Port of San Diego - Cruise

Cruise

The Port's main cruise facility is located downtown. The main facility, at B Street Pier in downtown San Diego along North Harbor Drive, has three cruise berths. The Port also redeveloped the historic Broadway Pier to create a second cruise-ship pier and terminal, which opened in December 2010.

Few cruise lines home port in San Diego like Holland America, Celebrity Cruises, and Royal Caribbean. Other cruise lines may also use San Diego as a port of call. Holland America uses San Diego as a home port during the winter season. Royal Caribbean used to regularly operate Mexico cruises from San Diego, but now only operates on the months of April and November operating cruises to Panama Canal. Carnival Cruise Lines used to operate from San Diego, but no longer does so after April 2012. Carnival Elation was the only cruise ship that operated from San Diego on a year-round basis from 2007 to 2010. Carnival Spirit seasonally operated from the port during fall and winter seasons. It continued like that until Carnival ceased their cruise operations from San Diego. On May 2013, Celebrity Cruises' Solstice will be the largest cruise ship to dock in San Diego, during a Wine Country Coastal Cruise. The Port of San Diego experienced a 44-percent growth in cruise calls between 2002 and 2006, growing from 122 to 219 calls. Passenger numbers more than doubled in that time from 276,000 in 2002 to 619,000 in 2006. Cruise ship business peaked in 2008, when the Port hosted 252 ship calls and more than 800,000 passengers. By 2011 the number of ship calls had fallen to 103, a decline blamed on the slumping economy as well as fear of travel to Mexico due to well-publicized violence there.