San Pedro/Long Beach Review and Thank You

[mothwoman]

I have always got so much info and help from the board I thought I would post a quick review of pre and post cruise details for anyone needing them. We cruised out of San Pedro on the Mariner. We came into town one day pre cruise. We got in very early so rented a car at the airport (Long Beach) to drop off at Budget in Long Beach.

 

We stayed at Crowne Plaza in San Pedro (got for $65 on Priceline) they let us do an early check in at 10:30 a.m. which was nice to get rid of our luggage. They were very friendly and helped with anything we needed. Hotel was nice and within walking distance to many resturants. You can see the ship in the morning out your window if you are facing east I believe. We went for a morning run down by the pier it was fun to see the ship and get excited to be on it in a few hours.

 

I had my husband return the car in the morning while I was getting ready and then he took a taxi back to Crowne Plaza. Budget does not charge a one way destination fee like Enterprise but it was a 20 dollar taxi ride from Long Beach. Still cheaper than enterprise even with paying for taxi.

 

We walked down to the lobby waited a few minutes and then the shuttle drove up and we loaded up and drove to pier (5 minutes). We got to the pier at about 11:30, the shuttle driver called for a porter and he came over took our luggage and we walked in and we were eating lunch within 15 minutes.

 

Coming back Budget didn't have any cars available so we went with Enterprise (located next door to Crowne Plaza). They have a free shuttle that picked us up at the pier and then we got our car. We headed to Long Beach where we scored the Hilton downtown for $55 on priceline. It is $15 for parking and $10 for internet though. The were very nice and let us check in early and we hung there and enjoyed the pool, it was very shallow but nice tempature. We had to get our last rays of sun in before heading back to winter at home. We used the car to drive over and eat at Ports O Call while watching the Mariner and the Golden Princess (I think) sail out.

 

We dropped off the car at the Long Beach Airport the next day and that was easy as pie. If you have the oppurtunity to fly into Long Beach it is so small and easy do it.

 

Thanks for everyone's help we had a great time!

[pascalburns]

thank you for the review.

glad you had a good time.:)

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Thanks for everyone's help we had a great time!

Thank you so much for returning with a review!

 

Not enough people do that, as we have so many people asking questions, questions, questions before they go on their trip...

Then they never return with info, reports, pics, how it went, or anything!:rolleyes:

 

So once again, you are a gem for taking the time to share with us upon your return...;)

It is most helpful to hear back.:D

[mtnmom4]

Mothwoman. I've never used Priceline...How does it work? Are you guaranteed a good hotel and what happens if they put you in a bad one? Do you have a chance to pick which one you want? The only 2 in the San Pedro area that I would stay in is the Crowne Plaza or Doubletree...

 

thanks for the info!

 

Gayle

[mothwoman]

Mothwoman. I've never used Priceline...How does it work? Are you guaranteed a good hotel and what happens if they put you in a bad one? Do you have a chance to pick which one you want? The only 2 in the San Pedro area that I would stay in is the Crowne Plaza or Doubletree...

 

thanks for the info!

 

Gayle

 

I did a lot of searching on these boards and I know there are some experts out there that will hopefully chime in. From what I understand unless something has changed on Priceline (which can happen) if you bid a 3* hotel in San Pedro there are only two the Crowne Plaza and the Doubletree so you will get either one. From recent postings I have noticed that everyone is getting the Crowne Plaza for $65 which is what I did. If you haven't done Priceline ever I would suggest doing your homework as once you bid and it is accepted you are stuck with the hotel whether you want it or not.

[sunshine426]

Thank you so much for returning with a review!

 

Not enough people do that, as we have so many people asking questions, questions, questions before they go on their trip...

Then they never return with info, reports, pics, how it went, or anything!:rolleyes:

So once again, you are a gem for taking the time to share with us upon your return...;)

It is most helpful to hear back.:D

 

Hello CJW! You have been such a great source of information, that of course I will post a review of our pre cruise stay! We are cruising on the Sapphire Princess in December. Thanks to all the information I have found on this forum we are staying at the Doubletree(ok, using Hilton Points due to DH heavy travel schedule)! We are going to have dinner at 22nd Landing and then walk off some jet lag. Perhaps we will go to a wine tasting at "Off the Vine", but if not, have been in contact with the owner, and wil prepurchase some excellent "vino" for the cruise, which will ber delivered to our hotel on day of arrival. How cool is that. If we have forgotten any essential items, we know we can ask the hotel shuttle to take us to Target or Vons for shopping prior to embarkation. Other than that we look forward to wandering around the Marina, maybe taking a walking tour and of course our cruise.

[deepnite10]

if you ve done the research on Priceline you ll likely end up with the hotel you wanted in the first place..3 time s already ive had great luck in getting exactly what i wanted..

 

OP..glad everything went as smoothly as it did for you..obviously you did your homework..:)

[SurfeitLE]

I did a lot of searching on these boards and I know there are some experts out there that will hopefully chime in. From what I understand unless something has changed on Priceline (which can happen) if you bid a 3* hotel in San Pedro there are only two the Crowne Plaza and the Doubletree so you will get either one. From recent postings I have noticed that everyone is getting the Crowne Plaza for $65 which is what I did. If you haven't done Priceline ever I would suggest doing your homework as once you bid and it is accepted you are stuck with the hotel whether you want it or not.

 

Gayle,

 

Not pretending to be an expert but having some experience: a good research site is www.betterbidding.com. There you can see current bidding prices being accepted, and also hotels have have been successfully bid for the areas, and they give you a lot of tips on bidding. The will also give a lot of info on hotwire.com bidding, in which you are more likely to figure out the exact hotel being offered than on PL (although their prices are usually a little higher than PL, this is sometimes less work than doing all the priceline research and rebidding, especially for just one night, since you know the price upfront). Betterbidding.com also has agents that will give you advice in bidding until you get the hang of it.

 

You may or may not get the $65 for one of these hotels; I've bid as high as $75 per night for December 4-6 for these two (the only 3 1/2* hotels in San Pedro), without success. I think the lower end rooms (eg, without a marina room) are all gone for that weekend already, looking at Expedia. But I don't think you have to worry about getting some other hotel, like the Vagabond.

 

The way you bid is, go to priceline.com, and get registered. Then you ask for specific dates and a metro area in the Name Your Own Price section (Priceline sells identified hotels at a higher price, just like Expedia, so you don't want that part). PL will then show a list of all regions within the area you asked for, and a list of all star categories (darkened) below that. For example, Los Angeles area will include LAX Airport, Hollywood, Culver City, etc., and a range of hotels from 1* to 4*. If you click on Hollywood, you'll see the actual star categories available to bid in that area light up (including 4* in this region). Unclick that, and click on Culver City and you'll see its categories, but there won't be any 4* hotels to bid on.

 

You have to fill in your credit card info, and then PL presents a summary of your request. Check it very carefully, if the bid is accepted, you own it. Then submit (you may have to put your initals in a small agreement box first), and in a few minutes they'll let you know if you won the bid or not. If you won, they may ask if you want to add more days at the same price. If you did not win, you can rebid by adding regions or a lower star category, or change one or both dates. If you make any of those changes, you can keep the same price offer or raise it. However, you can't just raise the offer without changing something, until 24 goes by.

 

There is an advanced technique in which you keep only the 4* hotels in your request, then add regions like Culver City on a second bid, precisely because has no 4* hotel, when you're really just after a 4* in Hollywood, in order to make several increasing bids in the same day. You won't get a hotel in Culver City because it doesn't have one like that. However you're better off not trying that now. The betterbidding.com documentation will explain it all once yoú've got some experience.

 

A good starting practice is to see what the hotels of interest are going for on expedia.com, hotels,com, orbitz, or the hotel site. Then start your bid at about 45- 55% of their lowest offer.

 

I believe San Pedro is in the Long Beach area, not LA, but shows up in the LA area on Hotwire.

 

Once you've gone through this once are twice, it's really not very difficult, you just always have to step carefully.

 

Good luck.

 

Dennis

[mothwoman]

Dennis, you explained it perfectly, I would have totally messed that up. I knew I could count on someone to explain that.

[cruiserbryce]

glad you had a good trip and glad LB worked out for you. We have flown from there before...sometimes the only challenge is the limited number of flights they have in and out

[mtnmom4]

Dennis, Deepnite & Mothwoman: Thanks so much for the explanation....I will give it a try! I truly appreciate the quick response!

 

Gayle

[mtnmom4]

Thanks all...I was able to get the Doubletree for Nov. 14th at $75.+tax but still cheaper than anywhere else. I figure the $50+ I've saved I could get some of that wine that SUNSHINE426 mentioned. Could you give me a little more info on that? Are you able to bring it on board because you prepurchased it?

 

Thanks again for the help!

Gayle

[Piperpals]

Thanks all...I was able to get the Doubletree for Nov. 14th at $75.+tax but still cheaper than anywhere else. I figure the $50+ I've saved I could get some of that wine that SUNSHINE426 mentioned. Could you give me a little more info on that? Are you able to bring it on board because you prepurchased it?

 

Thanks again for the help!

Gayle

 

This was great info. Got Crowne Plaza for $65 for next April. Was little nervous but worked out well. Difference covers the cab fair from Union Station. I would like to know more about the wine also.

 

Thanks

[sunshine426]

Thanks all...I was able to get the Doubletree for Nov. 14th at $75.+tax but still cheaper than anywhere else. I figure the $50+ I've saved I could get some of that wine that SUNSHINE426 mentioned. Could you give me a little more info on that? Are you able to bring it on board because you prepurchased it?

 

Thanks again for the help!

Gayle

 

 

Princess allows you to bring wine and/or champagne on board at embarkation. The passenger contract does not spell out any restrictions on the number of bottles, but the cruise answer book limits you to one bottle per passenger. Lot's of discussion on this over on the Princess Boards. We are planning on bringing on just three bottles of wine.

 

Off the Vines is a local wine store and they offered to deliver my purchase to the hotel for me. I plan on pre-ordering and pre-paying over the phone in case we don't have time, or feel like going out after we arrive at the Doubletree.

[Putterdude]

Off the Vine is located about 2 blocks up from the Crowne Plaza on 6th. We had quite a discussion going with Michael (the owner) on another thread but it seems to have disappeared. However he is a good operator and will deliver to your hotel with payment via credit card. Here is a link for you:

http://www.********************

[sunshine426]

Off the Vine is located about 2 blocks up from the Crowne Plaza on 6th. We had quite a discussion going with Michael (the owner) on another thread but it seems to have disappeared. However he is a good operator and will deliver to your hotel with payment via credit card. Here is a link for you:

 

www.********************

 

I'm wondering if that thread was pulled because he has a local business and posted on CC referring to his business. Might be like tour guides not being able to post about their service on the port of call threads.

 

I don't think that I am restricted from posting and plan on posting a review of this shop upon return. I love that he will deliver my purchase to the hotel, which will save me a stop on cruise day, and will allow me to take some nicer wines that I might not find on the ship, or over here on the west coast.

[mtnmom4]

Sunshine: From what I'm reading RCL doesn't allow you to bring the wine on board. I see that they will sell you some of theirs for delivery to your cabin or to drink at dinner....Do you bring yours on openly or in your checked baggage. I've usually been able to bring some "beverages" in my checked luggage but never in carry-on. I was able to find Off the Vine set also...thanks for the info.

 

Gayle