Flight home from LAX - Timing

[MikeNKim]

Good morning,

 

This is my first time cruising out of Long Beach.

 

The only flight times available to me going home are 1:15PM and 10:30PM from LAX.

 

Our ship arrives in port at 9AM and the Carnival website says not to book a flight home any earlier then 1pm which the first flight falls into that timeline but will we be calling it too close to try and make that flight?

 

Thank you

 

Kim

[princeton123211]

No, you'll be fine making a 1:15pm flight. Carnival says 1pm because they are assuming thats the earliest that the slowest person on the ship could possibly hope to make it to the airport with bad traffic. In all likelihood you are not the slowest person and while you will most likely hit traffic, it wont be as bad as they are imagining. 

 

If you are docking on a Saturday or Sunday the traffic on the 405 wont be that bad-- it'll be worse during the week but will start to subside by the time you get on the road. Also, I would check with the cruise line-- it would be very odd for a ship to have a scheduled docking time of 9am. Usually they dock around 5-6am and final disembarkation is complete by 9am.

[MikeNKim]

Great thank you,

 

i thought the 9am was weird also.  Never docked that late but the itinerary does day 9

 

thanks again

[Bruin Steve]

They also assume you are taking a cruise line transfer to the airport...and those sit around until they fill up and take forever unloading.  Get an Uber...or, at worst, a shuttle service...but Uber will get to you quickly, leave immediately and drive you directly to your terminal...You will have time to kill at LAX...

[MoyCoy]

I have a similar question with a twist. We are driving a rental car from Seal Beach after a 2 day post cruise stay, to LAX.

Our flight is 150.  I scheduled the car to be dropped of at 11am.  For some reason I remember the car rental being really far away from the terminal. 

 

I was allotting a hour to return the car so we can head over to TSA by 12.  I am concerned because we will be in rush hour.  Our flight leaves on a Tuesday. Should we leave the hotel at 930am or earlier. Or would 10am be sufficient?

Am I over planning?

[princeton123211]

5 minutes ago, MoyCoy said:

Should we leave the hotel at 930am or earlier. Or would 10am be sufficient?

Am I over planning?

You are overplanning a bit. You might be better off leaving at 10 vs earlier to avoid a little rush hour traffic. Rental car bus to the terminal doesn't take that long to get to the airport (although it can get mired in traffic dropping you off at the terminal). You should budget about a half hour for the rental shuttle. If you leave at 10 and even hit 20 minutes of traffic you weren't planning for you'll still be at the terminal around noon which should be plenty for a 1:50 flight. 

[reiddg]

How about an 11:30 am flight out of LAX on a Wednesday?  We'll be coming off a Princess cruise and the itinerary says a 6:15 docking time.  We can leave the ship anytime we want and I had planned on reserving an Uber for about 7:45 - 8:00 am.   I really want to make the 11:30 flight, if possible.  Any later flight would get us into Tampa well after midnight and I'm getting to old for that... 😉  

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

4 hours ago, reiddg said:

How about an 11:30 am flight out of LAX on a Wednesday?  We'll be coming off a Princess cruise and the itinerary says a 6:15 docking time.  We can leave the ship anytime we want and I had planned on reserving an Uber for about 7:45 - 8:00 am.   I really want to make the 11:30 flight, if possible.  Any later flight would get us into Tampa well after midnight and I'm getting to old for that... 😉 

 

On a Wednesday, no way I'd book at 11:30AM. The odds are good you wouldn't miss the flight, but 8AM puts you in the middle of prime time traffic and it will be stressful.

[reiddg]

On 9/28/2019 at 11:07 AM, scottca075 said:

 

On a Wednesday, no way I'd book at 11:30AM. The odds are good you wouldn't miss the flight, but 8AM puts you in the middle of prime time traffic and it will be stressful.

Too bad but thanks much for the advice.  We'll have to look at a later flight.

 

Thanks!