Club Class embarkation in SF

[long time lurker]

Long time cruiser, but first time on Princess.  We are booked in a Club Class Mini-Suite on the Royal Princess leaving SF on March 2.  I have watched some You Tube videos for San Francisco departures and see that embarkation can be quite busy.  According to the Princess web site we get “priority embarkation” as part of our Club Class fare.  How does this work at the Port of San Francisco, or is this just marketing “fluff”?  Thanks in advance!

[railman]

28 minutes ago, long time lurker said:

Long time cruiser, but first time on Princess.  We are booked in a Club Class Mini-Suite on the Royal Princess leaving SF on March 2.  I have watched some You Tube videos for San Francisco departures and see that embarkation can be quite busy.  According to the Princess web site we get “priority embarkation” as part of our Club Class fare.  How does this work at the Port of San Francisco, or is this just marketing “fluff”?  Thanks in advance!

We are elite on Princess, and we had a Club Class cabin, which means we should have had priority boarding on two accounts.  We boarded in San Francisco last June.  There was no priority on the security line.  Once past security we were given priority for check in which may have saved us five minutes at most.  Then they did have a priority seating area waiting for boarding to start, but it was not monitored, and anyone who felt like it sat in that area.  The really bad part was once boarding started they gave no priority to anyone.  They just opened the gate and it became a free for all.

[memoak]

There is only one line to get not the terminal. Since SF sailings attract so many locals they seem to all show up early. Once inside the building there may be a priority line. We arrived around 12:30 for a cruise in November and the line was down the Embarcadero. We took one look and walked across the street for lunch and a beer. An hour later we just walked right in

 

[lbfluffy]

Oh no. We leave next Thursday on the Royal. Hope we won’t have to wait long. We are going to be dropped off at 1130. We have priority. Hopefully we won’t wait too long. 

[Sea Hag]

42 minutes ago, lbfluffy said:

Oh no. We leave next Thursday on the Royal. Hope we won’t have to wait long. We are going to be dropped off at 1130. We have priority. Hopefully we won’t wait too long. 

We sailed out of SF twice since the restart. Both times, there was a line outside the building, but both times once we got inside we pretty much walked onto the ship. One time we had a suite, so priority on that. The other time we were Elite so priority there. I'm assuming you're in the green lane.

[suekel]

I've sailed out of SF twice since August.  August was a breeze.  Once we got past security, we went to the elite boarding area and went right on.  You will board after elite and full suite guests.  They didn't look at your boarding group, just your status and cabin.  In November it was a total disaster but that's because the cruise before us was a 4 day over thanksgiving cruise and it was way over capacity because of all the kids.  We waited over an hour because the ship wasn't ready.  They then called for elite and suite and no one would get out of the way to let us board.  Eventually we got on.  So, it depends.  

[sunviking90]

We sailed out of SF in January and it was one of our smoothest embarkations ever. We were on the ship in about 10 minutes.

We arrived around 10:45

[LadyL1]

1 hour ago, sunviking90 said:

We sailed out of SF in January and it was one of our smoothest embarkations ever. We were on the ship in about 10 minutes.

We arrived around 10:45

Likewise! Very impressed with security procedure etc, at San Francisco terminal.

However, at first boarding  call for suites, there was a rush, and it was very obvious the number far greater than suite berths😖! It would be easy to check each pax via medallion but that is time consuming. A shame honesty is not adhered to for the sake of 10 minutes or so.

[long time lurker]

Thank you for all the replies.  From the varied responses it sounds like the embarkation may be crowded, or easy.  There may or may not be priority and it may or may not be useful.  I will pack my patience and be ready for anything.  Looking forward to my first time on Princess.

[Teeara]

On 2/23/2023 at 10:49 AM, long time lurker said:

Long time cruiser, but first time on Princess.  We are booked in a Club Class Mini-Suite on the Royal Princess leaving SF on March 2.  I have watched some You Tube videos for San Francisco departures and see that embarkation can be quite busy.  According to the Princess web site we get “priority embarkation” as part of our Club Class fare.  How does this work at the Port of San Francisco, or is this just marketing “fluff”?  Thanks in advance!

Let us know how your boarding goes today (which is March 2nd)!  We board on March 27th.

 

[long time lurker]

Just finished boarding. It was pretty easy. Security was a bit of a line, but moved well. Once past security there was a separate line for those with status or club class. At the time I don’t know if it saved any time as boarding had already begun and there were no lines anywhere. We arrived at the port around 11:30. Hopefully your process goes as well.