LAX to Grand Californian Transportation

[bdphill22]

What's the best way to get from LAX to the Grand Californian?

Rent a car? Are there any good shuttle services? Uber / Lyft?

It's our first time at Disneyland. We are staying at VGC for 4 nights and don't plan on leaving the resort / parks.

 

[disneylandlocal]

My suggestion depends a bit on your amount of luggage and terminal. At LAX rideshares pick up at a separate lot which is a short walk from terminals 1-3 (assuming not a lot of baggage) or a shuttle ride you can hire an uber or Lyft black car which is pricier but can pick you up at the terminal. There are some shared shuttles which would be cheaper but I haven’t experienced them:

 

[psc85]

Based on recommendations on this forum, as well as the Grand Cal website, we chose Karamel Limo/Shuttle round trip, picking the SUV option. Spent somewhere just south of $600 with gratuities which was slightly more compared to booking an Uber Black. Also, we chose to go with the Limo Service since they are allowed to pick you up right at baggage claim, vs having to travel to a separate lot for Ride Shares? At least this is what we read online.

Positives: You can book online. The drivers will track your flight info to accommodate delays etc. You get a confirmation the day before. You can pre-pay gratuities.

Trip to DLR from LAX: Our trip from LAX was very good, received a text from our driver asking us to text him back once we retrieve our bags and let him know what baggage claim area. He pulled up to he curb in a new GMC Yukon Denali, very professional, got us safely to the Grand Cal, with traffic it took about an hour even with using the HOV lane.

Trip back to LAX: Our driver texted us the night before because we had a 6:45am flight, and offered to arrived at 4am vs the suggested 3:30am, which was appreciated. However that same driver arrived the next morning smelling of cigarettes and had clearly smoked in the older 2011 or so Suburban. Also, he was dosing off here and there while driving back to LAX, likely because of this, he had his window cracked, which let all sorts of highway odors in including a skunk smell (or maybe it was "jazz cabbage" from a nearby neighborhood? )

TLDR: Based on this experience, and the price we paid, we might consider another company for our next Disneyland trip. However lots of other people recommend them, so maybe our experience was a one off.

The real key here would be if we could avoid LAX all together by getting direct flights to John Wayne from Philadelphia, but those apparently don't exist anymore.

 

[NVDISFamily]

If you are a brave soul I'd consider taking the Metro Green Line to the Norwalk Station @ the end of the line and then you are only a 20 min or so uber to Disneyland. The metro can be "fun" but I grew up in that area and those are my people. I've had some fun adventures on that train.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I used Uber in September. LAX to GC. Took the shuttle bus to the pick up area. Bus was packed. And a local explained to me since SO many are calling for rideshares from exact same spot, it is usually surge pricing. (GRR). And as a result, it can be same price to take the normally pricier black option, which may not be in in a surge at all. Sigh. No way to know in advance. Mine was $119.58 (Lyft Standard, Uber was higher!)

 

[Canchaser143]

We used Anaheim Town Car Services they were excellent! Highly recommend!

 

[psc85]

We used Anaheim Town Car Services they were excellent! Highly recommend!

Will have to check them out next time!

 

[maxbuffmelvin]

I always rent a car at LAX from Alamo and then drop off the next day at Alamo in Anaheim, which is walking distance from GC.

 

[DonMacGregor]

If you are a brave soul I'd consider taking the Metro Green Line to the Norwalk Station @ the end of the line and then you are only a 20 min or so uber to Disneyland. The metro can be "fun" but I grew up in that area and those are my people. I've had some fun adventures on that train.

Norwalk is OK, but the Green Line through Lynwood, Watts and Inglewood, at night, with luggage screaming "tourist" would be a hard pass. OC kid, but spent many years on construction projects in and around South Central.

 

[tjkraz]

Alamo / Enterprise has a rental car desk at Paradise Pier across the street. It's worth checking the price of one-way rentals, especially if there's anything else you want to do while in the SoCal area before or after DL. (IMO, there's a lot you can do on a commute, even if it's just something like driving up to Griffith Park, Chinese Theater / Hollywood Blvd, LA Farmer's Market or Randy's Donuts.)

Other rental car companies are a block or two away from DL. I rented from Avis once and it was a 10-12 minute walk back to DL after returning the car.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Alamo / Enterprise has a rental car desk at Paradise Pier across the street. It's worth checking the price of one-way rentals, especially if there's anything else you want to do while in the SoCal area before or after DL. (IMO, there's a lot you can do on a commute, even if it's just something like driving up to Griffith Park, Chinese Theater / Hollywood Blvd, LA Farmer's Market or Randy's Donuts.)

Other rental car companies are a block or two away from DL. I rented from Avis once and it was a 10-12 minute walk back to DL after returning the car.

My only caution to anyone thinking of renting a car at LAX, especially just to drive down to Anaheim, is that the rental car lots are in an absolute and total state of chaos right now. With the ongoing construction of the peoplemover, the new Metro LAX transportation hub, and the new rental car center, you'd be better off just walking to the Ride Share pickup area (if you're flying Southwest into Terminal One) or taking the shuttle bus. The rideshare pickup area (LAXIT) is in the airport proper whereas all rental car lots are remote down Century Blvd. You could be in your Uber or Lyft and driving down Sepulveda on your way to the 105 before the rental car bus is even halfway to the lot.

 

[pindecisive]

What's the best way to get from LAX to the Grand Californian?

Rent a car? Are there any good shuttle services? Uber / Lyft?

It's our first time at Disneyland. We are staying at VGC for 4 nights and don't plan on leaving the resort / parks.

The below is from Disney's site, so if you don't plan on using the car during your stay, it would definitely be worth it to just go with a Lyft or private car, cost wise:

"The cost for self-parking is $35 (plus tax) per night, per vehicle; valet service is $65 (plus tax) per night, per vehicle; oversized vehicle parking is $40 (plus tax) per night, per vehicle."

Since you said you're staying for four nights, that's $140 just to park the car. Lyft's quote from LAX to GC was $100, so if renting the car is more than $60, you're just better off getting a Lyft both ways.

For private cars/shuttles, previously we used Lanksy, but their prices have gone up and they now require a 20% mandatory tip for the driver so the quote one way from LAX to GC was over $200. Our upcoming trip we'll be using MidWilshuttle ($120), since it had great reviews on other threads here. We were able to tip the amount we wanted and it wasn't that much more expensive than a Lyft.

My caution with using Lyft is that the drivers (especially from LAX) don't always know how to navigate the parks, so if you're being dropped off at the park directly, or have a time sensitive deadline it can sometimes be an issue to get there on time.

 

[ajiuo]

When I took a solo trip in January I originally was flying into LAX because it was cheaper than SNA, but when I started adding in transportation cost it was less of a price difference… so I just switched to SNA. The amount of time and stress I saved was also worth something. Once again this was a solo trip. If you have more people the cost savings at LAX can become much more significant.

 

[pindecisive]

When I took a solo trip in January I originally was flying into LAX because it was cheaper than SNA, but when I started adding in transportation cost it was less of a price difference… so I just switched to SNA. The amount of time and stress I saved was also worth something. Once again this was a solo trip. If you have more people the cost savings at LAX can become much more significant.

We tend to fly into LAX for DL day trips (fly in morning, fly out evening) because LAX seems to always have earlier flights than SNA. Even with the 30-50 minute drive time you get to the park earlier if you fly into LAX. Flying out of LAX is usually where the issues come in, since most of their flights leave delayed.

This last go round, SNA had a lot of dba flights for Alaska and United and we prefer not to fly those when possible (our experience flying Silver Airways from Orlando to Miami was a nightmare) so although we usually use points for our flights, we spent the cash to fly Southwest from SNA because I agree, flying out of SNA is a much much better experience.

 

[ajiuo]

We tend to fly into LAX for DL day trips (fly in morning, fly out evening) because LAX seems to always have earlier flights than SNA. Even with the 30-50 minute drive time you get to the park earlier if you fly into LAX. Flying out of LAX is usually where the issues come in, since most of their flights leave delayed.

This last go round, SNA had a lot of dba flights for Alaska and United and we prefer not to fly those when possible (our experience flying Silver Airways from Orlando to Miami was a nightmare) so although we usually use points for our flights, we spent the cash to fly Southwest from SNA because I agree, flying out of SNA is a much much better experience.

I guess that would make sense. Kind of the opposite for me. Our airport is a delta hub so they have a flight where I can usually get to SNA just after 9am. It’s also only a 1 and a half hour flight with a 1 hour time difference, so I only loose about 30 minutes + airport and Uber time, witch is pretty quick at SNA.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I guess that would make sense. Kind of the opposite for me. Our airport is a delta hub so they have a flight where I can usually get to SNA just after 9am. It’s also only a 1 and a half hour flight with a 1 hour time difference, so I only loose about 30 minutes + airport and Uber time, witch is pretty quick at SNA.

Sounds like SLC...

 

[ajiuo]

Sounds like SLC...

Yup

 

[DonMacGregor]

Yup

Excellent Sky Club, and the views from the terminal ain't bad either.

 

[teawar]

Another way to possibly avoid surge pricing is to take a LAX hotel shuttle from the terminal to one of the hotels and get a rideshare from there rather than the main pickup area. You don’t need to have a reservation to get on a shuttle, or in my experience it was a non-issue. There is a Hilton and a few other nearby hotels.

We’ve done this at quite a few airports and WDW before when leaving the parks.

It may not be for everyone, but something to consider.