Burbank to Long Beach

[JMKreno]

Need cruisers opinion. Family of 4 cruising on the Carnival Firenze in October out of Long Beach. There is a fare sale today with Southwest where I can get flights into Burbank on Thursday night (leave on Saturday) for only 14000 points + fees for 4 people (I can cover with existing points a small transfer from my Chase points). I would then book 2 nights at a Hyatt using my chase points (no hotel cost) in DTLA. The cost to shuttle between BUR, the hotel, and then hotel to pier, and then back to Burbank is just over $205 right now through Prime Time shuttle for 4 in a van (perfect size). The flight back from Burbank is at 345pm which seems perfect and would only cost about $300 with credits I have with SW.

 

Flying into LAX or LGB are right around $1100 for 4 plus I still need to book a room and shuttle (though cheaper) and the times out are much later (6pm). 

 

My total cost using Burbank would be around $600 with fees with 2 nights of hotel and about 30k chase points (I have 70k at the moment). I am very familiar with the LA area and know Burbank is the furthest airport but time is something we have ample of to save a decent chunk of change.

 

What is everyone's opinion of this?

[9tee2Sea]

20 minutes ago, JMKreno said:

Need cruisers opinion. Family of 4 cruising on the Carnival Firenze in October out of Long Beach. There is a fare sale today with Southwest where I can get flights into Burbank on Thursday night (leave on Saturday) for only 14000 points + fees for 4 people (I can cover with existing points a small transfer from my Chase points). I would then book 2 nights at a Hyatt using my chase points (no hotel cost) in DTLA. The cost to shuttle between BUR, the hotel, and then hotel to pier, and then back to Burbank is just over $205 right now through Prime Time shuttle for 4 in a van (perfect size). The flight back from Burbank is at 345pm which seems perfect and would only cost about $300 with credits I have with SW.

 

Flying into LAX or LGB are right around $1100 for 4 plus I still need to book a room and shuttle (though cheaper) and the times out are much later (6pm). 

 

My total cost using Burbank would be around $600 with fees with 2 nights of hotel and about 30k chase points (I have 70k at the moment). I am very familiar with the LA area and know Burbank is the furthest airport but time is something we have ample of to save a decent chunk of change.

 

What is everyone's opinion of this?

Math is not my strong point, but it seems like a lot of work and extra travel time to save $300        ( that is after the shuttle fares are added into your pricing).  There is a lot to do in Long Beach before a cruise.  IMO, the added hassles and stress to make everything work from Burbank is just not worth it for me.  

[Eric from San Diego]

I'm surprised you can't find a similar deal on Southwest into LAX. 

 

 There is an office for Hertz and I think another car rental company that I can't recall in San Pedro with shuttle to cruise ship terminal.   Probably ones in Long Beach too.   It might be simpler to just rent a car at Burbank and return it to a car rental office nearest to the ship Pier.  

[JMKreno]

We booked the Burbank flight on Thursday night for 14000 points which was a steal IMHO. We are going to stay in Glendale Thursday night (Hyatt free with points) and likely rent a car and go to Hollywood (Amoeba Music) and do the Warner Bros Studio tour. Then likely head south to San Pedro in the afternoon, drop off the rental in San Pedro and stay in that area since the Long Beach Marathon is that weekend (we'll avoid Long Beach city). Then uber to pier in the AM early (again, avoiding Long Beach proper). 

 

Will figure out the flights back! There are more options but the flights to BUR were well timed and super good value. 

 

 

 

[9tee2Sea]

17 hours ago, JMKreno said:

We booked the Burbank flight on Thursday night for 14000 points which was a steal IMHO. We are going to stay in Glendale Thursday night (Hyatt free with points) and likely rent a car and go to Hollywood (Amoeba Music) and do the Warner Bros Studio tour. Then likely head south to San Pedro in the afternoon, drop off the rental in San Pedro and stay in that area since the Long Beach Marathon is that weekend (we'll avoid Long Beach city). Then uber to pier in the AM early (again, avoiding Long Beach proper). 

 

Will figure out the flights back! There are more options but the flights to BUR were well timed and super good value. 

 

 

 

good luck, have fun.  Thats a very ambitious day Friday.  You should have a very good sleep in San Pedro.  Keep in mind, traffic in LA is horrendous.  Can take 30-45 min just to get 15 miles.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

I guess because of the LB Marathon there were no Hyatt hotels in Long Beach available?

 

If you are staying in San Pedro, your only two real choices in hotels are the Crowne Plaza or DoubleTree. I'd see if they can be booked before cementing your plan.

[JMKreno]

Hyatt is not taking points that weekend in Long Beach and as of right now the selection of hotels in San Pedro is almost non-existent. Burbank will work well with our pre-cruise plans and I'll give ample time on embarkation morning to get to the pier. I won't pay $400/night for the Maya when I can just stay further away in the LA metro and pay to get a ride for much cheaper.

 

I try to get to the LB pier around 930 am. Often we are among the first in line and with platinum we are usually let in soon after. 

[JMKreno]

1 hour ago, 9tee2Sea said:

good luck, have fun.  Thats a very ambitious day Friday.  You should have a very good sleep in San Pedro.  Keep in mind, traffic in LA is horrendous.  Can take 30-45 min just to get 15 miles.

Visit LA multiple times a year, sometimes driving (usually if we visit multiple theme parks/sightsee) or drive if flying/have a specific purpose in the area. I budget 3x what I actually expect to get anywhere when we need to drive somewhere. The Friday before actually is pretty mild for how we normally travel - just last time on our trip in March when we drove down for Disneyland/Universal we used our first free day to do the following:

1) Amoeba and Hollywood area (Amoeba is a must hit for my daughter on every visit)

2) Bookstore in downtown LA

3) LAX plane spotting

4) Watched the ships sail out of San Pedro

5) Dinner at Downtown Disney

 

On our other day off we did America's Got Talent taping, another bookstore in north hollywood, and some light shoppigg in the morning. We're the type of people who get to Disneyland and Universal an hour+ before rope drop and then leave when the parks close. A studio tour and amoeba is a light day for us and we might even squeeze in a TMZ star tour if time permits (kids have always wanted to go - even if they don't see any celebrities)

Edited April 19 by JMKreno