Hi John!
Welcome to planDisney! Thank you so much for reaching out to us hEAR with this
Disneyland Resort vacation planning question. I really love airports (I got married in one!) so I'm very happy to be your planEAR today!
Flying to Mickey's original house and Walt's first theme park presents you with a lot of different options. Keep in mind that there aren't any airport-to-Disneyland mass transportation (timed bus, city train, etc) so your best bets are to either schedule transportation (like a hired car), use a ride-hailing app upon arrival (Uber, Lyft, etc), take a taxi, or rent a vehicle.
John Wayne Airport (airport code SNA) in Santa Ana is the closest airport at 14 miles away. Not only is this location close, it's also small compared to other options in the area, so getting through security and to your gate is a breeze. It's also serviced by most major airlines. Long Beach Airport (airport code LGB) is also close (20 miles) but it seems to only service flights coming in from the western parts of the country.
If you're looking for a non-stop flight, your best bet will be Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It's
the large airport in the area and often time you can find better deals on airfare flying through here than other airports in the area. However, LAX is also one of the largest airports in the country and it has the guest traffic to match. It's 32 miles away from Disneyland and heads up, they've also tried to streamline the process of hailing a car and taxi from the airport by setting up what they call the 'LAX-It lot' where everyone from every flight goes to wait. I've flown in and out of LAX a few times; depending on when your return flight is you'll want to give yourself at least two hours to get there, plus at least another hour to get through security and make it to your gate. (And maybe another hour on top of that to return a rental car.)
John, did you know that you can start making
Dining Reservations at sit-down, table service style restaurants starting 60 days before your arrival? The most popular locations often get booked up solid on that first day, so now is a great time to start reading over menus to decide where you might like to dine in both
Disneyland Park and
Disney California Adventure Park. And be sure to keep up with the
Disney Parks Blog as well as the
official planDisney Instagram Account for the latest tips and tricks as well as happenings all around Disneyland Resort.
Thank you again for stopping by, John. I hope this helped to clEAR up your flight plans. And if you have any more Disneyland Resort vacation planning questions, We're All Ears!
~Kristen