Worst Disembarkation EVER in SF

[vickie_bernie]

we too were on this cruise... yes it was probably one of the worst disembarkations we have ever experienced, but we normally don't have the smoothest disembarkations in SF and we planned for it. Since we only had two options for flights that day direct to home with the carrier we wanted, 11:30 (way too early) and 6 pm, (too long a wait) we book a night in SF and glad we did.

 

We chose the time of around 9:45 to get off (elite priveledge) - told to go thru customs in Princess theather (for non US passengers for which there were over 1500 of us) at 8:20

 

We arrived at the Princess Theatre but was directed to crown grill where we lined up to enter the Princess Theatre.

 

We got into the theatre around 8:45 and the theatre was filled and they were taking line by line

 

Princess had no one in the Princess theater who could speak spanish! Now the cruise had a lot of Spanish only speaking passengers, Morning show was in Spanish, patter was in Spanish, announcements were made in Spanish but sadly Customs area didn't relay info in Spanish. Everyone was to bring the customs form with them and hand it in, of course many of the non English passengers had no idea what they were talking about. I felt for them.

 

biggest problem was many had their carry on bags and they had to lug them up the stairs to the theatre, then down the stairs, then across the rows

 

Princess could of managed this a little more orderly; however the crowds were not expected to be so backed up (see next point)

 

first issue was Customs wanted to process people on board instead of in the terminal (where we have had clearance before)

 

Because of where the ship came from - South America - customs were extra vigilent and sniffer dogs had to check every carry off bag for those with express walk off

 

They had US citizens in Vista lounge, and non US in the Casino (there were only five agents for all the NON us passengers) once the US citizens had been cleared they moved to the Casino to cover the backlog

 

We waited in the Princess theater until 10 am where we were lead out of the theater on deck six (up five steps, then down six steps - difficult for some) to Casino cleared very quickly then headed to our meeting spot in the Carpi dining room. No sense going to Elite lounge cosidering the numbers of Platinum Elite, capri dining room was better. Once we got there they had just called our # and we were off the ship at 10:30 am. got bags and left terminal to get a taxi.

 

Taxi stand is a little better organzied than the last times we were there but the Embarcadero is a zoo on the best of days, made much much worst because of two ships in port.

 

We are glad we stayed overnight, but we also realize San Francisco even though it is one of our favorite cities, it is not a cruise friendly port for embarkation or disembarkation. I look forward to the new pier.

 

In the end the cruise was amazing! We got on in Rio and travelled for 30 days. I blogged about my experience in the link below.

 

Vickie

[Pam in CA]

Not to defend any customs agents, and Princess should have somehow known better, but I think any ship thats been making stops in some of the countries that are the front line of the drug war deserve an extra examination of luggage. There have been far too many instances of drugs being brought in by cruise vessels lately.

 

That said, there's no way you could have known this and sorry to hear you missed your flight. We've had too many close calls or sat waiting for folks to join the bus that now we either grab a taxi or walk the mile or so to the bart station. However, I'm sure on a 16+ day cruise you had quite a load of cargo to haul off. To the point however, I hate the princess transfer program (or any transfer program for that matter). They would be better to just have 10 busses going back and forth to and from the airport picking up a full load each time they came back, similar to a taxi stand.

 

Did you embark in Santiago or Rio? When we disembarked in Santiago on Feb 4th, the dogs were everywhere. Chile is very serious about fruit and vegetables being brought into the country.

We had fewer ports that could possibly be considered part of the "drug wars" than a Mexican Riviera or Panama Canal cruise so I don't think that had much to do with it. I'm aware of Chile and their dog inspections having disembarked in Santiago twice and have been through their inspections.

 

Not sure why I'd have a lot of stuff for a 16-day cruise as I bought very little. I sent laundry out frequently so I didn't need a lot. Brought one suitcase and a small duffel as we traveled for ten days to Galapagos pre-cruise and needed a small bag for my stay in Galapagos, leaving my suitcase at our first hotel. Everything fit into my suitcase, including the duffel although I used the duffel for dirty laundry going home and didn't pack my suitcase full.

 

Again, my issue with the delays is what happened after the close inspection of the walk-off baggage. The dogs had already inspected the bags on the pier so once we reached the exit, my card was scanned and I walked off as I would at any other port. I have really no idea why we were held up for over an hour after the last of the walk-offs left. This was about an hour and a half after the walk-offs left the ship and we were stopped in place for an additional hour. Again, there was no communication why we weren't moving. No one could or would tell us anything. There was no or little movement whatsoever so it's obvious no one was being allowed to disembark where we were. It took over an hour to move down 5 steps before there was any movement. Once it started moving, it was pretty quick and close to normal.

[caribill]

First of all, the immigration:

 

Passengers were assigned times, based on the departing luggage tag colors, to report to the Vista Lounge if US Citizens or the Princess Theater if non-US Citizens. These times were listed in the Disembarkation Day Information that was delivered to every cabin. It also listed the departure times and meeting locations for each color tag. Just over 50% of the passengers were US citizens, so almost 50% had to go through what must have been a longer process at the Princess Theater.

 

I only saw the English version and have no idea if there was a version in another language. However, there were some US citizens going to the Princess Theater and some non-US citizens lining up at the Vista Lounge. And there were some US citizens who went to neither place and had to be paged.

 

We went at our appointed time and our time on the line was less than 15 minutes.

 

At least people who had done the immigration check were allowed to disembark before every single person on the ship had been cleared. In some past cases, there have been CC posts that said nobody could disembark until 100% of the people had been processed.

 

With over 52% of the passengers being platinum/elite/suite, there was no way they could all fit into the Explorer's Lounge or even all the lounges on the ship combined.

 

The first walk-offs were scheduled for 8:30 but did not actually start leaving until almost 9 AM. Basically, everything was on a minimum 30 minute delay after that.

 

Waiting in the assigned dining room for the 9 AM group which was the first time of non-walkoffs, we were told that immigration was doing a seconday inspection and that was the reason for the delay. Of course, we had no idea what that secondary inspection was.

 

It was a while after 9 AM before the second (and then third and then fourth) walkoff groups were called. Some were directed to the front gangway on deck 4, some to the center gangway on deck 4.

 

Our 9 AM group was called about 9:45 and directed to the center gangway. It was on the stairway from deck 5 to deck 4 we encountered the total mess that Pam has described. It took about an hour in this massive crush of passengers to get to the point where about 12 lines (from different stairways) merged into four and then expanded to eight and then down to two to hand in the customs forms near the gangway on deck 4. Periodically we heard a dog barking but had no idea why.

 

After reaching the customs people, as others have described, passengers were lined up about six in a row and all hand luggage had to be placed on the ground for a dog to sniff multiple times. The dog did not bark at our group of six, so we were then allowed to get off the ship. (I have no idea if the dog was sniffing for drugs or fruit or what.)

 

The fault for the delay is strickly US customs. The procedure for checking the hand luggage of six passengers at a time took about two minutes per group, so less than 200 people could be processed in an hour at the exit. (I do not know if the front gangway had the same delays or not.)

 

The fault for the massive pileup of passengers in a confined space is strickly on Princess who should never have called the next group until the prior group had almost finished disembarkation. I know while I was trapped for an hour in the mess, at least four more groups were called. None of them should have been called during that time.

 

I did not find the taxi line to be bad after disembarkation. There was a person who directed people to one of three (or four?) short lines where cabs pulled up. There were also people (who I assume were local civic volunteers) who helped keep the lines orderly. Considering the space available in front of the terminal, this was about as good a way to handle the masses as any. (Our taxi driver, on the other hand, was not a happy camper when he found out our destination was about a mile from the pier, not nearly as lucrative as a drive to the airport. He indicated he had waited in line a long time to get passengers and would not go back to that long line after our short trip.)

 

Yes, disembarkation was truly a mess. Our 9 AM disembarkation time had us reaching the cab line by almost 11 AM. It was obvious that many people were going to miss their flights.

[LoveThisCruisingThing]

We've only done SF once and the "terminal" was big ol oily dirty warehouse with a section put together for boarding check in. I will be so glad when the new cruiseship terminal gets built and available after the America's cup races.

 

Me too Gary. Have sailed out of SF once and felt that I should be assembling boxes or something.

 

Sorry to hear of your horrible disembarkation Pam. Luckily they don't happen often but when they do, they certainly make up for all the good ones. Hope you got home safe.

[shepp]

AS my husband sayd, "Travel use to be fun, not anymore".

 

Yes, it was definitely more fun when my back didn't hurt and I had all my hair. ;)

[ronandannette]

Based on my experience on the Sapphire Princess coastal repo last September, it seems that customs problems in SF aren't an unusual occurrence. That one was just for a port call, but they had to run everyone through immigration check aboard the ship before anyone could be allowed off. It wasn't adequately communicated beforehand that everyone would need to go through the check regardless of whether or not they planned to go ashore, and it eventually came down to calling down individual passengers over the ship's PA system. By the time they finally let people aboard, the Princess Alcatraz shore excursion I had been scheduled for had to be cancelled due to the delays in getting passengers ashore.

 

Interesting...given that we've got a private excursion scheduled for our Coral port call on May 11, should I be concerned?? What would be a "safe" time to arrange our tour?

[nna]

we were in the same mess as everyone else...we stood in immigration line for about 30 minutes...then went into the wheelhouse lounge, as explorers was full.

princess brought in a mike and coffee and stuff about 9:30. when we were called about 10 am..we took the elevators to 4 (disabled--so needed it). and couldn't get of the elevator. we were stuck in the mess right in front of gangway with about 4 people in wheelchairs and others. the other disabled had a hard time...and we didn't move for a long time...it was hard on dh.

 

lining up everyone at 6 at a time for the dogs was very time consuming. afterwards, we found our bags quick and were on the curb at 10:30. princess should have had a separate line for disabled ...and stopped sending people down to the mess. I think people need to leave more time for flights...we had the two ships with people arriving and leaving...so it was crowded.

[caribill]

Interesting...given that we've got a private excursion scheduled for our Coral port call on May 11, should I be concerned?? What would be a "safe" time to arrange our tour?

 

The big delay on the disembarkation was customs having a dog sniff every passengers hand held luggage when disembarking.

 

This is unlikely to occur when SF is a port call.

 

Also, on your cruise the port before SF is a US port. No immigration or customs necessary when you reach SF.

[bcnvcanada]

We did a cruise like this one in 2009 and 2008. It was the same mess that everyone experienced this time. In 2008 we were continuing on the cruise, but did have to get off and face u.s. officials. Upon our return to the ship, we found San Bruno ? police with dog in our cabin. We learned that they were on a training exercise and placed drugs in our cabin so that the dog could be rewarded. We later filled a complaint with u s official and we notified that the department thought that our cabin was empty ---with all our stuff hanging and in the drawers. Oh well, it could have been worse.

[pris993]

Sorru to hear of your experience in SF. We will be on the Star in September out of SF.

 

Have done a number of cruises out and back to SF, I guess I have been lucky have not had such a problem.

 

Did notice on the last one, though, that a number of folks suitcase got dropped in the bay water and were sitting on the dock dripping a pool of water. Really felt bad for folks who would be trying to collect them at the end of their curise.

[Pam in CA]

I think people need to leave more time for flights...we had the two ships with people arriving and leaving...so it was crowded.

You're right but it doesn't help when you book a flight well in advance only to have the airline change the time, flight # and more, sometimes by over an hour. If AA had kept my original flight time, I wouldn't have had a problem.

 

Bill, we heard but never saw the dogs nor did anyone or animal check our carry-ons. :) Once we finally started moving off the stairs and down the hallway, it could have been FLL: Customs form handed over, cruise card scanned, walked into the terminal to get luggage, and on to the buses.

[azbirdmom]

The Star sure has had trouble with immigration and customs! We disembarked in Rio on February 18th and were delayed about 2 hours because the assigned immigration personnel were in an accident. They ended up pulling all of the tour folks out of line and sending us to the Princess theatre. It wasn't a big deal to us because we could at least sit, and once cleared, we were quickly off the ship. I can't imagine being in a stairwell for an extended period of time with people pushing and shoving. Princess should be thankful that no one was injured.

[aaerobear]

It was a terrible day and I am not making excuses, but, a couple other things added to the already messed up debark.

 

1. Two of the sniffer dogs decided that the ship was a good place and time to...well, do what doggies do outside. Right in the middle of the area where they were doing the inspection. Added more to the delay while it was cleaned up.

 

2. An elderly gentleman tripped on the gangway steps and fell and seriously injured himself. Let's just say there was a lot of blood. He had to be attended to and the area had to be cleaned up as well, so that gangway was closed for a short time.

 

Not excuses but just more things to add to everyone's discomfort.

[4cats4me]

all i had to do was read the title of this thread and that said it all.

 

SF was the worst EMbarkation we've ever had since we began cruising years ago, although the Disemarkation part ran smoothly.

 

That is the crummiest terminal known to mankind.

[WineCountryCruiser]

First of all, the immigration:

 

Passengers were assigned times, based on the departing luggage tag colors, to report to the Vista Lounge if US Citizens or the Princess Theater if non-US Citizens. These times were listed in the Disembarkation Day Information that was delivered to every cabin. It also listed the departure times and meeting locations for each color tag. Just over 50% of the passengers were US citizens, so almost 50% had to go through what must have been a longer process at the Princess Theater.

 

I only saw the English version and have no idea if there was a version in another language. However, there were some US citizens going to the Princess Theater and some non-US citizens lining up at the Vista Lounge. And there were some US citizens who went to neither place and had to be paged.

 

We went at our appointed time and our time on the line was less than 15 minutes.

 

At least people who had done the immigration check were allowed to disembark before every single person on the ship had been cleared. In some past cases, there have been CC posts that said nobody could disembark until 100% of the people had been processed.

 

With over 52% of the passengers being platinum/elite/suite, there was no way they could all fit into the Explorer's Lounge or even all the lounges on the ship combined.

 

The first walk-offs were scheduled for 8:30 but did not actually start leaving until almost 9 AM. Basically, everything was on a minimum 30 minute delay after that.

 

Waiting in the assigned dining room for the 9 AM group which was the first time of non-walkoffs, we were told that immigration was doing a seconday inspection and that was the reason for the delay. Of course, we had no idea what that secondary inspection was.

 

It was a while after 9 AM before the second (and then third and then fourth) walkoff groups were called. Some were directed to the front gangway on deck 4, some to the center gangway on deck 4.

 

Our 9 AM group was called about 9:45 and directed to the center gangway. It was on the stairway from deck 5 to deck 4 we encountered the total mess that Pam has described. It took about an hour in this massive crush of passengers to get to the point where about 12 lines (from different stairways) merged into four and then expanded to eight and then down to two to hand in the customs forms near the gangway on deck 4. Periodically we heard a dog barking but had no idea why.

 

After reaching the customs people, as others have described, passengers were lined up about six in a row and all hand luggage had to be placed on the ground for a dog to sniff multiple times. The dog did not bark at our group of six, so we were then allowed to get off the ship. (I have no idea if the dog was sniffing for drugs or fruit or what.)

 

The fault for the delay is strickly US customs. The procedure for checking the hand luggage of six passengers at a time took about two minutes per group, so less than 200 people could be processed in an hour at the exit. (I do not know if the front gangway had the same delays or not.)

 

The fault for the massive pileup of passengers in a confined space is strickly on Princess who should never have called the next group until the prior group had almost finished disembarkation. I know while I was trapped for an hour in the mess, at least four more groups were called. None of them should have been called during that time.

 

I did not find the taxi line to be bad after disembarkation. There was a person who directed people to one of three (or four?) short lines where cabs pulled up. There were also people (who I assume were local civic volunteers) who helped keep the lines orderly. Considering the space available in front of the terminal, this was about as good a way to handle the masses as any. (Our taxi driver, on the other hand, was not a happy camper when he found out our destination was about a mile from the pier, not nearly as lucrative as a drive to the airport. He indicated he had waited in line a long time to get passengers and would not go back to that long line after our short trip.)

 

Yes, disembarkation was truly a mess. Our 9 AM disembarkation time had us reaching the cab line by almost 11 AM. It was obvious that many people were going to miss their flights.

 

We were in the mess with you and totally agree that one of the biggest issues was that luggage tag color groups were called to leave when prior groups were still waiting in long lines. When it was finally our turn, a total of four color groups were called together. We were led to the stairs by a Princess rep and then left to fend for ourselves. It seemed as though having our color group called was the end of Princess' responsibilities to us.

 

Really bad way to end a cruise. Fortunately, this hasn't happened to us very often (though a similar issue happened in Brooklyn last summer while trying to leave the Crown).

 

Craig

[ginnynj]

Just disembarked the Star this morning. I'd booked my flight home independently for 12:35pm, later than the recommended Princess time, but AA changed the flight time to 12:10pm. I also booked a Princess transfer to the airport.

 

The ship docked at about 6am and disembarkation was supposed to start with the walk-offs at 8:30am-8:45. I was Orange 1, the first "regular" group scheduled to disembark at 8:45am, the same time as the last walk-offs. They didn't call Orange 1, the first group, until after 10am and then we stood in a stairwell until after 11am. I was finally on a transfer bus at 11:15am but they didn't prioritize the buses based on when people's flights were so I had to wait for the bus to fill before it left. There were many groups that somehow disembarked before us but I have no idea how or where. There was no communication whatsoever or assistance.

 

I finally got to the airport at 11:55am and missed my flight as I'm sure many others did. It's not a big deal as I'm re-booked on another flight to LAX leaving in three hours but many had connections to make. I realize that part of the problem was US Customs and Immigration but Princess bears a great deal of the fault by not communicating anything and not disembarking people in the correct order or even close to it. It appeared to me that most of the colors were disembarked before the earliest ones as the terminal was almost empty of luggage when I finally got there. As I was looking for my luggage, I ran into a friend who was scheduled to disembark 45 minutes after me. Go figure.

 

Plus, there were a LOT of Platinum and Elite passengers on board yet they had only one Platinum/Elite lounge set up in the Explorers Lounge. I got there before 8am and was barred from entering. We were sent to the Wheelhouse but there was nothing set up, no coffee, juice, or communication other than one person coming in every half hour or so to say that Customs was doing an additional check on the walk-off bags.

 

It was the most screwed up, frustrating disembarkation I've ever experienced.

 

Pam:

Sorry it ended like that! I drove by the Star on the Embarcadero at about 330PM and the lines to board outside the terminal were still very long...looks embarkation didnt go too smoothly either. Hope all in all you enjoyed the cruise. Its always a thrill when I am in the city and drive by a Princess ship docked, even if I'm not on it. Someday I think it would be fun to embark and return out of San Francisco, but usually my visits are for business.

Thanks for posting. Looking forward to your reviews and comments as they are always informative and honest.

Regards,

[freetocruise]

We were also in that disembarkation mess and I agree completely with everything posted. When the first number (orange 1) was announced in our waiting area, there was no one checking tags, so anyone could leave. There was also no one to guide the crowd leaving. We tried to go through the casino to get to the forward gangway as directed but we were turned away. So we joined the group on the midship stairs. As we moved along slowly, I noted that there were many later groups there in front and it was obvious that they had just gone down and waited there instead of waiting to be called. Additionally, the elevators were kept in use and people were getting off the elevators and by-passing the long lines that were on the four stair wells.

 

Once we were finally off and at the bus, I noted that the vast majority of tags were for much later groups. We finally arrived at the airport around noon and there were people on our bus with 12:15-12:30 flights that had already missed their flights. Thankfully, our flight was later and we made it.

 

Note to Pam in CA - it was nice to finally meet you, even if it was as were were getting off the plane at LAX!

[Pam in CA]

Note to Pam in CA - it was nice to finally meet you, even if it was as were were getting off the plane at LAX!

Same here. :)

[ronandannette]

The big delay on the disembarkation was customs having a dog sniff every passengers hand held luggage when disembarking.

 

This is unlikely to occur when SF is a port call.

 

Also, on your cruise the port before SF is a US port. No immigration or customs necessary when you reach SF.

 

Thank you for the clarification; I've never experienced anything of the kind on a port call and thought it best to ask. Much appreciated.

 

P.S.

 

We ALWAYS take an excursion with airport (or hotel) transfer on disembarkation day; on 4 different cruiselines we've been escorted off past the hordes.

[Sea Fan]

It was a terrible day and I am not making excuses, but, a couple other things added to the already messed up debark.

 

1. Two of the sniffer dogs decided that the ship was a good place and time to...well, do what doggies do outside. Right in the middle of the area where they were doing the inspection. Added more to the delay while it was cleaned up.

 

2. An elderly gentleman tripped on the gangway steps and fell and seriously injured himself. Let's just say there was a lot of blood. He had to be attended to and the area had to be cleaned up as well, so that gangway was closed for a short time.

 

Not excuses but just more things to add to everyone's discomfort.

 

 

aaerobear, thanks for the input it's I had heard about an injury but LOL not the dogs doing there thing. I hope the gentleman that was injured will be okay.

I leave out of SF on the 28th of April so I am interested in all things Star Princess.

 

Dianne

[Coral]

San Francisco often brings dogs onboard to smell for drugs.

 

We travel with a German Shepherd and on our last port stop there - the CD stopped us and let our German Shepherd know that there were several of her relatives onboard the ship that morning checking for drugs and asked if we had seen them. We had no idea (if our GS knew, she didn't tell us). He indicated it was pretty common for that port.

[usviking]

We've been thinking that it would be fun to take the round trip Hawaii cruise out of San Francisco. I appreciate that some of problems being reported here are specific to a particular cruise, but some also appear related to accessibility to Pier 35.

 

With all the problems associated with embarkation/disembarkation at San Francisco's Pier 35, is it worth the hassle to take a cruise out of SF before they get their new cruise terminal?

[Corinda]

We've been thinking that it would be fun to take the round trip Hawaii cruise out of San Francisco. I appreciate that some of problems being reported here are specific to a particular cruise, but some also appear related to accessibility to Pier 35.

 

With all the problems associated with embarkation/disembarkation at San Francisco's Pier 35, is it worth the hassle to take a cruise out of SF before they get their new cruise terminal?

 

Having sailed twice out of SF - YES YES YES. The easiest was when I traveled solo and could take bart - had a lovely stroll down the embarcadero and was home within 90 minutes of getting off the ship.

 

My next one is October 6 from SF - Sadly it's fleet week - which means that I will have to bribe a family member to take us :) Good thing I know the ways to their hearts (Champagne usually does the trick!)

[aaerobear]

Let me say this. 99% of the problems being discussed here are the result of having two ships in port that both had debark and embark passengers. There were more than 7000 people moving through the terminal on 3/19.

 

Yes, the terminal is old and run down and not really a welcoming place, but, when there is one ship in port, things run smoothly and efficiently.

 

You should not have any of the problems described in this thread on your trip.

[bdjam]

Yes, the terminal is old and run down and not really a welcoming place, but, when there is one ship in port, things run smoothly and efficiently.

 

Contrary to what's been posted, Bear, it's not the worst terminal known to man kind - there are worse. I'm going to miss old Pier 35 when 27 is refurbished and up and running.