This is the third in a series of blog posts by Jenni Weightman detailing the planning process of her trip to Disneyland.
Getting to the Magic!
As much as I like airports I don’t want to
spend my holiday in one so it was time to find transport to the park. LAX is located about 40 minutes away from
Disneyland depending on traffic and both Matt and I are way too chicken to rent
a car and drive on the other side of the road. I have problems enough knowing
which way is left and right without it all being back to front! So that means
we need someone else to drive us and as you would expect for a major tourist
destination there are loads of choices, some more expensive than others!
An overview of the options and general costs.
Shuttle
$20 each way or $30 for a return trip per
person. Tip $1 per bag each way.
*Grayline (Disneyland express)
*Super shuttle
*Prime time shuttle
Town Car
For meet and greet with a 4 person Sedan it
would be from $175 to $240 return plus 18% tip
*Execucar
*DK Livery
Taxi
Flat rate from LAX to Disney $46 plus tip,
Return is $122 including tip.
Taxi's will be waiting at the airport then for
the return you would need to ring for one as it's actually against the city
code for taxis to stop if you try and hail them.
Making the decision
Trip advisor may be the bane of my life.
Everytime I go and search for something or somewhere I think looks good a barrage
of scary negative reviews come up. Pretty much every option for traveling from
the airport has lots of reports of drivers not arriving, buses going the wrong
way or missing the hotel and rude taxi drivers. I know that the majority of
people that have positive experiences never bother to review stuff (I know I
never have!) but it's hard to ignore all the negativity. But after ignoring
negative reviews about a café in Oxford the other week and ending up with the
most disgusting egg mayonnaise sandwich I have ever seen or eaten in my life
I'm even more wary!!
After much deliberation over a nice lunch we
decided to go with the Disneyland Express shuttle. So off I went and booked the $30 dollar return
journey each for us and then got cold feet and decided to look again at town
cars!!!
Hmm, so in an attempt to save money that’s £40
down the drain (no refunds unfortunately) and I was back to square one.
The big problem with the shuttles is the time
they take. What should be a 45 minutes journey can take up to 3 hours
with waiting for buses, travelling around the airport to the different
terminals then visiting all the different hotels before finally arriving at the
place you want to be! This would be fine if we were arriving in the morning or
afternoon but our flight comes in at 8pm then we have to get through customs
(please let it be quicker than the 2 hour queue at MCO last November) and
either get the 21.30 or 22.30 shuttle. This means that if we did end up on the
last shuttle and it took 3 hours we wouldn't get to the Desert Inn and Suites
until 1:30!! Ok I know this is worse case scenario and we are equally likely to
get the earlier bus and it only take 1 and a half hours but, arghhh I can't get
the horrible version out of my head.
I've reached the conclusion that when you are
spending lots of money on an amazing trip it is not worth saving a tiny amount
(in the grand scheme of things) and causing myself big worry and stress in the
process.
So it was back to the reviews and price
comparison and I have decided to go with DK Livery and book a meet and greet.
They do a pretty great deal of $175 flat rate return including a grocery store
visit of 20 mins if required. This comes to about £115 and although it is £70
more than the shuttle I think it is worth it for the peace of mind. And
really who doesn't have a dream of seeing their name on one of those boards in
the arrivals lounge :).
Next time- Food glorious food!
Then it will see my first trip to EPCOT and a must will be Spaceship
Earth as it is closing for a week refurb so will be cool to see the before and
after! No doubt Test Track will keep me occupied for awhile, as another
attraction I haven’t seen since it had its refresh and Tron-ification. Again
another first is dinner, Garden Grill. I have made this ADR so many trips
before and for some strange reason always cancelled. This time I am standing
firm and I will be enjoying the twirling restaurant and its family style
offering.
How best to end the evening than Illuminations. This is my favourite of
the three firework spectaculars at WDW and I have reserved viewing somewhere
over by the Morocco pavilion.
