San Diego Excursions

What San Diego excursions would you recommend? We will be traveling on the Monarch in August 2005.

Thanks

Being someone who lives in San Diego I can tell you that there are many beautiful and wonderful things to do here. You really can't go wrong with any of the tours especially if you've never been here before. If you don't want to pay for one of the excursions you can always take a walk downtown to Horton Plaza Shopping Center or walk around the Gaslamp District...lots of interesting restaurants and shops to see there. You can also take a little walk down to Seaport Village..a nice little harbor side shopping center. Another interesting sight would be the USS Midway museum that is docked just down from the cruise pier. Sea World is not far away you could take a taxi there or I believe it is one of the excursions offered as is the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.

Hope this helps.

The list for San Diego is a very long one, there are so many choices and it is a wonderful city to visit, you will want to go back one day.

If it is your first visit to the city, you might want to do the Trolley tour, which takes you to the main highlights of the city. But, don't take the one offered by the ships excursion desk, they won't let you off until Old Town. When you walk out of the port, there is a place to buy tickets and pick up the trolley right there. Or, buy tickets in advance from http://www.historictours.com sometimes they have an online discount. You will be able to get on and off at several different points and the narration can be fun. We love to get off at Coronado Island and visit the Del Coronado Hotel, then get off at Balboa Park, there is always a free museum on Tuesdays, Old Town is a great place to walk around, you can even go to the zoo, but the zoo is really a whole day experience.

Whatever your plans, have a wonderful cruise!

Edit to add, if you do go to this site, make sure you notice there are childrens prices.

I love the Wild Animal Park ! :)

Hi there, Kathy (HappyKs) suggest the Trolly which was what I was going to list, however, we were there last October, booked it thru the cruise line and were able to get off at any stop along the route. Not sure what's up with that as she mentioned Old Town as being the first jump off point??

I've only visited San Diego twice, and loved it. My daughter lives in L.A., and we've made a couple of trips there. I don't know WHY she won't move there:D - it's such a beautiful city!I don't know how long you have in SD, but I LOVED being on Coronado! I was soooo impressed w/the hotel. We spent one night there, and OH MY! The staff made this little MS/LA gal feel so important. I liked that.

We had lunch at McP's Pub, which was delightful! It's been awhile, so assuming it's still there? It was on a neat street with lots of shops, etc. (Sea World is also a great attraction - first time I was able to get so up close and personal with dolphins.)

Hello! Glad you're looking into some of the things to do here while you are in San Diego.

I've taken the Monarch several times, and know that you can get off the ship early but you do need to be back onboard by 4:00 - or 4:30 PM. I certainly would NOT go to the Wild Animal Park unless you are going as a tour from the ship. Traffic is very bad that day!

I really think one of the nicest things you can do, since it will be a Tuesday, is to have a nice, leisurely breakfast onboard, then catch a cab to go over to the San Diego Zoo, enjoy a nice morning there, have lunch at "Albert's" which is located in the Zoo, then head over to Balboa Park to walk around and enjoy some of the many museums that are there. It is very easy to catch a cab to the Zoo and then to return to the port. Balboa Park/Zoo are colocated together so it is very easy to get to each of them and have a day of it. I certainly would NOT do the ship's tours in this port unless you were wanting to go to the Wild Animal Park (run by the Zoo), since timing would be everything for that tour.

As everyone here has said, San Diego is a delight, and you should have a great time!

So I want to understand correctly

1. I can get a trolley ride right off the ship from a local trolley vender and not have to book thru the ship.

2. I have free passes to Sea World so I don't want to pay the excursion price from the ship. I can easily take a taxi there and back? I have been to the one in Florida so I don't need to be there all day.

3. If I want to go to Sea World first then take the trolley I will still have an opportunity to do that in the afternoon? They sell trolley tickets all day?

Any help any of you can give on this is appreciated

Catmand, you probably went out of the port area and picked up the trolley on the street, right? Well, the first time we took the trolley, we boarded as we left the terminal building, since the trolley car was right there, inside the port gates. After boarding (too late for us to get off), the tour guide told us it was a ships tour and the first stop was Old Town, she would not stop and allow people waiting at trolley stops to board, she would not allow us to get off. She was a great tour guide, so it was nice, but we would have preferred on and off priviledges. We did not purchase our tickets through the cruiseline, we got them online to save a few $$.

Just an FYI, they may have changed it since we went, if the passengers were complaining.

The Wild Animal Park is pretty far away from the port, don't do this one on your own!

Tinkerme, I think I met you on Monarch once, Christmas 2003. We were up on deck trying to see into the cabins of a couple of other ships. We had a few laughs up there, I think we all had been celebrating sailaway.

phtktz3, I think both would be a little ambitious, but I suppose it could be done, since you have already visited Sea World, I would take the Trolley first. You will want to be back onboard the ship by 5-5:30 at the latest and both Sea World and the Trolley don't start until 9am. So, if you did the Trolley from 9-12, you could conceivably visit Sea World from 1-4. We all have our preferences and I would rather relax and enjoy one venue.

Thanks for the reply. I just hate to have anything free go to waste like the tickets for Sea World. I think I will just let my

son decide what he wants to do...he is almost 19 so he may be over the Sea World thing anyway.

I know what you mean. They have fantastic deals at Sea World (buy one day, get the rest of the year free) but my teens just don't want to go anymore. Perhaps take the tickets along with you anyway and find someone else who could use them.

What a great idea....Maybe someone would like to use the tickets..no sense in them going to waste. Of course now I have left our excursion in the hands of my teenager....who, on most days, can't even find the laundry hamper for his dirty towels and puts everything off until he absolutely has to do it.......I think I definetly smell a last minute trolley tour in our future