The Port of San Diego welcomes the return of cruise lines and cruise passengers. On Friday, October 1, the Disney Wonder and Grand Princess will be the first sailings out of San Diego since spring 2020. The Disney Wonder is setting sail for a four-day cruise beginning in San Diego to Cabo San Lucas and back. The Grand Princess sailing will begin in Los Angeles on September 30 and stop in San Diego on October 1 on its way to Ensenada and back to Los Angeles.
The Port currently anticipates more than 100 cruise calls through May 2022. Those calls will primarily be from Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, and Disney Cruise Line.
San Diego is California’s third busiest cruise port behind Long Beach and Los Angeles and is the gateway to the Mexican Riviera. Other major destinations include Hawaii, the Panama Canal, and the Pacific Coast.
The Port’s cruise sector has a tremendous economic impact on the region:
- Each homeported cruise, which means its voyage begins and ends in San Diego, has an economic impact of $2 million.
- A single in-transit call (one stop on the cruise itinerary) generates a total impact to the region of nearly $600,000.
The Port’s cruise industry supports a variety of tourism and maritime jobs including in retail, restaurant, lodging, entertainment, excursions, events; transportation (trains, taxis, buses, airlines, shuttles), trucking and warehousing jobs; ship agents, stevedoring (dockworkers who load and unload ships); security and manpower services.
Health and safety is the Port’s top priority. To safely resume cruising, the Port is working with the cruise lines, along with various other local, state, and federal agencies to put extra precautions in place to minimize community spread of and exposure to COVID-19.
In conjunction with the cruise lines, precautions include, but are not limited to:
All crew members and eligible guests must be fully vaccinated (currently ages 12 and up; in special and rare cases, medical exemptions may be allowed, but Celebrity, Holland America, and Princess must maintain that at least 95% of all guests are vaccinated; Disney Cruise Line will be testing all guests on embarkation days).
All unvaccinated guests must provide negative PCR test results between three days and 24 hours before embarkation day.
All persons must complete a health screening form to declare they have been vaccinated, are not experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, and had a recent negative COVID-19 test result (if pre-testing was required by the cruise line).
All persons must wear a face covering while inside the cruise ship terminal.
Whenever possible while in the cruise terminals, all persons are strongly encouraged to social distance from persons not in their own traveling party.
To prevent an influx of passengers and to help ensure social distancing, the cruise lines have implemented a passenger appointment system for check-in/screening times.
The Port will be fully cleaning and disinfecting the terminals immediately following each embarkation and disembarkation, plexiglass partitions have been installed in some areas, and hand sanitizer will be available throughout the terminals.
For additional details regarding on board guest health and safety, please contact the cruise lines directly for details.
