Three generations took this trip, with my father, wife and daughter all joining me. Originally, it was going to just be myself and my wife, but we managed to convince my Dad to come along and (conveniently enough) pay for our daughter. Two upgrades later, we found ourselves with one of the family suites on Dolphin Deck forward (WAAAYYYY forward - but more on that later).

Getting there - we flew out of Denver on Southwest Airlines on the evening before embarkation. All went smoothly and we arrived at our hotel at around 11:00 PM. We had arranged for two rooms at the LAX Westin via Hotwire at $80/Nt. each. Not a bad price. The rooms were nice and the beds comfortable. Check in was easy and aside from the fact that the rooms themselves were down a very long hallway, we were happy to be there. One quick note - the Westin is located at the back end of the South Runway at LAX. We heard several planes taking off all during the night. I'm a sound sleeper, but it woke me up 3-4 times.

We arranged our pier transportation from Payless airport transportation. The were friendly, prompt, efficient and cost effective. The van cost $75 each way. Read more