Shuttles and Taxis

This will be the last of my posts about my holiday and will deal with the various shuttles and taxis I took during my trip.

Super Shuttle

I booked Super Shuttle to get me from LAX to Disneyland and vice versa. I had read some bad reviews on the internet so I was a little bit anxious, but everything went fairly smoothly. The only minor hiccup was that I couldn't find a check in area outside the Tom Bradley terminal so I walked around for ages and ended up checking in outside Terminal 4 instead.

Obviously the trip took a lot longer than a taxi ride would have but it was also a lot cheaper, and as a solo traveller I actually felt safer being in a van with a bunch of other people. Most of the people on the van from LAX were going to other Disneyland area hotels, but we made one stop a few suburbs away as well.

On the return trip I had wifi at the hotel, so I was able to follow the location of my shuttle on a map while I waited for it to arrive, which was pretty cool. The shuttle arrived on time and I was the last person to be picked up so we then made good time to the airport. When I booked the shuttle I was asked for my flight details and given a choice of several pickup times; I picked the earliest time because I wanted to be sure of getting to the airport in time but any of the options would have got me there in plenty of time.

Disney's Magical Express

I used Disney's Magical Express to get both from the airport to Disney World and back again. I was able to sign up for the MCO to WDW leg online but we had to ring to organise the WDW to MCO leg because we had three people in our room and we were not all taking the flight. But it was all very straight forward.

I was sent tags to put on my luggage and instructions on where to go in MCO when I landed, but the instructions were somewhat unnecessary - there was plenty of signage in the airport. When I arrived at the DME area I checked in by scanning my Magic Band. I was sent straight to my bus and only waited about 5 minutes before the bus left the airport. The bus stopped at Art of Animation, Pop Century and Animal Kingdom Lodge - in total it was about an hour from when my plane landed until I arrived at Pop Century.

After arriving at the hotel I went out for a few hours and when I came back my luggage was waiting for me in my room, so I have no idea how long it actually took for my luggage to arrive.

For the trip back to the airport at the end of my trip I was assigned a pickup time about three hours before my flight departure time. That worked out to be about the right amount of time to get everyone on the bus, drive to the airport, check in, go through security, find my gate, get something quick to eat and board. The bus did not stop at any other hotels on the way back.

Taxis in Orlando

I caught three taxis in Orlando - one to get from Pop Century to Animal Kingdom for the Backstage Tales tour, one from Pop Century to Cabana Bay, and one from Cabana Bay to Art of Animation. In all cases there were plenty of taxis around at the hotels and the taxi drivers all knew where they were going. The only hiccup was that one taxi said they took credit card but then couldn't get the machine to work, so it's worth always having enough cash for the taxi ride just in case.