What's docked at the Maritime Museum of San Diego
The Maritime Museum of San Diego isn't one ship — it's a working fleet of historic vessels docked together at the museum's own pier on the downtown Embarcadero, and the ticket covers all of them. The flagship is the Star of India, an iron-hulled sailing ship built in 1863 that's one of the oldest ships in the world still capable of sailing, and the museum periodically takes it out on the bay for demonstration sails.
Alongside it sits a Soviet-era B-39 submarine, open for visitors to walk through its narrow interior — a genuinely different, more claustrophobic experience than anything else on this list — plus a steam ferry, a steam yacht, and several smaller historic craft that rotate through the collection.
This mix — sail, steam, and Cold War-era submarine, all in one ticket — makes the Maritime Museum a different kind of visit than the Midway's single-carrier focus. It rewards people who want variety in maritime history over one deep dive into a single vessel type.
Ticket prices
| Visitor type | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Adult | ~$20 |
| Senior / student / military | ~$16–17 |
| Youth (6–12) | ~$10 |
| Under 6 | Free |
A single admission ticket covers boarding every ship in the fleet at the pier — there's no separate charge to add the submarine or the Star of India.
How much time to budget
About 1.5 to 2 hours covers the full fleet comfortably. The submarine interior is narrow and often moves in a single-file line, so expect that stop to take longer relative to its size than the open-deck ships. If a demonstration sail on the Star of India is scheduled during your visit, that adds significant time and is worth checking the museum's calendar for in advance.
Advanced tip: The submarine tour is genuinely tight — narrow passageways and low clearances mean it's not comfortable for visitors with claustrophobia or significant mobility limitations. If that's a concern, the rest of the fleet is fully accessible even if the submarine isn't for you.
Pairing with nearby attractions
The museum sits on the Embarcadero a short walk from the USS Midway Museum, making the two an easy same-day pairing if you have 5+ hours to spend on the waterfront. For the full comparison and planning advice, see our maritime & military museums guide.
Hours and what visitor reviews tend to say
The Maritime Museum keeps notably longer hours than most museums on this site — typically open daily from around 9am into the evening, often as late as 8pm, which makes it one of the few museums here that genuinely works as an early-evening activity rather than only a daytime stop.
The Star of India and the submarine are the two vessels reviewers mention most, usually in opposite terms — the tall ship for its sense of scale and history on deck, the submarine for how viscerally cramped and different it feels inside. The most common piece of visitor advice, echoed often enough to be worth repeating here, is to do the submarine early in the visit before a line builds behind slower-moving groups in its narrow single-file passageways.
Accessibility and getting there
The pier and most main deck areas are wheelchair accessible, but the Star of India and the submarine both involve original period stairways and hatches that aren't step-free by nature of the vessels themselves — the museum can advise on which ships are realistically accessible for a given mobility need if you call ahead. Paid parking lots sit near the Embarcadero, and metered street parking is available but limited, especially when a cruise ship is in port and the waterfront gets busier than usual.
Weekday visits are noticeably quieter than weekends, and if a Star of India demonstration sail happens to be scheduled, checking the museum's calendar ahead of time is worth it even if you're not planning to be aboard for it — the ship departing the pier under sail is itself a rare thing to see from the Embarcadero.
Why the Star of India still sails
Most 19th-century tall ships that survive today are permanently moored, too fragile or too altered to safely sail — the Star of India is a genuine exception. Built in 1863, it's been restored to full sailing condition and the museum periodically takes it out on San Diego Bay with a trained volunteer crew, a level of hands-on preservation that goes well beyond keeping a ship afloat as a static display. That distinction is part of what separates the Maritime Museum from a typical maritime history exhibit: several of its vessels are maintained as functioning ships, not simply preserved objects.
One ticket, one pier, and three very different eras of maritime history docked side by side.
See exactly how close this is to the Midway and the Navy SEAL Museum on our interactive San Diego museums map.
Frequently asked questions
The fleet includes the Star of India, one of the oldest active sailing ships in the world, a Soviet-era B-39 submarine, a steam ferry, and several other historic vessels docked together at the museum's Embarcadero pier.
Standard adult admission is around $20 and covers access to the full fleet of docked ships, with discounts for seniors, students, military, and children.
Yes — a single ticket covers boarding every vessel in the museum's fleet at the pier, including the Star of India and the submarine, rather than charging per ship.
About 1.5 to 2 hours covers the full fleet at a comfortable pace, including time inside the submarine's narrow interior, which tends to move slowly due to limited space.