Carnival Panorama arrival time in Long Beach

[Cruzer]

Wanted to check with any recent travelers as to the actual time Carnival Panorama arrives back in Long Beach port on Saturday mornings from the Mexican Rivera cruise, and the time one could be expected to be off the ship.   Carnival posted time is 9am, which will make our flight difficult to make.  Most of my other cruises have arrived about 7am.  Thanks for your input.

[3Sisters]

@Cruzer From my experience, the ships arrive quite early but it takes time getting everything docked and off of the ship. What time is your flight? Are you flying out of San Diego? 

[RoadTravelled]

21 minutes ago, 3Sisters said:

@Cruzer From my experience, the ships arrive quite early but it takes time getting everything docked and off of the ship. What time is your flight? Are you flying out of San Diego? 

It's also dependent on when customs and port authorities give the "all clear" to disembark as to when passengers can start off the ship, regardless of when the ship actually arrives.  As a rule of thumb for me, I never book a local flight out before noon just to be safe.  Carnival recommends allowing no less than 5 hours after ship arrival.  You should also consider the Express Debark process if at all possible.  But, again, if you are going through customs, passport check, etc. even if you are off the ship early you might not get out of the terminal for awhile.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@RoadTravelled That's so true! Another factor is if the fire alarm is pulled! For some reason the last two cruises I took from Port Miami last year had fire alarm events. We were already through customs but had to evacuate both times. Thankfully it only took an hour or two to resolve the issue, but it is certainly a waiting game. That's a great rule to follow, never book a flight out before noon. 

[Woody14]

In July we arrived around 7 am and people started getting off at 8 am ish.   But a few weeks before they were arriving most of the time around 8 or latter and people weren't getting off till closer to 9:30 am

[3Sisters]

@RoadTravelled Thanks for sharing the Express Debark process. I had no idea the line offered this option!

@Woody14 Yes, it all depends. The crew usually tries to work quickly to get everyone off the ship though. It's a pretty seamless process, but you never know. 

@Cruzer I hope you can get off before 9am! Traffic is whole other factor.