Have a 12Noon Flight, will I make it?

[bunky144]

I will be arriving from a Mexican cruise on the Diamond, February 12th, 2005, I have a noon flight and there is no other flight to return that day, any odds on making it from San Pedro to Lax in time? Thank you in advance for you assistance, Have A Great Day!

[BJS]

We were at the gate by 10 am BUT... we were first off the ship. Princess does not advise flights before 12:30. It only takes one person to not show up at customs and the ship can be detained for quite a while. Traffic can be horrible and if there is an accident LA freeways will rapidly turn into parking lots. If all goes smoothly you should not have any trouble.

[bunky144]

Thanks for your help, I will keep my fingers crossed, I want to bid a hotel on Priceline for the Saturday night in Tampa, but I must admit I am alittle nervous about any misconnect. Appreciate your assistance.

[Cessna140]

Hi,

We are just off the Diamond last Saturday. We had a 12:55pm flight out of LAX. Make sure you take your tickets to the purser's desk early in the week to prove that you need the earliest departure tags for your luggage. Don't take the Princess transfer. Situate yourself as close to the disembarkation exit as possible so that when they do call your color you will be one of the first off. Either grab a taxi or jump in a Super Shuttle and head right to the airport. There were 6 in our group so I reserved a private shuttle van to take us to LAX. We made it there by 10am. You can preprint your boarding passes the night before in the Internet cafe. Just pray that there are not a lot of uncooperative people ahead of you in the security lines. We made it with plenty of time to spare, hope you do also! Good luck and enjoy your cruise!!

Marcia

[Pam in CA]

A suggestion is to take a van or the Princess shuttle rather than a taxi. The reason is that they can go into the high capacity lane and bypass a lot of traffic. When I returned from my Regal Princess cruise last May, I took the Princess shuttle and was inside security by 10AM.

[sassycat]

We are trying to determine whether it is best to fly in the day before our cruise from LA or fly in same day. We have done both on other cruises from other ports. Not familiar with LA. Any recommendations? If recommendation is to fly in day before any suggestions of where is a good place to stay? Also - is the consensus to take a shuttle rather than taxi?

[BJS]

We are trying to determine whether it is best to fly in the day before our cruise from LA or fly in same day. We have done both on other cruises from other ports. Not familiar with LA. Any recommendations? If recommendation is to fly in day before any suggestions of where is a good place to stay? Also - is the consensus to take a shuttle rather than taxi?

We had good luck taking Primetime shuttle for $30/ 2 people in a shared van (on the internet reservation rate) from LAX to the pier. After hearing reports of shuttle problems leaving the pier we took the Princess transfer and it worked very well even though it was $20 more. Unless you can get a guaranteed flat rate for the taxi it can be very expensive if you run into a traffic accident or long delays. Depends where you are flying from and what time your flight arrives at LAX on if it is best to fly in a day early or not. If you arrive before noon and weather won't delay your arrival it should be fine flying in that day but if the flight is later or weather might cause delays you would probably feel more comfortable flying in the day before. The Sheraton in San Pedro has reasonable rates and a fly and cruise package - they have a shuttle to the pier.

[kryos]

I will be arriving from a Mexican cruise on the Diamond, February 12th, 2005, I have a noon flight and there is no other flight to return that day, any odds on making it from San Pedro to Lax in time? Thank you in advance for you assistance, Have A Great Day!

I don't know where you are disembarking at, but I had an 11:55 a.m. flight on my Sun cruise this past Tuesday and was at the airport a good hour and a half early.

 

Let them know, however, at the Purser's desk that you have an early flight so that they can arrange to have you be among the first off the ship once it is cleared. I was in the first three or four groups called once the ship was cleared by customs for disembarkation.

 

Of course, this assumes there are no problems that prevent the ship from getting into port on time, or no major hassles with customs which slow down the process of clearing the ship for disembarkation. Then, all I can say is good luck.

 

In my case (and probably in your's) it was worth running the rather small risk of missing the flight over spending the better part of the day in the airport waiting for a later one.

 

Luckily things worked out for me ... and hopefully they will for you too.

 

Blue skies!

 

--rita

[sassycat]

We are flying in from Denver and the weather in April can be "iffy." There are 4 in our group & with luggage a shuttle might be the best. I have not heard great things about the Sheraton in San Pedro. I have heard the Westin in Long Beach is worth it - altho no shuttle.

[Lynda90]

We were at the airport before 10 AM and had way too much time to spare. You really shouldn't have a problem. We took SuperShuttle back to LAX. Booked the reservation online and paid for it when we got in the shuttle. Our names were on their list when we got to the shuttle stand. We also printed our boarding passes at the Internet Cafe the night before. Have a wonderful cruise, wish I were going again.:D

[K D cruiser]

Hi, We flew in a day early and stayed at the Airport Hilton which we booked through Princess. This package included transfers to/from the airport. We were on the ship by Noon and coming back had booked a 1 p.m. flight, just in case. So, we were in no hurry to get to the airport, but as it turned out, we got on an early shuttle and got to the airport so early we were able to get on an earlier flight that left about 10 a.m. We were flying on frequent flyer tickets, so maybe that was why we got checked in and through security so fast. So you never know. I guess we were just lucky.

[allpoints]

We had an 11am flight. Yes we did make it. Our taxi driver got us from San Pedro to LAX in 25 minutes (he broke some speed limits) and the traffic was fine. However, I can tell you that we were forunate. The LA traffic can be horrible.

 

BTW, I will never cruise out of LA again. They let us off the ship at 8am, we stood around waiting for them to open the doors to our luggage until about 915am. The excuse was that the stevedores showed up late for work!!! A ground operator said that it happens almost every week.

 

Good Luck.

[critterchick]

You only need two people to be in the carpool lane on the San Diego Freeway, so that shouldn't be a problem. Also, northbound traffic on Saturday morning is generally pretty light until about 10:00, so you should be fine if you're off the ship on time.

[Colo Cruiser]

I wouldnt take the Princess transfers way too expensive and you also have to wait fro them to fill up. I would take the taxi. :)

[bunky144]

We are trying to determine whether it is best to fly in the day before our cruise from LA or fly in same day. We have done both on other cruises from other ports. Not familiar with LA. Any recommendations? If recommendation is to fly in day before any suggestions of where is a good place to stay? Also - is the consensus to take a shuttle rather than taxi?

We are flying in the day before and bid a hotel at the airport, a 3 star for 45US and we are taking a cab to the cruise port the next day, I believe it costs about 40US for the cab. Good Luck

[bunky144]

Thanks everyone for your help, think I will take my chances, if not I will spend the night in a Houston hotel with a later flight and try again the next day to get to Tampa. I am flying standby and the 12 Noon flight is the only one I can take. Appreciate your help. Happy Cruising!!!