Trying to combine a day at disney with San Pedro departure

I know that this question has been beaten into the ground, but after reading through a ton of posts, trying to find pricing and information from a variety of sources, I confess I'm feeling so overwhelmed I could scream.

About us:

We are a Canadian family of 3, joining my extended family from the US for a cruise to the Mexican Riviera on Princess Cruise Lines in January of 2019. It is myself, my husband, and my adult disabled daughter who is severely autistic for the purposes of the information below. My husband, who is a gigantic kid at heart, has never been to Disney and its been my dream to take him someday.

Our Objective:

1. We are flying in on Thursday, January 3. We will arrive fairly late in the evening after an extended drive to the airport then two flights.

2. We board the ship on Saturday morning at Pier 93.

3. We'd like to spend Friday at Disneyland with a DAS, single day tickets (probably without park hopper but haven't decided for sure), with MaxPass.

Our Challenges:

We were originally going to take a shuttle, most likely private, from the airport to the hotel (either via Execucar or PrimeTime or something similar) in Anaheim, then try to get over to a hotel in San Pedro Friday late so that we would just have to get up have a quick bite to eat and head over to the ship.

Upon further consideration, we are now thinking it might be better to just go to a hotel in San Pedro Thursday night so that we don't have the hassle of having to check out of our hotel (and then what to do with our bags, etc) before going to DisneyLand, etc, but rather can just leave everything in the safety of our room.

But I'm having trouble working out the logistics of getting from point A to point B and back again. The Best Western has a free shuttle over the cruise terminal, we were idly wondering if we could maybe getthem to take us to the car rental place there, and just rent a car for the day on Friday to travel to Anaheim if there is no way to hire a shuttle for less then a million dollars. We'd rather not have to drive in the city, but can if needed, or it will save us hundreds of dollars.

Anybody have some thoughts for this mom who still has plenty of time to get things sorted out, but likes the security of having a good plan in place? Suggestions for a place to stay (not necessarily hotel name just an area, etc) or sees flaws with our plan? IDeas we might not have considered?

An Uber or Lyft, while pricey, may be convenient for a single RT drive.

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I’m going to suggest a different approach to maximize your single day at Disneyland. I realize you arrive late on Thursday but that may be to your advantage with respect to LA traffic. I would go from LAX to a hotel near DL on Thursday night. You could then get up early and spend all day and into the evening at DL. You stay at the same hotel on Friday night. An advantage here is that if your daughter tires you can take a break at the hotel midday and even eat a meal off site. Then you can get up Saturday morning and after breakfast make your way to the port to board your cruise. This avoids traffic on Friday, gives you a full DL day , allows for a single hotel checkin and gets you to the port at a reasonable time. Transportation could be, by Uber, taxi or execucar.

We took private shuttle from LAX directly to Anaheim pre cruise. We had a full day at Disney stayed at the same Anaheim hotel second night and Saturday morning the same shuttle driver picked us up and took us direct to the San Pedro port for our Saturday embark. No worries with our luggage.

At end of cruise we found a LA small tour company that met us at ship, gave us a full day tour and then dropped us back at LAX while our luggage remained safely stored in tour van.

This arrangement worked great for us, two east coast Canadians.

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Your best bet is to spend 2 nights in the Disney resort area, and take Supershuttle from the airport to your hotel and then over to the pier.

If you do the two nights, you will not have to check out until Saturday morning, and you will have loads of time to get over to San Pedro. You can stay late at Disney and not worry about checking out and in. It will also save you one taxi/shuttle ride.

We have done this before Disney/Cruise, and it works out best.

Canucks also!

I totally agree with Wheezedr. First, I am a big fan of UBER or LYFT. I would find a hotel close to Disney when you get in on Thursday. I just booked the Embassy Suites with "fireworks" view rooms for July at $200 per night. That includes full cooked breakfast and cocktail hour. If it fits in your price range get a room at the Grand Californian it's awesome.

Not fighting morning commute traffic to Disney on Friday is priceless. Then getting to the port on Saturday morning traffic will be minimal compared to weekday commute.

I also shop car services at www.limos.com for several past cruises and they always work out well. Probably a little more expensive than UBER, but you can pick the type of vehicle and they will do an inside meet and greet at LAX to help with luggage if needed.

What great advice! I'm so glad we posted. We're looking at staying at the Best Western Park Place Mini Suites or whatever thats right across from the pedestrian entrance, we figure its closeby if we need to take a break (which is a great idea), and comes with breakfast which saves some of our worth-alot-less-then-american canadian dollars ;) the fact i can book it with air miles is just a happy bonus!

We took private shuttle from LAX directly to Anaheim pre cruise. We had a full day at Disney stayed at the same Anaheim hotel second night and Saturday morning the same shuttle driver picked us up and took us direct to the San Pedro port for our Saturday embark. No worries with our luggage.

At end of cruise we found a LA small tour company that met us at ship, gave us a full day tour and then dropped us back at LAX while our luggage remained safely stored in tour van.

This arrangement worked great for us, two east coast Canadians.

 

 

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Do you happen to remember what private shuttle you used?

I agree with staying in Anaheim for 2 nights. This way you can take full advantage of the park hours for your one day visit. Look into Super shuttle for your round trip transportation.

Best Western Park Place Inn is right at the cross walk to the Disneyland gates.We have stayed here ourselves.

I would opt for getting the park hopper so you can visit Disneyland and California Adventure!!

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What great advice! I'm so glad we posted. We're looking at staying at the Best Western Park Place Mini Suites or whatever thats right across from the pedestrian entrance, we figure its closeby if we need to take a break (which is a great idea), and comes with breakfast which saves some of our worth-alot-less-then-american canadian dollars ;) the fact i can book it with air miles is just a happy bonus!

Glad you posted and came back. It’s rare when all of us agree on the same solution. Have a fun day at the park. You did not specify which dates in January, but hope it is when most kids are back in school so maybe it won’t be so busy. Now your next task is to figure out which rides are your must do ones. You can’t do it all in a day but a little advance planning can help. Among the old time rides (I first went in 1956), I still love the jungle boat. It’s always fun to see the backside of water.

Sorry I missed that you had posted dates. It will be fairly busy when you are there as early in Jan you will still get a lot of out of towers who followed their football team to the Rose Bowl. Even more reason for planning ahead as to your choice rides.

We're expecitng it to be jam packed full, yep. I found this great guide about doing the park in one day that I thought had alot of really great pointers in it, and we will definitely be getting a DAS pass for our daughter.

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/1-day-disneyland-plan/

Once we get a bit closer, I think the main things will be seeing what is open (or closed as the case may be in prep for Star Wars), but also what the evening shows are. We're looking at Zippy Shuttle and ontime1 from other reviews here - their prices seem the best so far, and we're avoiding PrimeTime after reading several really bad reviews. The Execucar reservation system gives me FITS, I can't seem to get it to show me what i want, so i just emailed them this morning and we'll see what they have to say.

Glad you posted and came back. It’s rare when all of us agree on the same solution. Have a fun day at the park. You did not specify which dates in January, but hope it is when most kids are back in school so maybe it won’t be so busy. Now your next task is to figure out which rides are your must do ones. You can’t do it all in a day but a little advance planning can help. Among the old time rides (I first went in 1956), I still love the jungle boat. It’s always fun to see the backside of water.

Sorry I missed that you had posted dates. It will be fairly busy when you are there as early in Jan you will still get a lot of out of towers who followed their football team to the Rose Bowl. Even more reason for planning ahead as to your choice rides.

You may be okay as far as the Rose Bowl crowd as that game will be on January 1. By the 3rd or so, those coming in town may be already gone (especially if some came early for any sightseeing). The championship game will be in the Bay Area a week later so no worries from that.

Maybe a bigger concern is that our rainy season (when we have one) is during the winter. So if your daughter has a problem with being outside during a rainstorm (and again, here,when it does rain, it can be constant for a few days, all day), you may want a Plan B planned.

You may be okay as far as the Rose Bowl crowd as that game will be on January 1. By the 3rd or so' date=' those coming in town may be already gone (especially if some came early for any sightseeing). The championship game will be in the Bay Area a week later so no worries from that.

 

Maybe a bigger concern is that our rainy season (when we have one) is during the winter. So if your daughter has a problem with being outside during a rainstorm (and again, here,when it does rain, it can be constant for a few days, all day), you may want a Plan B planned.[/quote']

Oh Chick I’ve been to the park during the Xmas-NY week and it is always a zoo. Yes the winter is our rainy season, but based on recent trends I could make a lot of money betting against rain on any given day. HAHA. Remember her original post that it has “ always been her dream” to take him to DL. Be an optimist. It is also why we all suggested a hotel near the park so they could jump out as needed.

we're prepared for rain - heck, being from alberta, even rain will feel blissfully wonderful since we almost never get any; and when we do its usually its frozen counterpart ;) it did make me think to add a rain jacket to my daughters packing list though - just to be safe. we're so stoked for our trip, we were able to get our airfare lined up -- and amazingly saved almost 2,000 bucks by going across the border in our car as opposed to flying from canada. (its a 2.5 hour drive either to the closest US or Canadian airport so doesn't really matter which one to us), i checked the other on a whim and was like score, because that basically gets us park tickets and the hotel nights and shuttles for what we were expecting to pay for airfare.

i'm so grateful for everyone's suggestions!! Now to try to contain my excitement about our trip for the next 200ish days!