Embarcation Hotels

[finisp]

Arriving for our Northern California Coastal cruise on Princess on September 19, 2000,  one day prior to embarkation. Planning on staying at Princess recommended hotel but cost seems very expensive. Leaving from San Francisco and have choice of two hotels with lowest cost almost $600 while other hotel will be closer to $650. I know the cost includes transportation to hotel and to cruise terminal but when I look at booking either of these two hotels on Hotels.com the cost of the rooms are much lower than what is built into the Princess quote. I guess I could book my own hotel and arrange for my own transportation (taxi) from hotel to either airport to meet Princess bus to pier or take taxi to pier. Anyone have any recommendations regarding high cost of Princess hotels? Where to stay? Transportation to hotel and pier?

[capriccio]

We are elite on Princess and have never used their hotel/transfer combinations because they can run twice that of a similar hotel and taxi or uber/lyft transportation.  Do some research - the West Coast Departures board here on cruise critic (https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/315-west-coast-departures/) is a good place to start.  TripAdvisor is also informative.

[Kartgv]

Agree with capriccio - we never use the cruise line pre-/-post hotel packages.    The only way I'd consider it would be if it involved a port with questionable transportation options or where I didn't know the language.     

[Flatbush Flyer]

54 minutes ago, finisp said:

Arriving for our Northern California Coastal cruise on Princess on September 19, 2000,  one day prior to embarkation. Planning on staying at Princess recommended hotel but cost seems very expensive. Leaving from San Francisco and have choice of two hotels with lowest cost almost $600 while other hotel will be closer to $650. I know the cost includes transportation to hotel and to cruise terminal but when I look at booking either of these two hotels on Hotels.com the cost of the rooms are much lower than what is built into the Princess quote. I guess I could book my own hotel and arrange for my own transportation (taxi) from hotel to either airport to meet Princess bus to pier or take taxi to pier. Anyone have any recommendations regarding high cost of Princess hotels? Where to stay? Transportation to hotel and pier?

Depending on what's happening in the City at your desired time of the year, a "better" hotel (e.g., Intercontinental) can range from under $200  to more than $600 per night for a regular king room.

That said, there are many very nice hotels at or near the embarcadero (e.g., Hyatt Embarcadero). Plenty of great restaurants too (e.g., Slanted Door in the Ferry Building). From SFO, you can taxi, Uber, execucar, super shuttle. Taxi and Uber are fine for cross town travel. There's also public BART train (you'd have to pay me to take it from/to SFO with luggage).

If you've never been to SF, one day prior arrival  won't get you much sightseeing.

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Flatbush Flyer

[Philob]

If you plan on being here September 19 2020 then you'll be in town with a thousand or so dentists.  The California Dental Association is having their annual thing that weekend 🦷

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, finisp said:

Arriving for our Northern California Coastal cruise on Princess on September 19, 2000,  one day prior to embarkation. Planning on staying at Princess recommended hotel but cost seems very expensive. Leaving from San Francisco and have choice of two hotels with lowest cost almost $600 while other hotel will be closer to $650. I know the cost includes transportation to hotel and to cruise terminal but when I look at booking either of these two hotels on Hotels.com the cost of the rooms are much lower than what is built into the Princess quote. I guess I could book my own hotel and arrange for my own transportation (taxi) from hotel to either airport to meet Princess bus to pier or take taxi to pier. Anyone have any recommendations regarding high cost of Princess hotels? Where to stay? Transportation to hotel and pier?

This is why using cruise line hotels is not commonly recommended here. You can almost always do better on your own. The only exception in our case is, for example, the time our flight arrived in Lima Peru at midnight. It was very nice to have someone waiting to pick us up.

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

Book your own.  I just looked for Saturday September 19, 2020 and there are plenty of Hilton hotels for around $200 a night and that's cheap for San Francisco.