Disembarking from Summit in Los Angeles

[Eliger]

We will be arriving at the Port of Los Angeles on Summit on Dec. 23rd from a Hawaiian cruise. Someone will be picking us up at the port. My question is what would be the best time to indicate to them to pick us up. We don't mind whether we get off the ship early or late. The best time would be whatever is easiest for us and them. The ship is scheduled to dock at 7:00 am.

 

Hope you can help. :)

[kitty9]

Anytime after 9am will be just fine.

[Petert]

Hi Eliger,

 

We have disembarked in San Pedro twice this year, once from the Mercury and again from the Vision. I agree with Kitty9 that any time after 9:00A should be fine, but maybe 9:30A would allow for any delays. While the ship docks at 7:00A, the custom and immigration authorities must first clear the ship before any passengers can debark, which will usually occur about 8:00A. They will then debark those passengers that have no checked baggage (takes about 25 min). Next they debark white tagged passengers (those with early flights and diamond C&A members), another 25 min. Then debarking remainder of passengers by color of their tags and inverse order of the deck level of the cabin.

 

Since we live in Orange, CA, about 35 min from San Pedro, we call our grandson about 30 min before we leave the ship, and we have no problems with meeting our transportation. If you have a cell phone it can help a great deal to coordinate your pick-up. Be sure your friends know that you are arriving at San Pedro, and not Long Beach. The boarding and debarkation operations at San Pedro are usually very well coordinated, and you should have no problems.

 

petert

[Petert]

Hi Eliger,

 

We have disembarked in San Pedro twice this year, once from the Mercury and again from the Vision. I agree with Kitty9 that any time after 9:00A should be fine, but maybe 9:30A would allow for any delays. While the ship docks at 7:00A, the custom and immigration authorities must first clear the ship before any passengers can debark, which will usually occur about 8:00A. They will then debark those passengers that have no checked baggage (takes about 25 min). Next they debark white tagged passengers (those with early flights and diamond C&A members), another 25 min. Then debarking remainder of passengers by color of their tags and inverse order of the deck level of the cabin.

 

Since we live in Orange, CA, about 35 min from San Pedro, we call our grandson about 30 min before we leave the ship, and we have no problems with meeting our transportation. If you have a cell phone it can help a great deal to coordinate your pick-up. Be sure your friends know that you are arriving at San Pedro, and not Long Beach. The boarding and debarkation operations at San Pedro are usually very well coordinated, and you should have no problems.

 

petert

[Eliger]

Hi Eliger,

 

We have disembarked in San Pedro twice this year, once from the Mercury and again from the Vision. I agree with Kitty9 that any time after 9:00A should be fine, but maybe 9:30A would allow for any delays. While the ship docks at 7:00A, the custom and immigration authorities must first clear the ship before any passengers can debark, which will usually occur about 8:00A. They will then debark those passengers that have no checked baggage (takes about 25 min). Next they debark white tagged passengers (those with early flights and diamond C&A members), another 25 min. Then debarking remainder of passengers by color of their tags and inverse order of the deck level of the cabin.

 

Since we live in Orange, CA, about 35 min from San Pedro, we call our grandson about 30 min before we leave the ship, and we have no problems with meeting our transportation. If you have a cell phone it can help a great deal to coordinate your pick-up. Be sure your friends know that you are arriving at San Pedro, and not Long Beach. The boarding and debarkation operations at San Pedro are usually very well coordinated, and you should have no problems.

 

petert

 

Thank you very much Kitty9 and Petert. :) It helps me a lot in planning my the day of arrival. Our friends will know where to pick us up because they are also dropping us at the ship on Saturday. They live about a 45-minute drive from the port of San Pedro.

 

I think I will tell them to arrive at 9:30... better for them and safer for us to be there when they arrive. Thanks for the responses.

 

Gerry

[Rev22:17]

Eliger,

 

We will be arriving at the Port of Los Angeles on Summit on Dec. 23rd from a Hawaiian cruise. Someone will be picking us up at the port. My question is what would be the best time to indicate to them to pick us up. We don't mind whether we get off the ship early or late. The best time would be whatever is easiest for us and them. The ship is scheduled to dock at 7:00 am.

 

Hope you can help. :)

 

After our experience when we returned to San Pedro from Hawai'i aborad GTS Infinity last month, I would recommend arranging your pick-up no earlier than 11:00. this may be an aberration, but there was about a two hour queue still waiting to clear immigratoin when I left the ship at 09:30 because the immigration inspectors (1) arrived late, according to rumor, and (2) worked very slowly -- in fact, so slowly that the ship abandoned the disembarkation groupings assigned by luggage tags around 9:00 and asked all passengers who had cleared immigration to disembark so they could fill the transfer coaches. If you encounter a debacle like this, over which the ship has little control, friends who arrive to pick you up at 09:00 may have a long wait.

 

Norm.

[Eliger]

Eliger,

 

 

 

After our experience when we returned to San Pedro from Hawai'i aborad GTS Infinity last month, I would recommend arranging your pick-up no earlier than 11:00. this may be an aberration, but there was about a two hour queue still waiting to clear immigratoin when I left the ship at 09:30 because the immigration inspectors (1) arrived late, according to rumor, and (2) worked very slowly -- in fact, so slowly that the ship abandoned the disembarkation groupings assigned by luggage tags around 9:00 and asked all passengers who had cleared immigration to disembark so they could fill the transfer coaches. If you encounter a debacle like this, over which the ship has little control, friends who arrive to pick you up at 09:00 may have a long wait.

 

Norm.

 

Did anyone else have this experience on other sailings? Or as Norm says, it may have been an aberration :confused: . I hope it was :( .

 

Gerry

[xtopher_66]

We disembarked Summit at approximately 9:00 AM last March after our Hawaii cruise. The biggest determining factor appears to be how long it takes you to go through customs and immigrations while onboard. The lines were going kind of slowly for us until several more customs agents came on board.

 

Chris

[brenda56]

We disembarked the Summit in San Pedro on Jan 2 of this year under the following conditions:

- customs line from the theatre that stretched back through the Casino

- Broken Gangway ( we all got off via the small exit normally used for tenders- sorry, I know "exit" is not very nautical)

- roaring monsoon outside

- problems with the Port Authority (apparently) that lead to luggage being left out in the monsoon and then brought inside hurriedly to mitigate water damage but not sorted according to colour groupings. Passengers only allowed to disembark in limmited groups at a time due to the number of people in the terminal building. (at least three ships in port- 2 with gangway problems)

-we did not leave the ship until almost noon.

 

The lessons we learned are:

-If you are flying, never travel on embarkation or disembarkation day.

-Make sure your luggage is distinctive or someone may take a piece home with them, and it will take a while to get it back. Not only that- wet luggage that has been closed for up for a month has a very interesting smell.

-Try not to stress yourself out over things that neither you or the cruise line can control.

- Don't say never again- because you will cruise again. Even the memory of the worst travel day ever, can't keep me from waiting anxiously for our Panama canal cruise next October. Experiences like this one really are aberrations.

 

The cell phone suggestion was excellent. No stress for either you or your transportation.

 

Have a really great cruise. The worst thing about getting off - is just that- you have to get off.

[joeinsb]

We have sailed in and out of San Pedro many times--on Azure Seas, Southward, Viking Serenade (five times), Carnival Holiday, Ecstasy and Elation, Star and Diamond Princess, Crystal Harmony, Seven Seas Mariner, QM2, Silver Shadow and Summit and have had serious delays once that I recall. This was shortly after 9-11, when security was a mess and they held us on board Ecstasy because they couldn't locate one passenger. But we have never experienced delays on other cruises, certainly not with immigration, which has at least a couple of lines. Now if you're not a citizen, there may be a problem. Timewise, we're off by 10 a.m. tops. And we're among the last color called. As for one poster's bad experience on Jan 2--I looked it up in my running log and yes, it was a rainy day (the Rose Parade got soaked for the first time in 51 years). Maybe it's because it was a quasi holiday (you know, part of New Years weekend) and the inspectors and dock workers were off, late, or hung over. Anyway, we have no complaints about San Pedro.

[Keith1010]

We arrived back from the Summit in April. I too agree with most of the other posters and would go with 9:00 AM. Just have the cell phone number for the person picking you up so if you run into an unforseen problem that you can contact them. I think the problem earlier in the year was an aberation. Clearly it could happen again but anything can happen and I do think that 9:00 AM is good.

 

Keith

[Eliger]

Thanks everyone for voicing your opinion. It's been very helpful. Based on all of this, I will take a chance on 9:30 pick up and carry my cell phone.;)

 

Gerry