grand scheme of things. The initial consultation was free if I recall but I'd confirm that with them. Any consultation within 6-months after surgery is considered a follow-up and is free. After 6-months it goes back to $65.