lx200gps

We landed at LAX Terminal 6 a few hours ago and did the taxi routine from T7 rather than deal with LAX- It. When we left T6 the crowds waiting for all the different buses, including the LAX-It buses, were massive, total pandemonium, and the LAX-It buses looked to be SRO, near capacity. We walked the 100 yards from T6 to just past T7, where small yellow TAXI signs appeared, and they led to the taxi stand. The T7 taxi stand is not in the parking garage, but is located right outside and past T7. Not surprisingly, there are no taxis lined up waiting for passengers, and a sign gives the phone number to call. A few people in the line behind us called and asked for taxis to be sent, my Canadian cell phone, being U/S. The taxis trickled in one at a time, and we waited probably 10 minutes total for our taxi to arrive

Thanks very much. You as well. ;o)

It doesn't have to be a Princess transfer, just anyone going to Terminal 2. Princess's main terminal is T2, which is before the security gate, so anyone can access it without having to show their paperwork (at least until they enter the terminal for check-in). If another Princess ship is using another terminal, anyone going there may be subject to showing the paperwork.

That is correct, only taxis are using those two stands at T3 and T7. We'll stick to taxi if it means not having to deal with LAX-It.

I'm curious which terminal you arrived at? There are supposed to be two taxi stands AT LAX proper, not the LAX-It area, for those who don't want to do the LAX-It thing dealing with buses or long walks. One is near Terminal 3 and another near Terminal 7, clearly marked on the LAX website. https://www.flylax.com/lax-traffic-and-ground-transportation We will be arriving at LAX Terminal 6 tomorrow and plan to walk from T6 to the nearest taxi stand at T7.

We're flying AC to LA in two days, back on the 14th. Everything is quiet, I should get the check-in notice tomorrow morning, so no news is probably good news. We're doing the same trip again in February, I'm a bit more worried about the timing for that trip.

We'll be staying at the Hilton across Hawthorne Blvd from the Del Amo Mall this coming Friday. I know it's a huge mall but didn't realize it was still #6 in the US, pretty impressive, thanks for factoid.

In general, there are two ways to disembark from a cruise ship at the end of the trip and a lot depends on your physical mobility. 1) you will put your bags outside your cabin door the night before, and then pick them up just prior to Customs/immigration in the arrival hall. In this case you would be given a "walk-off" time a few days before and will leave at that time. 2) the preferred method in your case, is what is called "self-walkoff" where you keep all your luggage and take it with you when disembarking. You need to be able to manage all your suitcases etc. The advantage of self walkoff is that you are generally the very first set of passengers allowed off the ship, which can help with lines at Customs/Immigration. Although we have never sailed Carnival, this is the way we always disembark, from Princess, Celebrity or NCL, and is particularly important when we have a tight airline flight home. Among the first off the ship, easy access to taxis etc.Have a great cruise

Perfect, thanks so much, found it. As you advised, we'll watch for a new monthly offer in a few weeks, now that she has already downloaded her first selection.

Apologies for the hijack, but how does one take advantage of this? I'm a long-time and very busy Prime member, have just set up SWMBO's tablet with the app and have purchased and installed her first book. I can't find any mention of this program on their site. Thanks for the assistance ;o)

You don't mention where you are sailing from, and why you need something "near LAX". The whole LAX area is pretty industrial and not overly easy to navigate. FWIW, we sail Princess from San Pedro, and have started to overnight before our trip in Torrance, which is about half way between LAX and San Pedro. In fact, we'll be back there this Friday ;o) Once of the reason we chose our particular hotel zone in Torrance is that it is co-located with the massive Del Amo mall, about 20-30 minutes in normal traffic from LAX and about the same to the port at San Pedro. The mall is huge and has a lot of stores, though it isn't technically an outlet mall. If you're sailing Carnival from Long Beach, there are the Pike Outlets right near the harbor in LB, in a great location with lots of hotels and restaurants nearby

The Cabanas inside the Sanctuary are $US220/day.

Sorry, Mini Suites and Suites are VERY different classes of cabins. Minis do not qualify for any Suite perqs

This is a link to a CTV article relative to Quebec, but it mentions that the Moderna shot will roll out first, but implies the Pfizer shot has been OK'd by Health Canada and will follow soon after. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-rolling-out-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-oct-2-for-vulnerable-groups-1.6581307 We're in a tough spot as we fly out to LAX to board the Discovery Princess on Oct 6, and we're still not sure we can be "boosted" with the newest shot before we go. Originally, Quebec stated Oct 10, then corrected it to allow "at risk" populations like us over 60, to get our shots starting Oct 2. Trouble is, as at today there's still no appointment booking link on the Gvt website for any date next week.

We're scheduled to sail out of Berth 93 next Saturday on the Discovery Princess, and its probably 5 years since we last sailed from SP . Do Princess still have the dedicated Platinum, Elite and Suites "lounge" area set aside for priority passengers, and do they currently do the light coffee and munchies set up like they do at Port Everglades? We are very early arrivers, among the first to check-in then sitting around until boarding starts. What time does boarding typically start at SP these days, given the stated 3PM sailaway time. At PE, on our last few trips, we've started boarding as early as 10:30AM.

Understand. I always give her our desired cabin and one or two alternates, but so far, in the relatively few cruises she has worked for us, (~20?) we have never needed the alternate, as the one we wanted was always available. Still, I may talk to her and see what she says about me booking it myself then handing it over to her. Given that your experience is that it doesn't amount to extra work for her, I'm sure she won't mind. Thanks for the advice ;o)

We've been customers of the big online and brick & mortar cruise agency for a number of years. I do all our research in nauseating detail and simply contact our longtime dedicated TA with all the details, right down to the specific cabin we want to book. We never waste her time having her do the research for us, I suspect I know far more about Princess than she does so she has little to do but make the reservation. She's been our dedicated rep for along time and has been tremendous, always available and helpful. We usually book a year's worth of cruises during their big annual sale and save about 10% in the form of significant OBC, though I recently discovered a stupidly good deal on a Canada/New England trip on Princess out of Boston myself and had her book it for us independent of their sale. There are few advantages to using them over doing it myself. In addition to the sale OBC and small additional OBC for the booking, we accumulate their "frequent sailor" points which ends up as a free hotel night every other year or so. They don't apply large charges to make the booking for us, a few $$$s here and there. As soon as I identify the specific cabin we want, I contact her and she has it booked for us with in hours, obviating the need for me to book it myself then transfer it to her. I guess the other huge advantage to using this TA is that I don't have to deal with Princess myself and have literally never had to sit on hold for hours with an issue.

We haven't sailed out of SP since maybe a year pre-pandemic, Port Everglades has been our home port for our last half dozen cruises. If we de-Uber at SP berth 93 at say, 9 or 9:30AM with Elite status, will we simply check in, pick up our Medallions then sit in the PES lounge until boarding starts? I vaguely recollect that's what we did a few years ago at SP. What are some of the issues these days? Thx...

Just out of curiosity, what cruise line is making you check-in so late? Or are you choosing such a late check-in yourself? We're sailing out of SP next week on Princess and they did away with mandatory check-in times, passengers can arrive whenever they want (though they never did enforce it anyway).

Sorry, no. The Sanctuary must be booked in person once aboard. If you want to have any chance of getting decent loungers, board as soon as humanly possibly and race upstairs.

You are correct. On Princess Medallion equipped ships, which AFAIK is now the whole fleet, the cabin resident's names are shown on the electronic display mounted into the cabin wall right next to the door. Here's a random example off a Cruise Critic cabin review. We've never had a problem with that, there's a far more insidious problem with the Medallion system than just posting the names. We're back on Princess next week, on the Discovery, if I can remember, I'll ask at Guest Services about anonymizing the display to remove the names.

You're quite welcome. Here is a screenshot from the LAX site roughly showing where the Terminal 3 taxi stand is located in the Parking Garage 3. We'll be using the other one, down near Terminal 7 Here's the link https://www.flylax.com/lax-traffic-and-ground-transportation As to EXACTLY where the taxi stand is, can't help you there as I've never been to T3. As Scott points out above, the taxi stand is in the P3 parking garage right across the road from T3, and there's a big pedestrian crosswalk to help get to the garage.

For an Uber estimate, and note it's only an estimate, as surge pricing may elevate the price: https://www.uber.com/global/en/r/airports/lax/ Be sure to accurately enter your origin and destination, date, time of day etc, the Uber system should be able to auto-fill anywhere you are and want to go to. For a taxi estimate, I used https://lacitycab.com/taxi-fare-calculator/ Again, accurately enter your origin and destination. And as Scott pointed out above, there is already a taxi stand near Terminal 3, we will be using the other one near Terminal 7

Thanks for the confirmation about the other taxi stand, we plan to use the other one near T7 when we arrive at T6 next week. I did a quick cross check with taxis and Uber between LAX at Terminal 7, and our hotel in Torrance. No tip of course, taxi was $36, Uber X was $25 (out of the LAX-It lot of course) and a UBlack right to the terminal was $60. For $11 we'll forgo forgo the joy of getting to the LAX-It lot and just walk the 5 minute 300 yards from T6 to T7 and grab a taxi. The next morning from the hotel to SP Berth 93, Uber for sure.

As Canadians who pay a built-in 35% exchange, we always have to pick and choose where we stay, be it LA, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle etc. When sailing out of San Pedro, as our next two cruises are doing, we prefer either Long Beach or Torrance depending on the time of year and the the cost. The nice Long Beach hotels can be very expensive in "higher" seasons, while the pricing in hotels in Torrance can be significantly lower. As to transit costs, an Uber or taxi from LAX to Torrance, which is a straight line trip, about half way to the ship, is a wash. Half the fare the day before then the other half driving down to the ship, or the full fare down to Long Beach then a small fee to the ship. Yes, we prefer Long Beach but settle on Torrance for its significantly lower cost as it has all the last-minute amenities we need, like good restaurants, and the huge Del-Amo mall