After a near decade-long hiatus, Carnival Cruise Line will be back in San Diego for a seasonal deployment starting in December.

“They were drawing quite a few passengers from San Diego (to Long Beach) and you want to capitalize on those markets; we have a strong drive up market,” said Adam Deaton, senior account trade representative. “The economy is growing and Mexico is doing well.”

The Carnival Miracle will thus operate a series of three- to 15-day sailings, most of which visit the Mexican Riviera, in addition to two special longer Hawaii cruises.

There are also two five-day cruises, overnighting in Cabo San Lucas.

The cruise business in San Diego is bouncing back.

Along with Carnival, Holland America Line will up capacity again with a bigger ship in the Nieuw Amsterdam while Disney continues a strong seasonal deployment.

“This season we will be at 295,000 passengers, next season, 340,000 and we are looking at 425,000 after that,” said Deaton.

It’s crawling back to the glory days, as San Diego narrowly had 1 million guests just before the economic downturn, an untimely Alaska headtax and Mexico’s security issues dealt a near death-blow to the West Coast cruise business.

In Mexico the issues have calmed down, according to Deaton, and the demand for land-side tourism has been increasing steadily.

“Cruise quickly followed suit,” he added.

While terminal improvements may be on the horizon, the port is looking to finalize funding to upgrade its shorepower system, allowing for multiple connections at once.

“The business is growing very well in terms of passenger numbers and we are looking to make some improvements to go along with that growth,” Deaton noted.

Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Winter 2018-2019