San Diego

About San Diego

San Diego is a minor Alaska-repositioning port, used by Princess, Holland America, and Norwegian when a ship is moving between a California or Mexican Riviera program and its Alaska season. The B Street Pier cruise terminal sits on San Diego Bay at the foot of downtown, walking distance from the Gaslamp Quarter, Seaport Village, and the USS Midway Museum. Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo are a short cab ride north of the terminal, and the San Diego airport (SAN) is unusually close — about five minutes by car — which simplifies pre- and post-cruise logistics. Alaska-related calls tend to happen in April (northbound) or October (southbound).

• San Diego is known as the 'Birthplace of California' — the Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, were the first European settlement on what is now the U.S. West Coast.
• The city enjoys one of the most consistently mild climates in the United States, with an average year-round temperature near 70°F (21°C) and very little rainfall.
• San Diego is home to one of the largest concentrations of U.S. military assets in the world, including Naval Base San Diego, the largest naval homeport on the U.S. West Coast.
• The San Ysidro Port of Entry between San Diego and Tijuana is the busiest international land border crossing in the world outside of Asia, processing tens of millions of crossings per year.
• San Diego and Tijuana together form the second-most populous transborder metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere, with an estimated five million people in the combined binational region as of 2022.