Adios San Diego

[frankc98376]

We have been looking at 10 night Pacific Coastal R/T Vancouver on Princess- short flight to Vancouver for us.

[cruz chic]

We loved the 14 night Mexico cruises from SF in the early 80's. Had an overnight in Acapulco in the middle.

That was my first cruise aboard the old noordam.

[oaktreerb]

Nah, that's not it. My one and only San Diego embarkation was beyond awful. It was so bad, it had me in tears (not easy to do, btw). It was the most disorganized mess I have ever been through---sailing or otherwise.

I would rather endure the snow we've had here than go through that again.

 

How long ago was that? Hopefully the port has made improvements since then. We sailed out of San Diego in November and were onboard by 11:00, room ready and enjoyed the Mariner's Lunch. The disembarkation was just as easy.

 

It was a Mexican Riviera cruise. The traffic patterns at the terminal were easy to navigate. Hotels are so close you can walk to the terminal. The airport is near so that if the flight gets you here on time you don't have to worry about getting to the ship on time. You can come on the train from LA and you are near the cruise terminal. It's not likely to be raining when you arrive or depart. There are a lot of touristy things to do within walking distance of the cruise terminal or a short drive to Balboa Park and the Zoo.

 

Panama Canal cruises are more likely to have disembarkation problems due to a more international cruise clientele and clearing customs is frequently delayed by those who think the rules do not apply to them.

 

When we do Alaska cruises we always have to plan for the time to get from the airport to the ship and are warned not to plan a morning flight out of Seattle or Vancouver.

 

Was your issue with Holland America or San Diego? By the way our temps are in the 70's today. February has been beautiful.

[RuthC]

How long ago was that? ...

 

Was your issue with Holland America or San Diego?

Clearly, you didn't read the thread before you posted.

[oaktreerb]

Clearly, you didn't read the thread before you posted.

 

Oops, I thought I did. I always enjoy your contributions to the boards so obviously I missed something or skimmed past some pertinent information.

 

Sorry. You enjoyed the cruise, had an earthquake in Hawaii, but had a dreadful experience in San Diego at embarkation. I guess I missed the date. Was it the Voyage of the Spammed in 2006? I hope things have improved since then.

[Stakeout]

with all this there are NO Hawaii/Tahiti cruises on HAL between Nov 2015 and April 2016.. they didn't replace the Statendam who ran those routes..

 

we did a fantastic cruise on the Statendam 56 days total roundtrip from Ft Lauderdale-Canal-SD-Hawaii-Tahiti-SD-Canal-FtL in Jan 2013.. I always thought the Hawaii-Tahiti itinerary was very popular on the left coast.. I guess HAL didn't think so and eliminated it...

 

appears the powers to be in the new HAL group have no idea what's happening in the real world.. all you have to do is look at their credentials.. from what we've been told recently a lot more changes are on the horizon--somehow I take that as being not to our benefit.. oh well it was a good run while it lasted

[Lizzie68]

Oops, I thought I did. I always enjoy your contributions to the boards so obviously I missed something or skimmed past some pertinent information.

 

Sorry. You enjoyed the cruise, had an earthquake in Hawaii, but had a dreadful experience in San Diego at embarkation. I guess I missed the date. Was it the Voyage of the Spammed in 2006? I hope things have improved since then.

 

You evidently have been away cruising when previous issues with San Diego terminal and immigration were discussed. I remember several CC members noting that they had heard HAL was pulling out of SD because of those issues - and that was way back when I was still just lurking.

[Ineke]

We love cruising out of San Diego, short flight, love the city. But we drive to Seattle at our leisure and catch a direct flight out of Seatac. Perfectly doable, less frustrations.

[CruiserBruce]

What city issues? The city has no jurisdiction over the port or immigration.

 

igraf

 

Who built the new Terminal and pier, that as I understand is not easy to use? A Harbor District, or the city of San Diego? If not the City, perhaps it is the Harbor District the problems are with. Plus the construction at the foot of both piers...

[RevNeal]

There is a 30 day R/T out of San Diego next year on the Westerdam. Hawaii, Tahiti and Marquesas. come join us :D

 

LOL ... if only I could.

I'm going to be on the 31 day Hong Kong to Vancouver cruise this April/May. That pretty much wipes out any opportunity for me to take 4 full weeks in a row in the next year or two. :(

 

That being said, I'd love to do that cruise.

[sammiedawg]

We enjoyed our sailing out of San Diego, sorry to hear this. I believe crime in Mexico has something to do with this, drug running and cartels have made once glamorous ports like Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta undesirable. Cabo is still popular, American corporations are still investing there. I remember cruises to Mexico were very inexpensive anytime I checked, I don't think they were in great demand.

I've also noticed fewer ships do the full transit Panama Canal, perhaps to avoid Mexico. Princess in particular has greatly cut the number of full transits.

[cruz chic]

We enjoyed our sailing out of San Diego, sorry to hear this. I believe crime in Mexico has something to do with this, drug running and cartels have made once glamorous ports like Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta undesirable. Cabo is still popular, American corporations are still investing there. I remember cruises to Mexico were very inexpensive anytime I checked, I don't think they were in great demand.

I've also noticed fewer ships do the full transit Panama Canal, perhaps to avoid Mexico. Princess in particular has greatly cut the number of full transits.

 

Before I booked my may cruise I was looking at Mexico cruises on princess. The prices were on the high side. Just looked again and they are still high. Where have you seen these cheap cruises? Has it been lately?

[Maddle]

Just wait until you get a load of our football stadium.

 

Maddle

[sammiedawg]

Before I booked my may cruise I was looking at Mexico cruises on princess. The prices were on the high side. Just looked again and they are still high. Where have you seen these cheap cruises? Has it been lately?

 

I have not looked this year but we did Mexico several times on the cheap, five to ten years ago on Princess and HAL, balcony cabins for one hundred dollars per day were easy to find. I looked at them last year, prices were fairly Inexpensive but I don't remember exact prices.

Edited February 18, 2015 by sammiedawg

[cruz chic]

I have not looked this year but we did Mexico several times on the cheap, five to ten years ago on Princess and HAL, balcony cabins for one hundred dollars per day were easy to find. I looked at them last year, prices were fairly Inexpensive but I don't remember exact prices.

 

Lucky you. I used to do Mexican riviera cruises regularly. I know I've never gotten them that cheap. I've seen way cheaper caribbean cruises.

[CowPrincess]

We have three embarkation ports we can get to on direct flights, San Diego, Seattle and Vancouver. Very sorry to hear that there will be no cruises from San Diego on HAL that we will be able to take :(

 

Even LA and SF require connecting flights for us, last time I checked.

[Boytjie]

Yes they apparently want us to quit cruising on Hal and their forcing us to alterative cruise lines such as Princess, Carnival or NCL.

 

Maybe not enough people were in your boat?

[PathfinderEss]

Lucky you. I used to do Mexican riviera cruises regularly. I know I've never gotten them that cheap. I've seen way cheaper caribbean cruises.

 

Totally agree with you cruz chic, we have gotten better deals doing the Caribbean then Mexico.

Maybe not enough people were in your boat?

Not true Boytjie, our cruises out of Mexico have always been full.

[RevNeal]

My own experience in cruising out of San Diego has been mostly positive. In addition to my 3 Hawaii cruises from there, I've also done 3 Mexican Riviera cruises from San Diego, and the shore-side operations on each of these was good. The only time I had a less-than-acceptable check-in experience was in 2006 on that "Voyage of the Spammed" cruise of the Zaandam. When Mom and I boarded the Zaandam in 2010 for a cruise to Hawaii, even though it was pouring down buckets the process couldn't have been smoother. We crossed the street from where we had been staying in the Holiday Inn and they ushered us right into the shelter of the ship terminal, where we checked in and immediately boarded the ship ... no wait, no problems.

[cruisinjudy]

We used to live in San Diego and cruised out of there many times and now we fly to San Diego to cruise when we can. We love going out of San Diego and have never had a bad time, except the last time in May when it was on our Panama Canal route. I was sick and it was way too hot there! Other than that our San Diego experiences have been great and flying to the east coast is a real pain.

[Hflors]

We ended one of our cruises thru the Panama Canal in SD, but we were told to book a flight the next day. (the year before my sis and bil almost missed their flight from SD to the east coast because they couldn't disembark until late) so we spend the night and had no problems

 

Our second cruise we boarded with a couple who was in the pent house so we had no trouble boarding, but again disembarking was very late because of people not reporting.

 

Both times we weren't able to disembark until about noon! Since we are flying back to the east coast if we do it again we will be flying the next day.

[CRUZBUDS]

We've done many cruises, I think 17, from our home port and love it.

 

We're trying NCL next year for the first time -- they are doing some 11 day Mexico's this and next fall from San Diego.

 

We only two bad experiences -- one was boarding, the longshoreman all decided to go to lunch at the same time. It was an obvious "job action" It was a mess.

 

On a HAL canal we were told a week before we arrived in San Diego that Customs was not going to send enough agents to handle the ships in port. Our ship would be last, we got off around 11:00. :mad:

[boards]

Whenever we have cruised out of San Diego we have always stayed overnight. The times were too tight to make the flight.

[DAllenTCY]

I've had guests land at 4:22pm and be onboard with their luggage at 5pm. Other than possibly FLL, you can't do that with delayed flights or misconnections at any port. Where else can you find an average daily temperature of 70 degrees and only 10 days of rain a year?

You can't blame sequestration on the Port, 3 years of continuous highway construction on the cruise line, or non-US citizens who refuse to report to Immigration on the crew.

Disney, NCL, and Crystal have all migrated slowly toward San Diego, however.

David

[Jim Avery]

I do have to say that our connections from the East Coast are really awful for San Diego. You either run the risk of missing the flight in TO with not enough time or you have to overnight in T.O.

 

Look at connecting through PHX. Or, fly to PHX and drive a rental 5 easy hours on I8 to downtown San Diego. A nice drive and beats connecting at LAX.:eek: