Reports: Issues continue to plague LA cruise terminal
- CruiseNReview Newsroom
- Feb 11, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 12, 2023
Passengers report over an hour long wait to drop bags before boarding.
It's an exciting day for cruisers: boarding day. There's always a little apprehension and even hassle when boarding a cruise ship on embarkation day as thousands of people arrive in one place to get their vacations underway.
It really is a remarkable feat when you think about it. It's as if you arrived at your favorite all-inclusive resort and all the guests checked in the same day in a four hour window of time. Fortunately, most terminals and cruise lines have seamless systems to board guests in as quick and stress free a manner as possible.
The Port of Los Angeles has been the source of reported issues during its lifetime as a cruise home port with that boarding process. In no way does this mean that every passenger that comes through the terminal will have a negative experience, but we've heard plenty of stories from message boards and social media indicating that there are times when the cruise terminal struggles to get cruisers started on their vacations in an efficient way.
On Friday, cruisers arriving to board Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas reported wait times of over an hour to simply drop their bags off at bag check.
Aaron Saunders of Deck Chair Blog posted a photo on Twitter of what appeared to be a never-ending line while at bag check at the Port of LA. He later posted a photo of a timer that showed how long it took him to leave his luggage. One hour and six minutes. He went on to add that after he got through that process, it only took him ten minutes to board the ship.
Typically, it only takes a matter of minutes to tag your suit cases, leave them with a porter, and head into the terminal. Taking anything over 20 minutes would be considered unacceptable by most cruisers, but over an hour is no doubt a breakdown on some operational end of the boarding process. Usually, the porters are contracted by the cruise terminal operator.
One way to avoid baggage drop-off issues is to have your luggage tags (print at home) attached to your bag before arriving at the cruise terminal.
To compound the issue, other cruisers piled on in the comments. Some commented that they had experienced similar issues, one dating as far back as December of 2021. There were some replies to the contrary, commenters indicating they experienced no issues on previous sailings. One reputable source, Royal Caribbean Blog, posted an archive of a blog of their experience on embarkation day in late 2021, stating that this same issue and others prolonged the boarding process for their team. In the blog, the photo looked almost identical to the one posted by Saunders on Friday.
Boarding day should be an exciting time. It's exciting that Los Angeles is once again a booming home port for some large cruise ships with a variety of great destinations. However, boarding issues like this can put a dark stain on someone's entire vacation. For first-time cruisers, it could ruin them on cruising forever. As travel agents and travel news professionals, we take it as our responsibility to hold our vendors/partners to a high standard so future guests can have positive experiences.
We have had no reports of the check-in process after bag drop being an issue. Many have reported being on the ship in 10-15 minutes without baggage issues.
CruiseNReview has reached out to the Port of Los Angeles and Royal Caribbean Group for comment. A spokesperson for the Port of Los Angeles referred us to the port operator (Ports America) and the cruise line. We are still awaiting responses from both of those entities. We will continue to follow-up on this story as we learn more or if we receive communication from the parties involved..
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