Park and Cruise at Golden Sails, Long Beach

We have usually sailed out of San Pedro, but will be leaving from Long Beach on Carnival on June 4, 2016.

If anyone has used the Park and Cruise package from the Best Western Golden Sails could you comment on any of the following?

I understand from other posts that there are a lot of "sketch" areas in Long Beach...is the Golden Sails located in a "good" area?

It looks like it's about 7-8 miles from the Carnival Cruise port...how reliable has their shuttle service been?

Are the rooms OK? We don't need anything elaborate for the one night, just looking for clean and comfortable.

We will be occupying two rooms and leaving two cars for 8 nights - June 3 and returning June 11.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Hi

I haven't stayed there but it is at a marina so nice views of boats and not a sketchy area.

It is outside of the main downtown part of Long Beach.

I don't know what restaurants are nearby.

Here are some reviews from Trip Advisor.

I always think reviews from folks with many other reviews are more reliable than posts from folks with only 1:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g32648-d77573-Reviews-BEST_WESTERN_Golden_Sails_Hotel-Long_Beach_California.html

It is probably more expensive but for our cruise we are staying at the Hyatt Regency which also has a park n stay pkg.

The area is fine, but I think the hotel is sub-par.

We stayed with a "Park and Cruise" at the Best Western Golden Sails on June 3, and I thought I'd share my pluses and minuses with anyone interested.

The motel itself is about average, not as nice as the Maya which we'd stayed at previously, but it was clean and comfortable. It is considerably further from the Cruise Terminal at Long Beach...about 8-9 miles which amounts to about a 30 minute cab ride. However, there are several pluses which make Golden Sails an attractive alternative for anyone driving to LA and needing a place to park free for a cruise of up to seven nights. The area itself is quite nice with many restaurants and bars within a 2-3 mile radius of the motel, and there is a restaurant and bar on the property for those who don't want to venture out after a long day of driving. We got rooms for $147 (plus tax which brought the total to the area of $163) which is less expensive than the Maya even if they are accepting the Carnival discount code. However, the biggest plus to Golden Sails, in my opinion, is that instead of using a hotel shuttle to get you to and from the Cruise Terminal, they use Long Beach Yellow Cabs for this service. They arrange to have several cabs (including mini-vans which we needed for our party of four) on the morning of embarkation. The HUGE advantage, in my opinion, is getting back to your car after the cruise. Instead of calling for a shuttle (which is generally a waste of time anyway) and then standing in along a curb and hoping the shuttle stops somewhere near where you are standing so others who came after you don't get to load their luggage first since shuttle drivers have no idea which people have actually called for pickup, you just take your luggage to the cab line and load up. You give the cab driver a voucher provided by Golden Sails and he goes to the desk for payment for the return trip. I thought this was considerably less frustrating than the usual shuttle procedure...debarkation day is usually stressful enough without going through the shuttle hassle. Personally, I will use Golden Sails for any future cruises out of Long Beach.

Thanks for writing about your experience.

The hotel web site says it has a shuttle so I wonder if your experience with a taxi was just because maybe their shuttle was being repaired or if that is their normal routine.

We usually stay at the Maya be DH hates waiting for those shuttles so just jumping into a taxi would sound great to him!!

My sister and I stayed here in Aug 2015. the facility is clean, easy to drive to and also came with a free breakfast buffet. The restaurant is pretty good and they actual do provide room service. There is also theaters, Walgreen and other restaurants near by. The value for a room, transportation to the pier and back, the free parking and the breakfast I felt ere a great deal for the price. I think I paid around $165 for everything.

The taxi to the ship was easy and quick. Being two middle age women, we felt very safe. Our room faced the main road in the front of the hotel. It had a balcony and a couple of chairs. With the slider closed, we didn't even notice any road noise at night.

I would not hesitate to stay here again.

I also wondered if using taxis instead of a shuttle was the norm or not. I was told that they have gone to using taxis on a permanent basis.