Crown Princess: Round trip out of SFO (customs in San Diego)

[PandaBear62]

In a Facebook group I saw a post about all passengers needing to go through customs in San Diego before departing the ship and some passengers needed to wait until noon to depart. It was on a very crowded, Thanksgiving cruise.

 

Is this typical? I am taking it in February, over Presidents weekend, so it may also be crowded.

 

I'm planning our excursions, so I would appreciate any information.

 

Thanks.

[reedprincess]

It would help to share your exact itinerary, as there's several round-trip San Francisco itineraries

 

If you're doing one that visits a foreign port before it visits San Diego, yes - you'll have to clear US immigration and customs in SD as it's your first US port of call after a foreign port.

There will be instructions on when and where to meet with your ID and medallion..  sometimes it goes smoothly, sometimes there's hiccups - depends on CBP that day, how many officers are assigned, instructions from them, etc. 

 

 

If you're itinerary does not visit a foreign port before SD, then non-issue. 

[SuzieQ521]

I was on this very cruise, arriving back yesterday. 

 

I actually did not experience the crowding aspect and it seemed to flow nicely. We were given a sheet the day before that gave us a time to come down to immigration (we were in the Princess theater);  the line moved pretty fast and they just did facial recognition (no need to bring passports). 

 

As noted above, Our first port was in Ensenada, Mexico, which is why we had to do customs before departing off the ship for our second port, San Diego.

Edited November 28, 2023 by SuzieQ521

[SCX22]

I've done several of these cruises out of SF.  The port order on California Coastal cruises vary.  It's safe to say that you will have to clear immigration at the first port of entry back into the U.S. 

 

On one cruise the port order was Santa Barbara, San Diego, Ensenada, LA and back to SF.  We cleared immigration in LA.  It meant Guest Services giving all guests a time frame to disembark the ship in San Pedro, and having to hand our passports to an immigration officer for a glance, facial recognition was down.  The ship was required to reach a zero count before letting anyone back onboard.  The process was quick and easy.  The problem was that I had to carry my passport all day because I didn't want to wait for the zero count to return it to my cabin.

 

On another cruise, the port order was Monterey, LA, San Diego, Ensenada, and back to SF.  We weren't required to clear immigration until we returned to SF.  This was the best order of ports, IMO, because the immigration formalities were done upon final disembarkation in SF.

[skynight]

Feb 17th RT San Francisco? You itinerary is S.F., sea, San Diego, Ensenada, sea, S.F.

You will clear Immigration/Customs in San Francisco when you return from Ensenada your final and only foreign port of call. 

[Cruise Raider]

That stop in San Diego can be rather chaotic.  Thank goodness Princess thought better than that and immigration will be at disembarkation instead.  

[skynight]

22 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

That stop in San Diego can be rather chaotic.  Thank goodness Princess thought better than that and immigration will be at disembarkation instead.  

Every U.S. Princess cruise I have been on with U.S. ports of call the stops are made before the ship sails to a foreign port of call. Don't know what cruise ship or cruise line the poster is speaking about. It probably was a one way cruise which visited another country before its first US port of call at San Diego.  

[Cruise Raider]

38 minutes ago, skynight said:

Every U.S. Princess cruise I have been on with U.S. ports of call the stops are made before the ship sails to a foreign port of call. Don't know what cruise ship or cruise line the poster is speaking about. It probably was a one way cruise which visited another country before its first US port of call at San Diego.  

Of course!  
The Crown did a short cruise over Thanksgiving from SF roundtrip  .. that’s the cruise that the OP was referring to.  It must have stopped in Ensenada first.  
The February 17th cruise has San Diego prior to the stop in Ensenada so, the ports have been arranged so immigration can be done at disembarkation in SF instead.  
I have had cruises where that first US stop after visiting a foreign port is in San Diego and for some reason, it is just always been awful going through immigration there.  They do this process well in other ports that I’ve been to, I don’t know why there’s such a difference.  While it makes for a really quick and easy disembarkation, I would never choose to go through immigration in San Diego ever again.  It’s a day wasted, IMO.  

Edited November 28, 2023 by Cruise Raider

[hobo1937]

8 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

Of course!  
The Crown did a short cruise over Thanksgiving from SF roundtrip  .. that’s the cruise that the OP was referring to.  It must have stopped in Ensenada first.  
The February 17th cruise has San Diego prior to the stop in Ensenada so, the ports have been arranged so immigration can be done at disembarkation in SF instead.  
I have had cruises where that first US stop after visiting a foreign port is in San Diego and for some reason, it is just always been awful going through immigration there.  They do this process well in other ports that I’ve been to, I don’t know why there’s such a difference.  While it makes for a really quick and easy disembarkation, I would never choose to go through immigration in San Diego ever again.  It’s a day wasted, IMO.  

We had the “pleasure” of doing immigration in San Diego on a Discovery Coastal out of San Pedro in April after Princess moved ports around because Monterey was dropped. What a mess. People were given a time to appear but nobody seemed to abide by that. Lines were all around the deck and moved slowly. . I think they finally cleared everyone around 11AM. When they moved the port stops around they also took 5 hours away from San Diego leaving at 5PM instead of 10PM. A waste of a day. This was done a month prior to sailing so you stuck. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Coral]

We did a weird RT LA cruise that went to Mexico and CA ports (over Christmas in 2021 I think). We did have to do customs in San Diego. They had it set up in the building next to the cruise ship pier and we all had to go into that building. It was quick and painless.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Coral

[SuzieQ521]

9 hours ago, skynight said:

Every U.S. Princess cruise I have been on with U.S. ports of call the stops are made before the ship sails to a foreign port of call. Don't know what cruise ship or cruise line the poster is speaking about. It probably was a one way cruise which visited another country before its first US port of call at San Diego.  

 

I was on this cruise; Ensenada was first, then San Diego; hence why we had to do immigration on the ship in San Diego.

 

The only reason I can think of is as to why these Ports were not reversed was because they did not want to do San Diego on Thanksgiving with things being closed (which is the day we did Ensenada and Mexico of course does not celebrate it).

[startedwithamouse]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

We did a weird RT LA cruise that went to Mexico and CA ports (over Christmas in 2021 I think). We did have to do customs in San Diego. They had it set up in the building next to the cruise ship pier and we all had to go into that building. It was quick and painless.

We were on the same 10 day which replaced Hawaii. 

 

Yeah, easy and a nice walk around the waterfront in San Diego.

[startedwithamouse]

On 11/27/2023 at 4:22 PM, PandaBear62 said:

In a Facebook group I saw a post about all passengers needing to go through customs in San Diego before departing the ship and some passengers needed to wait until noon to depart. It was on a very crowded, Thanksgiving cruise.

 

Is this typical? I am taking it in February, over Presidents weekend, so it may also be crowded.

 

I'm planning our excursions, so I would appreciate any information.

 

Thanks.

Which cruise are you taking?

 

What is your itinerary order?

[PandaBear62]

16 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Which cruise are you taking?

 

What is your itinerary order?

 

Depart San Francisco, then San Diego, Ensenada and back to San Francisco

[startedwithamouse]

53 minutes ago, PandaBear62 said:

 

Depart San Francisco, then San Diego, Ensenada and back to San Francisco

Then you won't go through customs in San Diego.

 

It's only if you hit a foreign port, then you go through customs coming back into the first US port.

Edited November 29, 2023 by startedwithamouse

[pellanor]

I was on the Crown Princess last week. I agree with all the comments for that cruise but I was never given a time but only a group number. It was not clear to me what time the group number corresponded to.

 

Cruise arrived at 8 am and immigration started at around 8:15 am? I had group M and cleared immigration at Club Fusion onboard around 10:15 am. They had facial recognition scanners aboard.

 

I did this process on Celebrity in February when returning from Cabos to San Diego on a round trip from LA. Immigration was in person at port. So the process on the Crown Princess was very different. As it happens Celebrity Eclipse was at port on the same day last week and also was returning from Mexico.

Edited November 29, 2023 by pellanor