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San Pedro Disembarkation Options


Cruisen Elf
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We will be returning to San Pedro from an international Princess cruise on a Thursday. What is the time difference if you self-disembark versus putting out your luggage the night before and having to collect it in the terminal before heading to customs? How early does Princess start self - disembarkation? When does regular disembarkation begin? We are trying to determine which would be our best option. Our flight leaves LAX at 1:55 PM and we need to know what time to arrange for our transportation. This is only our 2nd Princess cruise, and we had a tour with transport to the airport on the previous one. Thanks in advance for any information you can share!

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We were on the Emerald Princess and disembarked in San Pedro on October 8th. The ship arrived at port at 7 AM. We were in the first "self help" group and that was published as disembarking at 8 although it was delayed 10 minutes. The first group that had to collect their luggage in the terminal was published as disembarking at 8:45 and I heard that these groups were delayed 10 - 15 minutes. Not sure if these times will hold up for your particular cruise.

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We arrived in San Pedro from Vancouver on the Ruby a few weeks ago. U.S. Customs and Immigration were all taken care of in Vancouver before we left. So, once off the ship, it was locate your luggage and walk directly through and out the terminal. Self disembarkation (no help with luggage) started at 7:00 ... after that they called the colors/numbers and it all flowed smoothly. Our color group was "scheduled" for 9:20 and we were actually off the ship and in the terminal getting our luggage at 9:10.

 

If you need to clear U.S. Customs / Immigration in San Pedro ... the timing of this whole process is strictly at the "convenience" of the federal authorities. We have been through there when it all went quickly and other times where the lines backed-up and were horrendous.

 

Getting to LAX is easy and shouldn't take more than 30 minutes. BTW - you didn't mention how you would be transferring ... there are always LOTS of Super Shuttle and PrimeTime vans outside the terminal (reservations can be made in advance) ... taxi lines usually are backed up and could entail a wait.

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DEFINITELY regular disembarkation. The only thing that would change that would be if there was some unusual circumstance. The suitcases are usually mostly off-loaded by 8:30am. If you'd like to take your time and not be rushed, tell your driver you'll be out at the curb and ready for a pick up at 9:00am.

 

During the weekdays, it will definitely take longer than 30 mins. to get to LAX, so the later you leave the ship, the better. I'd plan on 45 mins. IF there isn't an accident or if Cal-Trans is pretending to work and has closed down lanes.

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Disembarkation in San Pedro usually starts at about 8am. There’s not a whole lot of difference in timing between self-disembarkation and regular disembarkation. Maybe 10-15 minutes.

 

You should be fine using regular disembarkation with a later flight. Arriving after an international cruise can experience significant delays, particularly if the ship is arriving from South America.

 

Cruising from Vancouver is very different from arriving from other international embarkation ports as the US has Customs officials there and you go through US Customs before arriving in Los Angeles.

 

It’ll take 45 minutes to an hour to get from the cruise terminal to LAX. Heck, it can take half an hour to get just from the entrance to your terminal. It always amuses me when people who don’t live in the LA area or experience LA traffic say, “Sure! No problem! It’ll take only a short time.” Ask anyone who deals with LA traffic and they’ll tell you, “Not so fast.” Even on weekends.

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I can recommend using UBER. Once you have your luggage just go outside & port staff will direct you to the P/U location. My suggestion is to call the driver & let them know where you are & what you are wearing so it’s easier to find you. When I last used UBER in San Pedro I payed $32. Figure 45min - 1 hr to get to the airport.

Tom😎

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International Cruise? Are you on the Emerald Princess that returns to the U.S. from South America on March 27th? If yes, expect disembarkation delays. Generally when a ship returns to a U.S. port after being away for a season the ship as well as the passengers and crew are subject to inspections. Early walk off probably will not start shortly after scheduled arrival in port, 6:15am, as it normally does with RT cruises. Early walk off may not begin until somewhere around 8:00am and could take an hour or more to disembark all the early walk off passengers. After that passengers will start disembarking by color group, and that could take some time. It could take all morning to disembark all passengers.

I believe that your flight time of 1:55pm will not be a problem. If you disembark by 10:30/11:00am you should have time to make the flight.

 

In 2012 we did the almost the same cruise on the Star as the Emerald is doing next year. The inspection was so intense that it took all morning to clear the ship. We arrived in S.F. not San Pedro.

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Thanks for all the great information! The folks on the Princess boards are so knowledgeable and helpful! I really appreciate all your responses.

 

For those who wondered, we are taking a round trip cruise to Hawaii that also stops in Ensenada, Mexico. Hence the need to go through customs upon our arrival in San Pedro. I plan to pre-book our shuttles because we can get an AAA discount that way. Thanks to your help, I now know when to schedule our pick up.

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Thanks for all the great information! The folks on the Princess boards are so knowledgeable and helpful! I really appreciate all your responses.

 

For those who wondered, we are taking a round trip cruise to Hawaii that also stops in Ensenada, Mexico. Hence the need to go through customs upon our arrival in San Pedro. I plan to pre-book our shuttles because we can get an AAA discount that way. Thanks to your help, I now know when to schedule our pick up.

If you are taking an Hawaii cruise you will not have any issues disembarking or getting to the airport in time. early walk off should start fairly quickly, followed by general disembarkation. There should not be any real delays. You through me off by using the word "international" in your original post. Since all cruises are international I believed you were speaking about boarding in another country.

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Thanks for all the great information! The folks on the Princess boards are so knowledgeable and helpful! I really appreciate all your responses.

 

For those who wondered, we are taking a round trip cruise to Hawaii that also stops in Ensenada, Mexico. Hence the need to go through customs upon our arrival in San Pedro. I plan to pre-book our shuttles because we can get an AAA discount that way. Thanks to your help, I now know when to schedule our pick up.

 

It all depend on the order of the Ensenada/HI stops. If you sail straight to HI and then visit Ensenada on the last day, then you need to clear customs an immigration at San Pedro. If the cruise operates in reverse and Ensenada is the first port of call, then you actually clear customs and immigration just prior to arrival in HI (the ICE agents get a nice little jolly as they get to sail on the ship). As you then sail directly back to the US with no other foreign port visit, there is no need to go through customs and immigration again at San Pedro.

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