Maritime Museum of San Diego

1492 N Harbor Dr, San Diego, CA 92101, USA

Address:	1492 N Harbor Dr, San Diego, CA 92101, USA
Phone:	+1 619-234-9153
Site:	sdmaritime.org
Rating:	4.5
Working:	9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 8

A Private User

If you are looking to get hitched in the San Diego area, shop around, do your homework - then pay a visit to the Maritime Museum. You will not be disappointed! This venue is more reasonably priced than you might think, and comes complete with professional special event staff and some fantastic vendors, saving you the arduous task of trying to locate vendors on your own (especially if you are from out of town, like we are!). The Berkeley ferryboat is absolutely gorgeous, with ornate woodwork and stained glass throughout. You wont find a more romantic backdrop in all of SD than the dowtown harbor. All of the museums approved vendors - Continental Catering, Sunset DJs, Millies Garden Florals - who worked at our wedding did an outstanding job! Considering hiring Captain Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones for your entertainment needs - Capt. Jack is a dead ringer for Johnny Depp, and he and Davy Jones (who later morphed into happy Hawaiian pirate guy) kept all of the children at our wedding happily occupied and provided entertainment for the adult guests as well. Most importantly, the events manager, Jim Davis, is better than any wedding planner youll find - keen on details, honest, organized, and delightful to work with. Jim was there for us from start to finish - were it not for Jim, our wedding would not have gone nearly as smoothly as it did! It truly was the perfect wedding - thanks to the Maritime Museum and everyone else who worked so hard to make this the best wedding ever!

Adam Behnke

Save your money and take pictures from shore. They do right by their star attraction, the Star of India, and keep her well maintained. However, the other ships arent so well maintained. HMS Surprise - Dirty, more than one empty display cabinet. B39 - Amazed it is still afloat... From a distance the submarine looks fine, but up close reveals lots of badly painted over rust. The paint is bubbled and flaking where its been painted over and there were spots where the outer hull was eaten through. Can you say "tetanus." The interior was in decent shape, but uncomfortably warm. Note, this sub is difficult to move through due to the size of the watertight hatches. Definitely not for the claustrophobic. Californian - Closed, along with the entire back half of the pier containing their smaller boats. PCF 816 Swift Boat - Tied up at an inaccessible location. Medea - Pretty, but entirely closed except for two compartments. Dolphin - fairly well maintained and easy to move through. Berkeley - This one houses a decent museum full of artwork, exhibits, and models. The engineering spaces were interesting to move through. Pilot boat - no opinion as it was on a sailing excursion at the time. I should have demanded a refund and visited the USS Midway Museum instead.

Kerron Mitchell

Great price and knowledgeable friendly staff! This is one of our favorite places with lots to see and do. We were here for at least 2 hours exploring all the different ships and submarines. There were a lot of things to learn about the ships and how the history of the submarines played into the different Wars and preventing Wars. We also took a little boat tour that went out to Coronado Bridge and back. The tour guide was extremely friendly and knowledgeable. This was a great $7 addition to our ticket that was well worth it. It was a 45-minute run, the weather was great and we could see all the places and things the tour guide was talking about. He knew a lot about the different ships in the harbor and the history of San Diego. This was a great thing that we could do that was affordable with which we learned a lot about the city and the history of it.

Josh G

I live in AZ, and I try to visit the Maritime Museum at least once a year! They never change the exhibits from what Ive noticed but (mostly) all the staff are more than willing to give some interesting information on the ships. If you want to have a good time, either take the tour, go in a group, or talk to the staff walking around. Ask lots of good questions. They dont get questions from random people and asking them not only brightens their day and makes it less boring but also gives you interesting information you wouldnt have ever found out. Most are old Navy vets, and they got plenty of stories to tell. Also go to the USS Berkeley, make friends with a staff member and get them to fire up the engine (yes it still works!). Fun to see and definitely something you dont want to miss! Go to the USS Midway as well. Just as fun!

peeshy101

So much fun! great views of the harbor and lots of great historical information offered. You get 7 vessels for cost of admission. No gimmicks or fancy stuff just a great day going through history. Star of India has 3 levels, a submarine you can walk through and a river boat were as far as we got. We visited end of March..lots of parking right in front early ...including disabled. Volunteers are always handy for questions. We live in San Diego and wish wed visited sooner...sadly Anthonys Fish Grotto is closed would have been nice to eat close by. There is a small Claim Jumpers and a sandwich place across the street I was told. The cart outside the river boat used instant Country Time lemonade..my only disappointment of the day.

Mike Mouzourakis

Pretty close to the USS Midway carrier museum but we chose to drive because we had a five year old with us. We used the meter parking right in front of the ships but you can only put 2 hours of coins at a time. We had to get some change and go back to refill. The ships are pretty cool and give you a prospective of how people travelled not too long ago. The submarines are pretty cool also but be prepared to use steep stairs up and down and also crawl through holes on the Russian sub from each chamber. They have a testing loop before you go in so you can get an idea if you can fit thru it or not. Our 5 year old LOVED it, the staff was super friendly and I would definitely recommend it.

A Private User

Lots of history and fun things for the kids to do. The Surprise was in Pirates of the Carribean 4 and Master and Commander as well as several commercials. The Californian is the official state tall ship and was in the movie Amistad, she takes passengers for ocean sails every weekend. The Star of India is the oldest active sailing vessel in the world! There are two submarines to explore as well as the fairy boat Berkeley, the yacht Media and the Pilot boat which takes passengers on one hour harbor tours. There is a fabulous art exhibit on the Berkeley right now thats included with admission featuring the largest collection of Gauguin artwork. Well worth it, go check it out!

Danielle Cox

The ships and information are neat. Its a nice little stroll. The subs are really interesting. However, some of the staff were beyond rude. The in-character actors that were leading some children through a tour were outstanding. I witnessed one older employee scold someone like a toddler, though. The guy was just standing by a horribly unclear ramp and the employee said something like "Could you not see this is off limits or did you chose to ignore the signs you walked by?" There was a "crew only" sign on a door to what looked like a storage building, but from the direction we walked, thats all you could see. Totally ruined the experience for me.