Process for leaving the ship San Padro

[rhsjr]

We have always used the Princess transfers back to the airport, but this time we will use Prime Time shuttle. If we need to catch the shuttle at 9 AM, what time should we leave the ship? And do we keep our bags rather than give them to Princess and pick them up in the terminal deparing area??

[janacin]

If Prime Time Shuttle is departing at 9AM you should leave enough time to pick up your luggage at the terminal in San Pedro and bring them to wherever Prime Time will meet you. A porter in the terminal can help you with the bags and bring them to the meeting spot, probably at the curb. I would allow an hour from when you exit the ship to locate your luggage and get it moved to the curb.

[OldSeaDog]

The shuttles line up a short distance away when the ship arrives. You go to a man wearing a Prime Time shirt, who is dispatching the shuttles, give him your name, and he will call the shuttle to you. It's a very simple process...you don't need to worry about how you'll ever find the right shuttle in the disembarkation chaos (if you were).

 

I'd say, if you're comfortable carrying off your own bags, do it. If not, no problem handing them over to Princess. Just be sure to request an early departure time.

[rhsjr]

Thanks, that helps :)

[lovevacadays]

If you must meet your shuttle at 9am and there are no other options for a shuttle I would definitely do the walk off with your luggage. Otherwise you could have issues. There could be immigration delays or if you are in a cabin that isn't in the early rounds of disembarkation you wouldn't get off by 9am.

 

If you don't feel you can do walk off the other option might be to go to the Purser's desk a few days before departure and see if you can get in the first group off. I know they will do this for people with earlier flights but not sure what the policy is for early shuttles. Typically, the general disembarkation goes by deck after those with priority disembarkation.

[Pam in CA]

I would allow an hour from when you exit the ship to locate your luggage and get it moved to the curb.

An hour? It's never taken me more than 15 minutes total to exit the ship, go through Immigration, collect my bag, and be curbside with my luggage in San Pedro. Sometimes less. I've arrived in San Pedro on a variety of Princess ships from a variety of embarkation points.

[shepp]

One thing: your reservation doesn't necessarily mean you'll leave the port at 9:00 on the dot. It doesn't even mean that a shuttle will be sitting there waiting for you, doors open. It just means that when the next available shuttle starts loading, you'll have priority over pax without reservations. But if you're the only two people aboard the shuttle, you may sit there waiting for a bit. But if you get to the shuttle guy after 9:00, you should still have that priority. Make sense?

 

I've used Prime Time, and it's been fine...made the airport before our ETA. They're experienced at this, and make realistic estimates of when you'll reach LAX. But if you have absolutely no wiggle room timewise, you might ask for an earlier shuttle reservation and either self-disembark or request an early standard disembarkation time.

 

Oh, and if you self-disembark with your own bags, you should be able to haul them comfortably with one hand free.

[Cruisin' Chick]

If you're catching a shared shuttle, there be some at the shuttle island. You won't have to get off the ship by 8 or 9. And in some cases, you might not be getting off the ship by any scheduled time (Princess has no control over the customs and immigration officials). So unless you have an early flight (and really, you should never schedule a flight out of LAX before noon, even on the weekend...Princess and the other cruiselines actually advise against any flights prior to 1pm).

 

You shouldn't have to do the self-disembarkation. When you get to the baggage area, try to grab a porter with one of those flat dollys and tip him to get your luggage out to the shuttle island outside.

 

Now as for Prime Time, I have a very bad experience with a booking for a private van (we were going between our house in the Valley and the port on both days so I had pre-arranged for our pick-ups). And even though I got a email confirmation with the correct info, they sent our driver to the port instead of our house on the day of our cruise, and did the reverse for the day when we got off the cruise. And even when their curbside rep finally got us a private van (I did have my email confirmation with me so he knows his company had messed up), and called his office, the woman he was talking to actually argued with him that we weren't at the port, we were supposed to be at our house. Not kidding about that, I was standing next to him and heard her.

 

I imagine you can just jump on the shuttle (or take Super shuttle if you didn't leave a credit card number ahead of time) to get to LAX. The vans will be filled up with whoever shows up and leave and another van will slip into that place to wait for the next group of passengers. Many won't even pre-reserve; it'll be like catching a taxi.

[cruzsnooze]

I would also allow an hour. You could be the unlucky one that customs decides to check and makes you open all your luggage. The immigration lines can move quickly or slowly, there's no way to know but with an hour you'll feel good knowing you allowed enough time for all contingencies. We arrive at least twice a year on a Princess ship at San Pedro and our time has varied.