Disneyland - Arrival and Departure Advice

Travelers beware; this is good advice that can save you time and money. It is not cost or time efficient to use the Disneyland Express for transit between the Los Angeles LAX airport and hotels in the Disneyland downtown area. Several options exist that are less expensive, more frequent and more reliable for both arrival and departures between the airport and Disneyland.

In Los Angeles to meet my teen age daughter, I had carefully planned our itinerary. Disney Travel had suggested that for both arrival and departure transit from LAX to our hotel, and return, would most efficiently be completed by pre booking with the Disneyland Express. The price quoted was $30 per adult round trip. They told me that my 14 year old daughter had to be charged as an adult. Following their advice, I pre-booked and paid for the transit service, round trip

On arrival at LAX there remained several hours before it was time to meet my daughter. I checked out the location for pickup by the Disneyland Express. As with all LAX terminals, at the Tom Bradley International terminal the pick up takes place under the green sign on the island just in front of terminal arrival door. The vehicle is easy to identify as it has scenes of Disneyland and the words Disneyland Express painted all over the bus.

Locating the pickup point I went out to the island with the indicated green area. There were several families there and some of the children were crying. I asked what had happened and was told that the bus had not come on time as promised. Just then the Disneyland Express could be seen turning the corner and heading in our direction.

Several of us waved in attempts to let the driver know that passengers were present for pick up. The driver did not stop! In fact the driver did not even pull over into the lane that would accommodate boarding. He continued on and did not return. For me, personally, this was not yet a problem as I had several hours to wait till I would need the service. I was concerned however that the same pass by would occur when I was ready for transfer to the hotel.

We had the same problems during out transit to the park and our arrival was delayed over 1.5 hours. This was distressing as my daughter had just completed a 14 hour airplane trip. The transport service back to the airport had it's own set of problems and no one on the bus was pleased with the services received.

I reported these problems to Disneyland and Disneyland transportation and frankly did not feel they took much notice of the problem, stating it was a subcontractor that there was not much they could do about. Accordingly I decided to write this article to warn other Disneyland patrons of the possible problems. There are many other options for transport to and from Disneyland that are much more helpful, friendlier and less expensive as well.