LAX vs. SNA vs. LGB

[abckid]

OK, so I was willing to fly into LAX because the price is so much cheaper than the others. But after doing a little research on this board, I'm a little scared of LAX. I'm worried that the traffic is not going to be worth the $ savings. I'm sorry to bring this up as there are many threads about this already, but reading through them made me indecisive. LOL Please help me! One thing I really want to know, is what are the time differences that you have to leave your hotel to get to the airport? I saw a thread that recommended leaving the Disney area 4 hours prior to your flight, and I was wondering when we would leave for SNA or LGB? Anyways, I'll take any opinions on any of the airports Thanks!!!

 

[Eeee-va]

I know that the wait times at SNA are ridiculously short...I flew out of there several years ago...always being paranoid, I asked my friend to drop me off I think 90 minutes before the plane was about to leave. After a short time in security, I could have walked onto a flight that was leaving about 75 minutes before mine (well, if I'd had a ticket for it ). While I think it's possible that you'd zip through LAX, I don't think it's likely.

That said, if you can take the Disneyland Express versus driving yourself, then I don't think LAX would be too awful. I'd probably agree with the 4 hour estimate just because I'm paranoid about getting to the airport early. Depending on how long the Disneyland Express takes, I think giving yourself 3 hours to get to SNA is MORE than enough time. Might need more for LAX.

I think you just have to figure out if it's worth saving some money to have less time in the parks. I would pay a premium for SNA, but not $100 a ticket or anything. (Lucky for me I can drive, though. )

 

[Disneyluvr2]

I'm one of those that that will pay the premium to fly into SNA. It's worth it to me to have as much time in the park as possible. I always take Super Shuttle back to the airport and they pick you up 2 hours before your flight. Yes, this is usually way more time than is needed but I think they're covering their butt to make sure you don't miss your flight. It also depends on the day of the week and time of day you're flying. When I fly home on Sunday, the airport is much more crowded than when I fly home on a Monday.

LB is not that much further than SNA. I think the last time I took a taxi back to LB they picked me up a couple of hours ahead of time. LB is a tiny airport and doesn't take much time at all to get where you're going. Hope that helps some!

 

[abckid]

I forgot to mention that we will not be renting a car, and we'll probably get a private Super Shuttle. There's 8 of us. Also, we're not going to be in the parks the day that we're leaving. We are going to arrive on Wednesday, June 24 and swim in the pool at the hotel. Then, we have 5 days of park hoppers that we'll use Thursday through Monday. We're leaving Tuesday afternoon, so we'll spend time swimming at the hotel before we have to leave. Another problem to consider is that we'll be flying out around 5:30 probably so we'll hit rush hour traffic getting to the airport

LAX= $1275.20 for flights and shuttle
SNA= $1439.20 for flights and shuttle
LGB= $1125.20 for flights and shuttle, BUT we'd also have to leave at the crack of dawn on our way out. I don't know if we can get 4 kids up and ready that early in the morning, plus my inlaws don't want to leave that early either. However, I might change my mind because of the price LOL

 

[bluegrizzlies1]

I know harolds limo service quoted me 85 bucks 1 way for limo from long beach to hotel with 8 people.

Long beach is very close to disneyland might be 5 miles further then san ana.


I vote long beach been this route 5 times. I also did burbank 2 times cheaper airfare but about 40 miles away should have just done long beach.

We have never done san ana airfare way too much money for 5 miles closer.

 

[Eeee-va]

If you're flying from the Pacific Time Zone then I would strongly consider LGB. Crack of dawn is never fun, but it's not too terrible to get up fairly early the first day of your vacation, so that you're IN THEORY likely to go to bed earlier that night and be ready to go the next morning. But I don't know just how hard it might be to get your kids up and ready, or if your family actually WOULD go to bed earlier the next day. I'm not sure I would, now that I think about it...

If you're on the East coast, then getting up so early might be a problem long-term (getting up at 5 AM Eastern Time is like 2 AM Disneyland time ). If you think it would mess up your party's schedule for the first few days of your trip, then it might be worth the hassle to go through LAX, especially since you're not planning on going to the park on your day of arrival or your day of departure. It's not the most fun trip, but it's not like you only have 2 or 3 days in the park and taking longer traveling will cut into your time in Disneyland proper. An extra hour is a much smaller portion of your trip than it would be if you were just going for a few days, you know?

If your outbound flight is at 5:30 PM then you'd be trying to get to the airport by 3:30 PM or so, correct? OK, yeah, in LA that's still rush hour, I suppose, but in any normal place the traffic wouldn't be so bad.

Given the price difference and the length of your trip, I would take SNA out of the equation, though. And if I had a party of 8 I would definitely consider a limo as bluegrizzlies1 suggested.

 

[avalon451]

Check flight prices to LGB; often they're as cheap as LAX, and it's much closer.

We booked a limo from SNA to our hotel. We were quoted $85 online, but they were sneaky about taxes, tips, fees and junk and it ended up being more like $125 each way. (here's a big un-recommendation: don't use Starz, aka AllStarz Limo. Issues, definite issues...) That said, it was really really fun to do the "rockstar" limo thing! With 8 people it would probably be worth it!

 

[abckid]

Ah crud! I'm an idiot and didn't think to check seat availability on the flights. I can't believe I did that. Looks like LGB doesn't really have room for us on the plane There might be 8 seats left, but none of them are together. I guess that solves my problem, except for the fact that I wanted to fly into LGB. LOL So now I'm back to figuring out if we want to save a little $ and fly into LAX or pay a little extra for the convenience of SNA...

 

[mikayla73]

I am another one who always flew into SNA. Dealing with the crowds, traffic, and time to fly into and drive from LAX wasn't worth it to me. SNA is closer and very easy to navigate.

 

[wannagoback]

For a less than $200 difference on what is already an expensive trip on an airplane, I would choose SNA. I've never flown into LAX but I've done both SNA and LGB and I can say that it would have to be the deal of the century for me to go to LAX. I've had wonderful experiences at both of those airports. I fly out of SeaTac too and it's fine, but it's about as much "busy" as I want to deal with.

 

[PrincessYessenia]

I'm paranoid about getting to the airport early.

me, too! But then again I'm paranoid about getting to ANYTHING early! CAN NOT be late to ANYTHING! It's actually unhealthy!

sorry...carry on!

 

[abckid]

Thanks guys! I knew you would be a good resource. I talked to hubby and mil and we all decided we'll go ahead and pay extra to fly into SNA. Mil doesn't like crowds OR traffic, so she was happier to choose a smaller airport than LAX (don't ask why she is coming to Disney if she doesn't like crowds LOL). Plus, she liked the flight times better. I wanted to leave later in the day, but 4:00 was the latest she wanted to leave But since we won't have to leave for the airport as early as if we had gone through LAX, I think it will all work out fine. I'll get the boys up and take them to the pool for an hour or two before we head to the airport and we'll have a great time. Now, hopefully CCI won't have a problem holding our luggage while we swim because I told mil that they would hold it for us. Check out is at 11am, but we probably won't be leaving the hotel until closer to 1pm.

 

[Eeee-va]

If you can't go to LGB...well, I feel like anything in the ballpark of $200 is a lot of money, but $25 per person really isn't much at all (and I'd personally pay $25 extra for SNA for myself anyday ). Assuming that price is roundtrip, I'd go for SNA. Hopefully they have seats together for you.

 

[bumbershoot]

Looks like you've made your decision.

I was going to pop in and make sure you were comparing apples to apples! I once chose to fly into ONT, after checking ONT vs SNA, and checking Super Shuttle's rates from SNA.

Whoops! SS's rates from ONT are *significantly* higher than from SNA, and I lost most, if not all, of the savings of the airport by not checking it all out thoroughly.


With your SS calculations, I don't know if it makes a difference with a private shuttle, but check anyway...they show lower rates online if you use the hotel name instead of the zip code. So use the hotel name!


You're probably using Jet Blue or Alaska, but just in case, be sure to check out Virgin America's rates as well! Now that both VA and Alaska are (or will be) charging $15 for the first bag (Virgin currently, Alaska starting in July I believe, with bookings after May something) they remain neck and neck, and VA is so lovely to fly on. Of course JB still has first bag free (but I personally haven't enjoyed flying with them).


As for the time inside the airport...the one time I flew out of SNA I got there mega early b/c of SS, then my flight was delayed for hours. The times we've left LAX, the staff are lovely and helpful (with Alaska you have to take your bags over to the xray thing/conveyor belt, and the last Alaska person actually helped hubby do that), the TSA folks are serious but kind (though their metal detectors are ridiculous; my 1.5 inch barrette set it off once!), and I haven't had a hard time finding my way around to and from the gates (I just get turned around inside their circular gate area).

And of course a benefit OR downfall of LAX is the possibility of celebrity sighting and/or accidentally being in the background on TMZ later than night. Depends on your outlook if that's good or bad.

 

[ukstitch]

I flew internally into SNA last year and have to admit that it was a wonderful, quick experience. I really wish there was a way I could get to SNA from the UK without adding several hours onto my journey time as it was just that much easier.

Personally, for $25 a ticket, I'd pick SNA. Being a smaller airport and not the major international hub that LAX is, you're likely to get through everything so much faster than you would do at SNA, plus there'll be smaller queues for shuttles etc.