Just Returned from Cruise out of LA Harbor

[rsohn65820]

I received a lot of information from this board before my cruise so I would like repay the favor by giving a review and trying to answer any questions that I can.

 

We flew into SNA Orange County Airport on the Wednesday before our cruise. Airport is nice and fairly small. We flew in from Portland Oregon and we were meeting my mother-in-law who was flying in from Phoenix. We had no problems finding each other down by baggage claim.

 

We had reserved a rental car through Enterprise for a one way rental to San Pedro. The car rental desk is down in the baggage claim area. We grabbed our bags and headed to the Enterprise desk. The girl that was working at the desk seemed totally confused and didn't have a clue as to what she was doing. I had reserved the car under my husbands name and I had a copy of the email from Enterprise with our confirmation number but she could not seem to find our reservation. She finally pulled it up on her computer by putting in my drivers license number which I don't think I ever gave Enterprise. The reservation was for a compact car for three days using an Entertainment Book coupon for a total of $96.39 which included the $25.00 drop off fee. We chose the option to do the prepaid full tank of gas for $2.89 a gallon rather than try to find a place to fill the car before returning. The girl then sent us across the street to the parking garage where we were to pick up the car. We found the Enterprise office over in the parking garage. I entered though the double doors to a counter where two people were working they asked my name and told me to step outside and wait. Within a minute or two a girl came out with a clip board and paperwork said we could have either the Nissian Versa sitting there or the Nissian Altima. The Altima was Red and the Versa was white so I chose the Altima. The girl holding the clip board then did some writing took us over to inspect the car and sign the paperwork. It was very dark down in that parking garage and hard to see what the car really looked like let alone what the paperwork said. She had me initial and sign the paperwork. After leaving the parking garage when we were out into the light where I could finally read the paperwork we found out the Altima was $10 more per day than the Versa. We didn't really mind as the Altima was a larger car but it would have been nice if the girl with the clip board would have said that it was more money not just that we had the choice between the two cars. We left the parking garage got on the 405 freeway and headed to San Pedro. It was not to hard to find our way because we had brought our GPS with us.

 

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro. We were not able to get it on Priceline because we had to have two beds. When checking in I asked if we could have a room that faced the cruise terminal so we could see the ship Saturday morning, but only the rooms with King beds face that side. We had a view of the pool and we could see the harbor so Saturday morning we were able to see the ship as it sailed up the harbor to the terminal. The Crowne Plaza is a nice hotel and they have a parking garage where you can park for free while staying at the hotel or you can use valet parking for $10 per day. We just parked in the garage and we were always able to get a parking spot fairly close to the elevator that took us up to the lobby. We had our laptop computer with us so we wanted access to the internet which the hotel charges a fee of $10 per day. Most of the hotels that we stay at offer their guest free wireless internet so I felt that $10 per day was a little out of line, $10 per stay would have been more reasonable. After we were checked in and settled in our room I came down to the Bell Desk to ask about a sign up sheet for the Shuttle to the Cruise terminal on Saturday morning. They do not have a sign up sheet it is first come first served and they have several shuttles going over to the cruise terminal starting at about 10:00 am. I was also told that they run shuttles over to the Long Beach pier too but you do need to sign up for that because they don't have as many shuttles going over there. Because I am a Priority Club member we were allowed access to the tenth floor club lounge where they serve a complementary continental breakfast in the mornings Monday through Friday and horderves in the afternoon. The woman who worked in the Club lounge was wonderful she gave us some maps of the area and told us of some local sights to see. We also asked about how to get to either a Target or a Walmart as we wanted to pick up a few items to take along with us and she gave us directions.

 

We at breakfast at Grinder's Resturant every morning. The food was good coffee shop type food and the service was also good. By the second morning the waitress remembered that I wanted coffee and that my husband wanted milk but not until his breakfast was delivered. Every one of the workers there was cheerful and friendly.

 

We returned the rental car in San Pedro Saturday morning. Again I was not impressed with Enterprise. The Enterprise office is in the same building as the hotel and the doors to the Enterprise office are on Sixth street. They open their office at 9:00 am so I was there right at 9:00. There were a few other people there as we walked up to the office. As I went to open the door someone in line said that I had to wait and stand in line because they only allowed two people into the office at one time. There were about four people in line in front of me and they were all there to pick up a rental car. One of the Enterprise employees came outside and when he saw that I was returning a car he told me to go ahead and go inside so I could get the car returned. As soon as I walked in the door I had about three employees all tell me to go back outside and wait my turn. I told them that their employee outside told me to come in because I was returning a car but they still told me to go back outside. A few minutes later one of the girls came out took the key from me and headed over to the parking lot to find the car. She made a comment about the gas tank being empty and I explained to her that I had prepaid for a full tank of gas. She then told me that she could not print me a reciept that I could go online and print one.

 

About 10:00 am we went down to the lobby and within a few minutes we were on a shuttle and on our way over to the cruise terminal. We were crusing on the NCL Star but there was also another ship there at the terminal the Saphire Princess so the cruise terminal was a little chaotic with all the people trying to get off the two ships and others wanting to get on. We had to wait a little while in line as they were not allowing us to enter the terminal until 10:30.

 

Hope this is helpful to someone and if anyone has any questions that I may be able to answer I will try.

[Bowie MeMe]

Thanks for the information on the rental car. I was considering enterprize only because they are the only ones at the cruise pier.

 

I have found that Hertz has an office in the lobby of the Torrance CA Marriott and in the SAN (San Diego) airport so this is what I will try. Torrance Marriott is about 7.5 Miles north of the port. Will take a taxi from Torrance to the pier on Sunday. Is there a Hertz or Avis office closer to the port and open on Sunday (some seem to be M-F)? Is parking overnight available at the shopping mall in Torrance?

[Fredr]

Reba,

 

Write a letter to Enterprise and to someone no less than a Senior Vice President. The Enterprise employee should have told you that there was a price difference for the larger car. I understand that $10.00 is not a lot of money but car rental companies cannot "bait and switch". Or at least at the counter, Enterprise's desk personnel should have mentioned that you could pay slightly more for an upgrade.

 

In the future, join at least one car rental frequent rental program. As part of these programs there is less likelihood that nonsense such as you experienced will occur.

[rsohn65820]

Reba,

 

Write a letter to Enterprise and to someone no less than a Senior Vice President. The Enterprise employee should have told you that there was a price difference for the larger car. I understand that $10.00 is not a lot of money but car rental companies cannot "bait and switch". Or at least at the counter, Enterprise's desk personnel should have mentioned that you could pay slightly more for an upgrade.

 

In the future, join at least one car rental frequent rental program. As part of these programs there is less likelihood that nonsense such as you experienced will occur.

 

I rent cars quite often and Enterprise is not usually a company that I consider when renting a car, but because they did have the office there in San Pedro I took the chance. I might rent from Enterprise again if I was to sail out of LA Harbor, but I would at least know what to expect when it comes to the way they do business. I do belong to a couple companies frequent rental programs which I do think helps in the way you are treated.

[Cruisin' Chick]

About five years ago we rented cars pre and post-cruise from Enterprise in Seattle. The second time, the office didn't have the full size car we reserved, but a SUV, and they gave it to us for the same price. Of course, we would have preferred the regular car...that SUV was tough to park in the hotel parking lot and we prefer sedans anyway. But we wanted a way to get around.