San Diego Port

[mcrcruiser]

Why doesn't Celebrity  port a M or S class ship here in San Diego  ,There is so much  opportunity for Hawaii cruise ,south Pacific cruises  ,Mexican Riviera cruises ,Coastal Calif Cruises & even Panama Canal cruises . We really need a Celebrity ship here .San Diego has the best weather  in the USA ,it has many many superb attractions ,Just seems to me there is a huge market opportunity  out of the port of San Diego 

[gfkcruiser]

That would be good.  Easy to get to port from airport.  Have sailed out of San Diego.  Did an almost leave a few years back.  Checked in at San Diego and were bussed to Ensenada. First stop was San Diego the next day. 

[mcrcruiser]

6 minutes ago, gfkcruiser said:

That would be good.  Easy to get to port from airport.  Have sailed out of San Diego.  Did an almost leave a few years back.  Checked in at San Diego and were bussed to Ensenada. First stop was San Diego the next day. 

We remember that time when Ensenada was the bioarding , 

Yes SD airport is only a 10 minute uber  or taxi  to the  cruise port ,very convenient .Additionally ,SD has so many great things to see & do  with the great weather here  .Can't   understand why X would not berth a ship here .so many cruises & then come   late April /early May send the ship to Alaska for that short season .This all makes sense to us 

[BettyCruiser]

We sailed Century out of San Diego once obviously quite a few years ago. I agree it's a much easier port than LA.

[mcrcruiser]

22 minutes ago, BettyCruiser said:

We sailed Century out of San Diego once obviously quite a few years ago. I agree it's a much easier port than LA.

 San Pedro / LA  is horrible . First off flying in can be a night mare with ground traffic from LAX on the freeways , If you f=drive there ,it is very expensive to park  & to find your car after the cruise is another nightmare  .I can personally attest to that as we did B2B cruises on Soltice in March & never again from that location

[Stockjock]

I have lived in San Diego all of my life.  It was frustrating to watch so many cruise lines move operations from San Diego to the nasty Port of Los Angeles (with all due respect).

We're closer to Mexico, we're nicer, we're only a mile or so from the Airport.  About a mile from the Train Station.  We are a walk or short cab/Uber ride from Gaslamp Quarter, and a short taxi ride to Old Town.  Decent places to eat and watch the bay literally next-door to the Port.  The same can be said for the ferry ride to Coronado Island.  And...we seem to have plenty of capacity.

I just don't get it.  Take your pick.  Port of San Diego or Port of Los Angeles.



 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Stockjock

[Hobbsey]

2 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

 San Pedro / LA  is horrible . First off flying in can be a night mare with ground traffic from LAX on the freeways , If you f=drive there ,it is very expensive to park  & to find your car after the cruise is another nightmare  .I can personally attest to that as we did B2B cruises on Soltice in March & never again from that location

Much easier if you can get a flight into Long Beach.  But yes, cruising out of San Diego is great.  

[NutsAboutGolf]

Get RCI to home port there and X will follow 

[doghog]

10 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Why doesn't Celebrity  port a M or S class ship here in San Diego 

Send an Email to lhodges@rccl.com and executiveoffice@celebrity.com. 

 

[doghog]

We did a 11 Night Mexican Riviera cruise on the Mercury out of San Diego in 2005. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

7 hours ago, doghog said:

Send an Email to lhodges@rccl.com and executiveoffice@celebrity.com. 

 

 

Not trying to discourage anyone and they're welcome to do whatever they want but this will certainly be a waste a time for both you and her team.  Need to reach out to Jason Liberty (RC Group) as X in Port Canaveral only happened because RCI was already there

[doghog]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Not trying to discourage anyone and they're welcome to do whatever they want but this will certainly be a waste a time for both you and her team.  Need to reach out to Jason Liberty (RC Group) as X in Port Canaveral only happened because RCI was already there

Your opinion. Not a waste of my time if I were to send an Email and not concerned with her team. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 minute ago, doghog said:

Your opinion. Not a waste of my time if I were to send an Email and not concerned with her team. 

 

All I'm saying is with the email someone is going to write anyways, why put all your eggs in one basket with just X?  Simply add two more email addresses to increase your odds

 

Anyone who reached out to them and complained about higher prices, lower food quality and vaping was a waste of time

[doghog]

3 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

All I'm saying is with the email someone is going to write anyways, why put all your eggs in one basket with just X?  Simply add two more email addresses to increase your odds

 

Anyone who reached out to them and complained about higher prices, lower food quality and vaping was a waste of time

I've used the executiveoffice@celebrity.com with success with other questions and concerns I have had. I will continue with what has worked for me. What others elect to do is their choice. 

[grandgeezer]

We’ve done several cruises, on the Mercury, in the early 2000s, to the Mexican Rivera, andHawaii, relocation to Seattle, to start the Alaskan season. Still one of our favorite ships.

This year they tried using the Eclipse on six day cruises to the Mexican Rivera out of

L.A. From what I saw, was/is somewhat of a bust, insides were under $300, and for quite awhile Concierge went for $400. They tried to make the money back by charging an arm and leg for A.I.

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 minute ago, grandgeezer said:

We’ve done several cruises, on the Mercury, in the early 2000s, to the Mexican Rivera, andHawaii, relocation to Seattle, to start the Alaskan season. Still one of our favorite ships.

This year they tried using the Eclipse on six day cruises to the Mexican Rivera out of

L.A. From what I saw, was/is somewhat of a bust, insides were under $300, and for quite awhile Concierge went for $400. They tried to make the money back by charging an arm and leg for A.I.

The problem isn’t the embarkation port which is only 100 miles away, it’s the itinerary and to a much lesser degree the lackluster ship

 

We’ve sailed out of San Diego on a revolutionized ship, the Millie, last Sept-Oct, 15 nighter through the Panama Canal, we were at 37% pax capacity

[paulh84]

Los Angeles didn’t work. I don’t see San Diego bring much different. Also the California shore power requirement may complicate which ships could port there. 

[SbbquilterUT]

Perhaps our opinion is different than many above but sailing out of San Pedro was nice for us as it was the first time we could drive to the port.  After a 6 hour drive it was lovely to see no long lines at the port.  Sailed Solstice twice last January and really enjoyed that as well as our day port stop at San Diego to just walk through town.  Solstice has shore power to meet the requirements (I believe we were told almost all the Celebrity ships have it now).  Last year the Solstice planned schedule changed which made her available for this special Mexican sailing season.  

[Stockjock]

5 hours ago, paulh84 said:

Los Angeles didn’t work. I don’t see San Diego bring much different. Also the California shore power requirement may complicate which ships could port there. 

FWIW, this year, San Diego upgraded it's electrical system at the cruise terminal, doubling available electrical power.

https://timesofsandiego.com/business/2023/01/17/tom-york-on-business-port-expands-cruise-ship-shore-power-to-cut-pollution/#

[doghog]

Contact Celebrity. I used executiveoffice@celebrity.com today concerning this subject and received a follow-up phone call. Readers digest version. "Thank you for your recommendation and thoughts. All suggestions are welcomed for future considerations". Suggest others do the same if you would like Celebrity and share your thoughts, concerns, disapprovals, etc. that Celebrity should consider going back to San Diego as an embarkation port and not just a port stop. CC is only a good place to vent/share your opinion(s) to a small group. 

[paulh84]

37 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

FWIW, this year, San Diego upgraded it's electrical system at the cruise terminal, doubling available electrical power.

https://timesofsandiego.com/business/2023/01/17/tom-york-on-business-port-expands-cruise-ship-shore-power-to-cut-pollution/#

I believe only 4 Celebrity ships currently have that capability. It’s not so much of a San Diego problem as it is a ship availability problem. Paired with the LA cruises being a flop chances aren’t likely IMO. 

[rover16]

I'll join the crowd in wanting X to have a regular schedule out on San Diego. We sail almost every year on a San Diego to Vancouver cruse on HAL, They also have regular Hawaii cruises from SD along with Mexico. 

Would love to have an option to sail on X.

Sailed once from LA and never again. Long Beach is almost as bad.

[Jim_Iain]

Hawaii may not be an option for San Diego.    We had a San Diego to Hawaii cruise about 4 years ago.  Due to a crack down on the Cabotage Act, Celebrity came into San Diego and dropped passengers.   The then sailed empty to Ensanada and all passengers were bussed to Ensanada.

 

I notice a number of cruises are doing Hawaii out of San Diego but they are longer cruises returning to San Diego.   They probably qualify as Ensanada would qualify as a distant foreign port  on return to San Diego from Hawaii.  

 

I will just say it was the worst experience of my life.    The busses were stuck at the board for 5-10 hours.    We checked in at San Diego at 11:00 AM and did not get aboard until 9:00 PM. 

[grandgeezer]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

Hawaii may not be an option for San Diego.    We had a San Diego to Hawaii cruise about 4 years ago.  Due to a crack down on the Cabotage Act, Celebrity came into San Diego and dropped passengers.   The then sailed empty to Ensanada and all passengers were bussed to Ensanada.

 

I notice a number of cruises are doing Hawaii out of San Diego but they are longer cruises returning to San Diego.   They probably qualify as Ensanada would qualify as a distant foreign port  on return to San Diego from Hawaii.  

 

I will just say it was the worst experience of my life.    The busses were stuck at the board for 5-10 hours.    We checked in at San Diego at 11:00 AM and did not get aboard until 9:00 PM. 

Many years ago we had a similar situation. We booked a nine day repo cruise on the Solstice. The cruise was from San Diego to Vancouver. The ship was coming from Hawaii to Ensanada We flew to San Diego and they bused us to Ensanada, using the buses that brought the Hawaii passengers up. Never again, the buses were dirty, some of the busses didn’t have working acs or bathrooms. We got lucky, everything worked on our bus but it was dirty and somewhat smelly. What hurt was our first port was San Diego.

 

[expattraveler]

HAL apparently figured it out. We took three HAL Mexican Rivera cruises out of San Diego in the past 10 months. Just saying….