San Diego-Hawaii—immigration on return?

[faerievert]

Our Hawai’i round trip from San Diego stops in Ensenada. Does that mean we’ll go through immigration on return to San Diego? We get to use all the status/priority lanes at the airport, and plan to take a cab there rather than waiting on a HAL bus. Trying to figure out if we’ll need to self disembark to make our flight (we booked a 11:22am departure). I’ve just read that San Diego disembarkation is far slower/later than in Ft Lauderdale (where we breezed through on Global Entry). But I can’t find if the delay warnings are relevant to my itinerary.

[CruiserBruce]

Yes, you will have Immigraton and Customs at the port. You left the country.

 

Yes, San Diego can be slow, very slow, but they have improved.

 

I would do self disembark, just to be sure.

[cayman09]

Do they have global entry at the port for passengers with that option?

[cawpaw]

We are  going to Hawaii too. Does anyone know if we do not get off the ship in Ensenada, do we still need to go through customs? 

[RuthC]

7 minutes ago, cawpaw said:

Does anyone know if we do not get off the ship in Ensenada, do we still need to go through customs? 

You will still need to clear both Customs and Immigration.
Even being on the ship, which is registered in The Netherlands, you have been out of the United States, which is under Immigration.
If you purchased anything on the ship, that is under Customs.

[cawpaw]

Thanks very much for the quick answer. 🙂

 

[cruiserchuck]

Customs and Immigration would have no way of knowing whether you left the ship in Mexico or not.  As others have mentioned, it would make no difference anyway.  

 

We just returned from a Mexico cruise from San Diego, and there was no line at customs when we disembarked at about 9:30 am.  I do not know if there was a line earlier.  

[DAllenTCY]

As long as your flight departs San Diego after 10:30 am, HAL transfers are quite a nice way to go. 

The transfer price is $19 per person.

 

This morning there were 451 guests (from a total disembarkation of 1,388) who chose HAL transfers.  All went very well.

 

The primary advantage to a HAL transfer is that you have staff looking out for you and your luggage.  

 

David

 

 

[mcrcruiser]

Get uber or lyft at the SD port ,really very inexpensive as our SD airport is very close to the cruise terminal .You should get there is 10 minutes  . The only possibility is customs & immigration  delays  .Personally ,We never book flights before 1 PM the day of debarkation  any  port we cruise into ,to be on the safe side 

[faerievert]

It was the latest flight that would get us home same-day (at nearly midnight) without doubling the price of our flights. Worst case we miss the flight and spend the night in San Diego or at a connecting city. Annoying, but not a huge deal as long as we pack our bags accordingly.

 

[mcrcruiser]

Recommendation . If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card & book your travel with that wonderful credit card you automatically get free & up to $10000.00 each the free trip cancellation & free trip interruption & baggage insurance . You can save lots of insurance premiums over time &then  all you need to do is to buy  which is relatively inexpensive  is medical & medical evacuation insurance   . These are good sources for  just the medical & medical evacuation insurance , Travel Guard ,a divison of AIG insurance company or go to www.insuremytrip.com get their toll free tel # & speak with them directly to  buy a good medical & medical evacuation policy . Trust me that it is very important to have this coverage . A medical jet from Europe to the USA  will be a 6 figure cost .  however ,if it is  medically essential to helicopter off the ship that to is very pricy , just make sure that you cover your self 

 

 In our case ,I am 80 & my DW is 79 , If we did not have the Chase credit card above ,our insurance cost is   10 % to 12 % of the trip cost .70 & up insurance really goes way up  .I had to be hospitalized in rome Italy in 2008 for 3 days & no surgery , cost was $ 7800  .Having a good trip insurance policy we got back every dime 

 

  BTW , that  Chase credit card has a offer of a $500 rebate if you spend $4000 in a 90 day period upon getting the credit card , If you leave that $500 with Chase travel & use it for like any type of travel related expense they give you a 25& bonus & that makes those  $500 a $625 travel value & you also get 2 points for every travel dollar plus the extra 25% bonus . Other benefits are renting a car twith this credit card you are given 1st position for any damages to the car .your personal insurance for damage to the rental car never hears about it &  you get free exchange rates for foreign exchange funds outside the USA  .The first year is no cost & then $95 per year  , The greatest benefit is the free insurance which over time will save tyou many Thousands of dollars in trip insurance costs , It is the best of my credit cards in my wallet  .We already got free airfares from SD to Ft Lauderdale & we still have lots of  monies left .Chase  travel does not mark up any travel cost ..they pass along what they get  

 

 

[mcrcruiser]

37 minutes ago, faerievert said:

It was the latest flight that would get us home same-day (at nearly midnight) without doubling the price of our flights. Worst case we miss the flight and spend the night in San Diego or at a connecting city. Annoying, but not a huge deal as long as we pack our bags accordingly.

 

You could check out John Wayne airport in Newport beach ;which is about one hour to one hour 15 minute drive up toward LA from SD  & see if they have more flexible flights   or  you can get a commuter flight from SD airport to LAX (Los Angeles International airport )  then perhaps a direct flight home that is even better  & or faster for you .

 

 In retrospect & in your situation I would definitely look into a connecting flight from SD to LAX & then home  as a possible alternative  just in case of delays at the cruise terminal on debarkation  .Renting a  car & turning it in can be a hassle filled with anxiety  at airports  

 

 We do hope that you have no delays & will be on board your selected flight from the SD airport 

Edited January 4, 2019 by mcrcruiser

[paganwoman]

We took this cruise last Feb and was very pleasantly surprised at how well getting off the ship and to the airport went. We had a 12 noon flight and was very worried about it but we had self disembarkation and got off the ship about 8am. We were waiting in line to go through customs a few minutes later and was in the line for the taxis about 15 min after that. We lived in San Diego for over 20 years before we moved away and both of us were very pleased with how everything went smoothly. Bottom line was we were at the airport checking in at 9:15am. I had read horror stories of San Diego but they sure didn't materialize for us. Personally with such a short drive to the airport we chose not to use HAL transport (which we always do when in a foreign port) and it worked for us. 

[CruiserBruce]

12 hours ago, cawpaw said:

We are  going to Hawaii too. Does anyone know if we do not get off the ship in Ensenada, do we still need to go through customs? 

 Yes, you still need to go through Immigration and Customs. Not sure how they would know you did, or didn't leave the ship.

[CruiserBruce]

15 hours ago, cayman09 said:

Do they have global entry at the port for passengers with that option?

 The only port where Global Entry has been reported and confirmed is Ft Lauderdale.