Question about disembarking NCL at San Pedro

We will be sailing on NCL Jewel in December. I can't find this info on their website:

1) Do you have to vacate your room at a certain hour on the last morning, or can you stay put until your time to go?

2) Do they have the self assist disembarkation where you can keep your bags with you, and if so, can you depart when you like?

We always seem to have too much fun on the last night and don't like being forced to rise any earlier than necessary.

Thank you-

You have to be out of your cabin by 8:30am. But before that the room steward will keep trying to come in to start the change-over so we always vacate by 8am and go sit in a public area.

Two weeks ago on the Jewel there was self-embarkation. I don't know if you have to leave by a certain time. There were still people pulling their own suitcases when we got off at 9am.

You can walk off anytime if you have your bags. I thought the time to vacate cabin was later than 8:30, the earliest bag color time was 8:30.

You can walk off anytime if you have your bags. I thought the time to vacate cabin was later than 8:30, the earliest bag color time was 8:30.

You will find that people are waiting to walk off with their luggage from 7am or even earlier.

The time to vacate your cabin is usually 9am at the latest.

Then you must have debarked by 10am.

Mike

My flight leaves LAX about 1:00, so I'd like to be to the airport by 11:00 a.m. Would I be safe to schedule a shuttle to pick us up at 10:00 a.m. at the port?

If I'm trying to get to the curb by 10:00, what time would I need to start getting in line to disembark? Other than the self-assist disembarkation, what are my options?

My flight leaves LAX about 1:00, so I'd like to be to the airport by 11:00 a.m. Would I be safe to schedule a shuttle to pick us up at 10:00 a.m. at the port?

 

If I'm trying to get to the curb by 10:00, what time would I need to start getting in line to disembark? Other than the self-assist disembarkation, what are my options?

I`m very interested in what response you get to your question as we`ve booked 1.00 flights from lax too .

Have you thought about getting a transfer to LAX from Norwegian? They have two options: one for flights before 3 and one for flights after 3. You would be assigned a time and a special baggage tag color for each option.

I will be doing be using this system on the 31st of January. It works well for me.

Have you thought about getting a transfer to LAX from Norwegian?

I have thought about that, and I appreciate knowing a bit more about how it works. That does sound like a pretty low stress way to go, and I think it's less expendive than a taxi if you only have a couple of people in your party. Thank you for chiming in.

We have 15 in our group so taking a Super Shuttle saves us over $200 compared to Norwegian's ground transfers. The challenge I have is knowing what time to tell them to pick us up. :)

BTW, are you sailing on the 31st or, like us, returning that day?

I have thought about that, and I appreciate knowing a bit more about how it works. That does sound like a pretty low stress way to go, and I think it's less expendive than a taxi if you only have a couple of people in your party. Thank you for chiming in.

 

We have 15 in our group so taking a Super Shuttle saves us over $200 compared to Norwegian's ground transfers. The challenge I have is knowing what time to tell them to pick us up. :)

 

BTW, are you sailing on the 31st or, like us, returning that day?

In your case, I would have they pick you at 9:30 A.M. just in cast there is a traffic issue.

I will be disembarking on the 31st. I leave home this Saturday driving to Portland, Oregon and fly into LAX on Sunday morning. I have the transfer package for both ends of the cruise. It is called " leave the driving to them". I drove in LA once about 25 years ago, and have no desire to do it again.

Mandy

It was an easy process. We actually left our bags in the hallway the night before and retrieved them in the terminal. Used a 9am departure time. They called our color and the next one @ 830am (30 minutes early!) and thus joined a pretty sizeable "self-assist" crowd on the way to about a 10 -15 minute customs check maze in the terminal.

My suggestion: Just do the 9am traditional departure and then you do not have to haul your luggage through the maze, which sort of sucks.

My flight leaves LAX about 1:00, so I'd like to be to the airport by 11:00 a.m. Would I be safe to schedule a shuttle to pick us up at 10:00 a.m. at the port?

 

If I'm trying to get to the curb by 10:00, what time would I need to start getting in line to disembark? Other than the self-assist disembarkation, what are my options?

Just departed Jewel last Sunday. We were off the ship and curbside before 9am just using the standard process. Grabbed a 9am departure color and they called our color at 830am. Allow for about 15 minutes to get doen the ramp and through customs.

10am Shuttle will be easy. On a Sunday, the trip to LAX from San Pedro is about 25 minutes, 35 minutes tops if there is an accident or something.

Believe me, it is smooth sailing.

We used the NCL shuttle for our cruise from San Pedro last month.

We sat for 45 minutes waiting for the bus to fill up before they would leave. We also had an hour in line waiting to get through customs.

My flight leaves LAX about 1:00, so I'd like to be to the airport by 11:00 a.m. Would I be safe to schedule a shuttle to pick us up at 10:00 a.m. at the port?

 

If I'm trying to get to the curb by 10:00, what time would I need to start getting in line to disembark? Other than the self-assist disembarkation, what are my options?

I would start exiting the ship about 9 am (NCL would actually like you off as soon as possible anyhow so they can get the ship ready for the next cruise). Assuming no unusual customs issues with debarkation, that should easily get you on a shuttle by 10 am and at LAX by 11. The shuttles have pretty much a continuous line of vehicles leaving as each one fills. They don't actually have you assigned to a specific one. The time you request only gives them an approximation of when to expect you. You can either carry all your luggage off yourself or select a colored tag and let your luggage be taken off the night before, picking it up in the terminal area just before you go through customs. We do that. Yu can't get to LAX too early for a flight. LAX has had the worst lines for both check in and going through security that we've ever experienced, especially so on a cruise ships return morning.

Yu can't get to LAX too early for a flight. LAX has had the worst lines for both check in and going through security that we've ever experienced, especially so on a cruise ships return morning.

Terminal 1 is the absolute worst ... Southwest Airlines and US Airways. Unless they have improved since my last flight out of there in October, the lines for security were out the door and down the sidewalk. Terminal 3, for our flight on Virgin America was busy but not the barely controlled chaos of Terminal 1.

But in general, I would say the advice to allow more than an hour for domestic flights out of LAX is good advice.

In your case, I would have they pick you at 9:30 A.M. just in cast there is a traffic issue.

 

I will be disembarking on the 31st. I leave home this Saturday driving to Portland, Oregon and fly into LAX on Sunday morning. I have the transfer package for both ends of the cruise. It is called " leave the driving to them". I drove in LA once about 25 years ago, and have no desire to do it again.

 

Mandy

Maybe we'll see you on board. I'll be with the large family playing hand and foot near the ice cream machine. :)

Thanks everyone for the tips. I feel a lot more informed than I did a couple of days ago.

Terminal 1 is the absolute worst ... Southwest Airlines and US Airways. Unless they have improved since my last flight out of there in October, the lines for security were out the door and down the sidewalk. Terminal 3, for our flight on Virgin America was busy but not the barely controlled chaos of Terminal 1.

 

But in general, I would say the advice to allow more than an hour for domestic flights out of LAX is good advice.

We are much much better at zipping people in and out. Trust me, even if you need to connect a flight elsewhere, there is no easier way in and out of LA then Long Beach airport. LGB is a bit closer as well to San Pedro.

http://www.lgb.org/

$45 flat rate to San Pedro -- http://www.lgb.org/travelers/transit.asp

-Curtis

I asked about the NCL transfers in another thread. The comments were that they are huge busses so you need to wait until they are filled to leave and they take longer getting to the airport since they can't negotiate traffic all that well.

You have to be out of your cabin at 8:30. And even with that starting around 7:45 the RS keeps coming in to ask when you are leaving. We had a 9am departure time - our color was called at 8:30 am and it took about 1/2 hour to go through the customs maze.

So, here's our experience. Everything kind of worked in reverse order based on the scheduled departure of our flights. Keep in mind that we were a group of 15, with somewhat varied departure times and airlines. The earliest departure was a Southwest flight at 1:00, next was an Allegiant flight scheduled for 1:50, then a Southwest flight at 5:30. Based on the earliest departure time, we wanted to arrive at the airport no later than 11:00 a.m.

I called Super Shuttle on Saturday evening and reserved two exclusive vans. They were $87 each from the port to LAX, for a total of $174 and a per person charge of $11.60. They have vans coming regularly, but we scheduled our for 10:00. If you are part of a smaller group (that cannot benefit from the full van cost) you can pay $17 to get to the airport. However, you run the risk that somebody on your van has to stop somewhere along the way and the time could get long. Our van driver had no problem stopping first at the Southwest terminal and letting those passengers out, then taking the rest of us over to the Allegiant terminal (the other van was occupied by only Allegiant passengers).

To get to the curb by 10:00 we scheduled the 9:15 departure tag. They called our color earlier than that, but we hung around until they closed the buffet, then made our way down. It took us probably 40 minutes to get through the customs line, pick up our luggage and get to the curb.

We had no trouble getting out of our room before 8:30 and were not pressed by the Room Steward to do so earlier than we wanted.

Overall the process was easy and smooth. The only inconvenience was the length of the customs line.