WEST COAST
The Los Angeles World Cruise Center is based in the city’s San Pedro area, which is within a half-hour drive of Los Angeles International Airport. It is home-port to Norwegian, Royal Caribbean International, Princess and Celebrity Cruises, and offers three-, four- and seven-day trips to Mexico, including Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta as well as to San Francisco and the Panama Canal.
With its celebrity cachet and recent star-studded centenaries for the erection of the HOLLYWOOD sign, the birth of the Walt Disney Company and the opening of the Warner Bros Studios, Los Angeles is a superlative place to begin and end a cruise. There are also many attractions around the port, among them the 45 shops and more in the Crafted at the Port of LA centre, the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and helicopter flights and boat trips to historic and scenic Catalina Island.
San Francisco’s James R Herman Cruise Terminal at Pier 27 and also Pier 35 on The Embarcadero are home-ports for Princess and Carnival cruises and are also served by such lines as Celebrity, Norwegian, Holland America, Oceania, MSC Cruises, Viking, Royal Caribbean and Scenic, who offer trips to Alaska, Hawaii and, via the Panama Canal, the Caribbean and Mexican Riviera.
San Francisco International Airport is about a 25-minute drive via taxi or BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) and the ‘City by the Bay’s’ waterfront attractions also include Fisherman’s Wharf, which offers excursions to the former prison island of Alcatraz, now a National Park; attraction-lined Pier
39, famous for its nearby sea lion colony, and the 125-year-old Ferry Building, which serves as both a transit hub for ferries and sea-going vessels and a food market. And that, of course, is not to forget visits to the famous Golden Gate Bridge, a cable car ride and perhaps a guided bus tour of the city’s numerous iconic film sites.
Seattle’s Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal (Pier 66) and Smith Cove Cruise Terminal (Pier 91) are home-ports for such major cruise lines as Carnival, Holland America, Princess, Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International. Alaska is their key destination but they also serve Asia, Hawaii, the Panama Canal, Central America and the South Pacific. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a 25-minute drive from the port, is accessible via the city’s light-rail service.
Pier 66, on Seattle’s colourful downtown waterfront, is close to the landmark nineacre Pike Place Market, which is considered to be the soul of the city and encompasses the original Starbucks. America’s oldest continuously-operated farmers’ market (particularly famous for its fish stalls), it is full of restaurants specialising in local cuisine and artisan crafts stalls. And the landmark Space Needle and surrounding tourist attractions are only a tenminute walk away.
The Port of San Diego’s two cruise ship terminals are located on San Diego Bay’s Embarcadero, a two-mile stretch of downtown waterfront only ten minutes from the city’s international airport. There are two home-port cruise lines. Disney Cruise Line offers Pacific Coast and Mexican Riviera cruises and Holland America’s itineraries include the Pacific Coast of California and, farther afield, Mexico and the Sea of Cortez, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand and the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.
Located only a 20-minute drive from the Mexican border, it’s no surprise that San Diego has long been influenced by Hispanic culture. Hop on the Old Town Trolley Tour to the nearby Mexican-influenced Old Town, and explore the modern city around the port area where the US Naval fleet is based and where you can visit the USS Midway, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, docked at Navy Pier on the Embarcadero. Also near the cruise terminal, the ever-popular 14-acre bayfront Seaport Village is full of themed shops.