Admiral Kidd Catering and Conference Center

or told me 150 people could easily fit into a room. I asked multiple times to be sure she was correct because the room appeared small. After signing the contract and receiving a layout, there was no way they could fit comfortably in the room. I had to upgrade which would cost me at least 3K more (due needing to have 200 guests minimum for this new room). I also requested a new coordinator. My wedding is October 2016, it is now the last week of June 2016. They have not called me once to start planning or asking for payment. I found this odd. Upon calling them and leaving multiple voicemails (every 3-4 calls gets me one call back) she retuned my call. We had to move the wedding one week back almost two months (May) ago because of my husbands Navy work schedule, she told me this was all taken care of and I had nothing to worry about. However, she just informed me that because she didn't actually change my date she gave my wedding date away. Even though I paid first, I asked for this date first (I know this because the coordinator told me so) and she said it was taken care of, she tried to continuously blame this mistake on me. Now they want me to move my wedding, to another location they have and expect me to pay extra for lighting and heating. When I objected she implied that I was being difficult and that I should move my wedding to make it easier. When she is the single reason that I am having this problem. I would NOT recommend this place to anyone. The food is good (not great), however no amount of food will makeup for them ruining my wedding.

e trying to stay on a reasonable budget. Only downfall is because it's on a Navy Base there is lots of restrictions.

ors ahead of time and they changed the background check requirements for the vendors at the last minute which created extra hassle and stress. They are a military base so they aren't really worried about working with you or pleasing you. It was a beautiful spot. If you choose it I hope you have mostly guests with military access or at least vendors who have it. Everything seemed to run smoothly day of and the wedding was beautiful.

nities that it had. One downfall is that if you are using the room upstairs and someone is having a party in the downstairs room you can not get married out on the lawn like they advertise. You have to get married off on the side of the lawn next to the gazebo so you wont block the view of the city from the party that is going on. Apparently they don't want to see you get married. That was alright with us since we found an wonderful place to get married off base but close by. The upstairs room is beautiful. It has its own bar, dance floor is already provided, private bathrooms, and the elevator goes right up to the hallway entrance into the ballroom. Nothing is a negative about this room in regards to its set up and the view off the balcony is amazing. The one slight downfall is that the minimum guess is 200. That means whether or not 200 people show up to eat on your special night your paying for that amount of food. That was ok for us because we both come from rather larger families but we were also inviting a lot of friends to come too just to make sure we had enough people. In the end we had a bit over the 200 but then on the day of some people flaked and I think it worked out to be around 210 people. Everyone seem to love the food and the service that was provided by the venue. We had some issues with the projectors not working right and Dan the service manager was nice enough to refund us the $300 we spent. The only thing I say is dont be put off by the ladies when you first come to view the rooms. They seem a bit rude but no worries you dont have to deal with them after you agree to the room and date. There are some hidden rules that seem a bit much. You have to pay $700 deposit if you want to get married on the lawn but that goes to your total cost of the room. You cant have music out on the balcony to entertain your guest during cocktail hour. Nothing is to hang from the ceiling or from anything else. You either can get white chairs, they are nice we got them they have padding on them thankfully, or you can pay for the chair overlays. It just seems like every extra thing you want to add cost money or is not allowed. The biggest problem we had is that you are not allowed to start decorating the room of 200+ guest until 2 hours before your party is to start. Even though, we went in the night before to look at the room and it was already set up with the overlays and table setting. If you wanted to decorate early it was $500 and hour. I thought it was a giant waste of money but on the day of my 2 sister-in-laws were not able to make it to the ceremony because they stayed behind to decorate. I did my best to divide up the duties so everyone had a small task to do but I guess that didnt work out too well. That was my biggest disappointment of the whole night was that they didnt get to see me and my husband get married. We are all really close and it kind of broke my heart. Just be prepared that this might happen to you too.I know that there are many things I could have done to prevent it but I cant do them now. It was still beautiful.

y and skyline. Also has a huge balcony with belly bars for guests to hang out on. Service was great, all servers were very attentive. Food was delicious-Beef tenderloin and a chicken stuffed with brie!!! Be sure to read and understand the rules and guidelines for the base and the venue. They've gotten a lot more strict in recent years. All my vendors had been here before and all said that they've added so many more rules. The room comes pretty bare with the basic linens and bare chairs but the view is so awesome that you don't have to do much to jazz it up. We added longer tables linens, overlays, chair covers, up lighting and floral centerpieces. Overall, we had an amazing reception and everyone loved the venue! Plus- the costs seemed to be more affordable compared to other resorts/hotels on the bay in SD. Just be sure AGAIN to read all the fine print so you're not surprised.

arge bar, photobooth, candy bar and large fruit?cheese hors d'oeuvre table. Large dance floor in middle has plenty of room. Fantastic long balcony with view of downtown SD and bay!! The best view in town. Food was very good...Beef tenderloin and a chicken stuffed with brie!!! Good feedback. Also offered gluten free...vegan pasta. The coordinator i was assigned, Melissa was terrible. Never returned calls... informed me "she did not talk to wedding planners"..after checking with Commander of base, I found they ARE supposed to work with wedding planners!!!!! Read all the rules before you sign on dotted line. I had the room blinged out. I added extra linens...to the floor tablecloths, wrapped chairs, rosette accent tablecloths. Club comes pretty basic...so it really is up to you to make it special. We added lots of uplighting inside and out, extra candles..you only get 3 per table. We brought in several more belly tables, and has those wrapped. Lots of flowers, charger plates made it all so beautiful. Everything cost you extra...but the room is simply a jewel. The price for all compared with other venues is so wonderful! You have 2 hours to set up...that is all the time they give you and that is where a wedding planner comes in! I paid for an extra hour tear down...it was worth it!! The food was outstanding. you can set the amount of money for the open bar.this is what we did and when the guests ran through it, bar became cash only...the staff the day of the wedding were great. The only bad thing I can say, and its a big one..is Melissa the coordinator. Rude and unresponsive!! If you get her...change, others are so good. Read all the rules, and make sure you get the service you pay for. Go over their heads if you don't!!! This place is a jewel.

ng, since we had talked really thoroughly how I wanted everything to go. When it got to the day of...nobody greeted us at the venue; my bridal suite still had trash in it from the wedding the night before, which my matron of honor and I had to clean up; the bathrooms were covered in trash; my flowers did not get taken down from the arch to be put at our head table like Dan said would happen; and the wait staff served the bridal party sparkling cider instead of champagne for the toast (this is all I can think of right now). The only really great things I can say about the AKC is that the food and the view of downtown San Diego were AMAZING and our server, Lita May, was darling.

u are right on the water but secluded as you are the only people there. The service the day of was wonderful. Day of was perfect. The planning was a different story. Our contact/venue was hard to get ahold of through the planning process and made us nervous up until the day of. The food was ok. This venue was very cost effective and amazing. Overall only positive memories as our wedding day was perfect.

! It is a great location and unforgettable atmosphere. HOWEVER, you have to register each and every guest by first and last name proven on American issued ID, vendors have to be listed including car make/model/color/year and plate number...so much extra work and it is very annoying for entrance onto the naval base. The service is sub par with annoying looking staff, slow bar service and banquet leaders that are overprotective on the bar tab. We were controlled and 90% adult and I had to argue with the leader that it was early, no problems with guests had begun and there is no need to punish us for someone else's rambunctious occurance. It is the bartenders duty to have that call in my opinion. Anyhow...look around if I were you. Food was okay but there are just so many rules!

as in the harbor lounge, just behind the lawn ceremony. It was the perfect size for about 120 people. It was so great that we had the huge patio available to us for cocktail hour and for people to go out side to enjoy the view. Tess helped us with all of our planning. She was great!!! We planned most of our wedding from out of town. She was very easy to get a hold of via e-mail. I can't say enough good things about her. All of our appetizers were great. I know that in some other reviews people complained about the food. We got the stuffed chicken. I didn't eat much but I thought that it was pretty good. I didn't hear anyone complaining either. I would highly recommend this venue. The view alone is worth it.... especially for the cost.

the cons and my wedding was amazing! Pros: -Amazing downtown and bay view -Great tasting food -Skyline room is nicer than 1st floor -Big dance floor -Nice bar area -You get a bridal room for only one hour prior to your ceremony Cons: -Some staff are a little difficult to work with. They are nice but are slow in responding to phone calls and e-mails. They also do not always explicitly let you know of some minor costs (i.e. $50 to have outlet for DJ, etc.) so make sure when you ask for anything see if there is a cost associated with your request. My wedding coordinator told me that a vital staff showed up 1 hour and 15 minutes late to open doors for some of the vendors. My wedding was on a Sunday and in the end it worked out but I think that is pushing it too close. -Very strict in terms of what you can use during ceremony and reception (no bubbles, real rose pedals- let me clarify, your flower girls cannot throw rose pedals during the ceremony; they charge you $200 if they find rose pedals on the ground) -they have 2 parties per day. They do not make it very clear as to which wedding is upstairs and downstairs (there was some confusion at my wedding as to where our reception was).

y and all of our guests were blown away by the breathtaking view of the bay and San Diego skyline. However - dealing with the venue was a nightmare. Over the course of a year and a half, we were given conflicting information, assigned different catering managers and given the wrong price (almost a $2,000 difference). There were times when we could not get in touch with anyone at the venue, no one would answer our calls or e-mails. It was very frustrating. Our rehearsal was a mess because they scheduled for us to meet there when another wedding was still in progress (and another event was loading in). Fortunately everything went smoothly on the day of our wedding. The staff is friendly and means well - just really unorganized.

at least a week in advance (which means no last minute additions.) The service leading up to the event (our catering manager could have been nicer) and service the day of was MEDIOCRE (my husband had to go into the kitchen to notify them that we were ready to cut the cake.) We had ordered 160 prime rib plates which were absolutely DELICIOUS.

e wedding was surprising. My mom had to remind the lady on site that we had paid for certain things (like heat lamps) and they needed to be put out. However, for the price and views...i'll put up with bad customer service. Our wedding day was perfect and beautiful despite those occurances.

definitely do make the venue worth it but in particular our wedding was more about the guests and atmosphere. The only down fall is that you only receive 2 hours set up time. This was a hassle and my family and wedding coordinator had to rush from my ceremony to get there to set up in time. I didn't like that at all but overall had a good experience.

plated meal was good as well. Downfall - they don't do personalized tastings. They have a catering affair twice a year to taste food options. Be prepared - you have to pay for it when you attend. We did not know this but luckily had enough cash on us.

ran into is that they don't take personal checks to pay - so make sure you have a credit card ready :) They were very nice and accommodating. The service was GREAT - they stayed late the day before the wedding to put everything out.

nd the view were both amazingly beautiful, everybody commented on that. I was happy with the cost of the package, it was very reasonable, when you started adding extras like lights in the reception room, it does add up so that's one thing to take into account. The only other thing was we had a tab at the bar for the bride, groom and 2 other people and some how it ended up being 480$ when in total we only had about 15 drinks and they were 5$. We are still trying ot get a list of what they said we drank and resolve that, so I wouldn't reccommend a bar tab.

was over-cooked. So that was inconsistent. Finally, they were a little inflexible with the timing.

We had open bar for the first hour and then people had to purchase their own. Not cool

came at a cost. I was assigned to Tess who was extremely hard to communicate with due to her delay in her responses. The average amount of time it would take for her to respond to an email was a week. I tried calling her, however she was never available to answer so I would leave her a message and it would take her at least a day to respond. It took 7 attempts to get the count correct. The last thing you want to worry about a week before the wedding is not being on the same page as your venue coordinator. Everything turned out OK, but I thought I was about to go crazy dealing with Tess the last couple of weeks.

e under the assumption that he would be there the day of and that I could get in a 1:00 PM to decorate. The Chef was surprised to see us & even commented that he was glad he came in early. I was also disappointed that I gave a seating chart to the caterer & the tables were still set for 8 people although 8 people weren't going to be seated there. We had to rearrange the table which was a hassle since we were there to decorate & get ready! The prime rib was served w/ gravy instead of the sauce that was listed. San Diego is a very expensive place to get married that's why we chose the Subase since my husband works for the DOD & we got a great deal on it. For the price you cannot beat the view & quality of food.

t and without including catering, really good costwise

king. The venue books very far in advance and because we did not want to wait for 2-3 years to get married on a weekend night, we chose a Thursday night. It was perfect because there was not another event going on and our vendors did not have another event scheduled. The food is very reasonably priced and good. There are not private tastings but a few catering faires throughout the year, we found our DJ and our baker through the catering faire. We had prime rib and Med. chicken - and had many compliments. The venue staff is not the most helpful when you are first starting to plan but are more attentive when it gets closer to your wedding. I was not told the guests had to have an actual base pass before I sent out my invitations - it was an after thought and we had to spend more $ and time sending them out. I also was not told until the week-two before the wedding we could not decorate until 2 hours before the reception...Melissa, the coordinator did assist me with an extra hour but I was hoping to have 4-5 hours. It all worked out in the end, not all of my decorations were up how I wanted them since my family did all the decorating while we took pictures. You will not an equally nice venue for the cost and the view in San Diego, if you have someone with Military connections, definitely check out this place, my guests loved the view and the ocean breezes.

you can't reach an event manager by phone call since she was so busy all day. But she usually respondded within a day or two via emails. So I mainly communicated with her through emails. That was fine with me.

utside space downstairs for the ceremony which makes a great all-in-one venue. The price is great - any waterside venue in Southern California other than on a Navy base is at least twice as much!;The site manager is very difficult to work with. She was basically non-existant in our lives until the week before the wedding (it would take her over a week to return phone calls she gave us wrong information promises that were not kept). The week of the wedding she was suddently amazing and attentive - until we filled out our evaluation and then she will not return our calls about items the venue did not return to us. Get everything in writing and plan ahead because it will take a long time to get answers! Also the venue only does tastings once every six months (on a weeknight) so we had to select our menu without ever tasting the food!

her ideas. Trying to get someone on the phone is nearly impossible but 90% of the time any questions I had for Karen were answered within the half hour. We had 112 confirmed guests (7 people didn't show up the day of but for good reason) for the room downstairs (Harbor View Room/Patio) and a ceremony on the lawn. During the ceremony & reception most everything went as smoothly as I could have hoped. The duty manager we worked with that night whose name I unfortunately didn't learn was very good at bringing up concerns only I could deal with (e.g. continuing the open bar when we'd reached our original limit)- I learned later that my assistant/friend & bridesmaids dealt with other issues - gotta give AKC credit for knowing not to stress out the bride! The value for cost was ABSOLUTELY worth it for the view alone! The pictures that my friends & family took were gorgeous - and we still haven't seen the pro's! Any place else with the same view & similar food would have been at least 3 times as much in cost without the liquor. (BTW - the price we paid includes open bar a keg of Sierra & 2 bottles of wine at 14 tables as well as all the standard food/drink as well as the ceremony.) I went to a couple of the vendor fair/tastings and not one of the dishes really stood out but we were prepared to have satisfactory food in exchange for the view entertainment & liquor - thankfully the food turned out wonderfully! The beef dishes we tasted @ the fair weren't good at all and while we wanted to give our guests a choice between a couple dishes we couldn't let our guests eat such... sub par... food. So we ended up starting with the green salad with a spinach/parmesan stuffed chicken accompanied by scalloped potatoes and mixed veggies for the entree. For the price we paid the food was much better than any hotel wedding food I'd ever had - I was pleasantly surprised. They were pretty flexible with the decor (e.g. hanging things on the wall/from the ceilings) but they do charge a clean up fee for prohibited materials - make sure to read the fine print clearly. There is a larger room upstairs from the room we booked and thankfully no one was in it - so I can't tell you what it would be like to have 2 parties booked at the same time. The take home message is if you want a wedding on the water and if you have the proper contacts Admiral Kidd is the best choice! We visited most of the other military bases with wedding venues on the water but AKC was definitely the best. You have to figure that paying around $80/pp for the ceremony cocktail hour dinner beer wine and OPEN BAR - even it it weren't such a pretty venue - is worth it!;The chairs that AKC provides are ugly but it was worth it for us to go to a linen company to pay for chair covers. I thought the columns were going to be an annoyance but the way the tables were set up you hardly noticed them. I also thought the dance floor in the corner was going to be a hindrance but the way my DJ made the evening flow it ended up working out well. As for flexibility - it's a military base so don't expect them to bend any of the rules for you. I did ask a lot of questions about transportation & the guest list just to make sure that none of my guests got refused entrance.

balcony provided a great place for cocktails and for people to cool down. We were able to have the ceremony right downstairs on the grass in front of the water.;You have to book early! We booked 14 months in advance and there were no Saturdays available in the summer and only three Sundays to choose from. Also you'll have to book it before you've likely tried the food - so it takes a bit of a leap of faith - but the food is totally worth it for the price! Also the prices are subject to change even after you sign the contracts - but they're not out to get you! Even after we signed they were very flexible and willing to change terms to best accommodate us.

norm. 2 events run at very close times.