Yikes! I am in a bit of a panic (Mexico Kids sail free booking!)

[makelifehappen]

I took one look at this offer and RAN with it, but now I am feeling overwhelmed with the details. I thought, surely, there wasn't a person alive (rather~in their right minds ) that would let this offer go and decided that I needed to pounce on it.

Compared to the already booked 5 day Bahamas Cruise this was a steal! We were going to be saving at least $2600usd and I cancelled my Bahamas Cruise.

Not only does it mean it is THAT much closer, but I haven't any real time to look into all the little details that I would have typically researched in advance.

We are headed off to WDW on a surprise vacation early next week (kids don't know and wont until approx. 24 hours prior) and have extremely packed schedules over the summer months leaving me little time or energy left to devote to my beloved travel planning!

I am struggling to find reasonable flights (both time and money) and hate hate hate leaving it so late that we are forced into paying a small fortune.

We did that with this upcoming WDW because of the hesitant (rational) husband o' mine and really kicked ourselves in the pants for not doing it sooner.

Soooo... I am pretty much BEGGING for your help!

When flying into LAX for a Mexico sailing and you have opted out of the transfer (only because you'd much rather drive and see new things in a new travel destination!)~ who do you book your rental cars with?

When booking a hotel for a night on either side of your cruise~where are you booking?!!

When booking your flights~who has the best deals or options?!!

We'd be driving to buffalo and flying out rather than paying the $1500-2000 extra on flights from Toronto, so we can enjoy that cash on excursions instead!

Thanks a million my DIS family!

MLH

 

[williamson_ja]

I also want good suggestions as to where to stay the night before the cruise. Do any of the hotels have an option where you can leave your car there while you are on your cruise?

 

[Lissame]

I too am interested in some good, reasonably priced recommendations. Before our Carnival MR cruise we stayed at the Queen Mary (because that's the Carnival terminal right there). It was fun as a novelty, but I would never do it again. The room was a very old cruise ship room--extremely tiny with only a small porthole window.

 

[mkmommy]

I had the MR booked for spring break and decided to change to the Dream.

But I found there is a Doubletree Hotel in San Pedro that has a free shuttle to the port and is popular with cruisers.

Was looking at SuperShuttle from the Airport to the hotel.

Cruisecritic.com under LA departures had lots of information.

Airfare this was the deal breaker for me, I cannot take the Monday off and I could not find flights back into Buffalo that would get me home before 1:00 AM, except Air Canada into Toronto and that was going to cost more than the cruise. If you can take the Monday off Delta had some great fares into LAX out of Buffalo and Rochester.

Hope this helps.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Fly into Long Beach if you can ~ *JetBlue* it's closer to the port and a teeny, easy airport. We fly in and out of Long Beach when we visit Disneyland.

 

[birkner]

I took one look at this offer and RAN with it, but now I am feeling overwhelmed with the details. I thought, surely, there wasn't a person alive (rather~in their right minds ) that would let this offer go and decided that I needed to pounce on it.

Compared to the already booked 5 day Bahamas Cruise this was a steal! We were going to be saving at least $2600usd and I cancelled my Bahamas Cruise.

Not only does it mean it is THAT much closer, but I haven't any real time to look into all the little details that I would have typically researched in advance.

We are headed off to WDW on a surprise vacation early next week (kids don't know and wont until approx. 24 hours prior) and have extremely packed schedules over the summer months leaving me little time or energy left to devote to my beloved travel planning!

I am struggling to find reasonable flights (both time and money) and hate hate hate leaving it so late that we are forced into paying a small fortune.

We did that with this upcoming WDW because of the hesitant (rational) husband o' mine and really kicked ourselves in the pants for not doing it sooner.

Soooo... I am pretty much BEGGING for your help!

When flying into LAX for a Mexico sailing and you have opted out of the transfer (only because you'd much rather drive and see new things in a new travel destination!)~ who do you book your rental cars with?

When booking a hotel for a night on either side of your cruise~where are you booking?!!

When booking your flights~who has the best deals or options?!!

We'd be driving to buffalo and flying out rather than paying the $1500-2000 extra on flights from Toronto, so we can enjoy that cash on excursions instead!

Thanks a million my DIS family!

MLH

Let me take this in a different order. I agree with a PP that JetBlue is a great option to Long Beach. I just flew into DL a few weeks ago and love the smaller airport.

Decide on what you want to do in the LA area before you book a hotel. Do we want to go to DL, visit sites like Hollywood, Santa Monica, Malibu etc? You might want to stay the night near where you are going to sightsee as traffic in LA area can be pretty heavy.

You might want to spend the night before in a hotel near the port thus returning the car night before. Look at hotels in the San Pedro area as some give free transportation to the port. I have stayed at both the Crowne Plaza and the Doubletree at about $160+ per night so not inexpensive.

You have enough time to make a plan but depending on how early you are coming and just what your family is interested in doing.

Price your flights, car rental and hotel on kayak.com which uses a number of sites to find the best deals. For example, I saw a compact car on hotwire today for $14.95 a day. You can also use priceline and bid on hotels. I know Enterprise has cars at the airport and in San Pedro.

 

[mrosen]

We booked the MR cruise over our kids winter break. We are actually flying into LAX and a few days before cruise sails. We booked our airfare tonight. We discovered some of the flights we wanted on day ship comes back into LA were gone and so we didn't want to chance fares going up or even less availability, and we found reasonable prices.

We plan to spend a few days at Disneyland before cruise though have not planned anything for those days yet. We have been to WDW many times, never to Disneyland. Our kids will enjoy a few days there. We have not made our hotel reservations yet so will stay at a hotel at Disneyland or near it. I know if we stay at Disneyland hotel, we can book transportation to the port through DCL which we might decide to do just for convenient and less hassle.

On way home after the cruise, we need to spend a night given we had less optimal choices on flights home. We are hoping to find a reasonably priced hotel closer to LAX as our flight is early next morning to get home. Not sure what the best way is to get from port to whatever hotel we pick closer to LAX - assume cab or shuttle service is best. Any advice anyone has to offer is welcome.

 

[abdmom]

Virgin America is starting direct flights between YYZ and LAX next week. They haven't released tickets past about February at this point. I would wait until you see what their release does to prices before you go and book something through BUF.

 

[SoCaOC-Mom]

Just an FYI, Air Canada is now flying direct from Toronto to Orange county- and if you get a tango far can be about $433 per person round trip.

 

[eeyoregon]

When booking your flights~who has the best deals or options?!!

We'd be driving to buffalo and flying out rather than paying the $1500-2000 extra on flights from Toronto, so we can enjoy that cash on excursions instead!

Thanks a million my DIS family!

MLH

First: Deep breath

Keep in mind when searching for airfare to search all airports around LAX as there are several and you can get better deals at some of the smaller airports like Long Beach. I like to use Kayak.com and enter in LAX but also click on the box that says "nearby airports". It's a great search engine for comparing rates.

Which sailing are you going on?

Gina

 

[Tiggs14]

We in Toronto as well and I'm feeling much like you are. There is so much information out there.

We are going to be flying out of Buffalo as well for the same reason you are. I checked out Air Canada and Virgin America as previously noted on this thread and neither will work. Air Canada is $2,400 for the 4 of us and Virgin America doesn't have rates posted for Jan/Feb/Mar.

The best pricing I'm seeing is $1,200 which can be found on Delta or Air Tran. Southwest won't be releasing their prices until August 17th and Jet Blue hasn't released theirs yet either. I'm not sure when Jet Blue's pricing will come out but it's normally out before Southwest's.

I would really like to find a deal on airfare but I'm preparing myself for $1,200 realistically. If you want to compare notes along the way PM me. We're on the February 6th sailing.

 

[A10560]

Will DCL transfer from Long Beach? We are thinking of flying from cincinnati to Las vegas for a couple of nights prior to our cruise and then onto Long Beach or LAX. Our decision will be made on where DCL does transfers from.

 

[sharen24]

Will DCL transfer from Long Beach? We are thinking of flying from cincinnati to Las vegas for a couple of nights prior to our cruise and then onto Long Beach or LAX. Our decision will be made on where DCL does transfers from.

Flying into Las Vegas is a great idea! You can find flights into LAX or Long Beach from Las Vegas for around $49.00 per person.

 

[hopelea]

So.....Long Beach is the closet to the port? I dont' know where we should fly into. My sister lives in Upland which is closest to Ontario airport...but I was thinking I needed to fly into an airport that DCL will shuttle us to when we return.

Are there a lot of things to see around the Long Beach area? We want to sightsee for two days prior to boarding the ship.

The La Brea (sp?) Tar Pits sounds interesting for one of my DD's! Hollywood seems like a touristy thing to do...dd's would probably love it....??

 

[lmhall2000]

If it's in the port of Los Angeles, LAX is 20 miles and John Wayne is 34 or 39 miles...it's hard to get flights in to other airports if you're coming from our part of the world (AL) we're flying Delta and getting in around 11 at LAX...the day of the cruise but we're daring like that! Good luck!!

Tara

 

[Lissame]

I am totally unfamiliar with the way DCL provides shuttles, but I wouldn't imagine that they will provide a shuttle to the port from any airport. Some of the hotels in San Pedro have a complimentary shuttle to the port, but not from the airport.

Everything in CA costs it seems.

Just from looking at maps/Google Earth, Long Beach is the closest airport. Although SNA (Orange County) and LAX are not "far", especially if you get a good deal on airfare. Southwest only flies into SNA and LAX, not to LGB.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Are there a lot of things to see around the Long Beach area? We want to sightsee for two days prior to boarding the ship.

Um ~ Disneyland!

 

[birkner]

So.....Long Beach is the closet to the port? I dont' know where we should fly into. My sister lives in Upland which is closest to Ontario airport...but I was thinking I needed to fly into an airport that DCL will shuttle us to when we return.

Are there a lot of things to see around the Long Beach area? We want to sightsee for two days prior to boarding the ship.

The La Brea (sp?) Tar Pits sounds interesting for one of my DD's! Hollywood seems like a touristy thing to do...dd's would probably love it....??

If you are not going to drive, I think DCL only shuttles from LAX. My sister used to live in Diamond Bar, so I have flown into Ontario many times. Ontario is convenient for DL but not if you don't have a car.

If you do get a car, I love the LA Brea Tar pits. Here is a website for more info. http://www.tarpits.org/

Hollywood is great fun to visit. You can go to the Kodak theater, Mann's Chinese theater, get free tickets to a tv show and so much more.
http://www.destination-southern-california.com/tv-tickets.html

 

[hopelea]

Thanks for the info. I maybe in the minority but we are not going to DL before or after the cruise. We want some lost cost things to do and see. My dd's have been to many amusement parks but never to CA. They want to see the land & scenery. I will def check out the hollywood stuff!!

Thanks

 

[Tiggs14]

Has anyone done Universal Studios Hollywood...if so how does it compare to Orlando?

I'd hate to go and find that it isn't as good or is a lot smaller...