long beach hotel downtown or airport

[bubba1502]

Hello all, 

 

My family of 4 will be traveling to Long Beach for the first time in March for our cruise on the Panorama.  We have cruised before, just never a West coast departure.  I have combed through every available article in regard to the best hotels to stay at, and have found several great suggestions.  I thought I had narrowed it down to one of the hotels in downtown Long Beach to be in walkable distance to restaurants and shops since our flight gets us into town around 1:00 pm.  But the hotels downtown are going to run us about $500.00 for the night and no free breakfast in the morning.  While if we stay at the airport, the hotels are around $300.00 per night and we get a free breakfast along with a shuttle to the hotel from the airport.  So my question is....should we stay at the airport and just Uber downtown for the evening of restaurants and shops and Uber back, or just stay downtown for the convenience?  Sorry this is so long

 

 

Molly

[Bruin Steve]

There are some posters on here who believe the airport area is a reasonable choice...It's largely and unexciting industrial area but they have built a little retail and a few places to eat in recent years...but, again, to me, largely unexciting.  If you want to do little else but relax in your hotel room and Uber to the port in the morning, it's acceptable.  If you are planning on Ubering to downtown and back, you will be doing tht ride three times (there and back then to the port in the morning).

 

The Downtown area is more designed for tourists.  You can visit the Aquarium or the Queen Mary.  There is tourist-oriented shopping in a couple of retail complexes and a large choice of restaurants.  And it's a more pleasant area to walk around.

 

$500 sounds a bit high to me...but, is that two rooms--one for you, one for the kids?

 

Oh, also important--are you flying in to LGB or to LAX?  That would also make a difference in my thinking...

Edited February 1, 2023 by Bruin Steve

[KeepCalmBearOn]

Steve has it right; LGB used to be awful to stay at; now it isn't as bad, but DTLB has more going on.

 

I'd be okay for one night by the airport, but DTLB would be my pick.

 

The Hyatt Centric would be my first pick. "Value" Hotel would be the Best Western Plus Hotel At The Convention Center. Included breakfast would be the Residence Inn.

[mk-ultra]

Just returned recently from a cruise out of Port Los Angeles (LB).  I decided to stay at the Hilton Hotel Maya, and wow... did I like that hotel.  It's about 15-20 minutes from the cruise terminal, depending on traffic.

 

Granted, there isn't much around the Maya, but it's perhaps a 15 minute walk across the Queensway Bridge into DTLB (or just grab an Uber/Lyft).  Rooms, food, service, bars, everything -- all excellent.  Well, there is one very cool thing withing easy walking distance: the Queen Mary.

 

If planning on the Queen Mary, be sure to check their web site first.  I think they're still only doing booked tours, and it looks like they sell out fast.

Edited February 1, 2023 by mk-ultra

[Bruin Steve]

4 minutes ago, mk-ultra said:

Just returned recently from a cruise out of Port Los Angeles (LB).  I decided to stay at the Hilton Hotel Maya, and wow... did I like that hotel.  It's about 15-20 minutes from the cruise terminal, depending on traffic.

To be clear, the Maya Doubletree is maybe 15-20 minutes drive, if that, (or Uber/Lyft/Taxi) from the SAN PEDRO cruise terminal...It's actually walking distance to the Carnival Cruise Terminal--which is right next to the Queen Mary.... 

[mk-ultra]

22 minutes ago, Bruin Steve said:

To be clear, the Maya Doubletree is maybe 15-20 minutes drive, if that, (or Uber/Lyft/Taxi) from the SAN PEDRO cruise terminal...It's actually walking distance to the Carnival Cruise Terminal--which is right next to the Queen Mary.... 

 

Oh, sorry.  My bad.  Yeah, did see a cruise ship docked not far aft of the QM.

[bubba1502]

4 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:

There are some posters on here who believe the airport area is a reasonable choice...It's largely and unexciting industrial area but they have built a little retail and a few places to eat in recent years...but, again, to me, largely unexciting.  If you want to do little else but relax in your hotel room and Uber to the port in the morning, it's acceptable.  If you are planning on Ubering to downtown and back, you will be doing tht ride three times (there and back then to the port in the morning).

 

The Downtown area is more designed for tourists.  You can visit the Aquarium or the Queen Mary.  There is tourist-oriented shopping in a couple of retail complexes and a large choice of restaurants.  And it's a more pleasant area to walk around.

 

$500 sounds a bit high to me...but, is that two rooms--one for you, one for the kids?

 

Oh, also important--are you flying in to LGB or to LAX?  That would also make a difference in my thinking...

Unfortunately I wish that $500.00 was for  2 rooms, but that is for one room on March 17th (Friday night). My guess is because it is during spring break. 

Thank you for your response and you have given me more to think about. Lol

[pistnbroke]

Have you tried Residence Inn , Downtown?

close to Maya with free cooked breakfast

Easy walk to ship

 

[KeepCalmBearOn]

4 hours ago, bubba1502 said:

Unfortunately I wish that $500.00 was for  2 rooms, but that is for one room on March 17th (Friday night).

 

In that case, I'd look at the Homewood Suites Long Beach Airport, Hampton Inn Long Beach Airport and Marriott Courtyard Long Beach Airport, in that order. All three are new in the last few years as part of the Long Beach Exchange complex. The Hanger at LBX is very cool.

 

https://thelongbeachexchange.com/the-hangar/

[Squirreladd]

If you find a place that's in your budget check what the Uber/Lift estimates are. (Don't want to save on the room and spend all on getting to the port) https://ride.guru/

 

I'm driving down and staying in San Pedro the night before. Since we are getting in pretty late we are just crashing at the studio 6 they have decent parking. We are on the same cruise ☺️ so see ya there.

 

Many of the hotels are fully booked or just overpriced for one night on this weekend. 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Squirreladd
Added link

[Bruin Steve]

25 minutes ago, Squirreladd said:

If you find a place that's in your budget check what the Uber/Lift estimates are. (Don't want to save on the room and spend all on getting to the port) https://ride.guru/

 

I'm driving down and staying in San Pedro the night before. Since we are getting in pretty late we are just crashing at the studio 6 they have decent parking. We are on the same cruise ☺️ so see ya there.

 

Many of the hotels are fully booked or just overpriced for one night on this weekend. 

Just remember that, if you are on Carnival Panorama, you will be sailing out of LONG BEACH, not San Pedro...so you will have a ride in the morning...Of course, its not that long a ride--about six miles...to the other side of the harbor.

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Bruin Steve

[Squirreladd]

45 minutes ago, Bruin Steve said:

Just remember that, if you are on Carnival Panorama, you will be sailing out of LONG BEACH, not San Pedro...so you will have a ride in the morning...Of course, its not that long a ride--about six miles...to the other side of the harbor.

 

Yeah, they had to the cheapest park and cruise nearby, combined with the Uber to port it's still cheaper vs parking at the port.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Squirreladd

[bubba1502]

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.  We ended up using priceline and I chose to let priceline pick a hotel in the downtown area for a reduced price.  We ended up getting the Renaissance Marriott for $441.00 for one room including the $80.00 in taxes!! Not the most ideal price, but I was done looking at all the possibilities.