Let me begin by saying that we had a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Since we are California residents, we drove to the pier in Long Beach. But, since we were flying back from Fort Lauderdale, we wanted to actually fly back to our town in central California instead of Long Beach. So, we rented a car one way from Avis. The hitch was that the only option was a premium car and there were four of us and a lot of luggage. We managed to cram all of it in the car, but it was a cramped five hour drive to the pier. Once we got there we could see the dock but could not find the entrance which is wedged between two larger roads and unmarked. Husband dropped us off at the pier and he returned the car to Avis in Long Beach (about a mile and a half away). He easliy caught a taxi and met up with us at the termina.

The worst part of the trip was actually at the Long Beach Pier. What a dud! Not even a place to get a cup of coffee. The porters were nice, but the rest of the staff was bossy and not at all worthy of HAL. Once we got into the port building we were told to wait in a room and that embarkation was going to be delayed an hour. Since we were early, that meant two hours in this holding cell on uncomfortable chairs with a temperature around 50 degrees. It was so cold that I started to get the chills near the end. It would have been nice to have some hot water and tea bags and maybe a little sympathy from the staff. The reason for our detention was a CODE RED on the boat. This was due to intestinal flue. We were given the option of rebooking for another time, but after all we had gone through to get here (months of preparation and no Christmas decorations at home), we decided to risk it. Fortunately, no one in our party got sick. We did use a lot of hand sanitizer though! Read more