Best hotels in LA Pre Hawaii Cruise

[tapia]

I noticed there was a great thread for San Diego hotels, I'm looking for LA hotels.......

 

Has anyone stayed at the Manhattan Beach Marriott? My points get me a great deal there, but if it's too far away from the pier, I'm not sure I'd want to go......

 

Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

[gracecarmo]

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza, and also the Doubletree (aka Marina) while taking a cruise from LA. Both were ok, and the Doubletree just went through a major renovation. The Crowne Plaza was being refurbished but should be good now. The port is rather "charming"....but we did find things to do, just for the 2 days we were there.

[tapia]

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza, and also the Doubletree (aka Marina) while taking a cruise from LA. Both were ok, and the Doubletree just went through a major renovation. The Crowne Plaza was being refurbished but should be good now. The port is rather "charming"....but we did find things to do, just for the 2 days we were there.

 

Thanks for the response! Are those very close to the port?

[hommebronze]

SAN PEDRO CROWNE PLAZA

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g33035-d81765-r7172811-Crowne_Plaza_Los_Angeles_Harbor_Hotel-San_Pedro_California.html

 

I noticed there was a great thread for San Diego hotels, I'm looking for LA hotels.......

 

Has anyone stayed at the Manhattan Beach Marriott? My points get me a great deal there, but if it's too far away from the pier, I'm not sure I'd want to go......

 

Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

[gracecarmo]

The Crowne Plaza is almost on top of the port. The Doubletree is a little farther away, and they do have a shuttle to the port. (require reservations though.)

If you stay at the Crowne Plaza, you can walk into town (such as it is...very small) and to a few restaurants. We ate at the Whale restaurant, an Irish Pub type place, and also had a good Mexican lunch at Alcapulco, on the water.

The food at the Crowne was really not good when we were there, and service was really bad. We got a free breakfast as there was a problem checking in due to a TV movie being made in the lobby. The next day we went down the street to a good restaurant next to the Best Western, and it was really good....like Perkins Pancakes.

Can't remark about the Doubletree re food etc. but many in our CC group said it was good...they also have a happy hour on Fri with appies.

Now...some people prefer to stay in Long Beach, ascross the bay. We took the city bus over there, and I honestly can say I prefer the San Pedro hotels.

Hope this helps.

[tapia]

Sounds great, thanks for all the info.

 

Can I ask what appies are?

[frankathy]

We stayed in the Queen Mary Hotel. It is minutes from San Pedro. The ship had a lot of history and a self guided tour. A few nice restaurants and shops. Small workout room. They also held parties at night.

[gracecarmo]

Tapia: Appies are appetizers. When we stayed at the Doubletree, they had a very substantial happy hour buffet...free too. Like pieces of fried fish, cheeses, vegs, dips, etc. It was really enough for our dinner.

BTW, I did get a really good price for this hotel last year on Priceline.

[Bruin Steve]

I noticed there was a great thread for San Diego hotels, I'm looking for LA hotels.......

Has anyone stayed at the Manhattan Beach Marriott? My points get me a great deal there, but if it's too far away from the pier, I'm not sure I'd want to go......

 

You can find quite a number of threads on LA hotels over on the West Coast

Departures Ports board...

 

But, let me give you a little info here (I'm a "local")...

 

LA is a VERY BIG place...no matter where you are from, you will likely find the scale here incredible...Remember, it's one of the largest metropolises in the country in terms of population, but area-wise, it pales most others...

 

Basically, in terms of what you need to know, the main airport, LAX, is 20 miles north of the pier in San Pedro...What we call "the West Side" (Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Brentwood, Bel Air, Westwood et al) is NORTH of the airport...

 

Manhattan Beach is in an area we call "the South Bay"--the towns south of LAX along the west-facing shoreline...

 

A lot depends on how long you are spending in the LA area and what you want to do. If you were visiting for an extended period of time, I'd recommend staying on the West Side--closest to most of the tourist sites...

 

When staying just a night pre-cruise and not wanting to tour extensively, just to relax, I'd go with the harbor area...

 

The South Bay, especially its beach cities--Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo--are nice areas...upscale beach towns with good restaurant choices--a nice compromise for some not wishing to pay the high prices of the Wst Side...and who want a relaxing environment...But, as a location, it's sort of neither fish nor fowl...You are not near the tourist sites and you are not near the pier...You mainly stay there IF that is where you want to stay...You would need transportation LAX to hotel and hotel to pier...

 

The Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor Complex is the busiest port in North America...Most imports and exports from Asia and the Pacific pass through this harbor (dwarfing the volumes that pass through San Francisco, Portland, Seattle or any other West Coast port...or any East Coast port for that matter)...and it's largely a commercial and industrial port...so, as you can imagine, the harbor area itself is massive... It sprawls across city limits through several separately incorporated cities...but, basically, is separated into two halves--the two cities that actually front the ocean--Long Beach and Los Angeles--the Los Angeles side is usually refered to as ""San Pedro"--now a district of Los Angeles, it, at one time was a separate city that got annexed into the bigger city...Long Beach on its own, is a city with a population in excess of a half a million...

 

There are two passenger ship terminals...one in Long Beach which services, for the most part only Carnival Cruise Lines...The other one, in San Pedro, services everyone else...The two piers are 6 miles apart...

 

When sailing out of Long Beach, it makes sense to stay in Long Beach...The Downtown/Convention Center area of Long Beach has several upscale chain hotels--Westin, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott Courtyard and Renaissance as well as several smaller ones--including the popular Coast Hotel on the waterfront near the Queen Mary...and, of course, the Queen Mary itself--which operates as a hotel (to some mixed reviews)...

 

What makes Long Beach otherwise attractive--even to people sailing out of Pedro--is that there is a bit more to do there--the Queen Mary, the Aquarium of the Pacific, Shoreline Village shopping and restaurant area (I often recommend Parker's Lighthouse at Shoreline Village for dinner with nice views of the harbor and Queen Mary) --and it has a free shuttle service that takes you all over the local area...

 

San Pedro, OTOH, is an older, blue collar town...doesn't have quite the glitz and glamor...or the selection of restaurants...or the tourist sites...What it does have is convenience to the pier...with most hotels providing free shuttles to the pier...There are two or three "favored" hotels in Pedro...as noted...the Crown Plaza--which is right in town...almost walking distance from the pier... the Doubletree--which is on the waterfront near the harbor channel entrance...and a Holiday Inn near the pier...There are also one or two others--maybe not as attractive...

 

Restaurant choices in Pedro are a little less...There's that Acapulco--local chain Mexican food...not too bad...but the attraction here is that it is right on the water...and, if you time it right, a cruise ship might come right by as yoyu are eating...If you like Greek food, there's Papadakis Taverna on 6th St (owned by the family of a local radio personality and former USC (Boo!!) Football player...one who doesn't seem to quite understand that whatever recent successes his alma mater may have, they NEVER beat UCLA when HE ws playing! Okay, editorial aside, I'll give his restaurant that plug anyway...

There's a very cheesy shopping complex along the waterfront near Acapulcio Restaurant called "Ports o' Call Village", but, other than Acapulco, I wouldn't really recommend eating anywhere else there--a little "third world-ish"...

 

Hope this helps...

[gracecarmo]

even if the Bruins beat KU, (final four) you do have a lot of good information! (we are Jayhawks).:D

 

We did find that San Pedro is "trying hard" to make it a quaint, charming, downtown area. I agree that Ports O'Call is dying. We did have a nice meal at the Irish Pub (can't recall the name, but something like the Blue Whale?) and others went out to an Italian restaurant, and also another restaurant in Ports.

Alcapulco was fun for a late lunch/early dinner. We sat there for quite a while, sipping marguaritas, and people watching.

As for Long Beach...well, it was just too big for us, and too busy.

Maybe after they (in SP) get all the loft condos finished things will improve.

[tapia]

@ gracecarmo: Sorry~should have known that meant appetizers...

@ Bruin Steve: Wow, that's a LOT of information. Thank you so much, I do appreciate it. Actually, I'm only going to be staying 1 night. That night will be spent getting in from the airport after a long flight from the east coast after work. Then the next day I board the ship. Originally, I was thinking of the Manhattan Beach Marriott and I could see that would be good if we were staying longer, but probably not the right choice for a fast-1 night hotel....

 

Thank you!

[SoBaycruiser]

There's always the Doubletree in San Pedro. It is adjacent to Cabrillo marina which has pleasure boats in it. There is nothing within easy walking distance except Cabrillo Marine Aquarium but it is a lovely setting and they do shuttle people to the ship. So if you want a relaxing place in a nice setting close to the ship, this may be the place for you.

[tapia]

Thank you everyone for the info!

 

@ Bruin Steve: Thanks for directing me to the departures board, it was something I didn't know was there. I really have to explore the site much better. I've only confined myself to a few great boards--it gives me horror thinking of the amount of time more I could be spending on the boards.