Los Angeles

[choclabby]

We have a cruise on Princess that leaves on a Saturday from San Pedro port. We are flying in on Thursday to experience LA. Does anyone have any ideas how we can accomplish this?

 

I have thought about renting a car from Lax and return to Port San Pedro and staying around Hollywood/Beverly Hills Thursday night. Please, I welcome all ideas to get the most of this layover. Thank you in advance! :)

[CaseyJr]

Just a heads up that the only rental car company in San Pedro is Enterprise. Their weekend hours (Sat and Sun) are from 9 am - 12 pm.

 

Personally, I would probably explore the beaches (Hermosa, Manhattan, Santa Monica, Venice, etc) but it depends on what you are looking for.

[PatriciaF]

Frequent poster Bruin Steve has lots of suggestions both with and without a car for touring Los Angeles.

 

Use the search function to look for these posts.

[Shooty]

Hi,

 

We just returned from our Mexican Riveria cruise a couple weeks ago. At the end of our cruise, we stayed in LA for 2 days. Neither my husband or I wanted to rent a car and drive around in LA so we didn't. This is what we did:

 

1. Hired shuttle servies (supper shuttle and prime time shuttle) to get us to/from hotel/port/airport.

 

2. Once back from the cruise, we stayed at the Farmer's Daughter Motel on Fairfax, directly accross from CBS studios, The Grove (shopping area), The Farmer's Market. At the Grove, there was a bus stop for the Hop On/Hop Off bus.

 

3. We arrived back from the cruise on Sunday and shuttled to our motel, checked in and immediatly went over to the Grove to pick up the next bus. We were able to buy our ticket right from the bus driver and on the bus they have maps that show the 4 different loops the buses do and the times the busses run. We opted to buy a 48 hour ticket since we were only there until Tuesday. I think it cost us $100 for two 48 hour tickets.

 

4. On Sunday we were able to get to Grauman's Chinese Theatre and walk around there a bit then we decided to take one of the other routes through downtown LA since the Lakers had just won the championship, my husband wanted to see their stadium. We were on the last bus though for the day so we couldn't get off downtown if we wanted a ride back, but we did get to see "downtown" LA. We then went back to Grauman's to pick up the other route to get back to our hotel.

 

5. On Monday, we picked up the first bus at the Grove (which wasn't until 10:50 so that kinda stunk it was so late), but we managed to get to Rodeo drive and get off and walk aorund there then at that stop we switched busses to get to Santa Monica. We walked the pier and took a cab to Venice Beach then walked back to the Santa Monica pier. By that time, we had to get back on the bus so we could get back in time for the transfer back to our hotel.

 

6. In two days, we saw a lot and managed to do 3 of the 4 loops on the bus. During the rides, there is a recorded voice that tells you interesting facts along the way and points out all the sites you are going by. If you google the hop on/hop off site, you will be able to see the map and all the stops along the way. Here is a picture of the bus we rode on. Even though we were there in June, it was a little chilly on top of that bus in the eveneings with the top being open. Both my husband and I had to buy sweaters!

 

[CaseyJr]

Wow, I'm impressed! You did a lot in two days.

 

Unfortunately it is still cool in Los Angeles. I think the high at the beaches today was 67. :(

[Shooty]

Wow, I'm impressed! You did a lot in two days.

 

Unfortunately it is still cool in Los Angeles. I think the high at the beaches today was 67. :(

 

Yeah, we did squeeze a lot in, but we're from New York and we don't know the next time we'll be out there so we tried to make the most out of it. Trust me, we took days to catch up on our sleep! I left out that once we returned to the Grove on Monday night, we waited 3.5 hours on to get a book signed by Tori Spelling. We got our picture taken with her too! :o)

 

We were really dissapointed with the weather both on the cruise on sea days and in LA. It was warmer at home then on vacation and I'm not used to that. :( But we made the best of it and had fun. :)

[Cruisin' Chick]

Unless you are getting here early in the morning on Thursday, that doesn't leave too much time to check out LA. So one suggestion is to narrow down what you want to see. I would rule out downtown LA as there's really not much to see, and the traffic on weekdays can be major and would just cut into your schedule (the last time we were there was on a Saturday and it took forever to go just a couple of miles...and the driver was my hubby who works at city hall there so he knows the area).

[gbcruise]

Shooty...appreciate your review of LA as we are headed there 3 days post cruise in less than two weeks. When departing the ship will a family of 4 with luggage have a hard time finding a van that is available to transfer us to LongBeach or will I need to reserve Primetime or Supershuttle? Did you also write a review of the cruise?

[PatriciaF]

I was just parked next to a Long Beach Yellow Cab that was an Alero MiniVan--should be big enough for 4 people and luggage. The dispatcher at the port should be able to get one big enough for all of you.

[Jen1000]

We have a cruise on Princess that leaves on a Saturday from San Pedro port. We are flying in on Thursday to experience LA. Does anyone have any ideas how we can accomplish this?

 

I have thought about renting a car from Lax and return to Port San Pedro and staying around Hollywood/Beverly Hills Thursday night. Please, I welcome all ideas to get the most of this layover. Thank you in advance! :)

 

I would say go for the car. If you do any freeway driving where you live, driving is really not that hard here. When traffic is heavy, it is moving slow so it is not scary. When it is clear we drive fast but it is pretty orderly. Bring your GPS from home if you have one.

 

Also, I would stay both nights at the same hotel near where you will tour Friday (Hollywood, Bev Hills, etc.) whatever you decide on and then return the car Saturday and get to the port. The drive down to San Pedro should be much quicker Saturday morning over Friday night. You can check out the one way car rental or rent/return at LAX and take a shuttle Saturday AM after returning the car to the airport.

 

What things do you want to do? Beaches, shopping, amusement park, museums, Hollywood type thing, etc. Figure that out and then decide where it is best to stay.

 

Jen in SoCal

[choclabby]

Thank you for this helpful information! :)

[travelbug11]

Anyone coming to L.A. in the next week or so can expect some very HOT weather. Today it was 94 and rising. The beach areas are usually about 10 degrees cooler.

[CaseyJr]

Yep, predicted high at the beaches today is 85 - hot for locals but should be nice for those coming from the heat and humidity of the east coast.

[Cruisin' Chick]

106 yesterday where I live.:eek:

[Fattony]

-Don't think you'll "see Los Angeles" in a day and a half. It's a huge, spread out metropolitan area, and many people say "Los Angeles" to include not just the City of Los Angles, but the entire County of Los Angeles, and sometimes even neighboring counties.

 

-Some people are disappointed by just what they see in Hollywood itself. If you are interested in studio tours, the best are probably Warner Brothers, in Burbank, and Sony (former MGM studios) in Culver City. Universal Studios has a short studio tour (or a very expensive "behind the scenes" tour), but I think its emphasis is on the theme park.

 

-A car could be good if you've really researched where you want to go, and aren't intimidated by driving in L.A.'s traffic. Especially on weekdays it can be bad. You will have to pay for parking at most hotels near LAX, in Hollywood, downtown, etc. And, of course, pay again when you get to various destinations. If you want to cover wide areas, however, a car is a must.

 

-You might check out a tour with Gray Line or others. Without a car, however, I'd recommend staying around LAX (you can get low prices through Hotwire, Priceline, etc., but there's not much to do in the evening) or perhaps Santa Monica (pleasant, albeit more expensive), or even around San Pedro (get that part of your transportation out of the way). I believe others have posted regarding tours they took, including from San Pedro-area hotels. I'm not sure if you can get tours from LAX hotels (I've never checked). The Getty Art Center in Brentwood is world class. You can get there by bus from LAX, but a taxi would be a lot easier.

 

-Enterprise does not normlly do one-way rentals, but they say you can request one by phone. Perhaps picking it up at LAX and leaving it at San Pedro would be allowed.

[Cruisin' Chick]

But if you stay near LAX (and without a car), you'll be using taxis anytime you want to go somewhere. And just a couple of times will run into quite a bit of money.

[Shooty]

Shooty...appreciate your review of LA as we are headed there 3 days post cruise in less than two weeks. When departing the ship will a family of 4 with luggage have a hard time finding a van that is available to transfer us to LongBeach or will I need to reserve Primetime or Supershuttle? Did you also write a review of the cruise?

 

We pre-booked with Prime Time, so I'm not sure if you can just grab one there or not after debarking.

 

No, I didn't write a review of the cruise. I had all intentions to do so after reading a lot of great reviews on here, but we came back to summer here and things just got too crazy for me to write. Usually we vacation when it's winter here and I'd be stuck inside so next time I will write one. :)

 

If you have any questions about the Splendor or the ports (PV, Cabo, Mazatlan), you can ask and I'll try to answer them.

 

Overall:

 

1. The food was great! and you can't beat the variety. The deli was awesome, never tried the mongolian wok, had the burrito - eh. The dining room food was very good though. Our service was a little slow, but got better as the week went on.

 

2. The ship is gorgeous! I don't know why people make such a big deal of the pink, but the detail in this ship is impressive.

 

3. The weather was great in port, but sucked on the first and last sea day. I'm used to those being my relaxing days, but that didn't happen since it was too cold and windy to lay out on the deck those days.

 

4. The ports were nice and fun. The vendors on the beach are relentless though. We did the extreme outdoor adventure in PV and that was a blast!

 

Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll try to answer them!

[itsanita]

We have a 3 1/2 hour layover at the LA airport. Any suggestions as to how to spend our time?

 

We will need to have lunch and I remember reading somewhere about a dinning room at the airport that is 'retro' and high enough to see planes landing and taking off. We are looking for something other than the typical airport food.

[PatriciaF]

Here's the link with the information about the restaurant, Encounter.

 

http://www.encounterlax.com/encounter_dining.html

[itsanita]

thanks, that's it.

 

Is it worth it? Is it in the airport?

[PatriciaF]

I ate there once as a kid when a family member was flying overseas?--this is perhaps 1960 or so. I remember eating there and having spaghetti. Not much else--probably too long ago for a recommendation.

 

LAX is horse shoe shaped. The restaurant is near the open end in the middle--probably between the area between terminals 1 and 2 and 6 and 7.

 

Whether it is worth it--I don't know. Can't imagine it is "cheap." But no airport eating is. You would need to check your luggage and either walk to the restaurant or take the inter-terminal bus to a place that would be a short walk.

 

It is an iconic piece of Los Angeles and probably always seen in movies that have LAX as part of the scenery.

[JayinAZ]

My family and I got back yesterday from our Carnival Paradise cruise. We drove in from AZ, but we did get a 3 hour tour of LA thru LA City Tours. I would recommend them and they do have hotel pick up too. We stayed at the Radisson in Culver City which was $55/night thru Priceline which I felt was a great price. This hotel has free airport pickup. After driving for 2 days in LA, my 2 day experience leads me to believe that it may be less stressful to just find an LA Tour with hotel pickup and spend a day doing that. The hop on/off bus goes for at least 12 hours a day and goes all over LA (except for the stars homes). We did the LA Tour and then went to the Santa Monica Pier at night after spending some time at the beach. The beach was not hot last weekend. It was warm- prob about 83, but the water was cold and there were lots of signs saying the water was off limits due to high levels of bacteria. It didn't stop a lot of people from going in, including myself but the water had a lot of garbage (paper, bottles etc...) and a ton of thick seaweed. The pier was fun but extremely crowded. Parking is terrible in downtown Santa Monica and expensive. You seem to have to pay to park in most touristy or downtown areas.

If you take a tour or taxi, at least you'd save the parking fees. Then again, the freeways weren't exactly fast moving at any of the times we drove, so it could be pricey to take a cab.

I'd at least check out the Radisson in Culver City. There are 2 malls within walking distance with restaurants.

I also got a lot of advice from Steve Bruinn (spelling?) and he recommended this hotel. I trust his judgment.

Good luck!!!!

[jmsnyc]

If I stay at the Radisson pre cruise - how expensive is it to get from there to the San Pedro port? (Royal Caribbean)

 

Jay - did you use the name your own price on price line?

[PatriciaF]

What Radisson?

[JayinAZ]

This was the Radisson in Culver City on Centinela.

I did the Priceline name your price. I started at $45 and got accepted at $55.

Jay