BEWARE!! Disneyland Express Price Gouging

[thesupersmartguy]

I recently visited the Disneyland Resort. I arrived at John Wayne/ Santa Ana around 12:15 in the afternoon and went straight to the pickup point for the Disneyland Express to inquire about pricing for a party of 4. I was told it would be $84 round trip. I thought this was a good price compared to some of the pricing I had seen, so I agreed and paid. I stepped onto the bus and sat in the front row. Not two minutes later a party of 6 going to the same resort inquired about pricing. They were told it would be $42 round trip for the 6 of them. I stepped off the bus and confronted the attendant where he attempted to tell us that the 2 kids in their party rode "free". I explained that that still left 4 paying adults in the party (same as us), and that I had just paid exactly twice what they had. He then said it must of had been some sort of mistake and misunderstanding and refunded me $42 of the $84. Had I not overheard the other party, I would have paid twice what I should have.

Just be aware of what you should pay, and take your time to verify the price prior to paying.

I have since spoken to the GM of the bus line, and she verified $42 should have been the cost of the trip, and would work to assure this doesn't happen again, but you never know.

 

[planningjollyholiday]

$84 was indeed the old price. This week they changed to kids ride free with a paying adult. I wonder if the driver was getting confused with the new price change. Im glad you were refunded the money and got the price you deserved.

 

[Here4mydisneyfix]

hmmm odd. I wonder if this was simply an honest mistake? The price is exactly double what the other family was asked to pay, so perhaps they entered an incorrect number of passengers on accident? Or perhaps they didn't charge the other family enough and didn't want to cause a stir, so just refunded for you...if you look on the disneyland resort express website, roundtrip for 4 adults should be $140, so I don't know why it was so cheap in the first place. Was there some kind of special going on besides kids free? Inquiring minds want to know as we will be using the service ourselves in Feb!!

 

[thesupersmartguy]

Our trip was on Nov 21st. We thought in the beginning it was an honest mistake until he got real nervous and started darting his eyes and stumbling over his words when he was confronted about it. Also, he didn't hesitate to quote the party of 6 only $42 as the first price. We were warned about this happening from friends that live in CA. They also said they size you up by your attire and luggage. (We had Ferragamo, Coach and Hermes bags, the other party had standard suitcases). The prices online do reflect $140 for 4 people, but the GM said that shouldn't have been the case. Disney has had reports of this happening also. Just know that it should be $42 for a family of 4. Enjoy your trip in Feb!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Were they only getting transportation one way? Because $42 for 4 people round trip sounds insanely cheap.

 

[Here4mydisneyfix]

Our trip was on Nov 21st. We thought in the beginning it was an honest mistake until he got real nervous and started darting his eyes and stumbling over his words when he was confronted about it. Also, he didn't hesitate to quote the party of 6 only $42 as the first price. We were warned about this happening from friends that live in CA. They also said they size you up by your attire and luggage. (We had Ferragamo, Coach and Hermes bags, the other party had standard suitcases). The prices online do reflect $140 for 4 people, but the GM said that shouldn't have been the case. Disney has had reports of this happening also. Just know that it should be $42 for a family of 4. Enjoy your trip in Feb!

Oh wow! How shady! Strange! Thanks for the info about the rates! That's great to know!

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Were they only getting transportation one way? Because $42 for 4 people round trip sounds insanely cheap.

I agree! We just took the DLE in Nov and we paid more for RT. I pre-purchased online, so had a voucher, but it seems to be the confusion may have come from round trip vs. one way. If that is not the case, then yes very shady!

 

[bumbershoot]

Were they only getting transportation one way? Because $42 for 4 people round trip sounds insanely cheap.

I agree. IMO it's way too cheap for it to have been RT. http://www.graylineanaheim.com/docs/DRE Brochure.pdf That shows $35 per person round trip.

I think the driver made a mistake in about 3 different ways.



OR...was this really the Express bus? There's another company out there that pretends to be Disneyland Resort Express but isn't. Though...they tend to charge MORE than the advertised prices of the Greyline bus, not less.

 

[starry_solo]

That's way too cheap for round trip for 4 adults!

 

[lalasmama]

They tried raising our rates $6pp when we went in July. I said, "Umm, no, that's not the price, it's ______ as evidenced on the website." They then tried arguing that I was showing them the "online special" price, until I pointed out that if I tried to buy it online, it was an additional amount lower. They had a bus full of people. He refunded the excess as soon as other people started complaining. Then he said, "There's new prices, but we will give you the old prices." I think that was about the point I said, "That's fine, but until you publish the prices, you don't get to charge more." Man was not pleased with me!

 

[Here4mydisneyfix]

So OP and others with similar price experiences, are you referring to the Disneyland express or the Disneyland RESORT Express? This is all a bit confusing! lol

 

[bumbershoot]

So OP and others with similar price experiences, are you referring to the Disneyland express or the Disneyland RESORT Express? This is all a bit confusing! lol

I was going to say that there should not be something called Disneyland Express.

But 3 pages into google I found one called just that. With Shuttle at the end.

However, their website (which just caused my Firefox to crash, yay) does not indicate that they go to SNA. Just Long Beach and LAX.

The Grayline-run, not-really-official-but-as-close-as-it-gets, service is Disneyland Resort Express. From the info I have (which could be outdated) MOST of their buses (coach buses, not shuttle vans) have a fancy Disneyland "wrap" and look extremely official. SOME of their buses are plain white. Which makes it easy for naughty businesses to pretend like they are DRExpress when they aren't.

But I'm not sure if I've read of the sneaky business doing that any time recently.

And like I mentioned, the place I just found without the Resort in the name but with Shuttle doesn't seem to go to SNA. And they don't have prices online that I can find.

 

[thesupersmartguy]

Were they only getting transportation one way? Because $42 for 4 people round trip sounds insanely cheap.

It was round trip for them as well. I heard him tell them twice it was round trip, then I confirmed it with the group once they boarded. It was the grey line kiosk we visited to purchase the fare. The return trip to SNA is the only one I recall having the wrap, but the ads in the kiosk window was for grey lines.

 

[lalasmama]

So OP and others with similar price experiences, are you referring to the Disneyland express or the Disneyland RESORT Express? This is all a bit confusing! lol

Disneyland Resort Express, the Greyhound tour bus type one in my case.

 

[disneydreamerbelle]

We've run into the counterfeit before. Seems shady to me. Did they collect the money up front? The real one has always collected at the DL Hotel from what we have experienced.

 

[lucysmom]

It was only a flat rate of $35 for a taxi from the GCH to the airport. I am going to use the taxi from now on. No waiting, no other stops, just straight to where you want to go.

 

[PedsNursePatty]

I agree! We just took the DLE in Nov and we paid more for RT. I pre-purchased online, so had a voucher, but it seems to be the confusion may have come from round trip vs. one way. If that is not the case, then yes very shady!

How do you pre-purchase online?

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

How do you pre-purchase online?

I went to their website and purchased with a credit card. It gave me all the vouchers I needed to print out and I just handed that the person at the DLH.

http://www.graylineanaheim.com/airport_info.cfm

(click on the "buy tickets now" button)

 

[Here4mydisneyfix]

Don't forget that there is a coupon people!! It's good for $5 off per person, but you can't pay in advance online. So how it works is you hop the bus at the airport, it takes you straight to the Disneyland hotel, you show your coupon and pay there, then if you are going to another hotel besides DLH, they will take you from there! It will save us an additional $10 AND our three kids will be free, so only $86 RT from LAX! What a deal! Here is the coupon link if anyone is interested! It's good until March 31st, 2014! http://anaheimoc.org/coupon/save-5-person-disneyland-resort-express

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Don't forget that there is a coupon people!! It's good for $5 off per person, but you can't pay in advance online. So how it works is you hop the bus at the airport, it takes you straight to the Disneyland hotel, you show your coupon and pay there, then if you are going to another hotel besides DLH, they will take you from there! It will save us an additional $10 AND our three kids will be free, so only $86 RT from LAX! What a deal! Here is the coupon link if anyone is interested! It's good until March 31st, 2014! http://anaheimoc.org/coupon/save-5-person-disneyland-resort-express

But given what has been reported in this thread, it sounds best to bring a print out of the current prices as they like to charge what they feel like.