lx200gps

I'm curious which terminal you arrived at? There are supposed to be two taxi stands AT LAX proper, not the LAX-It area, for those who don't want to do the LAX-It thing dealing with buses or long walks. One is near Terminal 3 and another near Terminal 7, clearly marked on the LAX website. https://www.flylax.com/lax-traffic-and-ground-transportation We will be arriving at LAX Terminal 6 tomorrow and plan to walk from T6 to the nearest taxi stand at T7.

We're flying AC to LA in two days, back on the 14th. Everything is quiet, I should get the check-in notice tomorrow morning, so no news is probably good news. We're doing the same trip again in February, I'm a bit more worried about the timing for that trip.

We'll be staying at the Hilton across Hawthorne Blvd from the Del Amo Mall this coming Friday. I know it's a huge mall but didn't realize it was still #6 in the US, pretty impressive, thanks for factoid.

In general, there are two ways to disembark from a cruise ship at the end of the trip and a lot depends on your physical mobility. 1) you will put your bags outside your cabin door the night before, and then pick them up just prior to Customs/immigration in the arrival hall. In this case you would be given a "walk-off" time a few days before and will leave at that time. 2) the preferred method in your case, is what is called "self-walkoff" where you keep all your luggage and take it with you when disembarking. You need to be able to manage all your suitcases etc. The advantage of self walkoff is that you are generally the very first set of passengers allowed off the ship, which can help with lines at Customs/Immigration. Although we have never sailed Carnival, this is the way we always disembark, from Princess, Celebrity or NCL, and is particularly important when we have a tight airline flight home. Among the first off the ship, easy access to taxis etc.Have a great cruise

Perfect, thanks so much, found it. As you advised, we'll watch for a new monthly offer in a few weeks, now that she has already downloaded her first selection.

Apologies for the hijack, but how does one take advantage of this? I'm a long-time and very busy Prime member, have just set up SWMBO's tablet with the app and have purchased and installed her first book. I can't find any mention of this program on their site. Thanks for the assistance ;o)

You don't mention where you are sailing from, and why you need something "near LAX". The whole LAX area is pretty industrial and not overly easy to navigate. FWIW, we sail Princess from San Pedro, and have started to overnight before our trip in Torrance, which is about half way between LAX and San Pedro. In fact, we'll be back there this Friday ;o) Once of the reason we chose our particular hotel zone in Torrance is that it is co-located with the massive Del Amo mall, about 20-30 minutes in normal traffic from LAX and about the same to the port at San Pedro. The mall is huge and has a lot of stores, though it isn't technically an outlet mall. If you're sailing Carnival from Long Beach, there are the Pike Outlets right near the harbor in LB, in a great location with lots of hotels and restaurants nearby

The Cabanas inside the Sanctuary are $US220/day.

Sorry, Mini Suites and Suites are VERY different classes of cabins. Minis do not qualify for any Suite perqs

This is a link to a CTV article relative to Quebec, but it mentions that the Moderna shot will roll out first, but implies the Pfizer shot has been OK'd by Health Canada and will follow soon after. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-rolling-out-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-oct-2-for-vulnerable-groups-1.6581307 We're in a tough spot as we fly out to LAX to board the Discovery Princess on Oct 6, and we're still not sure we can be "boosted" with the newest shot before we go. Originally, Quebec stated Oct 10, then corrected it to allow "at risk" populations like us over 60, to get our shots starting Oct 2. Trouble is, as at today there's still no appointment booking link on the Gvt website for any date next week.

We're scheduled to sail out of Berth 93 next Saturday on the Discovery Princess, and its probably 5 years since we last sailed from SP . Do Princess still have the dedicated Platinum, Elite and Suites "lounge" area set aside for priority passengers, and do they currently do the light coffee and munchies set up like they do at Port Everglades? We are very early arrivers, among the first to check-in then sitting around until boarding starts. What time does boarding typically start at SP these days, given the stated 3PM sailaway time. At PE, on our last few trips, we've started boarding as early as 10:30AM.

Understand. I always give her our desired cabin and one or two alternates, but so far, in the relatively few cruises she has worked for us, (~20?) we have never needed the alternate, as the one we wanted was always available. Still, I may talk to her and see what she says about me booking it myself then handing it over to her. Given that your experience is that it doesn't amount to extra work for her, I'm sure she won't mind. Thanks for the advice ;o)

We've been customers of the big online and brick & mortar cruise agency for a number of years. I do all our research in nauseating detail and simply contact our longtime dedicated TA with all the details, right down to the specific cabin we want to book. We never waste her time having her do the research for us, I suspect I know far more about Princess than she does so she has little to do but make the reservation. She's been our dedicated rep for along time and has been tremendous, always available and helpful. We usually book a year's worth of cruises during their big annual sale and save about 10% in the form of significant OBC, though I recently discovered a stupidly good deal on a Canada/New England trip on Princess out of Boston myself and had her book it for us independent of their sale. There are few advantages to using them over doing it myself. In addition to the sale OBC and small additional OBC for the booking, we accumulate their "frequent sailor" points which ends up as a free hotel night every other year or so. They don't apply large charges to make the booking for us, a few $$$s here and there. As soon as I identify the specific cabin we want, I contact her and she has it booked for us with in hours, obviating the need for me to book it myself then transfer it to her. I guess the other huge advantage to using this TA is that I don't have to deal with Princess myself and have literally never had to sit on hold for hours with an issue.

We haven't sailed out of SP since maybe a year pre-pandemic, Port Everglades has been our home port for our last half dozen cruises. If we de-Uber at SP berth 93 at say, 9 or 9:30AM with Elite status, will we simply check in, pick up our Medallions then sit in the PES lounge until boarding starts? I vaguely recollect that's what we did a few years ago at SP. What are some of the issues these days? Thx...

Just out of curiosity, what cruise line is making you check-in so late? Or are you choosing such a late check-in yourself? We're sailing out of SP next week on Princess and they did away with mandatory check-in times, passengers can arrive whenever they want (though they never did enforce it anyway).

Sorry, no. The Sanctuary must be booked in person once aboard. If you want to have any chance of getting decent loungers, board as soon as humanly possibly and race upstairs.

You are correct. On Princess Medallion equipped ships, which AFAIK is now the whole fleet, the cabin resident's names are shown on the electronic display mounted into the cabin wall right next to the door. Here's a random example off a Cruise Critic cabin review. We've never had a problem with that, there's a far more insidious problem with the Medallion system than just posting the names. We're back on Princess next week, on the Discovery, if I can remember, I'll ask at Guest Services about anonymizing the display to remove the names.

You're quite welcome. Here is a screenshot from the LAX site roughly showing where the Terminal 3 taxi stand is located in the Parking Garage 3. We'll be using the other one, down near Terminal 7 Here's the link https://www.flylax.com/lax-traffic-and-ground-transportation As to EXACTLY where the taxi stand is, can't help you there as I've never been to T3. As Scott points out above, the taxi stand is in the P3 parking garage right across the road from T3, and there's a big pedestrian crosswalk to help get to the garage.

For an Uber estimate, and note it's only an estimate, as surge pricing may elevate the price: https://www.uber.com/global/en/r/airports/lax/ Be sure to accurately enter your origin and destination, date, time of day etc, the Uber system should be able to auto-fill anywhere you are and want to go to. For a taxi estimate, I used https://lacitycab.com/taxi-fare-calculator/ Again, accurately enter your origin and destination. And as Scott pointed out above, there is already a taxi stand near Terminal 3, we will be using the other one near Terminal 7

Thanks for the confirmation about the other taxi stand, we plan to use the other one near T7 when we arrive at T6 next week. I did a quick cross check with taxis and Uber between LAX at Terminal 7, and our hotel in Torrance. No tip of course, taxi was $36, Uber X was $25 (out of the LAX-It lot of course) and a UBlack right to the terminal was $60. For $11 we'll forgo forgo the joy of getting to the LAX-It lot and just walk the 5 minute 300 yards from T6 to T7 and grab a taxi. The next morning from the hotel to SP Berth 93, Uber for sure.

As Canadians who pay a built-in 35% exchange, we always have to pick and choose where we stay, be it LA, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle etc. When sailing out of San Pedro, as our next two cruises are doing, we prefer either Long Beach or Torrance depending on the time of year and the the cost. The nice Long Beach hotels can be very expensive in "higher" seasons, while the pricing in hotels in Torrance can be significantly lower. As to transit costs, an Uber or taxi from LAX to Torrance, which is a straight line trip, about half way to the ship, is a wash. Half the fare the day before then the other half driving down to the ship, or the full fare down to Long Beach then a small fee to the ship. Yes, we prefer Long Beach but settle on Torrance for its significantly lower cost as it has all the last-minute amenities we need, like good restaurants, and the huge Del-Amo mall

What's the current status of the taxi stands that are still operating AT LAX, rather than at the LAX-It lot? IIRC there is one (not useful for the OP unfortunately) near Terminal 7, but was there not one closer to the OP's Terminal 3, or is the T7 stand the only one? We are flying in to Terminal 6 at LAX in a few weeks and plan to make the short walk to take a taxi from curbside to our hotel in Torrance.

My comment was specific to FLL. There have been numerous discussions here on the Florida departures forum about the apparently illegal practice by a few taxi drivers at FLL who will not activate their meters and instead charge a "flat rate". From what I understand this is definitely illegal if done from the airport, all taxis are required to use the meter. No idea about other departure points like hotels, PE etc., though I do know that I once asked one of the Sheriff's Deputies who man traffic control at Port Everglades about this as I was waiting for a taxi to FLL. He confirmed that yes, taxis are required by law to use meters at all times from there as well. No idea if we was right or not, but that's what he told me. So that's why we don't like flat rate taxis.

The comment in Post #5 refers to a known problem at the airport, not so much at PE, where taxi drivers sometimes do not not activate their meters and instead charge a slightly elevated flat rate to take customers to their hotels or to PE. This has been discussed a number of times here on CC. It happened to us once, but I simply didn't tip the driver and the charge worked out to the same amount as a metered fare plus tip.

There are some very nice hotels in Long Beach, right on or near the water. The Hyatt, Hilton and Westin come to mind. We stayed at the Hyatt many years ago, but tend to stay in Torrance now pre-cruise as it's generally much cheaper. Not an option for you, I realize, as you're flying in to LGB and not LAX as we do. Restaurant-wise, there are lot of options on Shoreline Drive near the big outlet mall and the Hyatt, all circling the marina/harbor. All budgets and tastes, Google Maps will show you the options. Some great options if you love dining on the water as we do. Tequila Jack's was a great place, right on the marina, but VERY busy when we ate there. A long shot, and I do strongly suggest doing your due diligence, is the Queen Mary. Even if you don't stay overnight, it's a very neat visit, very historical and interesting. We won't ever again stay there overnight, even after its recent renovation, but it did have a few very neat bars and restaurants, very Art Deco. They were excellent, much better than the room we had ;o) Worth looking in to. Have a great trip.