Grand Californian....transportation question

[Lesley]

My family and I will be traveling to the Grand Californian in April...have had the studio booked since the window opened and booked our flight today. I'm looking at our options for transportation while we're there. We are flying into LAX, nonstop from MCO, and we're a family of 5.

Looking at the prices of shuttles, van service, rental cars... it looks like the shuttle is the least expensive, but not by much, followed by rental car then van/car service.

I am thinking that since we're staying off property the first night (couldn't get that night at GCV, booked at a Fairfield across the street) and since we're going to want to buy groceries and things...the rental car seems like the best option overall. Also gives us the freedom to explore outside Disneyland if we want to. Dh and ds will be occupied with a convention most days, but my girls and I have the whole week to ourselves.

Anything I'm missing here? I would have to pay for parking at the Fairfield, but not GCV. Looks like there's a SuperTarget right down Harbor Blvd....could get a cab for groceries but having a car is easier. And I've driven in NYC & Philly so I'm not particularly intimidated by city driving.

Opinions? What do you do? What would you do in our situation?

 

[DebbieB]

My family and I will be traveling to the Grand Californian in April...have had the studio booked since the window opened and booked our flight today. I'm looking at our options for transportation while we're there. We are flying into LAX, nonstop from MCO, and we're a family of 5.

Looking at the prices of shuttles, van service, rental cars... it looks like the shuttle is the least expensive, but not by much, followed by rental car then van/car service.

I am thinking that since we're staying off property the first night (couldn't get that night at GCV, booked at a Fairfield across the street) and since we're going to want to buy groceries and things...the rental car seems like the best option overall. Also gives us the freedom to explore outside Disneyland if we want to. Dh and ds will be occupied with a convention most days, but my girls and I have the whole week to ourselves.

Anything I'm missing here? I would have to pay for parking at the Fairfield, but not GCV. Looks like there's a SuperTarget right down Harbor Blvd....could get a cab for groceries but having a car is easier. And I've driven in NYC & Philly so I'm not particularly intimidated by city driving.

Opinions? What do you do? What would you do in our situation?

I would rent a car to give you the freedom to explore. California is so beautiful. DL is not far from the beach, take a short drive up the coast.

I've used Disneyland Express from LAX, see brochure. Kids are free, adults are $48 each roundtrip.

http://www.graylineanaheim.com/docs/DRE Brochure.pdf

There's also Super Shuttle.

 

[disneylady88]

I would also recommend renting a car. I am from Southern California and IMO, driving in CA is MUCH easier than NY or Philly. There's so much to see, even taking a day to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway would be nice if you have time. I've lived in VA for past 4 yrs and miss CA so much. Have an In N Out burger for me!

 

[DizDaD7]

I would rent a car to give you the freedom to explore. California is so beautiful. DL is not far from the beach, take a short drive up the coast.

I've used Disneyland Express from LAX, see brochure. Kids are free, adults are $48 each roundtrip.

http://www.graylineanaheim.com/docs/DRE Brochure.pdf

There's also Super Shuttle.

I'd have to say ditto to this...Grayline that is.....We used it in Feb. 2014 during our week there and it was perfect. It had the same deal with 3 kids free, but even better was this:

When they come aboard the bus they ask how will we be paying, and we said with a c/c. He proceeded to ask which one, DiSney visa.? And we said yes why, he said there's usually an added discount...so we thought maybe a few bucks more. Well nope, our 1st bit of DLR magic. It took off another 50%.

I think we ended up paying like $50 total for the 4 of us r/t for an hour long trip each way.

 

[Anal Annie]

We used a private Execu van hired thru the Super Shuttle people when we went - but I think it's only for up to 4 ppl. It was priced per van not pp so it was almost as economical as a shared shuttle for the 3 of us. After a long flight I didn't want to deal with driving around LA and I didn't want to mess around with traffic and trying to do a car return when we were leaving (on our way to Aulani). We were only there for 3 nights tho (so no time for other sightseeing) so the van worked out great for us. I liked that we didn't have to share with anyone else and go thru multiple drop offs & pick-ups.

 

[Sur]

I would also recommend renting a car. I am from Southern California and IMO, driving in CA is MUCH easier than NY or Philly. There's so much to see, even taking a day to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway would be nice if you have time. I've lived in VA for past 4 yrs and miss CA so much. Have an In N Out burger for me!

I would love to know where you were driving. Traffic, here, is horrendous!

 

[DonnaL]

We also used Execu van thru Super Shuttle in Jan 2013 when we visited VGC. However, we flew into John Wayne/Orange County airport (which is really only a 15 minute drive to Disneyland Resort). Not sure if they also transport from LAX, but, I do know the Disneyland Express does. You say you've driven in Philly and NYC, but, I would still use extreme caution driving the CA freeways.....it's NOT the same. My DH has driven NYC, Philly, DC, Baltimore, Boston, Atlanta, Orlando and other Eastern and Midwest cities and when he saw the traffic/freeways in LA, his comment was "Thank God we decided not to rent a car because I couldn't do this". We used the Grayline Bus Tour to take us from VGC to Universal Studios Hollywood one day and we have never seen traffic like we did on that day trip on the "5". On the way to Universal traffic was fast and heavy, but, it was after the morning rush hour and it took us about an hour to get there....it's 40 miles and we were on the freeway. The trip back to Disneyland, however, was a different matter entirely.....traffic was absolutely crazy... fast, very heavy (all lanes of traffic....most areas had 5 to 7 lanes) and took us from 5:30 to 8:00 to go 40 miles of fast moving and sudden complete stops, then fast again for maybe a minute and screeching stop.
As far as groceries, we used a wonderful grocery delivery service from Vons Grocery Stores. They usually have a coupon for free delivery on your first order. They will deliver directly to VGC and you just meet them in front of the lobby and then have Bell Services take your groceries up to your room. I had some questions when placing my order and called their customer service number. The woman I spoke with was wonderful as was the delivery person. I was very pleased with the service and will definitely use them again when we return to Disneyland, hopefully next year.

 

[hjgaus]

www.ocidi.com
OC based transportation services no shared rider experience
we used from home pick up to LAX (flight to Orlando FL)&
back. Great service!

 

[khoeyjr]

We went for the first time in November and rented a car. The only time we had traffic the entire time we were there was traveling up to LA for a Laker game on a sunday night. Otherwise getting to Disneyland and back to LAX was absolutely painless (to my surprise). We had considered the disney bus, but the cost of the rental car was cheap enough to make it our preference.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

If you rent a car and want to explore the beaches, you might want to head toward Newport/Corona del Mar - Orange County area. There is a really beautiful, unspoiled beach called Crystal Cove in that area, and driving there is a little easier than if you wanted to go to Santa Monica or any of the beaches closer to LA.

Driving in LA just takes a little mind-shift. People move decisively, so stay alert. I've also driven all over, but when I get in a car in LA I always remind myself to kick my focus up a notch, and then I'm fine. Enjoy your visit!