Flight time out of San Diego

[rollie]

We're cruising on the Koningsdam next year out of San Diego.  We're looking at a 11:15am flight home.  I'm a little nervous about the early flight, but it's the only non stop home.  Thanks for any feed back.

 

Rollie

[Mary229]

Customs was a mess when I disembarked in March.  I too wanted to take that early flight but was glad I settled on the afternoon flight 

[FlorenceItaly]

Another thought is to stay one day post cruise in San Diego and leave the next day on the non stop.

[57redbird]

We were booked on an 11:30 flight but SWA changed it to 1 pm....good thing since we weren't off the ship until around 11:30.

[jimdee3636]

@rollie

Another thing to be aware of is that there's a lot of construction going on in the airport area. Maybe it will be finished by the time of your cruise, but if not I'd anticipate a longer-than-usual trip to the airport. On the other hand, the San Diego airport is very close to the cruise terminal and cabs have always (in my experience) been plentiful.

 

On balance, I'd say take a later flight or, as @FlorenceItalysuggests, stay the night and leave early the next day.

 

Jim

[CruiserBruce]

We disembarked April 13th in San Diego,  carrying off our bags. Disembarking started right at 7:30. We were in TSA at the airport...no line, at 8am. Our flight was at 10:20...no problem. 

 

There was NO Customs check. Customs is hardly a thing any more. Immigration consisted of picture taken for facial recognition by HAL shore based personnel...not be CBP. Took less than 30 seconds. 

 

11:15 flight should not be a problem. 

[Sir PMP]

I agree with Bruce, March 30th everyone was off the Zaandam by 9:00am, the first ones were off at 7:45am, so no problem at all to make your flight.

[CruiserBruce]

19 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

I agree with Bruce, March 30th everyone was off the Zaandam by 9:00am, the first ones were off at 7:45am, so no problem at all to make your flight.

They opened the gangway at 7:30...we were in the first couple of people.

[rj59]

Absolutely no worries. The airport is a 10-minute Uber/Lyft/taxi ride away. I usually do walk-off disembarkation and am off by 7:30, through customs, and walk across the street to take a bus to the airport, and am usually there by 8 (they have facial recognition customs, so no more waiting for agents). If I have a later flight I sometimes walk all the way to the airport. What will hold you back is if you have tons of luggage doing walk-off and wait forever for an elevator to get to the exit floors. Another secret I found is that they announced deck 1 forward as one of the exits, but everybody went to the midship one, so I took the stairs forward down to 1 and there was no line at all, and it probably made the elevator ride quicker.  To make it even quicker, you could walk across Harbor Drive and have an Uber/Lyft pick you up heading in the direction of the airport, so you can escape the waiting inside the port area. Or just hop in a taxi right outside. 

[highscar]

Just heads up if flying back to Canada.   The bus drops you off at the beginning of the terminal, it’s a long long walk to the air Canada checkin desks are at the other end.  Be prepared, last year no carts or wheelchairs at drop off.    This year there were carts.