Eric from San Diego

Not sure of your question. Yes there many hotels near LAX with a shuttle from LAX to the hotel. None of them offer shuttles to the Carnival cruise terminal. It is 25 miles from LAX to Long Beach. You can book a shuttle for $35 from LAX to the cruise terminal, but remember that the shuttle is per person while Uber is per car, so the car may be cheaper.

Not seen anything that could remotely be called ballroom dancing on HAL for at least five years. The Billboard and BB King bands have dancing but it is Rock and Roll, not Ballroom. And they are loud.

When the door blew off the Alaska Airlines plane, a co-worker at my school said "that's why I never fly in airplanes." Some people have a heightened sense of fear. Yes there is some danger riding mass transit anywhere or walking anywhere too. You can always take Uber if you feel unsafe.

We have lots of taxis in San Diego. I see them all the time. I usually use taxis, especially from the airport. I hate having to walk up and down through the ubers hunting for the correct license plate. Taxis are also better than users from the airport to downtown and vv. Because it is only 3-4 miles, a lot of ubers won't accept the assignment because it's too little money. Taxis are required to accept all fares at the airport.

Don't know if this helps, but when ever I book any travel, whether it be cruise, airline or hotel, I always use my desktop PC or laptop. This gives me the added advantage that I can print stuff out on paper which has saved me a couple of times. Phones are great but adapting reservation software to use on a phone is expensive and difficult vs using the same software on a PC/laptop browser.

You always have to get your own. You don't mention which countries.

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.

Mushy peas! You have no idea how funny that sounds to an American.

I went on a cruise with a group of 450 gay men. We did have two private parties and ate together in the dining room. But we drank a lot and went to bingo, trivia and all the shows. One woman told me that she had never had so much fun on a cruise as the one we were on. This was on Celebrity. Some large groups can be quite benign as far as disruptions because we they are there to have fun.

I can't say if it happens to everybody, but if you want HAL to fuss over you, book a Have It All, gamble at the casino, take a lot of excursions, use the spa, eat in Specialty restaurants. HAL does everything it can to get the people with a high level of onboard spending to come back. That's where they make their profits.

Turning Point Ministries is an evangelical megachurch in East San Diego. There will be anywhere from 700 to 1000 people who will all eat together at 8 pm in the MDR using as many tables as they need on both levels. It sounds like there will be very few other tables available at that time. They will talk only to each other and stare straight ahead if they pass anyone who is not part of their group. They will be wearing ID badges and probably matching t-shirts so they can recognize other people who are part of their group. They will have guest speakers and probably christian music groups for which the theater and crows nest will be closed to other guests. Expect a reduced schedule of regular events for cruisers not part of the group.

What is your departure date?

Sorry to read the email. Be aware that not only will there be blockages in the dining room, but they will close the theater, crows nest and various bars and lounges for private events. Plus all the people in the group will only talk to each other and mostly ignore everyone else. Affinity groups is one of the reasons I prefer cruises 14 days or more because they sually don't have these groups.

I find this interesting. I have been on 9 cruises and I haven't the faintest idea who the Cruise Director was on any of them. Nor do I remember the names of my cabin attendents or my waiters. I guess I just let them do their jobs and don't worry about it.

The reason a cruise room is cheaper than at a hotel is that the employees are paid $600 per month and work 12 hours a day 7 days a week. You go to Vegas or Hawaii and the employees are Americans paid $2000 - 3000 per month and work 8 hours per day 5 days per week. If you go to a resort in the Philippines you can get luxury hotel room for $125 per night and the food is cheap too.

California has something called the Tidelands Trust. It us in our constitution. Tidelands are controlled by the State, not cities and must be used for public benefit. Tidelands mean a lot more than you would think. In San Diego, Harbor Island, Shelter Island, most of the airport, the Embarcadero up to Pacific Highway, South Embarcadero up to Harbor Drive are all tidelands. Our convention center, Grand Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, Seaport Village, Intercontinental Hotel, Wyndham Hotel and County Administration Building are all in Tidelands even though it looks like they are on solid ground.

Olivia is a LGBTQ whole ship charter, although mostly L. They can go any where they want.

I think it depends who you are. The last time I was on Princess I bought the drinks package, two very expensive excursions and ate at a couple of speciality restaurants. It was a Christmas cruise and not cheap plus I paid double for my cabin as a solo traveller. I even gambled a bit. They contacted me a lot in many different ways for at least a year after. They wanted me back. If you travel on a cruise and don't spend any money on board I doubt they will be so enthusiastic about getting you back.

The Chef's Table is for people who live in small towns. If you live in New York or any other metro area with a population in the millions, you already have restaurants at home where you can drop $150 for a CT type dinner. But a lot of cruisers live in towns here Red Lobster is the closest thing they have to fine dining. For them, CT is a great experience that they normally would not have at home.

You kind of miss my point. If cruise lines don't wish to use San Diego's terminal, the only alternative in So Cal is Los Angeles. Berth 92 and 93 are already booked solid with existing tenants. Berth 46 and 50 are just that - berths. The only facility there is an asphalt parking lot. No buildings, boarding bridges, nothing. Sometimes there are tents. Otherwise the cruise lines process passengers at the World Cruise Terminal Berths 92 and 93 and run shuttle buses to piers 46 and 50. Port of LA put out a request for proposal for an operator to build and operate a cruise terminal at Berth 46/50 in 2019, but so far nothing has come of it. If the Port of LA did build a new cruise terminal at Berth 46/50, it would no doubt draw cruises away from San Diego. But the POLA is not a field of dreams outfit. The RFP was for a private company to build and operate a cruise terminal Berth 46/50 and assume all the risk. POLA was also interested in having this same operator take over and operate Berth 92/93. I am not surprised that there are no takers. Cruise ship terminals don't generate the same kind of concession income from restaurants and stores that you see at airports because people just want to get on the ship as quickly as possible. Port of San Diego's only revenues come from rent they charge their tenants and parking meters. If cruise passengers pay hotel room taxes or sales taxes, that money goes to the City of SD, not the Port. POSD would be very happy to build a state of the art cruise terminal at B Street Pier if the cruise companies agree to fund it, but they don't seem interested. The small but nice cruise terminal on the Broadway pier was paid for by Carnival, but after it was built, Carnival decided to home port the intended ship in Australia instead. POSD also is not a field of dreams operator. They are not going to spend 10s of millions of dollars building cruise terminals unless they know in advance with signed long-term contracts that the berthing fees cruise lines pay will completely cover the construction costs of the terminal. POSD did announce last year that they will be spending $5 million to upgrade the facilities at the B Street Pier. I hope that will make boarding a ship in San Diego a little more tolerable.

It doesn't mean what you think. When they state that "the passenger is responsible for having proper documentation" they are saying that if you show up for embarkation without proper documentation and are denied boarding, your cruise fare will not be refunded. It is the same for the airlines. But as with the airlines, if they board you and transport you to a foreign country without proper documentation, they are responsible for transporting you somewhere you can be admitted. This usually means back home.

On a recent 35 day sailing on the HAL Konigsdam, the ship was halfway between Hawaii and Fanning Island when a passenger got sick. Evacuation by helicopter was not possible because of weather. So the ship turned around, sailed all the way back to Hawaii, deboarded the passenger (who left in a wheelchair) and then left Hawaii a day behind schedule. They skipped the stop in Fanning and arrived at the next destination in Tahiti half a day late. When the ship returned to San Diego at the end, it was scheduled to leave at 5:30 pm on a 22 day cruise to do a sun eclipse watching, then on to Hawaii and then Vancouver. The ship didn't actually leave San Diego until 11:30 pm due to "issues with provisioning". The moral of these stories is that cruise lines have a lot of flexibility in what they do to accommodate their passengers needs. The corporate culture dictates what they actually do.

If I buy a 7 day cruise, the drinks package and 1 or 2 excursions, I am usually credited with 14 days at HAL.

I can't see that it matters very much. San Pedro only has two berths 92 and 93 which is used by NCL, RCCL, Princess and sometimes Viking, Seabourn, Oceania. Long Beach as only one berth owned and operated by Carnival. With three in San Diego, that's only six berths for Southern California, population 22 million. Port Everglades alone has eight berths. The cruise lines will have to take what they can get and like it if they want to leave from SoCal. Oh, and the Port Of SD announced last year that they are spending $5 million to improve the facilities at B Street Pier.

1978 Sitmar Fairsea from San Francisco to Alaska.