Express Disembarkation

[kobecat]

We are scheduled into the Los Angeles Cruise Ship Terminal at 7.00 am on Tuesday 15 May on the Sapphire. It is the only ship scheduled for that day.

 

We want to fly out of Long Beach at 10.30 am. Can anyone confirm if the Sapphire has express disembarkation and does this mean we can just leave with our suitcases in tow.

 

If we don't fly out at 10.30 am there is not another flight to Chicago on Jet Blue until about 5.00 pm.

 

We are on the Sydney - LA cruise and assume we will have done customs and immigration coming into Hawaii so it should be a straight forward situation in LA.

 

Opinions please on the logistics of doing this:confused:

[LUCY55]

I decided not to risk it. We are flying JetBlue to O'hare and are taking the 10:30 Sunday morning. Our cruise gets in on Saturday. You do have the fact that you are coming in on a Tuesday which should help unless rush hour traffic gets you. One time in Ft. Lauderdale we were at the airport by 9:15. But the airport is really close and the cruise had actually arrived at about 5:00 a.m. I have watched the Diamond come in (by webcamb) and they do not arrive early and several times have been late. Use the webcam of your ship to estimate the pattern of arrival. Even if the ship arrives at 7:00 you may not be able to get off until 8:00-8:30 even if you are in the first group.

[Fisical1]

When getting off the Island Princess we decided to carry our own luggage off and was first to get off. We were in our car by 8:30.

[colkeena]

I would love to carry our bags off the ship but I thought Princess did not allow it.Did you have any problem?

[Mindy97]

I was on Diamond in early December. They do allow 'walk offs' now, and over 500 people walked off. I think it was much more than that, actually. Delayed everything...and when we got to the luggage (and we were the first color after the walk offs) most of the luggage was already gone in our area, so I'd guess some of the walk offs weren't, really.

 

There was a customs/immigration problem, and we didn't get off the ship till after 10AM.

 

M.

[Pam in CA]

Yes, the Sapphire Princess allows Express Self-Disembarkation but keep in mind that you are, as always, subject to clearance by U.S. Customs & Immigration for the ship to start disembarkation. Even if the ship arrives at 7PM, it's always possible that disembarkation won't begin until 9AM or later, as happened to Mindy97. It's not just the number of ships but whether all of the passengers have completed their immigration information. It's very frustrating when one or two are called over and over to go to the Pursar's Desk and can hold up the entire ship for an hour or two. You have no control over that.

 

JetBlue is less-expensive and I've looked into their flights to Boston from Long Beach after a cruise but they have so few flights and alternatives that it's not worth the anxiety to me. Also, you'll find they have several flights leaving at about 10:30AM which is generally too early for cruisers which is why they're cheaper.

[kobecat]

The Sapphire cruise we are on is the Sydney - LA cruise. Last port of call prior to LA will have been Hawaii. Does the ship do customs and immigration there or are there any requirements in Los Angeles? We were thinking (maybe incorrectly it seems) that all the official stuff has been done in Hawaii so there should not be too much of a hold up in LA.

 

We also thought it would be more relaxed flying out of Long Beach rather than LAX.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

[Pam in CA]

The Sapphire cruise we are on is the Sydney - LA cruise. Last port of call prior to LA will have been Hawaii. Does the ship do customs and immigration there or are there any requirements in Los Angeles? We were thinking (maybe incorrectly it seems) that all the official stuff has been done in Hawaii so there should not be too much of a hold up in LA.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

That's a very good question. I'm on the Sydney > LA cruise next year and would be interested in the answer. I just checked our itinerary and there's no service call at Ensenada. Our two ports prior to LA are Honolulu and Hilo. I'm going assume that you'll do Customs & Immigration in Honolulu but would love to know for sure.