Sept. 23, 2012 Pacific Coast - Wonder Cruise

[BlondeJungleBookFan]

For our MR trip in April, we weren't off the ship until almost 10:00. They didn't even start letting people off until close to 9:00, I think. I just remember them announcing that we had cleared customs while we were still seated at breakfast (second seating). They said we were a few minutes late arriving though. And even then it takes a while to get through all the tags. We were able to have our late breakfast and then hang out in Diversions (lounge) for quite a while before it was time to get off the ship.

Oh dear... I'm getting a little concerned about my 12:45 flight out of LAX.
I'm assuming the people with self-disembark were the first ones to leave around 9 am??
(If I would have to wait until 10ish...yikes)

 

[AussieMumma]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
I think we'll stick to the 1:45pm flight we were looking at, sounds like that should fit in well. There's a cheaper flight at 3:25pm but I don't fancy hanging around dragging our luggage for an extra couple of hours!

 

[jetskigrl]

Oh dear... I'm getting a little concerned about my 12:45 flight out of LAX.
I'm assuming the people with self-disembark were the first ones to leave around 9 am??
(If I would have to wait until 10ish...yikes)

Yes, if you keep your luggage with you, you can leave the ship as soon as it clears customs. And our MR cruise was late getting back to port, so that caused a bit of a delay too. So they could start letting people off well before 9.

But even if you got off the ship at 10:00, you would probably have no problem making a 12:45 flight. Recently I had a flight out of LAX get cancelled and I had to catch an earlier one. I left my work at 4:00, went home to change bags, etc and then DH drove me to the airport. My house is probably 1/2 way between the port and LAX. I left home about 4:30 and I was at LAX at 4:45 (and that was on a Tuesday afternoon...although the worst traffic was going the other direction).

 

[sandracox67]

Has anyone received information packets yet?

 

[erbie]

Has anyone received information packets yet?

Not here. Usually they come about a month before sail date.

 

[AussieMumma]

So we will still get an information pack sent over here?

 

[erbie]

So we will still get an information pack sent over here?

I would think so. They send cruise documents, activities, luggage tags, and itinerary about a month before. I forget what other info is in them. Those of is with regular GTYs should also find out our room assignments when we get them.

 

[HBmomof2]

Oh dear... I'm getting a little concerned about my 12:45 flight out of LAX.
I'm assuming the people with self-disembark were the first ones to leave around 9 am??
(If I would have to wait until 10ish...yikes)

Everyone is going to get a character on their bags & when your character is called you can disembark. You can in reality disembark whenever you want; including earlier BUT you will most likely still have to wait for your bags to b available but at least you can be the first one down there I guess. It is chaos in the lobby area on disembarking day!

 

[atmail35]

I can't believe how quickly this cruise is coming up! Welcome to all of you who have recently booked!

I need some help from S. CA locals...I need to book a hotel room for Saturday night. We arrive in LAX mid morning so we'd rather not stay in San Pedro so we can do something during the day without getting a car.

We won't have a car so we'd need to take a cab from LAX to hotel, have a place where we can get food, look around etc and then cab it from hotel to Port on Sunday.

Any thoughts? I was thinking of Santa Monica so we can go to the Pier and 3rd Street Prommenade. Any suggestions there? What do you think the cab fare would be from LAX to SM and SM to the port?

I looked around and DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Santa Monica seems nice?

I don't want to spend a fortune, but I like a decent hotel, if you know what I mean! I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[jetskigrl]

I can't believe how quickly this cruise is coming up! Welcome to all of you who have recently booked!

I need some help from S. CA locals...I need to book a hotel room for Saturday night. We arrive in LAX mid morning so we'd rather not stay in San Pedro so we can do something during the day without getting a car.

We won't have a car so we'd need to take a cab from LAX to hotel, have a place where we can get food, look around etc and then cab it from hotel to Port on Sunday.

Any thoughts? I was thinking of Santa Monica so we can go to the Pier and 3rd Street Prommenade. Any suggestions there? What do you think the cab fare would be from LAX to SM and SM to the port?

I looked around and DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Santa Monica seems nice?

I don't want to spend a fortune, but I like a decent hotel, if you know what I mean! I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks!

Here is a fare finder. I haven't used it myself so I don't know how accurate it is.

http://www.taxifarefinder.com/main.php?city=LA&from=lax&to=Santa+Monica,+CA

http://www.taxifarefinder.com/main....+Angeles,+Los+Angeles,+CA&to=Santa+Monica,+CA

Santa Monica would be nicer than San Pedro (especially if you spend the day at the pier) but it is in the opposite direction so cab fares could be pretty expensive. I would say it would be cheaper just to rent a car for a night, but the only car rental close to the port is enterprise, so that limits it quite a bit.

We also don't spend as much time in Santa Monica as we do in San Pedro port area (we spend many Sunday afternoons there when the Wonder is in port) so I can't vouch for the area of that hotel.

 

[erbie]

We won't have a car so we'd need to take a cab from LAX to hotel, have a place where we can get food, look around etc and then cab it from hotel to Port on Sunday.

Any thoughts? I was thinking of Santa Monica so we can go to the Pier and 3rd Street Prommenade. Any suggestions there? What do you think the cab fare would be from LAX to SM and SM to the port?

I looked around and DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Santa Monica seems nice?!

Cab fare from LAX to the Doubletree shouldn't be more than about $50. Not sure if there's an upcharge for more than one passenger.

The Doubletree is very nice and it's in a good location and decent area safety-wise. It's walking distance to the Promenade and the Pier and also to the Ocean Park area, which has a lot of restaurants and shops. There's also the Georgian, which is very nice and rates are comparable, I think.

Cab fare to San Pedro will be more, as it's even farther the opposite direction from the airport. It would probably be more cost effective to rent a car. If you don't want to rent, Super Shuttle to Santa Monica is also an option.

 

[BlondeJungleBookFan]

Yes, if you keep your luggage with you, you can leave the ship as soon as it clears customs. And our MR cruise was late getting back to port, so that caused a bit of a delay too. So they could start letting people off well before 9.

But even if you got off the ship at 10:00, you would probably have no problem making a 12:45 flight. Recently I had a flight out of LAX get cancelled and I had to catch an earlier one. I left my work at 4:00, went home to change bags, etc and then DH drove me to the airport. My house is probably 1/2 way between the port and LAX. I left home about 4:30 and I was at LAX at 4:45 (and that was on a Tuesday afternoon...although the worst traffic was going the other direction).

THANKS so much! I feel better now

 

[glindamood]

Busy, busy, busy - love it.

Well, good old Delta did it again! Not only did they change our flights, they put us on one out of Detroit that left 45 minutes before we landed from our first flight. So I called and got us moved around to what is very close to the itinerary I had originally booked so yippee - we no longer have a 5:35AM flight, it is now 7:30AM. But, they also changed our departure flight to 1:00PM so I will need to start keeping an eye on that one. We have never walked off with all our luggage but I am thinking that we might have to do that this time.

I would be another one that will say that a San Pedro debarkation is MUCH different than what one experiences in Port Canaveral. Slower and be prepared to stand in line. We didn't have to mess with luggage as when we did the repo, they were still doing the onboard flight check-in, which makes life so much easier. Oh well, I can rest and relax all the way back to Michigan!

Not much else new to report from here so take care and have a good day.

 

[j2tyco]

so now the discussion about debarkation is peaking my first time cruiser ears...other then needing to hurry to get to a flight or something..there really is no need to rush or hurry up to stand around off the ship (I assume)....

We would be happy to just sit on the ship with later debarkation character passes until it calms down in the lobby area....is there like a "last call get off NOW" type of announcement or anything like that...if you can get off at any point even before your debarkation pass is called is it the same for the opposite? (ie waiting around until the last minute to get off even if your debarkation pass character group has been called)

Is this question making any sense?

I am all about stalling the inevitable end to what will be a glorious vacay and if there is waiting to be done, why not doing it on the ship lol??

Out of curiosity are the characters for debarkation always the same and is there an order they use ie Mickey is first off then goofy etc or does it always change??..Can you request a certain debarkation?

 

[Computer Magic]

I can't believe how quickly this cruise is coming up! Welcome to all of you who have recently booked!

I need some help from S. CA locals...I need to book a hotel room for Saturday night. We arrive in LAX mid morning so we'd rather not stay in San Pedro so we can do something during the day without getting a car.

We won't have a car so we'd need to take a cab from LAX to hotel, have a place where we can get food, look around etc and then cab it from hotel to Port on Sunday.

Any thoughts? I was thinking of Santa Monica so we can go to the Pier and 3rd Street Prommenade. Any suggestions there? What do you think the cab fare would be from LAX to SM and SM to the port?

I looked around and DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Santa Monica seems nice?

I don't want to spend a fortune, but I like a decent hotel, if you know what I mean! I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks!

Read my past posts. I mentioned Disney sponsored hotel is Marriott's LAX. Book through Disney and they will provide all transportation, to hotel, to port and to airport.

 

[BigDisneyOE]

I'm a week away from flying out to Sydney for my brothers wedding. The kids are all jazzed up and I just need to hem their suit trousers, pack and get them on the plane.

Unfortunately I did a check of our c/card today and the details of my card have been compromised and used at two sites in the USA fraudulently. Now I've lost my c/card for the Aussie trip, have to fill out a pile of forms and we have to contact the only place I'd shopped at in the US in that time period to determine how robust their online payment methods are, it's the Disney Store too. I'm so careful with my c/card as I used to work for an internet payment provider and I'm so cross that this has happened.

We fly out late at night the day of disembarkation. We have 12 hours to make our flight, I think we'll probably do it.

 

[gunka]

Ok, I am back. Moved from Alpine to Norco over the weekend and didnt get Cable/Internet until today. Cant believe how hard it is to go without hi speed internet for several days.

 

[glindamood]

I'm a week away from flying out to Sydney for my brothers wedding. The kids are all jazzed up and I just need to hem their suit trousers, pack and get them on the plane.

Unfortunately I did a check of our c/card today and the details of my card have been compromised and used at two sites in the USA fraudulently. Now I've lost my c/card for the Aussie trip, have to fill out a pile of forms and we have to contact the only place I'd shopped at in the US in that time period to determine how robust their online payment methods are, it's the Disney Store too. I'm so careful with my c/card as I used to work for an internet payment provider and I'm so cross that this has happened.

We fly out late at night the day of disembarkation. We have 12 hours to make our flight, I think we'll probably do it.

Wow, that time went fast - can't believe it is coming so soon. But, then again, DS's is the following weekend so I guess it is time.

Credit card issues - I had one of mine stolen while working at a customer site once but thankfully it was my AmEx card and they were so good. And, it happened earlier this year with another card but I watch that card like a hawk and caught it right away. They had only tried to use it once and it was for a small amount so I had it shut right down. I called the company that put the charges on and they reversed it right away. It is pretty freaky though, and I can't believe that Disney is not on top of all the compliance initiatives that the credit card companies put out. So sorry and good luck getting it all resolved.

Nothing new to report from here so have a great day everyone!

 

[jlwhitney]

Busy, busy, busy - love it.

Well, good old Delta did it again! Not only did they change our flights, they put us on one out of Detroit that left 45 minutes before we landed from our first flight. So I called and got us moved around to what is very close to the itinerary I had originally booked so yippee - we no longer have a 5:35AM flight, it is now 7:30AM. But, they also changed our departure flight to 1:00PM so I will need to start keeping an eye on that one. We have never walked off with all our luggage but I am thinking that we might have to do that this time.

I would be another one that will say that a San Pedro debarkation is MUCH different than what one experiences in Port Canaveral. Slower and be prepared to stand in line. We didn't have to mess with luggage as when we did the repo, they were still doing the onboard flight check-in, which makes life so much easier. Oh well, I can rest and relax all the way back to Michigan!

Not much else new to report from here so take care and have a good day.

Our flight is 12:45 PM out of LAX, don't worry about the 1pm flight it will work out. Disney will have lots of flights in the noon hour since pretty any on heading back east that is the latest you can get. Typically they asked that you flight be booked after 12/12:30.

 

[MadHatterMom2]

My mom and her husband are also booked on this cruise. They booked a guarantee and I just noticed a room number appeared when I checked the DCL website. Unfortunately, no upgrades. But - we decided we'd be happy with whatever we got.