MR Trip Planning - Need Information

[dthogue]

OK CA experts and previous MR travelers, I need your help. Up until this weekend I was happily planning our March cruise on the "Dream" - having been to Port Canaveral several times and WDW alot, the planning really wasn't too hard. Now DCL offers the KSF program and we are now booked for a March cruise out of Los Angeles and I have no idea where to start.

Question 1 - we will be flying in (I guess into LAX) on Friday, March 18th arriving somewhere around noon CA time. We need a place to stay for 2 nights before the cruise. I'm not sure if we will need to rent a car, would prefer not too, but will if it would make it easier. Would prefer a hotel that has a shuttle from the airport to the hotel and possibly from the hotel to the port. We don't need luxury, no frills is fine, but clean, with breakfast if possible.

Question 2 - If we want to sightsee Friday and Saturday what is close by, that my DD 12 would like. I really am not familiar with the area - I would love to see Hollywood, are we even close?

Any other info would be greatly appreciated - I can imagine that I'm not the only one in this unfamiliar situation

 

[Lissame]

I would personally avoid LAX if at all possible. I believe mileage-wise it is the closest to the port, but Long Beach is also fairly close, as is Orange County (SNA). Be sure to price all of them.

Hollywood would definitely be a do-able day trip. There are some bus tours you could take if you don't want to rent a car.

We travel to DLR about every other year, and I don't believe that airport shuttles to any hotel are free. Maybe if you're staying at a hotel near the airport, but your need for two days' worth of transportation, and then a way to get to the port will require some sort of arrangement.

We typically fly into Long Beach, because JetBlue flies in there and they don't currently charge for the first checked bag. Southwest might be another option, I know they fly into both LAX and SNA--they don't charge for baggage at all.

I'm keeping my eyes out for airfare for our cruise in March, and also for a hotel to stay in the night before. Hopefully the first cruisers to the MR will help with sharing their experiences good and bad on here.

 

[Lissame]

Oh, I also wanted to add--around the Hollywood area there are quite a few interesting things to see and do: The Chinese theater, the La Brea Tar Pits, El Capitan theater, Disney Soda Fountain.

And don't rule out Disneyland/California Adventure. Lots to do and see there that is different from WDW.

 

[birkner]

As the previous poster mentioned, there are several other airports to consider beside LAX, i.e. Orange County and Long Beach. Lots of great hotels to stay in the area but it really depends on what you want to do for those two days.

If it were me, I would pick where I wanted to go and what I wanted to see and stay near those options. You can pick up a car at the airport and return it to the airport. It really isn't feasible to go sightseeing without a car.

You might consider staying one night near where you want to sightsee and the last night near the port where you could catch a shuttle to the port.

Great places to see beyond Hollywood are Santa Monica, Malibu and many others. What does your family want to see in the LA area?

 

[Stinkerbe11]

Many hotels offer a "cruise & park package". It includes the room, parking, breakfast and shuttle to the port. We are staying at the Doubletree San Pedro the night before our cruise and I know that they have this pkg available.

 

[GoofItUp]

We did a MR cruise last fall on a different line. We flew into LAX (thought it was easy enough to get through) and hired Zippy Shuttle Service to take us to the hotel, pick us up after our 3 night stay and take us to the San Pedro pier, and pick us up after the cruise and take us back to LAX. Their prices were very reasonable and they had really great service. We stayed at the Fairfield near DL. It was clean and worked well for us. 1/2 of our group visited DL for the 2 days we were there, and the other 1/2 did one day at DL and hired a van tour to do a Hollywood tour for the other day. I don't remember the name of the tour group but will try and look it up later. We're doing the DCL MR cruise in Jan and will probably do something similar again as we really don't want the hassle of having a rental car and having to navigate around by ourselves. But, it does all depend on what your wanting to see, how long you'll be there, how much money you are or are not wanting to spend, etc.

 

[MiceCast]

OK CA experts and previous MR travelers, I need your help. Up until this weekend I was happily planning our March cruise on the "Dream" - having been to Port Canaveral several times and WDW alot, the planning really wasn't too hard. Now DCL offers the KSF program and we are now booked for a March cruise out of Los Angeles and I have no idea where to start.

Question 1 - we will be flying in (I guess into LAX) on Friday, March 18th arriving somewhere around noon CA time. We need a place to stay for 2 nights before the cruise. I'm not sure if we will need to rent a car, would prefer not too, but will if it would make it easier. Would prefer a hotel that has a shuttle from the airport to the hotel and possibly from the hotel to the port. We don't need luxury, no frills is fine, but clean, with breakfast if possible.

If you want to do two days of sightseeing, a rental car may pay for itself, when compared to taxis, shuttles, buses, etc.. There is not a whole lot of cheap public transportation in LA (there is SOME, but not enough to offer sightseeing flexibility IMO)

Question 2 - If we want to sightsee Friday and Saturday what is close by, that my DD 12 would like. I really am not familiar with the area - I would love to see Hollywood, are we even close?

Any other info would be greatly appreciated - I can imagine that I'm not the only one in this unfamiliar situation

It would be hard to answer this question without first knowing where you are staying. If staying close to LAX, then there is not a lot that is what I would call "close".

The best recommendation that I would give is to come in at one of the alternate airports already mentioned, and spend your two-and-a-half days near the Disneyland Resort. There are plenty of reasonably priced lodging options REALLY close to Disneyland (walking distance). Especially if you have never been to Disneyland.

 

[jlima]

Fly into Long Beach if you can; and take SuperShuttle to a San Pedro hotel that has a shuttle to the cruise terminal. Try this website to find a hotel: http://www.sanpedro.com/spcom/hotlodg.htm. On both of our cruises we stayed at the Holiday Inn, which is now a Clarion.

For sightseeing, if you want your own personal Hollywood tour, ask if your hotel has a car rental; or possibly have Enterprise deliver a car to your hotel, so you can drive yourself where you want to go. It's about 30 miles, depending on where you are going.

Or, take a taxi to downtown Long Beach where you can take the blue line train to downtown LA and then transfer to a red line train, which will take you to Hollywood. Try this for info: http://www.metro.net/around/maps/

You may want to take a tour in Hollywood. About 20 years ago, I took my brother and SIL on a tour run by a company called Graveline tours. What they did was take you around Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, etc to homes/hotels/etc where famous people died. You saw the house where Marilyn Monroe died, Cedars Sinai hospital, the hotel where John Belushi died, etc. My SIL loved it because they took her everywhere she wanted to go! The people who ran that tour company now operate this company: http://www.dearlydepartedtours.com/DDT/index.html and some of their tours look really cool, like the movie tour that shows you movie locations. You could easily take the red line to where you meet this tour.

Have fun planning your trip!

 

[szubieta]

Just a few minutes on the Metrolink from Hollywood puts you at Universal Studios & City Walk.