Embarkation in San Francisco

[Calnev1]

My wife and I are currently aboard the Miracle in Alaska.  We embarked at pier 27 in SF this past Monday.  Having read some previous posters who were unhappy with the SF boarding process (both at piers 27 and 35), I wanted to report that our boarding experience was wonderful! We had an assigned arrival window of 11:00 to 11:30 AM.  We stepped out of our Uber at 11:09 and we stepped on to the ship at 11:23.  Yep, only 14 minutes.  Never boarded any other ship that fast.  It did help that we were Platinum.  Also we rolled on our luggage and did not use a porter.

[Beav1279]

What an awesome embarkation experience! I'm doing the same cruise next summer - I hope you have a wonderful time! 

[VentureMan_2000]

We had the same experience with our June Alaska cruise out of SF.  We were on board nearly an hour early.

[Beav1279]

3 minutes ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

We had the same experience with our June Alaska cruise out of SF.  We were on board nearly an hour early.

Do you happen to know if there is Faster to the Fun available in SF? I've seen conflicting information...

[VentureMan_2000]

20 minutes ago, Beav1279 said:

Do you happen to know if there is Faster to the Fun available in SF? I've seen conflicting information...

San Francisco was one of two ports that Carnival did not offer FTTF.

However, I see that it's offered right now as an excursion for $69.95, so I suppose they have changed it.  However, as you can see in this topic, that you get right on board at SF.  And there were A LOT of Diamond and Platinum cruisers leaving from this port -- I believe they board before FTTF. 

 

[travelingtink]

Being platinum did you bypass lines? Or were there even any lines? Wondering what the regular person’s experience would be? Not platinum, not in a suite, not considering Faster to the Fun. 

[VentureMan_2000]

1 hour ago, travelingtink said:

Being platinum did you bypass lines? Or were there even any lines? Wondering what the regular person’s experience would be? Not platinum, not in a suite, not considering Faster to the Fun. 

I'm just plain old Gold.  FTTF was not offered at the time.

There are two parts to getting on the ship:
First is your Check-In where they take your photo and check you in.  Check-in is based on your arrival time... not necessarily your "priority" status.  Funny note here: there were so many "Priority" check-ins that their line was 2 to 3 times longer than the normal check-in line.  We were done checking in well before the folks who got into the "priority" line the same we got in the check-in line.  

Our Check-in time was 11:00am.  We were checked in by 10:15am.
 
Second, Check-in is a separate event from boarding.  After you check-in, you take a seat in the terminal with all the other passengers that have checked in (there is lots of comfortable seating - you sit where you want as there is no special seating sections) and wait for them to call the different groups to board based on priority.   

They do not allow anyone to board until all previous passengers are off and U.S. Customs gives the go-ahead.  That being said, here is the Priority order to board the ship that I observed:

Wedding Party
Passengers with Disabilities
Diamond
Platinum
FTTF ( well, I didn't observe this since they didn't have FTTF, but I believe they are next )
Gold
Red
Blue 

The 'Red" (my group) was released to board the ship at 11:00am, so we sat for 45 minutes after checking in - watching others board based on their priority order being called.

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by VentureMan_2000