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Anyone disembark in Ensenada?

PKB

By PKB,
in Royal Caribbean International

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It is awful after a wonderful Hawaii voyage. You disembark in the middle of the night about 3 am and board busses for the trip to San Diego. There were about 50 busses there for RCCL and another 50 for the Carnival Spirit. If you are on one of the first busses it is not too bad because you clear immigration at the border fairly quickly. If you are on bus 30, you are waiting forever.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your TA should have told you.

 

K & B

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lephysteria

lephysteria

Posted
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It is awful after a wonderful Hawaii voyage. You disembark in the middle of the night about 3 am and board busses for the trip to San Diego. There were about 50 busses there for RCCL and another 50 for the Carnival Spirit. If you are on one of the first busses it is not too bad because you clear immigration at the border fairly quickly. If you are on bus 30, you are waiting forever.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your TA should have told you.

 

K & B

 

 

Wow!

I had no idea it'd be like that. I was wondering how this worked.

Although it isn't far from TJ to San Diego (and so the trip home to Carlsbad 'where we used to live - Poinsettia and Aviara' wouldn't be that long of a trip). I'd be realllly worried about the crime. I mean, Ensenada isn't exactly the poster child for safety.

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You lived close to us. We are on Estrella de Mar Road down the street from the La Costa Resort.

 

Yes...it is pretty awful. Ensenada is very safe and quite nice actually. No problem there at all. It is just awful ending your cruise in the middle of the night to get on a bus whenthere are cruise lines that sail San Diego to San Diego to Hawaii. We did back to back on the Radiance for 21 days Hawaii in September/October and had a fabulous time until the last morning. Many people did not know they would have to get up in the middle of the night or stay up all night and were very angry when they received the notice intheir cabin the first day of their voyage.

 

RCCL has to stop in Ensenada because of the Jones act, but if they made it a port stop instead of a place to disembark people would be much happier!

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dougp26364

dougp26364

Posted
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It is awful after a wonderful Hawaii voyage. You disembark in the middle of the night about 3 am and board busses for the trip to San Diego. There were about 50 busses there for RCCL and another 50 for the Carnival Spirit. If you are on one of the first busses it is not too bad because you clear immigration at the border fairly quickly. If you are on bus 30, you are waiting forever.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your TA should have told you.

 

K & B

 

Which is another reason why I'm considering NCL if we ever get around to booking Hawaii. Either that or timing it so we catch one of the repositioning cruises from the ships moving from Alaska to other iteneraries, which may be more likely for us.

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Which is another reason why I'm considering NCL if we ever get around to booking Hawaii. Either that or timing it so we catch one of the repositioning cruises from the ships moving from Alaska to other iteneraries, which may be more likely for us.

 

Actually, that is a repositioning cruise on RCCL. The Radiance and the Serenade leave Vancouver and sail to Honolulu and on the way back they sail from Honolulu to Ensenada. After everyone disembarks, the ship sails without passengers from Ensenada to San Diego and then embarks passengers sailing from San Diego through the Panama Canal.

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dougp26364

dougp26364

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I would assume that there IS a charge for the bus. RCI has always charged for their transportation anytime we've taken it, including from Seward Alaska to Anchorage. I don't see that this would be any different, just longer.

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blastofftosj

blastofftosj

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We did that Hawaii-Ensenada cruise on Celebrity, it was a wonderful cruise the ending was the pits. We has to get off in the early hours of the morning get on the buses and ride for if I remember correctly 3 hours, it was a horror we got to the border we had to disembark the bus and walk with all of our luggage through the border. To top all that off we were missing a piece of luggage and we were told that it was put on the bus, when were got off to go through customs we couldn't find it. About a week or so after we returned home some guy called us from the pier at Ensenada and said he just saw it sitting there and called the number on the tag. He turned it over to the people in charge of the transfers and they set it back to us.

 

We will rembemer that cruise anyway

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Murphy

Murphy

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We had heard absolute nightmare stories about Ensenda before our Hawaii cruise last May. But our experience was not as bad as I had been lead to believe. Disembarking started a 5:15am. We were on our bus and headed to San Diego before 6:00am. The border crossing was quite quick for us, but our bus did have a problem... they are supposed to store all luggage in the underbus storage area until you get to the airport. If this happens, the only luggage you have to carry thru customs is the hand luggage you have onboard the bus with you. However, our bus was particularly full of bags (big packers! :) ) and about 10 suitcases/golf bags had been stowed at the back of the bus. When we got to the border, a RCCL rep got on board and told us we needed to bring only whatever bags were in the bus section. I was sitting in the front row of the bus, so asked him about all the bags in the back of the bus and he confirmed that these needed to go thru customs. The problem was no one knew which/whose bags were back there! I had happened to walk back there to "use the facilities" and noticed our golf clubs, so we knew we had to get that bag. So, we got of the bus and waited for everyone else to get off. Then we got back on and got our clubs. The RCCL rep looked in a panic since there were still 9 bags on board and asked us to each take one thru customs! Now, I've heard all the security reports... Do NOT take another person's bag thru customs as you have no idea what is in it. The RCL rep assured us it would be fine. Which it was. After we lugged them thru customs (which was a breeze BTW), we met up with our group waiting for the bus to clear. We started calling out the names of the people's bags we had lugged (since they didn't listen and take them themselves). A few people responded and we gave them their bags back which they were none too happy to have to carry back on board. I personally was glad, because now we had our clubs up front with us, and it was easier at the airport...

 

We were to the airport by 8:00am maybe 8:30am. We managed to get on an earlier flight which was great.

 

Was it a "fabulous" experience. No way. But neither was it the pits of the earth.

 

Warning if you get motion sick. Don't sit in the front row of the bus nor sit on the sea side of the bus. Although the view was beautiful. there was a lot of winding roads and I got a little queezy!

 

FYI, if you book your airfare thru RCL, your bus trip is included in that price.

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PKB

PKB

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Thanks for all the replies. I asked our TA about the price of the transfers, she said $79 pp. Sounds like they got you where they want you. No other transportation options.

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Sail With Me

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It may say 8:00 am but that is not what happens and is the cause of so many people getting upset. When you get on board you will receive a notice stating that the transportatin to San Diego is $50 per person and then you will be told what time you are boarding the bus. Those with flights go first depending on flight time. THose who reside in San Diego go last.

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H20 Lover

H20 Lover

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Hmmm, very interesting.

 

I wrote my TA's fill in (my TA's on vaca) to find out and I quoted what you said about the price. My TA told me when I booked the cruise, the bus was included in the airfare price. I will be so mad if she withheld this info, more on principal, ya know? Well, and $100 is a lot of "drinks of the day." ;)

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Sail With Me

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Hmmm, very interesting.

 

I wrote my TA's fill in (my TA's on vaca) to find out and I quoted what you said about the price. My TA told me when I booked the cruise, the bus was included in the airfare price. I will be so mad if she withheld this info, more on principal, ya know? Well, and $100 is a lot of "drinks of the day." ;)

 

Just checked with RCCL. If you purchase air with them it is included and the new fare for the bus is $79.00. If you have bought cruise only then in order to get from Ensenada to San Diego airport the transfer is $79 per person.

 

Hope that clarifies things for everyone.

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worldsbestcandles

worldsbestcandles

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atseadaze, thanks for the info on future sailings... I hadn't even looked yet...

 

Yvonne, I also booked our air through RCCL due to the fact that it is a repositioning cruise... I was also told that the price of transfers is included in the price of our air... if you end up being told otherwise please let me know, but we should be fine.... our flight out is at 2:05pm, wonder what bus we will be on?

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H20 Lover

H20 Lover

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OK, with your comments and that of my TA, I feel much better now. Phew. I think I just needed something to freak out about. ;)

 

Comment from my TA: You have purchased air through RCCL and the bus from Ensenada to San Diego is included in your flight cost (transfers). Anyone who has not purchased air through RCCL would need to purchase the transfers (bus) to get from the ship to the airport.

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  • 2 months later...
csk

csk

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A couple of years ago, we did the reverse, San Diego to Ensendo, and I had no idea what is was like. We had to board a bus at the San Diego airport, and then ride like 3 hours, go through customs, and then they took us to a hotel to check in for the ship, it seems they have no way to check you in at the pier, then we got a number, then waited for another bus to take us to the ship, then wait again to get off the bus and on the ship, we got on the ship about 9PM that night, what a nightmare. Next May we are taking the Radiance round trip from San Diego, Royal Caribbean listened to our wants, and we did not book with the agent who did not tell us about the procedure from hell

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