Ruby Princess opened San Diego's cruise season Monday with a seven-day California coast itinerary and a schedule far larger than the one that ended last spring. The Port of San Diego lists 183 voyages for 2026-27, a 68% increase from 109 last season and more than twice the 75 calls recorded in 2024-25.
The Port expects more than 700,000 passenger movements through the B Street and Broadway terminals and calls the schedule its biggest in more than 15 years. That forecast counts the traffic handled at the terminal, not 700,000 distinct visitors staying in the region. Homeport passengers begin or end a trip in San Diego; port-of-call passengers arrive for part of a day. The spending and transportation patterns are different.
New homeport commitments drive much of the increase. Royal Caribbean is adding departures from San Diego, while Disney Cruise Line plans to base Disney Magic here alongside Disney Wonder. An agreement extending the Disney relationship through 2031 is expected by the Port to bring more than 1 million Disney passengers over its term and roughly double the line's local cruises. Those are forward projections tied to schedules that can still change.
A homeported ship produces work before passengers board. Luggage, food, fuel, maintenance, security and transportation must converge within a short window, and visitors may book hotels on either side of a sailing. The Port says the cruise business supports more than 2,000 jobs in the region. That figure is the agency's estimate; the actual local effect depends on where crews and vendors are based and how much passenger spending remains in San Diego.
The calendar also concentrates movement along the waterfront. Thousands of arriving and departing passengers can place taxis, ride-hail vehicles, buses and delivery trucks around the terminals at once. A larger season therefore tests curb management and pedestrian routes as much as berth capacity. Voyage count alone does not show whether the busiest days overlap or how much time visitors have ashore.
San Diego is California's third-busiest cruise port, behind Los Angeles and Long Beach. Its market emphasizes Mexico, the California coast, Hawaii and longer repositioning trips through the Panama Canal. Adding ships broadens the itinerary mix, but the competition remains practical: airlines, hotel inventory, terminal experience and the cost of positioning a vessel all influence whether a cruise line repeats a deployment.
The season announcement establishes a schedule, not a completed economic result. Weather, ship operations and cruise-line deployment decisions can alter individual calls throughout the operating year. Completed voyages, passenger counts, hotel nights, local purchasing and congestion will show how much of the 183-call calendar becomes durable economic activity rather than projected capacity.
For now, the change is visible in the berthing plan: more ships, more turnarounds and a second Disney vessel. The waterfront has to absorb that growth one arrival at a time. If the passenger projection holds, the season will be San Diego's largest in a generation; if service falters or schedules move, the same published calendar will reveal where execution fell short.