Will Holland Ever Sail out of San Francisco Again?

[CruiseLoverFromNorCal]

I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Thanks!

[crusinbanjo]

Why wouldn’t they?

[kangforpres]

Well, they only have 12 ships now, instead of 18. They concentrate on Alaska, Europe and the Caribbean. They seem perfectly happy with San Diego as their West Coast port. I don't see any of that changing.

 

Others have mentioned that CCL probably does not want 2 lines that have a very similar in product sailing out of SF competing against each other. Princess has a foothold in SF and hopefully will offer one of their newer ships from SF in a few years.

[idiebabe]

I hope not!  We have no interest in visiting SF or Sailing from that City.  San Diego is wonderful! 

[CruiserBruce]

27 minutes ago, kangforpres said:

Well, they only have 12 ships now, instead of 18. They concentrate on Alaska, Europe and the Caribbean. They seem perfectly happy with San Diego as their West Coast port. I don't see any of that changing.

 

Others have mentioned that CCL probably does not want 2 lines that have a very similar in product sailing out of SF competing against each other. Princess has a foothold in SF and hopefully will offer one of their newer ships from SF in a few years.

They didn't sell that many ships, plus added one. Not sure your fleet numbers are correct.

 

But, yes, the fleet is down. So they would need to take ships off standard 7 day routes for more unique routes. I am not against the idea, but not sure the market is leaning that way yet. Could be in the future, but not yet.

 

Edit....if you go back a couple years before Covid, your ship sales is probably correct, but you can add a total of two new ships...N. Statendam and Rotterdam.

[Radbooks]

I hope so! SF is an easy flight for us from Eastern Washington. 🙂  One of our favorite cruises was 2 years ago on a 21 day Alaska cruise on the Maasdam out of SF. Loved it.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

Pre pandemic HAL had 14 ships and did not sail from San Francisco. Post pandemic HAL will have 11 ships and is unlikely to abandon a core market/homeport and position a ship in San Francisco. San Diego, Seattle and Vancouver allow HAL to do everything they need to from the North American west coast.  Sailing from San Francisco would add little of benefit to the itinerary lineup, and place them head to head with sister brand Princess, which has a larger fleet and is well established in the San Francisco market.

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by AtlantaCruiser72

[rkacruiser]

A repositioning cruise from Alaska to Florida included a port stop at San Francisco.  That helped to "sell" me on the cruise.  Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge is an experience that simply has to be a memorable experience for cruisers.  

 

The issue of competing with Princess Cruises from/to sailing the City by the Bay is a valid one.  Currently.  Maybe in the post-Covid era, it might change.  

[kangforpres]

they got rid of all the S's (4) and 2 of the R's in recent years which is a total of 6 ships. They have only added 1 (Rotterdam), So that is a net -5 ships. The fleet might be the right size for what they want to do with it post-covid or at least post vaccine.

 

Oh and the Prinsendam left so that is a net of -6 ships total.

[FlaMariner]

4 hours ago, idiebabe said:

I hope not!  We have no interest in visiting SF or Sailing from that City.  San Diego is wonderful! 

 

+1

 

Agree....Last time in SF was not good for us...We would not be interested in sailing from SF.

 

And yes, much prefer San Diego.

[CruiserBruce]

10 hours ago, kangforpres said:

they got rid of all the S's (4) and 2 of the R's in recent years which is a total of 6 ships. They have only added 1 (Rotterdam), So that is a net -5 ships. The fleet might be the right size for what they want to do with it post-covid or at least post vaccine.

 

Oh and the Prinsendam left so that is a net of -6 ships total.

In the time frame you describe,  they gained at least two ships, and Koningsdam entered the fleet very close to the time frame as well. Koningsdam first sailed in 2015.

[KirkNC]

They went from 14 ships to 11.  Four were sold, one was added.

[CruiserBruce]

30 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

They went from 14 ships to 11.  Four were sold, one was added.

Agree. Thank you!

[DaveOKC]

16 hours ago, idiebabe said:

I hope not!  We have no interest in visiting SF or Sailing from that City.  San Diego is wonderful! 

Agree!  SD is sooooooooooo much easier to sail out of if you are flying in especially..

[ris_scot]

17 hours ago, Radbooks said:

I hope so! SF is an easy flight for us from Eastern Washington. 🙂  One of our favorite cruises was 2 years ago on a 21 day Alaska cruise on the Maasdam out of SF. Loved it.

We were lucky to do this cruise too and I agree it was a great place to start.  Sailed under the golden gate but the fog was so heavy you could barely see it.  Our first HAL cruise ended in San Diego and we did love that too.

[Cruise4food]

15 hours ago, ris_scot said:

We were lucky to do this cruise too and I agree it was a great place to start.  Sailed under the golden gate but the fog was so heavy you could barely see it.

The view was a tad murky. Let us hope there will be future departures from San Francisco just to see the Golden Gate clearly.

 

 

[Himself]

I think the only time a HAL ship will stop in San Francisco is during a relocation cruise.  A few years ago I did a relocation cruise on a HAL ship and our first stop after Vancouver was San Francisco. Our cruise ended in Ft. Lauderdale.

[CruiserBruce]

5 hours ago, Himself said:

I think the only time a HAL ship will stop in San Francisco is during a relocation cruise.  A few years ago I did a relocation cruise on a HAL ship and our first stop after Vancouver was San Francisco. Our cruise ended in Ft. Lauderdale.

Not true. A couple of summers prior to Covid, Maasdam did some unique West Coast routes, including a 3 week Alaska that sailed from SF.

[jimmy2x]

On 7/8/2021 at 2:48 AM, Cruise4food said:

The view was a tad murky. Let us hope there will be future departures from San Francisco just to see the Golden Gate clearly.

 

 

I’ve sailed under the Golden Gate many times. But that was on an aircraft carrier 😝

[Shippy]

3 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Not true. A couple of summers prior to Covid, Maasdam did some unique West Coast routes, including a 3 week Alaska that sailed from SF.

   I think those West Coast routes sailed from Southern California....San Diego, Long Beach, etc.

Other ships besides Princess only use S.F. when repositioning.

Carnival seems to have added a few for this year.

 Sailing out of S.F. adds at least 4 sea days to the cruise whether you go north or south.

I live about 30 minutes from the port so I am always searching for cruises out of there.

Slim pickins......

[Radbooks]

1 hour ago, Shippy said:

   I think those West Coast routes sailed from Southern California....San Diego, Long Beach, etc.

Other ships besides Princess only use S.F. when repositioning.

Carnival seems to have added a few for this year.

 Sailing out of S.F. adds at least 4 sea days to the cruise whether you go north or south.

I live about 30 minutes from the port so I am always searching for cruises out of there.

Slim pickins......

Nope, the Maasdam sailed out of SF in 2019. I was on one of the 21 day cruises to Alaska. They were doing some unique cruises and making that ship sort of an expedition type ship. 

[RuthC]

22 minutes ago, Radbooks said:

Nope, the Maasdam sailed out of SF in 2019. I was on one of the 21 day cruises to Alaska. They were doing some unique cruises and making that ship sort of an expedition type ship. 

I was on the last of the three. It was a fantastic itinerary, which I would love to be able to do again.
If I am going to fly all the way from the east coast to the west coast for a cruise, I want it to be long enough to be worth my while. That 21-day cruise definitely was. 

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, Shippy said:

   I think those West Coast routes sailed from Southern California....San Diego, Long Beach, etc.

Other ships besides Princess only use S.F. when repositioning.

Carnival seems to have added a few for this year.

 Sailing out of S.F. adds at least 4 sea days to the cruise whether you go north or south.

I live about 30 minutes from the port so I am always searching for cruises out of there.

Slim pickins......

I live less than an hour from the port, and as documented by others, Maasdam did 3 sailings out of SF in 2019. It was discussed as the beginning of an increased HAL presence in SF. Now, post Covid,  unlikely. 

 

Carnival had announced homeporting a ship in SF in 2020. Covid delayed that.

[Sir PMP]

On 7/6/2021 at 3:54 PM, CruiseLoverFromNorCal said:

I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Thanks!

No reason for it, that city is destroyed..

[Hlitner]

3 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

No reason for it, that city is destroyed..

True and very sad.  DW and I used to count SF among our favorite US cities.  Now, even though we have some good friends who live right in the city, we would not visit SF.  If we were to ever take another cruise out of SF we would likely stay somewhere outside of the city.   It is amazing how locals have allowed one of the most wonderful and beautiful places in North America to deteriorate to a place where even an online map pointing to all the human waste on sidewalks is not considered a big deal.  Argh!

 

Hank