Thread: Santa Barbara

I have been to Santa Barbara one time - in September 1998 on my first trip to California. My family has been wanting to return ever since.

Now I have a chance to go back in a totally unexpected way. After years of assuming I can only get there by car, I discovered it has a cruise ship port that Princess stops at. Naturally, I can't resist the opportunity to go there, then San Francisco and later Seattle, in one week by taking a Princess cruise.

But there is one little problem: That stop is 7-4 on a Sunday. It makes me wonder what I will be able to do on State Street. Which visitor attractions are open during those hours? Is that enough time to do what can be done on a Sunday? I want to see the art museum and other attractoins - Mom said there is a zoo - in addition to the mission, courthouse, beach, and fig tree.

Ah, the fun of porting when everything is normally closed. We had a similar experience in Curacao, getting there early Sunday morning and leaving Sunday afternoon. Much of the city opened for the cruise ship, but things on the main street were totally dead by 11 AM.

Not sure how much of Catalina will be open,someone else will have to answer that.

I always wondered why cruise lines schedule 7:00 a.m. docking where nothing is open then. Even in the big cities, most attractoins don't open before you dock - especially on a Sunday.

I looked at the hours for the zoo and natujral history museum: 10-5 daily, closed on certain holidays. That gives me up to three hours to do something else, depending on what time my family gets off the ship. If nothing is open before 10:00, I might as well eat a long breakfast in the main dining room instead of hurry up at the buffet.

At least it is not as bad as our day in Paris. It was a national holiday and all the museums and public places were open with no admission. EVERYBODY and his brother came in to town that day to take advantage of the free admissions. There was a 5 hour long wait in line to get into the Louvre.

Originally Posted by nealberk

At least it is not as bad as our day in Paris. It was a national holiday and all the museums and public places were open with no admission. EVERYBODY and his brother came in to town that day to take advantage of the free admissions. There was a 5 hour long wait in line to get into the Louvre.

After reading May 1 is a national holiday in Italy I decided to avoid the country on that day. (My understanding is that is their Labor Day.) But this time, it is simply a matter of arriving 3 hours before real attractoins open their doors.

BTW because of its location I decided Paris will only be my embarkation or debarkation port.

Andrea, it is a good three hour bus ride from Paris to the coast. It would have been an interesting ride but most of it was just countryside until you get right up to the city or to the port.

Now, if you are taking a river cruise up the Seine, I bet it would be a perfect spot.

Sometimes you just have to be realistic about how many stops you can include. It's one thing if you're on a tour bus, with a driver who knows how to get around, and may get you into the attractions without a wait. On your own, you may have to figure out transportation and with museums, etc., wait along with other patrons.

Sometimes, if things work out, you can do more than one or two attractions in one port stop. On our last cruise, we didn't bother with excursions or tours, but then it was the fourth time for hubby and me in Hawaii, and the second time for the girl. If it was our first time, we may just go with a ship's tour -- to get the most out of the port but also have the assurance of not missing the ship.

I would just figure out my priority list of what the family wants to do. If we get to a few places, that's great. Some places do take more time than others.

Originally Posted by cruisin' chick

Sometimes you just have to be realistic about how many stops you can include. It's one thing if you're on a tour bus, with a driver who knows how to get around, and may get you into the attractions without a wait. On your own, you may have to figure out transportation and with museums, etc., wait along with other patrons.

Sometimes, if things work out, you can do more than one or two attractions in one port stop. On our last cruise, we didn't bother with excursions or tours, but then it was the fourth time for hubby and me in Hawaii, and the second time for the girl. If it was our first time, we may just go with a ship's tour -- to get the most out of the port but also have the assurance of not missing the ship.

I would just figure out my priority list of what the family wants to do. If we get to a few places, that's great. Some places do take more time than others.

I already know what to do on State Street because I have been there. It has a trolley so no problem with transportation there. The challenge is getting to whatever is not on that road.

Always a problem with any mass transit system. But for where they do go, they are wonderful.

Originally Posted by nealberk

Always a problem with any mass transit system. But for where they do go, they are wonderful.

The State Street trolley is not a problem at all. They stop every 5 or 10 minutes and are dirt cheap. But at Golden Gate Park a bus that takes people from one part of the park to another never came. We waited about 35 minutes only to hear the driver say it was time for his five minute break.