California Coastals and Mexico

[Boatdrill]

[quote name='swedish weave']I asked if the number of ships calling on San Diego has increased since the article was published. Do you have any idea if the numbers are increasing or decreasing ? That would tell us more than anything else about what is happening.
[/quote]

Slightly less for HAL. There used to be one ship for Hawaii, and another for Mexico. Mexico's loss was Australia's gain. Now one ship alternates between Hawaii and Mexico.

[indokiwi]

[quote name='SpokaneDan']Really? citing government inefficiency and over regulation do not get you bad press these days or any day. Just look at this thread, it started as an innocent question about the decline in Ca/MR cruise options. By popular demand, San Diego and state of California instantly became the number 1 culprit.[/QUOTE]

And where is the official cruise line comment on this thread? Some people have mentioned things that make them sound like they are working in the industry, but I don't see any officialcomments That's what my comment was about.

[indokiwi]

[quote name='lorekauf']I just came back from a Princess cruise and the prices stayed high until it sold out. I watched the prices for the better part of a year. I paid more for that cruise then I did for a New Years cruise in 2010. Princess was also over booked for that cruise and had to offer some folks move over incentives.[/QUOTE]

Again, the real story is if it was profitable the cruise lines wouldn't be leaving. Why would they leave if they were making money.

[cruz chic]

[quote name='indokiwi']Again, the real story is if it was profitable the cruise lines wouldn't be leaving. Why would they leave if they were making money.[/QUOTE]

I'm sure they do make money. They can probably make more money elsewhere.

[CRUZBUDS]

[quote name='Boatdrill']Slightly less for HAL. There used to be one ship for Hawaii, and another for Mexico. Mexico's loss was Australia's gain. Now one ship alternates between Hawaii and Mexico.[/QUOTE]


I think for a while we had three in San Diego. Oosterdam doing 7 day Mexico, another doing 10/11 day Mexico & Sea of Cortez and a third doing Hawaii.

I could be wrong ;)

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We think the solution is to sail on both lines ...:)

[swedish weave]

I just received an interesting email ad that may shed some light on the subject of cruise lines leaving Calif.

The Celebrity Solstice cruise to Hawaii for 9/23/2013 is originating in Ensenada.

Is this something new, or have I just not been seeing it ?

[Copper10-8]

[quote name='swedish weave']I just received an interesting email ad that may shed some light on the subject of cruise lines leaving Calif.

The Celebrity Solstice cruise to Hawaii for 9/23/2013 is originating in Ensenada.

Is this something new, or have I just not been seeing it ?[/quote]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=navy]A colleague of mine is on the same ship departing Ensenada two days from now, May 6. He flies into San Diego and they then transfer him by bus across the border to Ensenada, BCS to embark Solstice there. It's a 10-Day cruise and his first stop is...........San Diego;) Then L.A., Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Astoria, Victoria and finishing up in Seattle. Different! [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=navy] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[LAFFNVEGAS]

[quote name='swedish weave']I just received an interesting email ad that may shed some light on the subject of cruise lines leaving Calif.

The Celebrity Solstice cruise to Hawaii for 9/23/2013 is originating in Ensenada.

Is this something new, or have I just not been seeing it ?[/QUOTE]
[SIZE="3"]Actually Celebrity has been doing this for years with leaving from Ensenada. They did this when they were doing their Coastals on the Mercury years ago, then also Hawaii. It was not till this past season they did something different and did 15 day cruises but stopped in Ensenada like HAL and Princess does at the end. I do not think that Celebrity did as well as they hoped with the Hawaii and partly due to it being 15 days and that made it where each sailing started on a different day of the week. Many did not like leaving on Wednesdays or Tuesdays because then it was like you needed three weeks off for those who still worked. The BIG problem is that Celebrity had many problems in the past with cruises leaving from Ensenada.

The upcoming Monday cruise for the Solstice has been a true case of the Right Hand NOT knowing what the left hand is doing. Celebrity has changed their mind 4 times now on how they are getting passengers checked in and down to Ensenada. They had a team of people at Celebrity calling all passengers and their Travel Agents to explain that now they are taking people from the airport to the Sheraton Convention Center to check in like you would at the pier place you on a bus, seal the bus so that it expedites entry into Mexico for your three hours on the bus. They are giving everyone a "Light Snack" on the bus. Prior to this they were telling everyone that they would take the bus from the airport right to Ensenada, then before that they telling about the Sheraton as well as stating if you were coming in ahead of time you go to the Sheraton and if it was the day of the cruise you went right to Ensenada. Trust me it has been a mess.
Personally I am not so sure I would want to start my cruise vacation with the crazy mixed up mess with well over 3000 people on buses :eek: But the good thing was those that bought recently got one heck of a cheap deal. They were practically giving them away toward the end ;) No also remember the Solstice was coming back from Australia and went to Hawaii. The ship is now coming from Hawaii so for those that joined in Hawaii they MUST disembark in Ensenada and take that long bus ride to San Diego. :( [/SIZE]

[DAllenTCY]

Hi Lisa. When I see you and Tom on Tuesday, remind me to tell you the whole story, and some of the ideas that were considered.
David

[LAFFNVEGAS]

[quote name='DAllenTCY']Hi Lisa. When I see you and Tom on Tuesday, remind me to tell you the whole story, and some of the ideas that were considered.
David[/QUOTE]

[SIZE="3"]Will do David :) Looking forward to seeing you Tuesday morning.[/SIZE]

[cruisefortwo]

We are on the East Coast and liked cruising from NYC Harbor to Hamilton, Bermuda on Veendam. Since HAL no longer goes to Hamilton, Bermuda from NYC we are booked this fall on Westerdam for a cruise from Vancouver to San Diego. We booked an SC Neptune Suite with a wrap around aft stateroom and the price was fantastic! We are spending an extra day in Vancouver as well as San Diego. We were able to book flights at reasonable fares. We have never been to the West Coast and are looking forward to seeing the Pacific Ocean as well as California. This cruise is very appealing to us as Catalina Island is on the itinerary. We do not have any interest in cruising to Mexico as we did that once before on a Western Caribbean cruise with Celebrity and Mexico just didn't appeal to us. The Pacific Coastal cruise is not a long cruise, it is only 6 days but with adding on the extra day before and after we think it will make for a nice vacation.

[cruz chic]

[quote name='cruisefortwo']We are on the East Coast and liked cruising from NYC Harbor to Hamilton, Bermuda on Veendam. Since HAL no longer goes to Hamilton, Bermuda from NYC we are booked this fall on Westerdam for a cruise from Vancouver to San Diego. We booked an SC Neptune Suite with a wrap around aft stateroom and the price was fantastic! We are spending an extra day in Vancouver as well as San Diego. We were able to book flights at reasonable fares. We have never been to the West Coast and are looking forward to seeing the Pacific Ocean as well as California. This cruise is very appealing to us as Catalina Island is on the itinerary. We do not have any interest in cruising to Mexico as we did that once before on a Western Caribbean cruise with Celebrity and Mexico just didn't appeal to us. The Pacific Coastal cruise is not a long cruise, it is only 6 days but with adding on the extra day before and after we think it will make for a nice vacation.[/QUOTE]
I love San Diego and Vancouver is pretty cool too. I've been to Catalina several times and I'd be pretty ok if I didn't get there again. I hope you enjoy your cruise.