SoCal Traffic

So we booked our flights to arrive day of cruise at LAX. We arrive at 1000am. We are cruising NCL Pearl out of San Pedro. What kind of rush hour traffic can we expect on a friday in early October?

I assume you're taking a shuttle or car service to San Pedro? The driver should be aware of real-time traffic conditions and alternate routes around any problems or congestion. Also you won't be curbside until 1030-1100am by the time you claim your luggage. That's mid-day and well past morning rush hour. Random problems can happen anytime, though.

A flight delay or missed connection is a far bigger risk. TSA requires you aboard by 230pm for the 4pm sailaway. If your plane hasn't pulled up to the gate at LAX by 1pm you will probably not make it in time...so you have only 3 hours of "wiggle room". I hope the flight(s) you booked have a good ontime track record and there are later flights that will still get you to LAX in time.

I highly recommend bringing your passports (not a passport card). If you do miss the ship, there are quite a few flights to Cabo from both LAX and SNA. But a full passport is required to board a flight to Mexico since neither you or the airline have any assurance you will return to the US by ship.

Just make sure you use a taxi and not a sheared shuttle. The traffic from about 10 AM to 2 PM on a Friday should be OK. Of course one accident and it is a dead stop and gets worse.

But a taxi should know the alternate routes.

So we booked our flights to arrive day of cruise at LAX. We arrive at 1000am. We are cruising NCL Pearl out of San Pedro. What kind of rush hour traffic can we expect on a friday in early October?

It is 20 miles from LAX to the pier in San Pedro...Midday Friday it won't be high speed, clear sailing, but it's not rush hour either...

It will take about 30-40 minutes to get from LAX to the pier...Of course, as stated, lots can happen--accidents, construction road closures, etc. Even then, professional drivers know the alternate routes--and there are lots of them...So, maybe an hour at the worst...

BUT...traffic is not your main problem. If your flight is on time, your luggage is not lost, missing or delayed and you get straight out to the curb in reasonable time, you will be perfectly fine...

The BIG problem is that planes are not always on time...flights are delayed, connections are missed ...hopefully, you have a direct flight, don't miss the flight and have no delays...BUT, if the flight (or any other part of the airport/airline experience) is delayed at all, that "three hour window" decreases rapidly...

This is why so many of us advise flying in the day before...

Fly in same day and you get to worry about all of those delays...and feel stressed about making it to the pier on time...

BUT, if you fly in the day before, you can get a cheap and easy shuttle ride down to Pedro--where you're not driving and don't care how long it takes--then, check into a nice hotel, go out for a nice, relaxing dinner in a local restaurant...and get a good night's sleep--without even worrying about when you need to awaken...Then, check out of the hotel and catch the hotel's free shuttle for the 5 minute ride over to the pier...and get on the ship rested and relaxed...

The only times we don't get to the port the day before and spend the night near the port is when we leaving from San Pedro -- but then we live about an hour's drive away (and even then we try to be heading to the port by 10am). If trains or planes or involved, we will be traveling the day before the cruise or earlier for the reasons that BruinSteve mentioned.

And as someone who used to commute between the Valley and West LA via the 405 (though fortunately not as far south as LAX), I have seen the freeway all clogged up even at noon on a weekday.

Thanks for all the info! I'm not worried about the flight. Have a direct flight from denver, and if for some reason the first flight breaks, another direct flight leaves 35 minutes later. Not worried about delays either. Working as an air traffic controller over SW United States I know that weather delays are non existent that time of year.