Union station in LA to San Pedro

My daughters and I are taking the train from Seattle to LA before our cruise in March. Can anyone tell me how far the port is from Union Station? Also we may stay near the train station since we get in at 9:30. Hotel selections nearby?

Thanks

My daughters and I are taking the train from Seattle to LA before our cruise in March. Can anyone tell me how far the port is from Union Station? Also we may stay near the train station since we get in at 9:30. Hotel selections nearby?

Thanks

Why not take the train to a station closer to Long Beach or Anaheim? The Union station is in downtown LA probably about 2 hrs from the port.

My daughters and I are taking the train from Seattle to LA before our cruise in March. Can anyone tell me how far the port is from Union Station? Also we may stay near the train station since we get in at 9:30. Hotel selections nearby?

Thanks

Where do I start?

It's about 25-30 miles, depending on route, from Union Station to the Carnival pier in Long Beach...

Your biggest challenge will be getting from one to the other...

Since you are arriving by train, I will assume you are not planning on renting car...So, you have three choices of how to get from one to the other:

1) Public Transportation

2) Taxi

3) Shuttle service or limo service

I really recommend against trying to use public transportation for this trip...especially with luggage, especially for tourists unfamiliar with LA...Plus, the trip would take over two hours making many stops and requiring changes in modes of transportation.

A Taxi between Union Station and Long Beach would be efficient--but prohibitively expensive and unpredictable.

The best alternative is a shuttle or towncar service. If there are, say, four of you, a towncar would be the most effective method of travel and you can get a firm price up front. Try SuperShuttle's Execucar service, for example, for an exact quote.

I would NOT stay in a hotel near Union Station. Union Station is just north of Downtown Los Angeles, right next to Chinatown. There are really only two kinds of hotels in the area: Expensive hotels that cater to business travelers with reason to be in Downtown Los Angeles or cheap, scary fleabag dives that you'd be scared to stay in...But, there is very little reason to stay in Downtown Los Angeles. The business population pretty much deserts the are outside of Weekdays from 8-6...After hours, you would be afraid to walk around there...

Plus, why put off dealing with the ride down to Long Beach until the day of the cruise...Traveling that stretch in the morning will be longer, subjecting you to more traffic delays...

I would arrange for a towncar to meet you at the train upon arrival and drive you immediately to Long Beach...

Get a room in Long Beach at one of the following hotels: Hyatt, Westin, Renaissance, Hyatt at the Pike...or Residence Inn Downtown, Maya Doubletree or Hilton...Get a good night's sleep and don't worry about logistics in the morning as you'll already be near the pier...Sleep in as long as you want and enjoy the stress-free morning and short hop over to the ship...

Why not take the train to a station closer to Long Beach or Anaheim? The Union station is in downtown LA probably about 2 hrs from the port.

union station to port is less than 40 minutes.

We are the odd ducks on these boards. For cruises over 4 days we take LA public transportation to Long Beach. Wouldn't do the rails at night as it goes thru some very icky areas.

Not many hotels in the near vicinity of Union Station and you might hit horrible traffic in the morning, weekday or weekend. At night I'd use a shuttle/taxi/car service. The taxi fare is around $85 according to taxifarefinder.com (Union Station - Queen Mary). Takes 30 minutes to get there.

The closest hotels are the Maya and the Queen Mary. You have to appreciate old things to stay at the Queen Mary. She is a 5 minute walk to the Dome. The Queen Mary has early checkin the morning of the cruise.

If you need to purchase anything beforehand Long Beach has a free bus

http://www.lbtransit.com/services/passport.aspx Stops at both hotels.

Along the route is a Walmart and CVS.

Slightly dicey area but we've never had any problems.

union station to port is less than 40 minutes.

I'm glad you. Edited out the part where you claimed to have done it in under 25 minutes! That would have required averaging better than 60 miles an hour--including the parts where you leave Union Station on surface streets in Downtown LA...

REASONABLY, it's going to take 40 minutes BY TAXI or LIMO from the time the car leaves Union Station...PROVIDED you are doing this at a time with ZERO traffic...3:00 am, for example...Try it at 8:00 am on a weekday morning and it just could take two hours.

If you try it ANY TIMe by ordinary public transportation and it WILL take over two hours...

BUT, At 9:30 pm, if a limo/towncar or taxi picks you up at Union Station and drives you directly to a hotel in Downtown Long Beach, 45 Minutes is a reasonable estimate...

That is only one of the reasons I recommend the OP to arrange transportation to leave for Long Beach immediately upon arrival...Figuring about 15 minutes to locate the towncar, it is reasonable that they could be checking in to a hotel in Long Beach by 10:30 pm or so...and then have a nice night's sleep with no concerns about dealing with traffic or transportation in the morning...they could sleep late and get to the ship at their leisure.

Taxis are usually at the front of Union Station and the shuttles are usually located through the lobby doors (through the chairs) on the right hand (north) side of the station.

Take a few minutes to enjoy Union Station. It is the last great rail terminal to be built in the US.

Allow me to post an alternate scheme that MIGHT work:

Get off the train and spend the night in Santa Barbara (rather than downtown LA). Book the Santa Barbara Airbus (sbairbus DOT com) for a ride to your pier. Reverse this scheme on your trip home.

Allow me to post an alternate scheme that MIGHT work:

 

Get off the train and spend the night in Santa Barbara (rather than downtown LA). Book the Santa Barbara Airbus (sbairbus DOT com) for a ride to your pier. Reverse this scheme on your trip home.

I would only stop in Santa Barbara with a day or two extra to spend there. If the OP wasn't getting in to Union Station until 9:30 pm the night before the cruise, they wouldn't be getting in to Santa Barbara that much earlier. Hotels in Santa Barbara are mostly expensive, they'd be tired and not have much time to enjoy the town...They'd have to catch the Airbus at 10:20 the next morning for a LONG bus ride to the pier (arriving 1:30)...

I LOVE Santa Barbara (I used to live there....and, in fact, I was just there the day after Christmas) BUT, it's just not a great alternative in THIS case...

Better to just get to Long Beach and wind down from the long train trip before getting on the ship. Getting to Long Beach the night before will eliminate a lot of stress...

Thanks so much for the great ideas! I love these forums. I think we will arrange for a town car and head towards the port at night when traffic is better. Thanks again

Another possible fly in the ointment to consider when using Amtrak is the possibility of the train running late.

We did the reverse 9 years ago, so it could be possible that lateness might not be an issue anymore, but here was our experience:

We decided to take the Coast Starlight, which would be the OP's train, from Oxnard (as we decided against starting from downtown LA, which would be a 40 mile or so trip for us each way, and we figured we could rent a car, drive up to Oxnard and enjoy a lovely afternoon and evening in nearby Ventura Harbor, one of our favorite areas and then stay the night before going to the Amtrak station). It was to be a 36 hour trip which turned out to be 40 hours due to the constant "sidetracking" as Amtrak doesn't own the rails.

It took us the same amount of time to return back to Oxnard. There had been a fire in one of the tunnels a couple of days after we passed north through it. So for a week, everyone on that route both ways had to get off the train before the tunnel, board a bus, travel past the tunnel and then reboard another train. When I asked about that, I was told it was an additional nine hours for those passengers (which may us glad we stayed a few extra days post-cruise in Seattle).

Back to Union Station. It's in downtown LA, which as pointed out by Steve, not a place to stay unless you're doing business there and are put up at the Otani or another expensive hotel. I once condo- and puppy-sat for a good friend while she was on a honeymoon, and it's not a great place to be after dark. My hubby worked at City Hall and the technical center (Piper Tech) for over 30 years, and he wouldn't recommend staying there.

I would go with a good, reliable shuttle service like Execu-Car and make sure they understand which train you're coming on, so that your driver can check in with Amtrak just in case the train is late. You'll want to have that driver there when you arrive. Get to the Long Beach hotel (I'm guessing the Maya or one of the other ones recommended by Steve -- there are other hotels, but they could be in the industrial part of LB) and then you'll be able to sleep in before getting your ride (many LB hotels will take you to the Carnival pier at the port of LB for free).

If your ship is one of the very few Carnival ships not leaving from LB, then you'll want to stay in the San Pedro area (which is also a great distance from Union Station) which will mean the Doubletree or Crowne Plaza.

You may also want to take the advice above and see if the Coast Starlight goes to Long Beach or if you can get a connection to that station (and not necessarily from Union Station).

And don't be fooled by Amtrak's (or even the cruiseline's) use of LAX. They're just using the airport designation nearest to Union Station, but even LAX isn't anywhere near Union Station.

The southbound Coast Starlight terminates at LA Union Station.

While you can transfer to an Amtrak bus to Long Beach, I wouldn't recommend it at night. It stops at a Denny's in an OK-during-the-day neighborhood. Wouldn't want to be there late at night.

Best to arrange transportation from Union Station.