Queen Mary hotel in Long Beach

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

6 hours ago, MEUB1112 said:

By the way, we are from the other end of the state, last year we flew into Long Beach Airport as opposed to LAX, it was awesome. Close to the QM (15 minute cab ride) and shorter flight from Sacramento by about 20 minutes. LB Airport is so very east to navigate through.

Couldn't agree more.  We did a long weekend on Catalina Island and flew Sacramento to LB with UBER to heliport out to Catalina.  We fly a lot to So CA and not sure why I never did LB airport before.  Only downside is the lack of services if you have a long wait before a flight.  It's hard to beat Orange County for services.  Otherwise, LB is flight to curb less than ten minutes.    

[LandlockedCruiser01]

On 10/3/2019 at 12:06 PM, Keys2Heaven said:

There is a FREE shuttle that will take you to Shoreline Village. I think runs every 1/2 hour. Forget the hours it runs. Go over there as it's a pretty neat place with lots of places to eat.

I'm sure you're referring to the Passport bus.  It runs from early morning to late evening, every 15 to 30 minutes.  I rode it to downtown Long Beach for breakfast, because I didn't want to pay $26 for an uninspiring breakfast buffet.  But for dinner the night before, I rode the AquaLink to Alamitos Bay.  It had the In-N-Out Burger that I've been wanting to try for 10 years.  And the ride was a blast, almost as good as real cruise.  I ended up talking to two very friendly ladies sitting on the same bench as me.

 

11 hours ago, MEUB1112 said:

By the way, we are from the other end of the state, last year we flew into Long Beach Airport as opposed to LAX, it was awesome. Close to the QM (15 minute cab ride) and shorter flight from Sacramento by about 20 minutes. LB Airport is so very east to navigate through.

I thought about flying from ORD to LGB to save on shuttle costs.  But the tickets ended up being nearly twice as expensive as tickets to LAX, rendering shuttle savings negligible.  So I guess LGB is only good for puddle jumper flights, like from California cities or Las Vegas.

[MEUB1112]

On ‎10‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 6:43 PM, LandlockedCruiser01 said:

I'm sure you're referring to the Passport bus.  It runs from early morning to late evening, every 15 to 30 minutes.  I rode it to downtown Long Beach for breakfast, because I didn't want to pay $26 for an uninspiring breakfast buffet.  But for dinner the night before, I rode the AquaLink to Alamitos Bay.  It had the In-N-Out Burger that I've been wanting to try for 10 years.  And the ride was a blast, almost as good as real cruise.  I ended up talking to two very friendly ladies sitting on the same bench as me.

 

I thought about flying from ORD to LGB to save on shuttle costs.  But the tickets ended up being nearly twice as expensive as tickets to LAX, rendering shuttle savings negligible.  So I guess LGB is only good for puddle jumper flights, like from California cities or Las Vegas.

You're probably correct, we fly out of Sacramento, but flights back east are cheaper from the Bay Area, I just can't stand the Bay Area. So we pay a little more for Sac. The drive for us to Sac is extremely easy.

[BarnCat1]

I am thinking of staying on the QM post cruise as my ship docks at 8am and I want to enjoy Catalina Island before flying home the next day.  Will the hotel store my luggage while I am out for the day? Since this is post cruise, will it be strange to come off a new ship and stay on an old ship or will the history make up for it?   

[LandlockedCruiser01]

19 hours ago, BarnCat1 said:

I am thinking of staying on the QM post cruise as my ship docks at 8am and I want to enjoy Catalina Island before flying home the next day.  Will the hotel store my luggage while I am out for the day? Since this is post cruise, will it be strange to come off a new ship and stay on an old ship or will the history make up for it?   

I don't think it'll be strange, just not the order I'd prefer to do it in.  The history on the ship is indeed wonderful.  It made for great conversations with fellow passengers onboard.  (Also with the people I talked to around Long Beach.)  History on the West Coast tends to be more subtle than in older parts of the US, but Queen Mary is one place where you really feel it.

 

Yes, they'll store your luggage, provided that you're checking in or out that day.  The front desk stored my luggage and backpack after I checked out, but wasn't due to board Inspiration until later.  They work closely with Carnival, so they're highly familiar with people's embarkation and debarkation routines.

 

Have a fun cruise!  And you're going love Catalina too.  See the "Day 2" portion of my review (link in signature) for a sample of what you'll see, if it's your first time going there.

Edited October 27, 2019 by LandlockedCruiser01

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

20 hours ago, BarnCat1 said:

I am thinking of staying on the QM post cruise as my ship docks at 8am and I want to enjoy Catalina Island before flying home the next day.  Will the hotel store my luggage while I am out for the day? Since this is post cruise, will it be strange to come off a new ship and stay on an old ship or will the history make up for it?   

 

If you can afford it take the helicopter at least one way it's awesome.  The helipad is just across the parking lot from both QM and the terminal.  When we were there in January the seas were so rough one morning they canceled the ferry coming out until after 11:00 AM.  This left people on the island stranded and looking to miss their flights home.  The helicopter company actually called us and asked if we would move our flight back to the mainland until later in the afternoon so they could charge people a lot of $$$ to get back and not miss flights because the ferry hadn't shown up to take them back.  We couldn't charge as we had late afternoon flights out of LGB.  I was told somebody paid $1500 for a last minute flight off the island.