How long from deprature to airport?

[want to cruise]

Ok, I promise this is my last question for now. I guess it shows we are first time cruisers!!

 

We are taking the Monarch (RC) on 5/13 out of LA. We really would like to use Long Beach airport but JetBlue (only airline servicing Oakland airport) has such limited departures, we aren't sure it is necessarily the best option.

 

The departure time for our cruise is listed as 8am. The next flight out of LGB would be 9:55. The next one wouldn't be until after 3pm, which is just way too late for us. But my question would be, is it crazy to think we could make the 9:55 flight? I'd really, really hate to miss our flight....

 

Any opinions or experiences with such tight timelines? THanks.

[springtxbill]

No way will you make a 9:55 flight from anywhere. :)

[want to cruise]

Thanks Bill. That's what I thought but figured I'd ask to be sure. So, does the 8 am departure mean that is when they begin letting people off the ship or by that time everyone needs to be off?

[Big Al B.]

That usually means the approximate time of arrival at the dock. Then there will be a wait for clearance from immigrations, for anyone who hasn't paid their onboard account (you hear their names being called), and then you start to leave the ship. The time can be up to an hour or more depending if there are any problems.

[Happy ks]

Perhaps there is a ship sponsored tour you can take to fill in the time between disembarking and your flight. It would be way too stressful to make a 9:55 flight, even if you were first off the ship at 8am, it will still take a minimum of 45 minutes to to an hour to get your ride and drive to the airport. If one thing goes wrong, you have missed your flight.

 

Don't ever worry about asking too many questions, I find it fun to answer the ones I can. There are no stupid or silly questions and many of us here want to share, I wish this site were around when I first started cruising.