How long does it take to disembark in LA (San Pedro)?

[Fietsen1]

Hello all!

 

I will be taking a Celebrity cruise that begins and ends out of Los Angeles Cruise Port (San Pedro). At the end of my cruise, I am wanting to maximize my day in LA. That said, if I do self-carry and try to be one of the first ones off the ship, about how long does it take to clear immigration and customs? Thanks!!

[rj59]

It's less than 10 minutes in San Pedro, if you have a passport, because they have facial ID machines, so no more customs/immigration lines. That's even truer with the Solstice sailing at fairly low capacity lately. I had 940 or so on the ship in early January, and I got to the gangway just as they announced walkoff, so I was the first one off the ship and it took about 10 minutes to get out of the terminal. You might find getting an Uber or Lyft easier if you make the short walk out onto Harbor Drive, since otherwise cars have to make a long route past the USS Iowa, Discovery Princess, and then to Berth 93. You'll also be competing with thousands on Discovery and thousands on Carnival Panorama in Long Beach, so as soon as you get out of the terminal I'd get on Lyft and Uber and book the nearest driver at the best price.  

[Jim_Iain]

Generally disembarkation begins begin around 7:15 and is done by group time.   You can go to front desk and ask to change your number for an earlier time.   Unless your ship happens to return to the outer port with no terminal it is very fast.   Best to check port schedule -  If Princess has 2 ships in port Celebrity gets sent out to Pier 50 and has Customs aboard but must be bused back to the main terminal area.

 

At the other two terminals Customs is done by Electron Facial Recognition and is VERY quick - 10 Minutes max from ship to curb.

[gold1953]

waled right off on Saturday and waved through customs and we were at a fast pace! We were with walk offs just before luggage tag numbers were called

[zanyw]

Walked right off a few weeks ago. 

[Northern Aurora]

In October we also just essentially waved our passports and walked off.  But we were at the "regular" cruise terminal and not the dock in the hinterlands.

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[Chase101]

This past Saturday, I told my travel companion that we’d hit the Oceanview Cafe’ when it opened at 6am. The disembarkation information said walk offs would start around 7:30am. I told her we wanted to be ready if they started earlier. We were in our cabin & at 6:50am we heard the announcement that the ship was cleared & Self Assist could start walking off. We grabbed our bags & walked straight off & with the facial recognition, we were outside waiting for our Uber by 7am. Great disembarkation!

Barbara