$25 in San Pedro, $55 downtown
Which side of the harbor your hotel sits on decides most of the math.
At the Marriott’s $47 a night, two nights of garage come to $94 — before the rental rate, the tax or the gas, and all for a car you may barely move.
| Hotel | Neighborhood | What parking costs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DoubleTree San Pedro | San Pedro marina | Self-park $25; a shuttle-and-parking package covers up to 7 days, shuttle subject to availability | their page |
| Crowne Plaza Harbor Hotel | San Pedro | Self-park $25 plus tax; a cruise shuttle by appointment from 9 AM, $10 plus tax a person | their page |
| Queen Mary Hotel | Beside the Long Beach terminal | $39 a night for hotel guests on the Queen Mary’s FAQ ($30 on the city’s lot page); multi-day parking for Carnival guests from December to June | their page |
| Residence Inn Long Beach Downtown | Queensway, about 1 mile to the terminal | Self-park $42; a Park and Cruise package gives 8 nights of parking, with no shuttle | their page |
| Marriott Long Beach Downtown | Downtown | Self-park $47 | their page |
| The Westin Long Beach | Downtown | Self-park $49, valet $55 | their page |
| Courtyard Long Beach Downtown | Downtown | Self-park $50, valet $54 | their page |
| Hilton Long Beach | Downtown, about 1 mile to the Carnival terminal | Self-park $55, valet $60 | their page |
Rates come from each hotel’s own page, and the Queen Mary’s from its FAQ. Left out: Hyatt Regency Long Beach and Hotel Maya, which posted no parking rate we could find. Checked Sept 28, 2026
San Pedro is where the picture changes: the DoubleTree and the Crowne Plaza both list self-park at $25.
The Crowne Plaza also runs a cruise shuttle by appointment from 9 AM — a paid one, at $10 plus tax a person.
Both sit on the World Cruise Center side of the harbor. The Long Beach terminal is about 8 miles away by road, our estimate — so they suit a Princess, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean or Virgin sailing better than a Carnival one.
Some of the packages these hotels sell look built for guests who drive their own car and leave it.
The Residence Inn’s 8 nights of parking come with no shuttle, and the DoubleTree’s package covers up to 7 days, shuttle subject to availability.
A rental goes back before you board — a week of parking would be money spent on nothing.
The Queen Mary, the Aquarium and the Iowa need no car
| Sight | What it costs and when it’s open | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| Queen Mary | An adult ticket is $45 and a child’s $40; parking runs $25 a day at most | Next to the Long Beach terminal |
| Aquarium of the Pacific | Adults pay $49.95; children 3 to 11 pay $34.95 | In downtown Long Beach |
| Battleship USS Iowa | Thursday to Monday, 10 to 5; closed Tuesday and Wednesday | The San Pedro waterfront, close to the World Cruise Center |
Each attraction’s own website supplied the prices and hours. Checked Sept 28, 2026
Carnival sails from the Long Beach terminal, right beside the Queen Mary.
If you’re sleeping in the ship-hotel you’re already at the terminal — a car would only add its $39-a-night parking.
The Aquarium is downtown, a short ride from the terminal. The Battleship Iowa is on the San Pedro waterfront near the World Cruise Center — and it’s closed Tuesday and Wednesday, so check before you build an evening around it.
Pick the one on your side, not all three.
Can a bus, a train and a trolley cover it?
Metro charges $1.75 a ride and stops at $5 a day. Long Beach Transit charges $1.25, and the San Pedro DASH is 50 cents and comes about every 30 minutes.
Getting around is the cheap part. The garage is the expensive one.
Metro’s A Line runs from downtown Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles — a day in the city, not a day at the harbor.
San Pedro’s free downtown trolley runs Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 8 — so midweek you’re counting on the DASH.
Long Beach Transit’s free Passport shuttle lists a stop at the Queen Mary and the cruise terminal. The sources disagree on whether it runs every day or weekends only — confirm before you plan a morning around it.
The Long Beach water taxis have ended for the season and return in 2027, per Long Beach Transit.
Driving your own car to the ship is a different problem, and Los Angeles cruise parking covers it. If you haven’t picked a hotel yet, the top 20 is a fair place to start.
The math: a car against an Uber
It opens on two people, two nights and an LAX pickup. Swap in a Long Beach branch to skip the airport, or change any other box.
The rental, line by line
Nothing here is a quote. We assumed $50 a day for the car; LAX cars started at $38 a day on Discover Cars on Sept 27, 2026 and Long Beach Airport cars at $47, and the site calls its own prices approximate, so put your real rate in. Pick up at LAX and the bill grows by a facility charge of $9 per rental day (five-day cap) and a concession fee we guessed at 11%, since nobody has published one for 2026. A downtown branch skips both. Tax means the 3.5% California tourism assessment only. Sources conflict on sales tax, so a quote that prints one can be keyed into the fee box. Fuel: 30 mpg at $6.41, which AAA posted as the Los Angeles–Long Beach average on Sept 28, 2026. Nothing on these routes is tolled unless you enter an express lane. The mileage is about 40, our estimate for LAX to Long Beach and back plus a hop or two in between. Hotel parking starts at $47 a night, the rate the Marriott lists for self-park.
Priced at our assumptions, a night with a car adds up to about $122, and two nights to about $236.
The garage takes $47 of the first and $94 of the second.
Two Uber rides at its $53 LAX-to-World Cruise Terminal average come to about $106, with no parking bill attached. For a Carnival sailing, Uber’s $48 LAX-to-Long Beach average would make it about $96 — an average, not a quote.
Try $25 in the parking box. That’s a San Pedro night.
Skip the car, unless you’re leaving the harbor
Two nights with a rental from LAX, at a downtown Long Beach hotel, come to about $236 at our assumptions — and $94 of that is the garage. The big sights sit on the water: the Queen Mary, the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Battleship Iowa, each a bus, a ride or a walk from its end of the harbor.
The car earns its keep if
- You’re tacking Disneyland or the Getty onto the trip
- You’re sleeping in San Pedro, where the garage is $25
- You’re driving on after the cruise
- You can return it on the way to the terminal
Leave it at the desk if
- Your downtown hotel bills $47 a night for the garage
- The Queen Mary and the harbor are the whole plan
- You’d drive it once, from the airport
- It’s a Sunday, and the San Pedro branches are shut
Three checks before you book
Choose a hotel that publishes its garage rate, then pick up at LAX or at a Long Beach branch, which carries no airport charges.
The return is where the plan can slip: you’ll be handing the car back on the morning you sail.
The San Pedro branches are closed Sundays, so check the hours before you settle on a date.
- Pick-up: downtown Long Beach
- Drop-off: a Long Beach or San Pedro branch, while it’s open
- Tax and fee lines on screen before payment
- Free cancellation until 48 hrs before pickup
Long Beach and San Pedro, answered
How much does parking cost at Long Beach hotels?
Self-park is $55 at the Hilton, $50 at the Courtyard, $49 at the Westin, $47 at the Marriott and $42 at the Residence Inn, all from the hotels’ own pages. The Queen Mary hotel lists $39 a night for guests on its FAQ, and the San Pedro DoubleTree and Crowne Plaza both charge $25.
Do I need a car in Long Beach before my cruise?
Not usually, and the numbers explain why. Parking downtown runs $42 to $55 a night, a Long Beach Transit ride is $1.25, and the Queen Mary, the Aquarium of the Pacific and the downtown hotels all sit close to the Carnival terminal, with Uber or a cab for the gaps.
Is there a free shuttle to the Long Beach cruise terminal?
Long Beach Transit’s free Passport shuttle lists a stop at the Queen Mary and the cruise terminal. The sources disagree on whether it runs every day or weekends only, so confirm before you plan around it.
Is there a water taxi in Long Beach?
Not right now. Long Beach Transit says the water taxis have ended for the season and return in 2027.
More on renting around a Los Angeles cruise
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