Wow, what a great vacation! Relaxed but sad to be home. I have cruised 7 times, Regal Princess, Sun Princess, Radiance of the Seas (twice), NCL Sun, Infinity and now the NCL Star. I am 30 years, and travelled with my husband and 3 year old son.
We left Vancouver November 29th to spend the night in LA before our cruise. Our flight was delayed due to the snow in Vancouver so we landed 2 hours later than we expected :-( We rented a SUV from Hertz which was so convenient. We were picked up by shuttle at LAX, right outside the door, and our SUV was ready for pick up as soon as we got to Hertz. They have convenient stations that print out detailed maps, so we were easily directed to our hotel in Long Beach. We picked Long Beach to spend some relaxing time before the cruise and had read great reviews of the Best Western. It was as good as the reviews with an excellent continental breakfast included with to die for waffles. We did some shopping in the morning, and dropped our SUV off at the Long Beach office. Luckily we met 2 people who were sailing out on the Star as well and shared a $20 taxi ride with them.
We arrived at San Pedro approximately 11am. It was a smooth process, with minimal lines. We were in our stateroom by 1215pm and off to lunch.