LAX at 12:50 or LGB at 11:30 post cruise?

[stvandy1]

32 minutes ago, stvandy1 said:

Your advice was something I needed to read. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

It’s funny you should mention crutches. I use one crutch and don’t own a wheelchair. My DW and I will both be wheeled to and from flights and on/off the ship.

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, stvandy1 said:

Your advice was something I needed to read. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

 

Anytime!!  We all try to help each other out on these boards!!  Just glad it was helpful.  

[talltyson]

Long Beach was great.  Uber and Lyft were both surging higher rates (double the price) in the morning this past Saturday.  my dad rented a van from the nearby Enterprise that opened up at 9 a.m., easy option but they are on Royal Princess for the next 5 weeks and needed a car to drive around for the day as well, so they dropped us off.  If Uber and Lyft are surging I would check out a taxi.  We left the cruise terminal at 9:30am got to the airport at 10am curbside check SWA (3 people in line) and through security in less than 15 minutes for a 1115am flight.  Full flight, lots of spring break familys.  Small cool airport, probably under 10 terminals.  Luckily the price was right and we booked a nonstop flight to Denver a few months ago, if you have the options hands down go through Long Beach.  You had to access the plane from outside stairs and ramp which I thought was pretty funny!  Pretty sure we would have missed our flight if it was at LAX at the same time.

[stvandy1]

9 minutes ago, talltyson said:

Long Beach was great.  Uber and Lyft were both surging higher rates (double the price) in the morning this past Saturday.  my dad rented a van from the nearby Enterprise that opened up at 9 a.m., easy option but they are on Royal Princess for the next 5 weeks and needed a car to drive around for the day as well, so they dropped us off.  If Uber and Lyft are surging I would check out a taxi.  We left the cruise terminal at 9:30am got to the airport at 10am curbside check SWA (3 people in line) and through security in less than 15 minutes for a 1115am flight.  Full flight, lots of spring break familys.  Small cool airport, probably under 10 terminals.  Luckily the price was right and we booked a nonstop flight to Denver a few months ago, if you have the options hands down go through Long Beach.  You had to access the plane from outside stairs and ramp which I thought was pretty funny!  Pretty sure we would have missed our flight if it was at LAX at the same time.

I don’t. I couldn’t get SWA to SLC from LGB. I was forced to use LAX for SWA.

leaves at 1220-10 minutes before Princess transfers used as their early cutoff time. Just taking a nonstop super shuttle at 1000AM. I expect to be OK.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

On 3/19/2019 at 9:59 PM, Thrak said:

We've never flown into (or out of) LGB but, after reading these comments, I will definitely look into it next time we sail out of San Pedro. Sad to hear that the PreCheck line is longer than the other one but at least you don't have to hassle with TSA. On our last flight through LAX my bag was randomly pulled. What a freaking pain in the butt!!!  We have usually just automagically had TSA Pre Check but that time we didn't get it for some reason. The experience was a total drag so we just went down a couple of weeks ago and paid for 5 years of TSA PreCheck. It's $85 apiece for 5 years Well worth it and my credit card actually reimbursed me for one of the fees. As soon as it went through I went online and entered our new KTN (Known Traveler Numbers) into all of our upcoming flights.

I fly Long Beach to Vegas and my experience has been that the TSA pre-check lines have always been a lot shorter. I guess it just depends on the day and time.   They’ve added more gates to Long Beach and it is still really small... love it .

[Cruise Raider]

16 hours ago, stvandy1 said:

It’s funny you should mention crutches. I use one crutch and don’t own a wheelchair. My DW and I will both be wheeled to and from flights and on/off the ship.

 

That's wise because, as you know, in crowded airports, people might clip your crutch with their roller bag.  I had this happen to me when I had to use a crutch.  Well, one good thing came out of it, I am so much more careful and empathetic around anybody that I see using crutches.  I don't think I was a jerk before that but that's just the thing ... normal people oftentimes just may not think they are being reckless.  

In crowded places with a lot of roller bags, strollers, people in a hurry, a wheelchair is definitely the way to go.  You will be first on the plane but last to get off, though.  Well worth it in my opinion.  One other nice thing about getting on first, you will have room for your crutch up top in the bins.  

[stvandy1]

4 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

That's wise because, as you know, in crowded airports, people might clip your crutch with their roller bag.  I had this happen to me when I had to use a crutch.  Well, one good thing came out of it, I am so much more careful and empathetic around anybody that I see using crutches.  I don't think I was a jerk before that but that's just the thing ... normal people oftentimes just may not think they are being reckless.  

In crowded places with a lot of roller bags, strollers, people in a hurry, a wheelchair is definitely the way to go.  You will be first on the plane but last to get off, though.  Well worth it in my opinion.  One other nice thing about getting on first, you will have room for your crutch up top in the bins.  

That’s true. I will be near the front. Not much consolation because I will be assisted. I used to be proud of the fact that I always assisted others. Sadly, shoe is now on other foot. 

[Cruise Raider]

Just wanted to check back in to let all you helpful people know that we did early walk off and got to the Long Beach airport at 7:45 and were through security and at our gate just before 8:00 am.  We could have even made the 8:15 am flight ...although I wouldn’t recommend booking it that way.  If that flight wasn’t completely full, we were going to try to upgrade to get on the earlier flight.  Alas, it ended up there was only one no show so, we are settled in to wait here for a couple more hours!  But, his is such a great little airport, it is no problem.  

Thanks for everybody’s advice ... this is definitely nicer than fighting the crowds at LAX!  

PS ... best disembarkation ever!  

Oh ... btw, there was a guy in a large black Lincoln Town Car trying to offer rides to people at the port ((San Pedro) ... no taxi Medallion and no Uber or Lyft placard.  He was a little aggressive as we kept refusing his ride.  That didn’t sit well with me ... so just want to warn others.  

[PatriciaF]

@CruiseRaider thank you for the update.  LGB is making JetBlue give up its unused spots, so we are expecting a few more flights out of our little local airport.  

[Cruise Raider]

21 minutes ago, PatriciaF said:

@CruiseRaider thank you for the update.  LGB is making JetBlue give up its unused spots, so we are expecting a few more flights out of our little local airport.  

It’s so great here at this airport ...  we chose Southwest as it was such a deal along with allowing us to have a little bigger piece of carry on luggage.  Our bags are packed liked a puzzle ...thank goodness for packing cubes!  

Jet Blue is great, too but their flight back into Oakland was late in the afternoon.