Hornblower Cruises & Event

07/24/09

Great place to start your San Diego adventures

by weebles22 at Citysearch

Green Harbor Cruise Review

Although I have lived in San Diego for the better portion of my life, it has not been until recently that I realized I have never truly immersed myself in the true sights of San Diego. Yes, I have gone to the beaches, been to Sea World, the World Famous Zoo and the other classics, but, anything else that sounded remotely touristy, I have, until now, overlooked. However, I am moving soon and think it's time to put my pretentions aside and actually enjoy every little bit of this city. So, I am going to put myself in a tourist's shoes and live up this city as if I first came here. For my first plan of attack, I googled San Diego.

After perusing the various tourist websites, I decided I wanted to start with a general overview of the city, and the bay would be the perfect place to start. I had attended Hornblower Cruises sporadically throughout middle school and high school functions and was vaguely familiar with their harbor cruises on the bay, so, I signed myself up.

Initially, I did feel like a bit of an outsider- family-less, tourist gear-less, and generally out of place. In fact, I may have been the only San Diegan on board the Adventure Hornblower aside from the friendly staff, but it didn't matter because I really did have an incredible time. While on board, I learned that the Hornblower Cruise, originally known as the Harbor Cruise, recently revamped itself to become the "Green Harbor Cruise" in keeping with the eco-friendly focus of today. The narration, décor, trashcans, even cups had "gone green" and the entire ship had a fresh look and atmosphere. The narrator talked about everything from the environmental actions of the navy to the historic USS Midway to her personal favorite restaurants in Coronado, and yes, I admit it, I learned a bit more than I had expected and may have even written a few of the restaurants names down. I almost immediately forgot that here I was, sitting on a boat with about 50 families by myself, because I was so interested in her stories, walking around the multiple layers of the ship, and just generally forgetting that I was only miles from my house.

The Green Harbor Tours have two separates routes, the North Route and the South Route, the latter providing views of Coronado, the coastline, and my new favorite, Naval Ships and other SpaWar technology south of the bridge. The phrase "harbor tour" may not be something a 10 year old boy gets giddy about but with the narration and up-close and personal views, I couldn't help but acting like a little boy and picturing myself part of it all. It was, in the words of a 10 year old, pretty awesome.

On top of that, the new green-conscious tours could almost be enough information to interest environmental science teachers or other classes that touch on eco-friendly matters. Adding the "green" to Harbor Tours opens up an entirely new target audience for Hornblower and I know I both learned and appreciated facts about San Diego's environmental efforts.

I left the cruise feeling quite proud of my new look on San Diego as my first tourist trial turned out to be a grand success.

• Pros: Enjoyable for every age, entertaining and informative
• Cons: Parking is limited

01/24/08

Enjoyable Evening on the Water

by jomarkumar423 at Citysearch

For my wife's birthday, my sisters and I surprised her with a dinner cruise around San Diego Bay. The Dinner cruise includes champagne (one glass when you get on board), a 3 course meal (salad, entree, and dessert) and you can upgrade as well as order things off the menu. The whole cruise goes for about 3 hours and includes dancing after dinner. The food for the most part was mediocre at best, though I was surprised to be as full as I was. We started with a caesar salad, followed by flank steak and chicken with potatoes and mixed vegetables, and finished with a raspberry cheesecake. The big thing for us was being out on the boat in the evening. Considering it was January, it was still nice enough to go out on the deck and look at San Diego all lit up. After we spent some time on the deck, we came back down where the dj was spinning. He started off well, but the random requests that he received did not make for an enjoyable mix. All in all this is certainly worth checking out- especially if you have people visiting you.

• Pros: Great View of San Diego
• Cons: Food was mediocre at best, DJ has to play a better mix of music