Long Beach

My flight time has changed to an earlier arrival of 10:30 am. My check in time is 2 - 2:30. Ideas for what we should do during this gap? There are 2 of us.

Hi,

Long Beach Terminal has a line up area for folks who come before their official time. I'd still go to the terminal after your plane lands. Check your luggage and if they don't let you check in go to the nearby Queen Mary for brunch or for a tour.

I think that you will probably be able to check in before your 2:30 time.

My flight time has changed to an earlier arrival of 10:30 am. My check in time is 2 - 2:30. Ideas for what we should do during this gap? There are 2 of us.

Assuming you are flying into LAX, you may not have as much extra time as you think...It will take some time to taxi to your gate, unload the plane, walk to baggage claim, get your luggage, find your ground transportation and make the 23 mile or so ride to the Long Beach Cruise Terminal. Since you will have your luggage with you, as Riff said, whatever you do, best to head straight to the terminal so you can drop off your luggage. No problem dropping that off even if you are not yet boarding.

Most cruise lines DO allow you to board ahead of your "assigned time". Those times have traditionally been stated only to allow them to spread out the arrivals at the pier and not overload their processing. So, don't expect to have to wait until 2-2:30. That said, of late, at least since the last time I cruised Carnival out of Long Beach, they have figured out a way to squeeze a little extra money out of people by selling priority boarding ("First to the Fun")...so, they may delay your boarding a bit. If so...

As Riff suggested, the Queen Mary is right next door to the terminal...That would be a reasonable choice to kill some time. If that doesn't interest you, there is a FREE shuttle--called the "Passport"--that picks up right outside the Queen Mary and goes on a loop around Downtown Long Beach...stopping at the Aquarium of the Pacific (another nice place to spend some time if you have a bit of time) as well as Shoreline Village (a tourist shopping complex) and the Pike (a shopping/restaurant/entertainment center). You could head over that way and easily kill some time. There are also a LOT of restaurants stretching along the waterfront between the Aquarium and Shoreline Village. Just make sure you get back to the ship before the boarding deadline!

Flying onto Long Beach

Flying onto Long Beach

So, you may get there a little quicker...but the advice remains the same...head to the pier first and drop off luggage...and see if you can get on earlier than 2... you probably can.

At other ports folks report that they may be kept out of the terminal until their actual check in time but that hasn't been happening at Long Beach.

We hope it continues that way!!

We had a 12:30 check in time and were at the buffet on the Lido deck at 11:30 [emoji41]

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Thank you all :)