Monarch 4 night disembarkation

[emilygrace]

Can anyone who has sailed the Monarch's 4 night itinerary give me a general idea of disembarkation times on Friday morning? Trying to book flight out of Long Beach and I'd like to be able to take the 11:25, but don't know if that's cutting it too close. I am planning to take my luggage off with me, so I'll be able to just get off and find a shuttle or cab to the airport.

 

I am just curious as to how often things get hung up on this itinerary to where they delay disembarkation. There always seems to be people who do not respond to the pages, thus holding everyone up.

 

Thanks for any help!

Carol

[critterchick]

The only time we've seen a delay is when Immigration gets backed up on the pier, then they hold the line onboard for a bit. If you do self-disembarkation, you will be in the first group off the ship about 6:45 to 7:00, and there won't be enough people in front of you to have much of a delay. When we do self-disembark, we're usually in the car by 7:30. There are plenty of cabs available. You should be fine.

 

I don't recall hearing any of those announcements for people to report to Guest Relations, either, so they may handle things differently on Monarch than on some other ships. Even when they do a drug bust they usually just take the arrestee off in the middle of the disembarkation process. We've seen that 2x in 10 cruises on Monarch.:eek:

[Bruin Steve]

I don't think an 11:25 am flight out of Long Beach would pose any problem at all...

Long Beach Airport is only 15 miles away and is a very small airport without all of the long check-in and security lines you'd find at LAX...Getting there an hour prior should be sufficient...So...if you leave the ship by 10 am, you're doing fine...and EVERYBODY will be off the ship by 10 am...

 

I've gotten off as early as 7ish...Do that and you'll be killing time at the airport...Have a nice breakfast and head for the exits by 8:30...You'll be at your cab (you may want to call ahead for a pick-up) by 9 and at the airport by 9:30...and you'll have plenty of margin for error and time to kill...

[emilygrace]

Thanks for the quick answers. It has given me more confidence in being able to make that flight. I've been to the LGB airport and you're right, there are almost NO lines. So getting there by 10:30 would be very doable.

 

I just recall one friend that did the 3 night (weekender) cruise and disembarking was a nightmare because there were a lot of non-citizens on board and it took forever for them to clear immigration. They ended up missing their flight, but that was out of LAX.

[cin7609]

I work at the cruise terminal for the Monarch.

 

Early debarkation is at 6:30 am. You report down at Deck 4 at 6:30 am sharp and take all your luggage with you. If you get off at this time , you clear customs very fast, as not that many people on the cruise want to get off at 6:30am. Customs can back up after 8am... depending on how many CBC officers there are and how many non US passegers there are.

[Happy ks]

I'd not rush to get off the ship if you have until 10:30 to get to the airport!

 

Relax, take your time, it will take at the most 30 minutes to get to LGB. If there was a major accident or something, it may take longer, cab drivers know how to get around that stuff.

 

If you rush off the ship at 7:30, you will more than likely get to LGB no later than 9 am (on the extreme end) and then have 2 and a half hours or more to kill. The last time I flew out of there, I was checked in and through security in less than 5 minutes.

[Ella2]

I live very close to Long Beach; we were off the ship by 7:50 and I was home by 8:30 when we disembarked on 8/17.

 

Definitely no problem to book an 11:25 flight out of Long Beach. Just be sure to get one of the earlier colored bag tags or be prepared to self-disembark, if you don't want to take any chances.

 

Enjoy! :)

[Happy ks]

Ella2, are you north or south of the cruise port?

 

We live south, in Mission Viejo :)

[Ella2]

Happyks, I'm south...in Northwest OC, about 1/2 mile from the eastern border of Long Beach. :)

[WendyinOC]

Does anyone know what rooms are used while you wait. I have a group of 45 and need a place for us to meet.

[abbyndrewmom]

We just got off the Monarch last Friday, we were on deck 4 our tags were yellow. We got called just before 8:30 am to disembark, customs was very backed up. I am a Canadian so was able to go in the shorter line but is still took us an hour before we got through customs, got our luggage and got into the car.

 

I think you should self disembark to be safe.

[admom]

We were just on the Monarch 8/27 sailing. We were on deck 3 and got red tags, which are the last to be called. We decided to just take everything off ourselves. We went to breakfast at 7 and then went back to the cabin and got off the ship around 7:45. We were IN LAX at 8:30. Unfortunately, we had a 1:15 flight and couldn't move it earlier as the 3 earlier flights were all full.

[mohavemommy]

...Even when they do a drug bust they usually just take the arrestee off in the middle of the disembarkation process. We've seen that 2x in 10 cruises on Monarch.:eek:

 

I saw that my last cruise on Monarch.

Jean... let us know how the Monarch was this weekend. You should be getting off the ship any minute now! :D

 

To OP ~ that flight time should be ok... but I can't guarantee it. You never know when the next crew immigration process is. It delayed us over an hour on our last cruise.

[mohavemommy]

We were just on the Monarch 8/27 sailing. We were on deck 3 and got red tags, which are the last to be called. We decided to just take everything off ourselves. We went to breakfast at 7 and then went back to the cabin and got off the ship around 7:45. We were IN LAX at 8:30. Unfortunately, we had a 1:15 flight and couldn't move it earlier as the 3 earlier flights were all full.

 

Well that sure is odd. I know that every time I have arrived at about 10:30 for my Monarch cruises, they are still disembarking guests from the prior cruise.

[hersheykiss]

We just did this last week..The line at 6:15 was about 100 people long..so if you are taking your own luggage , go down early....Customs was a nightmare for some..depending on which line you get sent to..we stood in one line for 15 minutes and it never moved..people off the ship 20 minutes after us were thru customs before us..so plan on a delay there......they did finally let us switch lines..in all it took us 35 minutes to get thru customs....all of that was just waiting in line,,

[critterchick]

Debarkation was slooooow today! We decided to sleep in a bit (if you can call 6:45 sleeping in). Express disembarkation began at 6:30. We had breakfast & then headed up to the cabin to pick up our bags just before 8:00. There was no queue as we headed up to the cabin, but it was a mess 10 minutes later. I think the moral of the story is to get off before the call to vacate your cabin. We read for a while in Bolero's and then got in line about 9:30. We were in the car a little after 10, so although it was a big crowd and line, it moved reasonably quickly.

[mohavemommy]

Welcome back Jean... hope you had a wonderful time! :D

[emilygrace]

Anybody have a ballpark figure on the price of a cab versus shuttle from the pier to LGB? Last time I did this I was with a group, so we got a good price for the shuttle ($10 pp).