Pacific Coastal on the Millenium

[CGBanks]

After cancelling our July cruise we booked a pacific coastal for next year. Would love some comments from anyone who has sailed this area. Los Angeles to San Francisco to Monterey to Catalina to Ensenada.  We have a lot of research to do 😊

[hcat]

We sailed this itin on the Infinity..one of the best cruises we have taken.   We enjoyed all the ports but did not get off the ship in Ensenad, Needed a time out..

 

..We .took Celeb excursions in the ports.... Wine country was great.... Explored Catalina fully.  From Monterrey, enjoyed a scenic tour that included a visit to Pebble Beach Golf Club.

 

San Francisco...took  diff tours..one at night.. Only neg was docking at the rickety old wooden pier,.lots of walking up and down!

 

You should have plenty of time to look into each port.  Even if you do not take ship's excursions if you look at their descriptions, you can get an idea of area highlights,.

ENJOY!

 

[edgekid]

We also did this cruise this past November on the Eclipse.. one of our favorite cruises..our itinerary also included San Diego where we went to the zoo which was great.

I would strongly recommend renting a car in Monterey and doing the 17 Mile scenic tour.. Enterprise is near the cruise port..they will pick you up with their shuttle and return you to the port but make sure you reserve a car early.. they only have a certain amount.. and you don't have to pay anything until you actually pick up the vehicle..not familiar with your itinerary but we were in San Francisco overnight; if that's the case check out the concert/ theater schedule.. we got to see Hamilton which was a nice bonus..

Anyway have a great time.

you should love it.

[vms]

If you're interested in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it is within walking distance (15-30 minutes, depending on how quickly you walk) and is a nice walk. Besides being a wonderful aquarium, it was the aquarium featured in Star Trek 4: the Voyage Home where the whales George & Gracie were found.

[DENIE]

We did this cruise in 2017 on the Infinity, and it also included Santa Barbara.  Seven nights, no sea days.  It was an amazing cruise.  Part of the draw, though, was that we were traveling with a group of about 10 friends.  So, we did no shore excursions...only got off the ship and walked.  That was the beauty of this cruise...there was LOTS to do in simple, walking distance from the pier. 

 

The overnight in San Francisco was really cool, as the skyline view from the ship is amazing!  We had been there several times, so had no need for an excursion.  Just hit the streets with friends and found some great food.

 

Santa Barbara and Monterrey are amazing, and also very walkable.  Catalina (Avalon) is so beautiful.  Our group did rent golf carts and tour the island, which was great fun.

 

Ensenada...I may have been the only one that got off the ship, but only to walk around a bit.  Kind of like a "sea day" for many.  My wife had a spa day.

 

A great itinerary, and one we would do again!

[TMLAalum]

@CGBanks

We are on the Millennium Pacific Coastal leaving from Vancouver and ending in Los Angeles departing 9/9/2021. We have a few different ports than your itinerary and have visited all but Santa Barbara and L.A. on land trips. Looking forward to returning to wine country during our overnight stop in San Francisco- will likely book a custom small group tour because we have lots of couples traveling together. Glad to learn that Santa Barbara is walkable. If you are golfers there is a public course in Monterrey, Pacific Grove Golf Links, that abuts the Pacific and has views nearly as good as at Pebble Beach at a fraction of the greens fees.

 

[Schmoe38]

We did the Pacific Coast itinerary Southbound from Vancouver to LA in September 2017.  One of our stops was San Francisco, but it was not an overnight.

 

We booked a San Francisco tour including Muir Woods with Dylan’s Tours. We cannot say enough good things about the day and the professionalism of this company. It was a Wonderful day. Have a look at their website to see what they are all about and what they offer. We actually put a group together consisting of fellow cruisers on our Connections Roll Call.

 

We loved this itinerary so much, we have booked the Northbound Pacific Coast (San Diego to Vancouver) for May 2022.

 

Randy

[FlorenceItaly]

We did this itinerary in May 2017 on the Infinity as an 11 night cruise.  I second whoever mentioned rent a car in Monterey and do the 17 mile drive.  We did and it was fantastic.  Also, we were overnight in San Francisco and booked an evening Alcatraz tour, also great.  In Santa Barbara we went to Solvang.  We were not disappointed by any of the stops!

[addicted2cruizin]

We did a Southbound Pacific Coastal in September 2015.  While our itinerary was different, we did call on some of the same ports as your cruise.  

San Francisco: 

Day One: we arranged a semi-private tour to Napa with Green Hill Wine Tours.  It was my DH and I along with five other passengers from our ship.  We stopped at 4 wineries and a stop for lunch.  They were very accommodating.  I requested a specific winery (at booking) and another passenger requested a "cave tasting".  We were able to do both.

Day Two:  we went to Alcatraz (booked in advance) and then walked around/Ubered to Giants Stadium, Ghiradelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf etc.

 

Monterey:  we rented a car from Enterprise and drove 17-mile.  We tried to stop at Pebble Beach golf course, but there was tournament and there was no parking.  😞  We also stopped at the Carmel Mission.  We wanted to stop in Carmel for a bite to eat but it was very busy. A tour bus had just dropped off 100 people, so we skipped the stop!

 

LA:  we went to Hollywood Blvd and walked around looking at the stars.  We booked a tour with a vendor on Hollywood Blvd that took us to see famous filming locations and houses of famous people.  

 

Have a great cruise!

 

[TFLG]

We did it a couple of years ago on the Infinity and thought it was great. Ours was an 8 day with an overnight in SF.  Enjoyed that as it gave us more time in the best port.  We live in SoCal so we have been to all the ports dozens of times but still enjoyed arriving on a ship rather than in our car.  Not a big fan of Catalina or Ensenada though.  I know they can't skip Ensenada but I wish they would dump Catalina on the coastals and go into San Diego or some other decent port. Monterey and Santa Barbara are both great stops. And if you like Wine you can do winery tours in just about every port.