LAX, Long Beach or John Wayne?

[psimon]

I am seeing a great spread in airfares for the LA area. For our trip planned for November for 5 people I am seeing about an extra $250 to fly out of Long Beach (LB) vs LAX, and an ADDITIONAL $250 to fly out of John Wayne (Orange County, OC) vs Long Beach.

We will be staying at Paradise Pier. Is it worth the $250 to fly out of LB vs LAX or the $500 to fly out of OC vs LAX?

We are looking at a 10AM to noon flight on a Saturday to fly home. Adding in the drive time and costs, which would be the recommended airport outbound? How are the trips to OC, LB or LAX time and traffic-wise?


Many thanks....

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[JC Butterfly]

are you saying that it would be an additional $500 TOTAL to fly out of SNA versus LAX or an addtional $500 per person?

SNA is the closest and most convenient airport to Disneyland. It is not very big either so far less crowds, traffic, and you're at the park in 15-20 minutes.

From what I can tell (I'm no expert), Long Beach isn't any "closer" to the Paradise Pier Hotel than LAX but it is smaller and will have less crowds to deal with-- not sure about traffic. I would not spend the extra money to fly out of here.

LAX is the largest airport. It will have the most options for ground transportation available to you and in the event a flight gets cancelled or you arrive late, will have the highest number of departing flights for you to get home.

If it is only $500 total more for your family of 5 to fly out of SNA, I would consider it just for the convenience less hassle factor (speaking from someone who HATES large airports) but if it is $500 per person more, I'd get used to the idea of big airport/more traffic.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

LAX is about 40 minutes with normal traffic. Add in heavy traffic, and you can be on the road for an hour. Orange County is a lot closer - maybe 15 minutes with normal traffic, and Long Beach is probably 20-25 minutes away with normal traffic.

Of course, these times are in ideal conditions -- add in heavy traffic, accidents, etc., and you will need to add time to accommodate those problems. It's up to you how valuable your time is vs. more $ for souvenirs & nice meals.

 

[YoHo]

How does one define Ideal LA road conditions? No multicar pileups?


As other posters have said, John Wayne is significantly closer. 15 minutes to the main gate. LAX is at least an hour I'd say. It just depends how much driving you want to do.

 

[gene751]

I would save your $500 and take a shuttle out of LAX for about $150 - $200. I booked a limo for 8 for $235 out of LAX. Save the dough for nice stuff at the park.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

How does one define Ideal LA road conditions? No multicar pileups?

I would say normal flow of traffic, going about 70 mph.

 

[yeartolate]

I am trying Long Beach this time. The airport seems to be easy to get to your baggage and rental car and run....

Besides that is where Jet Blue goes!

 

[shoes99]

We are going to fly into LAX from PHL on Delta. We always fly into John Wayne but the price is $353 pp for SNA and $224 pp for LAX. Newark was way out of budget, so we will drive to PHL... and fly to LAX in July.

 

[psimon]

are you saying that it would be an additional $500 TOTAL to fly out of SNA versus LAX or an addtional $500 per person?

Yes, it's about $1000 for the 5 of using LAX, about $1250 through Long Beach and about $1500 through John Wayne!

 

[sbassgva]

Heading out to Disneyland in October from NC. Was wondering what the best ground transporation from LAX to Paradise Pier is. Any suggestions for transportation to and from would be appreciated.

 

[lntsmom]

when I checked from here, it would have cost me an extra $70 per ticket to fly into LAX...and that's not even considering the time requirements I had. I want to leave early and return late...

However, I'd think the question would be, are you traveling with young children? I am, so I had no desire to fly into LAX and add an hour to our travel time.

Hope you can find a great fare somewhere!

 

[dis-happy]

Does non-stop play into any of this? That would be the top of my list for cross country travel; so much easier with kids. All things being equal, I'd go ahead and fly into LAX for the $500. savings.

Travel times: if you get a morning flight from the east coast, you gain 3 hours and arrive around lunch time/early afternoon. That should put you in good shape to drive easily to your hotel and miss most of the heavy afternoon traffic.

Saturday departure: shouldn't be a problem since it's a weekend.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Heading out to Disneyland in October from NC. Was wondering what the best ground transporation from LAX to Paradise Pier is. Any suggestions for transportation to and from would be appreciated.

We have information here on the DIS regarding Transportation. Just go to the page & click on the Transportation Link.

Disneyland Planning

 

[Maria395712]

shoes99
I am from gloucester county nj and will go aroun jully 11 and stay at DLH but haven't got air yet does delta have non stop
maria

 

[RESEARCH]

Flying out of Philadelphia, check into SOUTHWEST. I just flew for $178.50 ( all taxes included) for a SAT AM departure (non stop) and a SAT PM return (NON STOP).
We laned at LAX ( smooth arrival, complicated departure with security concerns) but we managed. The drive to DISNEYLAND was delayed so we could drive around HOLLYWOOD and see some of the sites. Traffic is crazy but moves ( sometimes) and using the HOV LANES helps. BUDGET rent a car had great rates.

 

[RESEARCH]

We just went from Philadelphia to LAX to save a total of $130 per ticket.
LAX is big, hectic & has people asking for donations. Ignoring all that was difficult but the savings won out. On the departure, we arrived 2 full hours b4 flight time and would have needed all that ( due to long security lines) but we had a kid on crutches so we got lucky. I vote for using LAX and if you rent a car you can briefly tour the area's around LAX b4 heading to Disney. We just did this trip from NJ and the 1st night was shot because we were tired from getting up at 5 AM and our bodies needed a day to adjust to the time change.

 

[psimon]

Flying out of Philadelphia, check into SOUTHWEST. I just flew for $178.50 ( all taxes included) for a SAT AM departure (non stop) and a SAT PM return (NON STOP).
We laned at LAX ( smooth arrival, complicated departure with security concerns) but we managed. The drive to DISNEYLAND was delayed so we could drive around HOLLYWOOD and see some of the sites. Traffic is crazy but moves ( sometimes) and using the HOV LANES helps. BUDGET rent a car had great rates.

Thanks...
We are flying out of Philadelphia and into San Diego. We are then flying out of (LAX, Long Beach or John Wayne) and back to Philadelphia. Also, we are flying on a Friday in the evening after school is out. That way they miss one less day of school.

I can get a direct from LAX to PHL. but not to San Diego or from the other airports.

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[karylrocks]

If you can get a direct flight, I would go ahead and save the money and fly out of LAX. I love John Wayne but not enough to spend an extra $500.

 

[shoes99]

shoes99
I am from gloucester county nj and will go aroun jully 11 and stay at DLH but haven't got air yet does delta have non stop
maria

With Delta out of PHL we change planes in Atlanta, but the ATL to LAX flight is on a wide body, and I like those planes better on longer flights. We are leaving July 8th and returning July 14th staying at Crown Plaza Garden Grove (Anaheim) for the NFFC Collectors Disney Convention.

 

[dis-happy]

Thanks...
We are flying out of Philadelphia and into San Diego. We are then flying out of (LAX, Long Beach or John Wayne) and back to Philadelphia. Also, we are flying on a Friday in the evening after school is out. That way they miss one less day of school.

I can get a direct from LAX to PHL. but not to San Diego or from the other airports.

---Paul in Southern NJ

Let me guess...USAir? I've flown with them into San Diego dozens of times, and a couple of times when SD was unavailable, we went the LAX route. Your drive up to Anaheim that time of night (I'm assuming 8 pm or after) won't be bad. Just straight up the 5 to get there, basically, and there are HOV lanes for a lot of it. Figure 90 minutes---those freeways move pretty fast. If you're hungry, stop and eat at In and Out Burgers for a So. Cal treat!

I agree with the previous poster---give yourself 2 hours at LAX in the morning before departure.