San Diego-filter

May 11, 2009 2:37 PM

We're setting sail from San Diego on May 25 for a cruise, but we have two days in San Diego beforehand. How can we work the transportation to Sea World and the wild animal park before our cruise while not being stuck going all the way back to the airport for a rental car? Is there a better area to stay or a better way to arrange transportation to support this?
posted by answergrape to travel & transportation (8 comments total)

Rent a car at the airport from a place that has a satellite office near Sea World or your port. Call to make sure you can pick up and drop-off at separate locations. (I can almost guarantee you this won't be a problem.) Then take a cab from the car rental place to the boat.
posted by wordsmith at 2:43 PM on May 11

San Diego's public transit system services both of those places. Maybe see if that works out for you? I rode the buses around town during one trip and had no complaints.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:49 PM on May 11

Check with your hotel's concierge; many hotels offer shuttle services to popular regional attractions.
posted by notyou at 3:03 PM on May 11

You might be able to shuttle it, but to be fair, Taxi to Seaworld wasn't more than $20 to the airport.

I ended a cruise on a Sunday with time to spare, so we got dropped off at Seaworld where they held our luggage for free, and then taxied to a restaurant and then the airport. It wasn't prohibitive at all, but check with your hotel's concierge first and see if they can't help.
posted by disillusioned at 3:32 PM on May 11

Is there a better area to stay

Where in the city are you staying exactly? Near the harbor? You didn't say.
posted by changeling at 3:33 PM on May 11

Getting to Sea World should be pretty easy, since it's close to downtown (I'm assuming you're staying downtown since that's close to the cruise ship terminal). If you're staying downtown somewhere, your hotel will likely have a shuttle that can get you there, or you could take the trolley to the Old Town station and then a cab.

Getting to the Wild Animal Park (and you did mean the Wild Animal Park, not the zoo, right?) will be a bit harder, as it's quite a ways (like, 30+ miles) from downtown. I'm guessing there must be bus service that will get you close if not all the way there, but again, if you aren't renting a car then your best bet is probably a hotel shuttle.

Even if you are staying downtown and do have access to a shuttle to get around, I would still recommend renting a car. The airport is only about 5 minutes drive from all the main hotels, and it would be a pretty cheap cab ride back to the hotel or the cruise ship terminal after dropping off the rental car. Especially for the Wild Animal Park which is pretty remote even besides the distance from downtown, you'd be much better off with your own wheels than having to rely on either a public bus or a shuttle.
posted by sbrollins at 3:56 PM on May 11

Where are you staying? Where are you shipping out from - the cruise ship terminal? San Diego's airport and rental car center is, seriously, a mile or two north of downtown, so if you're hanging out down there anyway there's really no such thing as "going all the way back" to the airport.

Sea World is pretty close to Downtown - you could probably swing getting there with a bus or two if that's where you're staying. The Wild Animal Park is waaaaaaaaay the fuck up north and inland - if you can't find some kind of tourist shuttle to get there it would be best for you to just rent a car. If you actually mean to go to the zoo, that's quite achievable by bus - just take the #7.
posted by LionIndex at 7:07 PM on May 11

We rented a car for the Animal Park. There was a rental office for one (or probably more) of the big chains somewhere around the Little Italy area, so we could take public transit and not pay for a taxi. As sbrollins said, the airport isn't really a hike from downtown.
posted by troywestfield at 10:49 AM on May 12