Port of San Diego

[bookwoman]

Anyone have any experience with the Port of San Diego? Is it easy or a nightmare? Should you arrive early? Are the lines long? Any info would be great--thanks!

[aceinnw]

I've heard it can be a nightmare... but that was one person. I am not sure. When are you sailing. I am going 10/16 - the Spirit. I can let you know when I get back.

[S.S. Cruisers]

We've gone out of San Diego 2 or 3 times. It has been different each time. If more than one ship is in port it can be very busy. Its a very small port, traffic only has 2 lanes in I believe. They stop everyone at the first gate and you must show picture ID and ship docs. They don't take a long time looking at them, but they do ask for them. We took a shuttle bus from a hotel and we all had to show our docs! Not complaining, think its a great idea for security. Anyway, we definately prefer to sail out of San Diego rather than Long Beach or San Pedro. The terminals seem to have more room to sit and wait to board. They have a few shops and snack bars and beverage bars set up.

[bookwoman]

We are sailing on 10/24 so will be boarding as you are leaving! Thanks for the info!

[aceinnw]

Do you know if they have any storage lockers for luggage. We are getting there 5 hours before boarding and woudl like to leave our lauggage and walk around the pier.

[S.S. Cruisers]

Ace: Don't remember seeing any lockers. But, thats the funny part. The inside of the terminal is what has been different each time we have been! Go figure that they take a huge warehouse type structure and re-arrange the inside? Anyway, I wonder if the airport has lockers? The airport is maybe 10 minutes max from the pier. Good luck. We usually stay at a hotel in San Diego. They had a big storage closet, so that once you checked out of the room you could lock your luggage up there until ready to go to the pier. :D

[mohavemommy]

We went thru San Diego last year and it was not a joy ride. Lines were long and the Spirit was 4 hours late leaving due to them still loading supplies. You can find a web cam of the port attached to this post and also a controllable cam here:

http://live6.truelook.com/face/newface.jsp?func=live&name=/ecodb/sandiego/oneamerica2&pan=-101.506775&tilt=-12.973216&panfov=24.917728&tiltfov=19.421955&overlay=default&skin=default&useapplet=true&time=1094084862590&width=640&height=480&quality=65&catalogname=catalog&zoom=1.8741677&imagemap.x=216&imagemap.y=67&imagemap.w=408&imagemap.h=360

[98Charlie]

Since 9-11 there have been no lockers available in any airport. For the same security reasons I don't believe that you will find lockers available at any cruise terminal.

[Frequent Floater]

Here's another good link to poke around for San Diego port info as well as valuable info on San Diego itself.

 

http://portofsandiego.org/community_vision.asp

[mohavemommy]

Since 9-11 there have been no lockers available in any airport. For the same security reasons I don't believe that you will find lockers available at any cruise terminal.

A secured baggage hold place was in Long Beach..... we then picked up our luggage from there and checked it in with the porters. The hold place was closer to the ship than the porters were.

 

I did not see such a place in San Diego.

[98Charlie]

A secured baggage hold place was in Long Beach

Were these lockers or an attended baggage check?

[akeka]

I've sailed out of San Diego twice and both times were very easy. However, they were on Celebrity and Holland America.

 

I do not remember any lockers at the cruise terminal or the airport. (We lived in San Diego area until last April and flew in and out of the airport about 8-10 times a year.)

[bookwoman]

Wow...thanks for all the great information! I love the webcam and will be checking it daily to see what ships are in. Thanks again to you all!

[mohavemommy]

I like how you can zoom in and out yourself on different things at the pier.

[aceinnw]

Good info about lockers, that makes sense. Hopefully we will be able to drop of luggage early. Looks like we won't be the only ones there, checked the port site and RCCl Radiance of the Seas will be there on 10/16 too.

[Chudley]

Movavemommy, Thanks for the webcam, I really liked how you could zoom in, also.

 

Ace, Thanks for finding out about the RCCL ship, but since we're leaving so late, won't they be long gone by the time we're boarding? Maybe I'll go check out their schedule and see when they leave :) Chud