Our post cruise time in LA

[mattR]

Wanted to post what we did for a few days post our NCL Star cruise that ended Mar 30/07.

 

We had reserved a car with Enterprise Rental Car after clearing customs there was a phone in the terminal building that I used to call them for pickup. You don't have to know there number it connects you automaticaly. They arrived about 10 min after I called but could only take the drivers as there were to many of us waiting. They took groups of two but not larger groups. The staff at the rental office were A+++ very very nice. I had booked a intermediate car but was upgraded to a mini van with a DVD entertainment center which the kids loved. I asked the shuttle driver to go back and get my family which they were willing to do but I was ready to leave by the time the shuttle was so just followed him back into the port to pick up my family. We then drove over to long beach to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific. I brought our GPS which made driving so easy. I cheaped out and booked 2 nights with Priceline. I was disapointed that we got the Marriot at the Burbank Airport as I wanted something closer to Universal which is were we were spending our next two days. The hotel ended up being very nice with GREAT beds. Had to pay $14 parking per night though. The drive to Universal was easy with my GPS. Universal wasn't very busy for being the start of spring break only 15 min waits for most rides. We had two good days at Universal then headed down to the Westin at LAX for our last night. We used our GPS and cut through the resedential areas as it was a much shorter distance probably same time though? I was neat to see some of the huge houses along the way. I would never attempt to drive this route without the GPS . We arrived at the Westin at 10pm so I was able to return the car right at the Westin as it is Enterprises after hours drop so that was easy. We caught the shuttle to LAX in the morning Terminal 1 had huge lines thankfully we were flying out of Terminal 2 with Air Canada and had no lines at all. We had a couple hours to kill but that was easyly done by having breakfast and looking around the shops. Thanks to all of you who answered many of my questions earlier.

[Bruin Steve]

Matt,

Glad to hear it all worked out so well...

Sorry to hear Priceline placed you out by the Burbank Airport...

That would have been my concern looking at the Priceline site...Their geographical limits for the area include Burbank and Glendale (Glendale would have been even farther away) with the Universal area...and most of the hotels that would fit the typical Priceline concept would be near the Airport...I would think that it would be worth it to a lot of folks to just book directly with the Sheraton or Hilton in Universal City if their main intent is to visit Universal...Only those two hotels put you virtually right in the complex...

 

Additional parking charges are often unavoidable in many parts of LA (as they are in NYC, San Francisco and a few other towns)...especially in areas near an airport or downtown or Beverly Hills, Warner Center, Century City, etc...These areas just have a high demand on parking...$14 is actually not too bad...it could have been worse...

 

Bringing that GPS unit was a great idea...

[mattR]

Ya was kicking myself for not booking one closer to Universal but worked out well in the end. And the beds were so great:)