Family Winter Holiday Part 3

Our return to the Port of Los Angeles was uneventful and smooth. We arrived at 7 am and were scheduled to disembark at 8:30 in the morning. Our troop ventured up to the buffet and had a quick breakfast before heading off to our disembarkation areas.

Senior Dad and I headed off to the Internet Cafe where all wheel chair assisted people were to report while The Wife and the rest of the group headed off to one of the dining rooms on the lower floor of the ship. We were ten minutes early and waited in the area while other wheel chair bound senior citizens arrived.

Our disembarkation time came and went and we were left waiting for an our past our scheduled time. Finally one of the porters came and stood near me and I asked what the problem was. He stated US Immigration was holding up the process much as they did when we were trying to get on board ship at the start of our vacation. The Wife and the rest of the family got off before Senior Dad and I and were in the immigration line as we were escorted to the handicapped line for customs.

Senior Dad and I were left waiting in the cold and wind along with ten other senior citizens while hordes of people were allowed to go in front of us. We waited for 30 minutes with the excuse being only US Immigration personnel could push a wheelchair through the line. Only three people were working the line and there were more than 20 seniors piled up after 30 minutes. At that point I had enough of the delays.

I stepped into the door of the immigration building and began yelling and dropping F-bombs. I yelled the seniors were freezing, etc, etc. The very same bitchy woman who yelled at passengers and workers at the start of our vacation came up to me and told me to go ahead and push Senior Dad into the line. I told her all the others behind me were doing the same not just me. A line of Seniors were queued up behind me inside the building.

By the way, US Immigration is a freaking joke. They scanned our passports and nothing else. If the federal government is so worried about smuggling, terrorists, etc., you would think they would check a bag upon coming back into the country. Nope. The bored agent just shuttled us through the line. We were escorted into an elevator and down to the baggage area where a porter and the family were waiting with our bags. Our troop was walked out into the rain and wind and deposited on a bench to await our hotel shuttle.

Of course the shuttle was late and was only running one van. The hotel had me on hold for over ten minutes and never connected me to the shuttle desk. Apparently the hotel forgot to read their own literature about continuous shuttle service every ten minutes to the cruise terminal. We were finally picked up by a rushed and haggard driver and taken back to the hotel and our cars. We finally made it onto the road at 10:42 am, over an hour later than we were supposed to depart from LA.

The drive home was fine and we completed the 400 miles in seven hours. It was good to be home and we all quickly settled in to unpack and do laundry.

In summary, Princess Cruises Lines was again fantastic. The Port of Los Angeles at San Pedro, the dock workers at San Pedro, and US Immigration at San Pedro were hideous. Their incompetence, disregard, and disrespect of the public was shameful. They made no apologies for their terrible service and, like most protected unionized workers, simply put in the utter minimum and collect a paycheck with no care for the quality of work or service.

I will never embark on a cruise from that port again. From our conversations with many other passengers these issues do NOT exist at Long Beach, San Francisco, Miami, or Seattle. Only at San Pedro.

Overall, our terribly negative experience with the port only serves to reinforce my negative attitude towards Los Angeles as a whole. I thank the gods I do not live there and would never entertain thoughts of visiting again. The only allure to the area is Disneyland. I may make an exception for that but not anytime soon.

I'm off to enjoy the last hours of my vacation and nurse the cold acquired from being left outside in LA before returning to work on Monday. Have a great Sunday!