Getting from Long Beach or Orange County airport to Disneyland?

[nancy drew]

I was thinking about taking the kids to DL this year, instead of WDW. But they will be 2 and 4 years old, which means that unless we ride buses, they will need carseats. I am traveling alone with them, and between the two of them, our luggage, and the stroller, I don't think I can also somehow carry around 2 carseats. I am kind of a carseat safety nut, but I have used Magical Express for 3 WDW vacations and just sorta held my breath and prayed for safe journeys and we survived. I suppose the ideal situation would be a car service that provides carseats. Normally I don't condone using rental carseats, but if we are just going to and from airports it might be another thing I can begrudgingly accept. If we can't figure out a way to do it then I guess DL will have to wait until the kids don't require carseats anymore, right?

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

This doesn't completely solve your problem... but you could get this:

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=363756&cmSource=Search

and wear one car seat on your back... and then put the other into one of those (pain in the rearend) car seat bags with wheels... check all your regular bags (except for a small bag to bring on the plane to entertain and/or feed the kiddos... and gate check the 2 carseats and stroller--which means you can push the kids all the way to the gate with the stroller, and then drop that stuff off as you board the plane.

We have the pac back (see link above) and it rocks... carry our huge britax through airports all the time with it and it is really easy to take on/off and use.

Then we booked through primetime shuttle and they met us right outside security, and helped us with our stuff to the car...

Good luck!

 

[nancy drew]

I do have a pac back, and I love it!! I suppose the kids could walk through the airport (maybe then they would sleep on the plane? ha!), and I could wear one carseat and toss the other in the stroller. I am also nervous about checking carseats, though, as I have seen how they get tossed around. Though I could just bring them on the plane, the kids would be more likely to sleep in their carseats, I can't imagine them sleeping on a regular airplane seat...
hmmmmmmmm. Lots to think about. Thanks!

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

I have only ever gate checked a car seat... I would never put them with regular baggage... and dd usually rides on the plane in hers... but I only have 1 to tote!

good luck!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

DD's travel seat is a Cosco Scenera, I plop it in our Mac Volo (secure it as best I can with the latch tethers) she then sits in her car seat and that's how we get to the gate, I gate check the stroller and she uses the car seat on the plane. DS carries a backless booster to the gate and we gate check it. DD is 4 yr 8 mon. old, DS will be 8 in April.

 

[nancy drew]

I have only ever gate checked a car seat... I would never put them with regular baggage... and dd usually rides on the plane in hers... but I only have 1 to tote!

good luck!

yeah, but the gate-checked stuff gets thrown around just as much as the regular stuff. ive seen them hurl my stroller on and off the carts and planes. ive lost pieces off two strollers that way.

dont get me wrong, i appreciate the suggestions!!! i suppose if im bringing the seats anyway ill just have the kids sit in them on the plane. its a long ride, and i think they will want to sleep a little.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

I like having dd in her car seat in the plane... the last time we gate checked a car seat was on a flight from Hawaii, and dd was teeny tiny and we didn't buy her seat... on 3 of the 4 flights (back and forth) they gave us a free seat... but 1 flight didn't have the room... so gate check it was.

hope you decide to go... I think the traveling part sounds tiring, but in the grand scheme of things, lugging your stuff will be such a short part of your trip.

--Lisa

 

[ToodlesRN]

We have this for our 2 year old and love it! We put the stroller in the stroller bag and check it in. The adapter can stay connected with the airlane seat belt!

http://www.gogobabyz.com/products/gogo_kids.html

 

[Rhonna]

Your heading Long Beach/Orange County seems like a different question from the body of your message (about car seats).

I don't know about car seats but we had to get from LB to Disneyland and it is a LOT harder than from OC (John Wayne/SNA Airport).

We flew into SNA and had to go first to LB for a conference. We booked with a well known budget bus service which required several stops for other customers going to different locations and a trip that should have taken under an hour took hours one way. On our return trip from LB to Disneyland we used a car service and paid a bit more to have our own car but it was a LOT quicker and smoother. (We asked the concierge at our hotel to recommend someone for us.) Then, after our stay at the DLH, we took their own bus service to the airport (SNA) and that went smoothly.

Long Beach to Disneyland isn't easy to plan. If you can fly into SNA and go directly to Disneyland, that is the very best and easiest to do. Really easy to navigate and nice airport too. (Unless you have to go to Long Beach for some reason?)

 

[justmestace]

Orange County (SNA) airport is definitely the closest and easiest to maneuver in getting to Disneyland. A little more money than LAX, but so worth it. I would think flying in and out of Long Beach (which we only do for cruises) would be more expensive than either of the other two.

Anyway, you could look into getting a town car through ExecuCar, it would be private, just you and the kids, and they might have car seats. Just take antibacterial wipes to use on them before putting the kids in.

We just booked a limo (we have a group of 10) to take us from the Disney Magic in June, to Disneyland, through Pronto Limousine....they go to and from all the airports to Disneyland...and have town cars and limos. The cost per person was less than if we had used Super Shuttle. Might be worth calling them and asking if they have car seats.
www.prontolimousine.com

 

[nancy drew]

thanks for all the advice i wasnt really sure which airport made more sense, ive been pricing things through expedia (probably more expensive, but it gives me an idea of whats out there) and there were something like 5 airport options on there. so i had no idea which one to choose! looks like orange county is the best option. good to know!

ill look into these options. thanks!!!!

 

[Tink208]

Depending on where you are flying from, Long Beach is not necessarily more expensive. I prefer to fly Jet Blue and they fly into Long Beach, so that is where I went when traveling to Anaheim for a convention, and it was cheaper than flying into to Orange County. I took SuperShuttle from the airport and was at the hotel within half an hour. I also took SuperShuttle back to the airport and again the trip was no more than half an hour. (I ended up with a good hour or more to hang out in the airport...thank goodness for fee wireless internet access!)

I did price flying into LAX as well, just to be fiscally prudent, and, factoring in ground transportation, it was almost exactly the same price as flying into Long Beach, but Long Beach was closer to Anaheim, so the "cost" of my time made Long Beach the least expensive option.

I do agree with the previous poster that, depending on the size of your group, a limo might be the less expensive way to go. This past summer we had to get eight people to the airport and it was definitely cheaper to order a limo than to use SuperShuttle, and we had more flexibility in saying when we wanted to leave, et cetera.

 

[misjanuary]

If you use the Grayline through Coach America you won't have to bring car seats! We are going next week and flying for the first time (we usually drive from AZ) but we didn't want to haul car seats for a 48 hour trip. We found the Gray Line from Orange County Airport for $75 round trip for the 4 of us...cheaper than gas or renting a car! I am a car seat fanatic, too, but it's a quick drive and they don't have seat belts anyways...hope that helps!