Has anyone stayed at Golden Sails hotel in Long Beach?

[Cyn874]

I'm trying to decide on a hotel to stay the night before our cruise in May. I can't seem to get away from Golden Sails, which keeps popping up for me constantly. But I've never heard anyone mention anything about it here. Does anyone know if it's decent, or should I pass?

[Bruin Steve]

Question:  Are you driving?  Or are you flying in from somewhere?

Reason:  The Golden Sails is nowhere near the harbor.  Assuming you are on Carnival, know that Long Beach is a big city on its own...Population of over half a million...and a pretty long drive from the eastern edge of the city to the western edge.  The Carnival pier is on the extreme western side of Long Beach (If you are on another line--so cruising out of San Pedro, that's another 6-7 miles even further west).  The Golden Sails is in the extreme eastern side of Long Beach--bordering Orange County.  It is not an a bad area...but it is NOT convenient to the tourist area of Long Beach (Aquarium, Queen Mary, etc.) or to the harbor...

If you are flying in, you have some long Uber or shuttle rides back and forth to get to the hotel and to the cruise....That is why you seldom hear the Golden Sails mentioned.

[pitts pilot]

Wasn't too happy last Christmas, elevators out of commission, It is now under new ownership as it was a Best Western when we were there. Great location if you are going to stay for a few days.Fifteen minutes to San Pedro by cab.

 

[Husky61]

We stayed there years ago when we lived nearby.  It was fine then, don't really know about today though. It is close to main street in Seal Beach and the beach.

 

We don't find a need to be close to any pier when we cruise, but that is just our preference.😃

 

There is also the Pacific Inn in Seal Beach with everything within walking distance.

[Bruin Steve]

One more note:

I usually recommend Carnival cruisers, especially ones flying in from out of town for just the day before and without the use of a car stay in the Convention Center area of Long Beach due to the nearby attractions, tourist-oriented shopping and large number of restaurants...and, most importantly, the convenience of being very close to the pier...

 

However, if that scene doesn't appeal to you and you don't mind staying a bit of a distance away and taking two Uber or shuttle rides, then there are other choices as well...some that will result in shorter Uber rides than heading over to East Long Beach or Seal Beach.  Between LAX and Long Beach, if you wanted to stay in a beach town, there are a few nice hotels near the beach and a nice local pier in Redondo Beach (In the area of the Redondo Beach Pier)...Or, if you just wanted to spend the night near a big shopping mall with restaurant choices, Torrance--particularly the area around the Del Amo mall--has several hotels.  Those two options are approximately midway between LAX and the harbor...not as "vacation-y" as Downtown Long Beach, but you may find a decent bargain on a hotel and leave yourself a shorter pair of Uber rides...

[Cyn874]

3 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:

One more note:

I usually recommend Carnival cruisers, especially ones flying in from out of town for just the day before and without the use of a car stay in the Convention Center area of Long Beach due to the nearby attractions, tourist-oriented shopping and large number of restaurants...and, most importantly, the convenience of being very close to the pier...

 

However, if that scene doesn't appeal to you and you don't mind staying a bit of a distance away and taking two Uber or shuttle rides, then there are other choices as well...some that will result in shorter Uber rides than heading over to East Long Beach or Seal Beach.  Between LAX and Long Beach, if you wanted to stay in a beach town, there are a few nice hotels near the beach and a nice local pier in Redondo Beach (In the area of the Redondo Beach Pier)...Or, if you just wanted to spend the night near a big shopping mall with restaurant choices, Torrance--particularly the area around the Del Amo mall--has several hotels.  Those two options are approximately midway between LAX and the harbor...not as "vacation-y" as Downtown Long Beach, but you may find a decent bargain on a hotel and leave yourself a shorter pair of Uber rides...

 

Well, we will be flying into Long Beach airport the afternoon before our Carnival Cruise out of Long Beach. We're hoping to spend under $150 for the night, or at least under $200, which takes nearly every hotel out there out of the running. I know someone who stayed at Golden Seals earlier this year and she had posted some really cute pictures of them having drinks overlooking the marina outside. From those pictures, it looked really pretty. 

 

According to Uber, it's only a 5-7 minute drive  from Long Beach Airport to Golden Sails, at a cost of $13.12. Then another $20 or so from Golden Sails to Long Beach cruise terminal. Looks like that's another 25 minutes which admittedly is pretty long, but I haven't had a lot of luck finding something in our price range, near the Long Beach Cruise terminal, that doesn't look really crappy. 

 

There is the 'maybe' of staying at the Queen Mary.. which my family stayed at this past spring and absolutely adored. The only problem there is that my Dad particularly loved the Queen Mary.. and I'm sorry to say that he just passed away a little over a month ago. My Stepmom and I are afraid that staying at the Queen Mary might be too painful for us. It's on the table as an option but kind of a last resort. 

 

We would love to stay in that area but I just am not having a lot of luck finding anything affordable. To be completely honest, I really want to stay at Hotel Maya more than anything. We stayed there back in 2005 and 2007 on our last Carnival Cruises, and it was beautiful. It's out of the price range we wanted to stay under, but at some point I might just bite the bullet and accept that we're going to have to pay more. It's not a deal breaker, we'd just rather spend the extra money on our actual cruise. 

 

If you have any good suggestions that might be closer to $150-200 without being a Motel 6 quality stay or one of those boutique hotels with no elevator (My Mom is on a cane and can't do stairs), I'd love to hear some options.

 

Editing to add: We arrive in Long Beach around 1:30 PM, which does leave a huge amount of time for fun things. So a location near some of the touristy stuff you mentioned would be ideal. I'm just not familiar at all with Long Beach, so trying to figure things out via google maps was a bit overwhelming.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Cyn874

[Bruin Steve]

Cyn,

I don't know exactly which dates you are cruising...so I arbitrarily picked a date in May--Friday night May 15...and plugged it into a search on tripadvisor.com...

 

The Golden Sails came up with a price of $114...The far-superior Westin came out with a price of $161.  But I then went directly to the Marriott website (they own Westin) and found a pre-paid rate of $153...

 

So, the difference in rates is a mere $39...

 

The Uber ride from LGB to the Westin should be about $16... Uber from the Westin to the pier $7...that's $23 total in Ubers...You are going to pay over $33 from the Golden Sails...so, chop another $10 off the difference...

 

So, by staying at the Golden Sails rather than the Westin, you are saving $29...

 

Now, you may be able to do even better than that $153...Call the Maya and see if they have a special Carnival rate...Look for AAA rates...or Senior /AARP rates if you can qualify...Maybe even Priceline if you know how to work that system (I once snagged a suite at the Doubletree in Boston/Cambridge for $30 a night with Priceline!)...

 

But, barring any of that...it's $29!!!  Much nicer hotel, much better location...If it were me, I would pay that $29 any time...but that's just me...

[Cyn874]

Well, you were close- but we're flying in on May 8th and sailing on May 9th. Maybe it's because of being so close to Mothers Day, but for some reason when I checked the price for the Westin, it showed closer to $300 for that night. 

 

However, I saw what you mentioned about calling the Maya about the Carnival rate. I had heard that mentioned before, but the price for that night is $283 and while I thought the Carnival rate might drop it down a little bit, I doubted it would be enough to make it work. But since you mentioned again, I thought it wouldn't hurt to call and just see. 

 

Turns out, the Carnival rate did in fact drop the price well over $100! I can't believe it! New rate with taxes and everything was only $175! I booked immediately. I am so happy because that was my #1 choice but I thought it was a pipe dream. Thank  you very much for taking so much time to help me out with this and answer my questions. It's very appreciated. 🙂

[Bruin Steve]

Glad to hear that worked out...

The Maya Doubletree is much nicer and much better located...You'll save a lot of the difference on Ubers alone as you can even walk to the ship from the Maya.  And you will have the free Passport Shuttle to take you over the bridge so you can walk around the Pike and Shoreline Village...maybe visit the Aquarium...and pick from a number of restaurant choices along the stretch between the Aquarium and Shoreline Village or at the Pike or up along Pine.  And in the morning, you will have minimum stress about getting to the ship on time...

 

Have fun!!!

[KeepCalmBearOn]

Maya is great. It pays to be persistent.

[riffatsea]

You don't have to walk to the ship from the Maya!! It has a free shuttle that's great!

We always stay there. Just tell them what time you want to be on the shuttle to get to the port.

They may even take you into Long Beach after your cruise . Not sure if they'd take you all the way to the airport on the way back but I do know that they take folks into downtown Long Beach.

Just ask about it when you are there.

[Cyn874]

Yes, we stayed at the Maya twice, back in 2005 and 2007. I LOVED it, beautiful hotel. I'm over the moon that we're staying there again. I already asked about the free shuttle to the cruise in the morning, so that's covered. (I could make the walk, but Ellen is on a cane so it would be too much for her with luggage in tow.)

 

Very curious about the Passport Shuttle though, I don't know what that is but going to google and have a look. It would be fantastic to go over to Pike/Shoreline if it's easy to get there.

[riffatsea]

The Passport bus is a free shuttle over into downtown Long Beach. There is a stop near the Maya.

Glad you got the res for a reasonable price!!

[mkcurran]

On 11/18/2019 at 11:26 AM, Cyn874 said:

Yes, we stayed at the Maya twice, back in 2005 and 2007. I LOVED it, beautiful hotel. I'm over the moon that we're staying there again. I already asked about the free shuttle to the cruise in the morning, so that's covered. (I could make the walk, but Ellen is on a cane so it would be too much for her with luggage in tow.)

 

Very curious about the Passport Shuttle though, I don't know what that is but going to google and have a look. It would be fantastic to go over to Pike/Shoreline if it's easy to get there.

The hotel shuttle will take you over there as well for free.