April 6th San Diego sailings

[Boatdrill]

So this has nothing to do with local road construction.

 

igraf

 

HAL's notice to passengers does not, but the OP's notice included the heavy road construction - which makes the area difficult to access - as a courtesy to those who may be on either ship.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

HAL's notice to passengers does not, but the OP's notice included the heavy road construction - which makes the area difficult to access - as a courtesy to those who may be on either ship.

HAL's notification calls it Port Congestion, I took that to mean traffic problems in and around the Port.

[igraf]

I drive on Harbor Drive a two or three times during the week in the middle of the day and also on weekends. It is not a difficult area, certainly not on weekends. Sometimes a bit of a rush leaving the airport, though usually not. Nothing around the cruise ships worth mentioning. There might be a few minutes of delay if an intersection gets backed up by a train. A couple times a year the street is closed for a parade and that is a hassle.

 

You can watch the traffic yourself on the "North Marina North" or "South Marina" web cams.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

HAL's notice to passengers does not, but the OP's notice included the heavy road construction - which makes the area difficult to access - as a courtesy to those who may be on either ship.

[Rick Knee]

We just a telephone call from Hal, 1PM San Diego time, reminding us to NOT arrive at the dock before 1:30 PM tomorrow.

 

We have friends departing on the Zaandam tomorrow and we are departing on the Westerdam tomorrow. We are having dinner with them tonight down by the pier so I will report back regarding the road construction issues.

 

When we were down there about a week ago it was really dug up so I'm guessing it is still a mess.

[DAllenTCY]

Most of the time I agree, Igraf; however, not today. Apparently you haven't been far enough south on Harbor, where it narrows to one lane....and you certainly have not seen Broadway lately.

David

 

Watch tomorrow for yourselves:

 

http://live6.truelook.com/face/newface.jsp?zoom=1.0&imagemap.x=531&imagemap.y=222&name=%2Fecodb%2Foneamerica%2Fcamera1&skin=Nov2004SOSD&pan=108.52002&panfov=46.7&tiltfov=36.4&tilt=-16.58&oldimage=1349338045198474&width=640&height=480&oldscale=0.75&useapplet=false&vfadjust=0.44444445

[Rick Knee]

We just got home from dinner at Anthony's so here is the report on construction at the cruise ship dock:

 

1. Broadway is nothing but a big hole from Harbor drive to Pacific Coast Highway, one block.

 

2. Harbor drive is one lane each way immediately in front of the cruise ship terminal. The one lane stretch extends from just south of Anthony's to south of Broadway, immediately in front of the cruise ship terminal.

 

3. The parking lot across from the cruise ship terminal is gone. It's a construction site. Cruise ship parking looks to be limited to the few spaces on the pier.

 

4. The parking lot at the corner of Harbor Drive and Grape Street is half gone to do construction there.

 

5. There were stop lights without power on Harbor and Grape, and Grape and Pacific Coast Highway. Hopefully they will be working tomorrow.

 

6. Our friends that are sailing on the Zaandam have NOT been told to arrive at the terminal at 1:30PM or later. I think they will be trying to load the Zaandam first, and the Westerdam second.

 

7. It looks like the best places to drop folks off would be north of Anthony's, by the Star of India (the big sailing ship), or south of the Midway (the little aircraft carrier). An alternative would be to drop folks off east of Pacific Coast Highway and have them walk about 2 to 3 blocks to the terminal.

 

If you see some good looking fellow in a black power wheelchair towing suitcases stop and say "hi." That will be me. My beautiful wife will be dragging suitcase right behind me.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Rick and Lenora

San Diego

[Boatdrill]

We just got home from dinner at Anthony's so here is the report on construction at the cruise ship dock:

 

 

3. The parking lot across from the cruise ship terminal is gone. It's a construction site.

 

 

I'm sorry but this is not correct. The very large parking lot - for day and long term parking, across from the terminal - is still there. The only entrance/exit is on Pacific Coast Highway.

 

Visitors to the USS Midway use it, city employees, cruise ship passengers, etc.

 

The construction area is outside (to the south and west) of the parking lot.

[DAllenTCY]

Thanks for the report. We both forgot to say that southbound Pacific Coast Highway narrows to one lane just south of Ash Street......yikes.

Embarking, the Westerdam is a 30 South Pacific cruise....lots of luggage to haul.

 

David

[DAllenTCY]

It looks as though the Zaandam will be arriving an hour late. She is still 3 miles from the pilot station at 6 am.

David

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Glad to see both ships are in San Diego

 

It does look to be a bit of heavy traffic to be able to dropp and pick up.

 

Lots of yellow taxis either waiting to pick up or attemtping to wait to get into the area to pick up passengers.

 

It looks like they are diembarking from the Forward gangway area on the Zaandam and needing to walking quite a ways to the terminal for their luggage:(

 

[Boatdrill]

The luggage for disembarking Zaandam passengers is in the white tent next to the ship ! How can that be a "quite a ways to the terminal" ??

[nana51]

When we returned on the 30 last week, we had very little trouble with the traffic. It is a mess, but it is a week-end and that relives a lot of the mess. We got in the parking lot to be dropped off with no problem and we were picked up swiftly also. Don't stress folks, it's a vacation!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

The luggage for disembarking Zaandam passengers is in the white tent next to the ship ! How can that be a "quite a ways to the terminal" ??

 

Sorry I was no aware, there have been times when the luggage was in the terminal but at any rate it is still not exact close. If it was raining this would not be very pleasant ;)

[Boatdrill]

The main terminal is used for luggage for the Westerdam.

 

From the Zaandam's tent to the taxi's or airport buses is about a 1-3 minute walk. Same for those in the main terminal.

 

Thankfully passengers who sail on HAL are good travellers and rain would not be an major problem for them. They would handle it with the good spirit they are known for.

 

It's a bit odd that there are posters on this thread who insist on finding fault with HAL and are posting misinformation. :(

[OCruisers]

Can any of you tell or know if Westerdam had begun disembarking pax yet?

 

LuLu

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[igraf]

Below is a web cam image from about 10am this morning. The cruise parking lot is fine. The parking lot used for construction was not a cruise parking lot.

 

The road to the south has been narrowed for a very long time (over a year?), but most cruisers are mostly concerned about the road to the north towards the airport which is open.

 

If there were traffic delays then HAL would be asking everyone to plan on arriving earlier rather than later. It is clear to me that this is strictly a ship disembarkation/embarkation situation.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

 

 

We just got home from dinner at Anthony's so here is the report on construction at the cruise ship dock:

 

1. Broadway is nothing but a big hole from Harbor drive to Pacific Coast Highway, one block.

 

2. Harbor drive is one lane each way immediately in front of the cruise ship terminal. The one lane stretch extends from just south of Anthony's to south of Broadway, immediately in front of the cruise ship terminal.

 

3. The parking lot across from the cruise ship terminal is gone. It's a construction site. Cruise ship parking looks to be limited to the few spaces on the pier.

 

4. The parking lot at the corner of Harbor Drive and Grape Street is half gone to do construction there.

 

5. There were stop lights without power on Harbor and Grape, and Grape and Pacific Coast Highway. Hopefully they will be working tomorrow.

 

6. Our friends that are sailing on the Zaandam have NOT been told to arrive at the terminal at 1:30PM or later. I think they will be trying to load the Zaandam first, and the Westerdam second.

 

7. It looks like the best places to drop folks off would be north of Anthony's, by the Star of India (the big sailing ship), or south of the Midway (the little aircraft carrier). An alternative would be to drop folks off east of Pacific Coast Highway and have them walk about 2 to 3 blocks to the terminal.

 

If you see some good looking fellow in a black power wheelchair towing suitcases stop and say "hi." That will be me. My beautiful wife will be dragging suitcase right behind me.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Rick and Lenora

San Diego

[LAFFNVEGAS]

 

It's a bit odd that there are posters on this thread who insist on finding fault with HAL and are posting misinformation. :(

 

:rolleyes: hmmmm I think you need to get with the other posters on this board that accuse and put me down for being too much of a HAL Cheerleader. Now I don't know which I am Cheerleader or a HAL Basher :D

Frankly I was just stating the facts, and a three minute walk in the elements and especially for some of HAL's average age content may be a bit strenuous especially while they are carrying the smaller carry on luggage. Unfortunately the current situation is not necessarily HAL's but rather San Diego Port Authorities and City of San Diego. The Situation they have created would be what I call Poor Planning and I am sure this road construction could have been put off just 5 weeks or so AFTER the Cruise Ship Season has ended. They planned this knowing full well the crowds created by one or more ships would end very soon when there will be no ships coming into town. Definitely not a great way to start or end a cruise vacation. I encountered this lat Year and San Diego just appears to have more problems rather than less.

[OCruisers]

Frankly I was just stating the facts, and a three minute walk in the elements and especially for some of HAL's average age content may be a bit strenuous especially while they are carrying the smaller carry on luggage.

 

This is very true and why I'm quite concerned about my friends disembarking from Westerdam.

 

Bon Voyage, Lisa!

 

LuLu

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[Copper10-8]

Just another day in Paradise! Looks like bus as usual; San Diego port has got their stuff together and can handle it! Keep up the good work boys, and girls!:)

[Louise sail]

We are at the airport after leaving the Westerdam.We took expedited disembarkation we left the ship earlier then the predicted 9:45 start of our leaving but only one small elevator to accommodate those of us leaving slowed down disembarkation in terminal.We had a wonderful holiday and staff and ship were great.

[OCruisers]

We are at the airport after leaving the Westerdam.We took expedited disembarkation we left the ship earlier then the predicted 9:45 start of our leaving but only one small elevator to accommodate those of us leaving slowed down disembarkation in terminal.We had a wonderful holiday and staff and ship were great.

 

Thanks so much for the Westerdam update!

 

Glad you had a great cruise!

 

LuLu

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[Sir PMP]

Just got a family member call, they are in the lido having lunch....12:45pm..

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Just got a family member call, they are in the lido having lunch....12:45pm..

I got a similar text message at 12:24 that my friend just ordered lunch in the MDR of the Zaandam so embarkation sees to be going well now :)

I know that telling passengers not to be there till 1:30 just posted those that would have been there at 10 so they did not arrive till 11:30 :D This way I am sure it did help the crowds a bit;)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just got off the Westerdam this morning.

We knew several days ago that disembarkation wasn't scheduled to start until 9:45 AM.

They started to call the non-US citizens during breakfast -- around 7 AM. At 8:30 they called out 20 passenger names for those people to report to immigration. At 8:50 only one name was called. At 8:55 the self-disembarkation passengers were called.

I had been told to remain in the cabin until we got a call from the concierges as to when my wheel chair would arrive. Never got the call but the wheel chair man was there at 9:20. I was taken down the elevator to A deck and left via the crew area and taken directly into the luggage area.

The biggest tie up was the line for the taxi's. We were at the Embassy Suites by 9:40.

NO RAIN!!

It is a beautiful, sunny day.

[PathfinderEss]

Welcome back KK, sounds like you had a great cruise. Glad you got off the ship with little problems. Have a good flight home.

Just a piece of information, when we got off the Zaandam last week they were disembarking passengers from deck 2or3, I think that would be considered the norm but they also were letting us get off on A deck, which was wonderful. No ramps to go down or elevators, we just got off at ground level. I hope they keep that up, for people in wheel chairs, walkers, and for us with other infirmitives it worked great.