Disembark and Flight Times

[bartolino]

We will be returning from a Princess Mexico 7 night cruise on March 22nd. The itinerary says the ship docks at Long Beach Terminal at 7:00am. I'm trying to decide which flight to book for our return to Portland, OR out of Long Beach airport. The safe bet is the 6:09pm flight, but there's an 11:05am flight that would get us home quicker.

I'd like to take one of the cheap shuttles from the cruise terminal to the airport, but not sure of the time. Perhaps a cab would work better? I've read you can request early disembarkation...but maybe we want to linger on the ship?

 

What's my best bet here?

[satxdiver]

If you wanted to do the early flight, you will need to do the self assisted walk off. You will be one of the first off the ship and the lines at Immigration should be small. The down side of this is that it is self assist meaning you carry your own luggage off the ship with no assistance from the ship or port. The only risk you would take is if the ship returned to the port late or that Immigration officials are slow in clearing the ship to disembark pax or slow at the Immigration desks. A pre-arranged shuttle will be needed. Prime Time and Super Shuttle are the two biggest ones. So be sure to pre-arrange the shuttle which can be done online with a credit card. Taxi will work of course but at $$$.

 

BTW Princess usually goes out of San Pedro and not Long Beach. The two are several miles apart by road.

Edited October 28, 2014 by satxdiver

[Pia1913]

We will be returning from a Princess Mexico 7 night cruise on March 22nd. The itinerary says the ship docks at Long Beach Terminal at 7:00am. I'm trying to decide which flight to book for our return to Portland, OR out of Long Beach airport. The safe bet is the 6:09pm flight, but there's an 11:05am flight that would get us home quicker.

I'd like to take one of the cheap shuttles from the cruise terminal to the airport, but not sure of the time. Perhaps a cab would work better? I've read you can request early disembarkation...but maybe we want to linger on the ship?

 

What's my best bet here?

 

Are you sure it says Long Beach? Better check. You can make the 11 flight from Long Beach even if you're in San Pedro (which I believe you will be), but you will definitely have to do a walkoff as early as possible.

[Pam in CA]

The Crown Princess 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise disembarks on 3/21 at the World Cruise Center, Port of Los Angeles (San Pedro.) It does not disembark in Long Beach. Not sure where you saw that.

 

You may or may not make an 11:05am flight out of Long Beach airport. The ship will probably start to disembark at about 8am. You'll have to do self-disembarkation whereby you carry all of your luggage off yourself without assistance. You'll need to have one hand free to manage the escalator or else wait for the elevator, which could be a very long wait. Then, go through Immigration and Customs, get the shuttle, go to the airport, check in, go through Security and then to the gate.

 

It's doable but everything would have to go right. Two weeks ago, Immigration disembarking the Crown was very slow and most passengers were still disembarking at 10am. And you'd have to pray to the gods that there isn't an accident or traffic on your way to the airport.

 

I wouldn't chance it but others do. You might want to check flights out of LAX. Chances are you'll have more flight options and prices could be cheaper.

[bartolino]

From what I've read so far, I think we'll play it safe and book the 6:09pm flight at Long Beach. No sense in hurrying and potentially panicing trying to race to make a flight.

IS there food being served in the morning of disembarkation? I'd like to have our bags packed and locked and out in the hallway the prior night, so we can enjoy that last morning on board the ship. May take a stroll around the deck before leaving. Thanks all :)

[katisdale]

Both the horizon court and the MDR will be open to serve breakfast before you leave the ship. However you will have to have your carry-on bags with you and you must clear the cabins by 8 or 8:30. Most ships will be cleared by 9:30 to 10 unless there are delays. You will be given an area (lounge etc.) and a time to meet when you are given your debark luggage tags.

[acegolfer25]

Just got off CB so not sure whether it applies to your ship.

 

We decided to self carry out. The day before disembarkation, they handed out walk off pass by groups at the shore excursion desk. The first group was 7:30 am staging at Coral dining room. We went down at 7:20 am and ppl were already getting off the ship and they didn't require the walk off pass. We cleared immigration/customs around 7:35 am. My kid was 10 minutes late for school (20 min drive from port).

 

Keep in mind that Horizon court gets busy early on last day. The long line started even at 6:30 am.

Edited October 29, 2014 by acegolfer25

[Cruisin' Chick]

We will be returning from a Princess Mexico 7 night cruise on March 22nd. The itinerary says the ship docks at Long Beach Terminal at 7:00am. I'm trying to decide which flight to book for our return to Portland, OR out of Long Beach airport. The safe bet is the 6:09pm flight, but there's an 11:05am flight that would get us home quicker.

I'd like to take one of the cheap shuttles from the cruise terminal to the airport, but not sure of the time. Perhaps a cab would work better? I've read you can request early disembarkation...but maybe we want to linger on the ship?

 

What's my best bet here?

 

You might want to double check the disembarkation date too. If your ship (which you didn't list) is returning on Sunday, March 22, it definitely won't be docking at the Port of LB as there's a Carnival ship scheduled, and there's only one berth there.

 

If it's the Crown, you're returning on the 21st, as Pam stated above.

 

http://www.sanpedrocalendar.com/scripts/calcium40.pl?Op=ShowIt&CalendarName=sanpedrocruiseship&Op=ShowIt&Amount=Month&NavType=Absolute&Type=Block&Date=2015/3/1

 

It's possible that not all the ships are listed yet.

[Pam in CA]

Just got off CB so not sure whether it applies to your ship.

 

We decided to self carry out. The day before disembarkation, they handed out walk off pass by groups at the shore excursion desk. The first group was 7:30 am staging at Coral dining room. We went down at 7:20 am and ppl were already getting off the ship and they didn't require the walk off pass. We cleared immigration/customs around 7:35 am.

The CB sails out of FLL, not San Pedro. Very different port. San Pedro rarely starts disembarkation before 8am and often, it can be later. As I said above, Immigration can be very, very slow.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Unless you're willing to handle all of your luggage (not putting out any in the hallway the night before and letting your bags be taken off for you) by yourself without any help...then don't go for self-disembarkation. You should be off by 9:30am, unless there's a severe delay in the customs/immigration process. If you go early enough for breakfast, you can often leave your carry-ons in your cabin. Then return, brush your teeth, check your cabin's drawers and safe one more time, and then go to the lounge you were given to wait in. And don't forget that customs form. About four years ago, my hubby left it on the desk and he had to go back to the cabin afterl I asked him where it was (and that was his 9th or 10th cruise, too:rolleyes:).

[baz48]

 

If it's the Crown' date=' you're returning on the 21st, as Pam stated above.

 

http://www.sanpedrocalendar.com/scripts/calcium40.pl?Op=ShowIt&CalendarName=sanpedrocruiseship&Op=ShowIt&Amount=Month&NavType=Absolute&Type=Block&Date=2015/3/1

 

It's possible that not all the ships are listed yet.[/quote']

 

 

We are returning on the Ruby on March 21 and our itinerary says we will be in San Pedro, but that isn't what this calendar says. Interesting. Hope they can put two ships there.

 

We considered the exact same flights as the OP and we decided to book the earlier flight to Portland from Long Beach. We just couldn't imagine having to sit around LAX for 7 or 8 hours waiting for our flight. It's a smaller airport, closer than LAX and we're confident we can get there in time if we do the "carry our luggage" thing. We'll just take a taxi which should be about the same or a little more for the 2 of us as Super Shuttle but we won't have to worry about the shuttle not being there. We've had a bad experience with them before.