Dropped my parents for a cruise

[bcla]

They've done a cruise from the Pier 27 cruise terminal in San Francisco before, but they didn't really remember exactly how it went before and this was the first time they asked me to drop them off. We got there a bit on the early side and couldn't figure out if personal vehicles were allowed to drop off passengers. It was kind of a mess with a lot of trucks driving in a San Francisco Police directing them in, where it didn't quite look like personal vehicles could enter. After we got something to eat (they weren't sure if there would be food immediately on board - later they found out there was a buffet) we just grabbed something at a McDonald's). But then when we parked across the street (my dad has a disabled placard since he's got a bum shoulder) we walked in. I looked at cars coming in and said something ("You can drive in here?", and the officer directing traffic said something about living and learning since dropping off passengers was allowed. But I'm not sure what I could have done. They have a good sized parking lot there, but it seemed almost empty. Most of the personal vehicles were just dropping passengers off like one might see at an airport.

I did find a quiet place to do some work after they boarded. I'm not quite sure exactly how this is going to work now. I found a library for a quiet place to work, but they don't depart for maybe a half hour. I remember watching The Love Boat and they had all that stuff with people tossing confetti when they sailed but something tells me that it's not done any more because of the mess. I'm thinking of finding a place to take a photo of the ship as it sails under the Golden Gate Bridge and send it to them while they still have cellular data available.

 

[tvguy]

They've done a cruise from the Pier 27 cruise terminal in San Francisco before, but they didn't really remember exactly how it went before and this was the first time they asked me to drop them off. We got there a bit on the early side and couldn't figure out if personal vehicles were allowed to drop off passengers. It was kind of a mess with a lot of trucks driving in a San Francisco Police directing them in, where it didn't quite look like personal vehicles could enter. After we got something to eat (they weren't sure if there would be food immediately on board - later they found out there was a buffet) we just grabbed something at a McDonald's). But then when we parked across the street (my dad has a disabled placard since he's got a bum shoulder) we walked in. I looked at cars coming in and said something ("You can drive in here?", and the officer directing traffic said something about living and learning since dropping off passengers was allowed. But I'm not sure what I could have done. They have a good sized parking lot there, but it seemed almost empty. Most of the personal vehicles were just dropping passengers off like one might see at an airport.

I did find a quiet place to do some work after they boarded. I'm not quite sure exactly how this is going to work now. I found a library for a quiet place to work, but they don't depart for maybe a half hour. I remember watching The Love Boat and they had all that stuff with people tossing confetti when they sailed but something tells me that it's not done any more because of the mess. I'm thinking of finding a place to take a photo of the ship as it sails under the Golden Gate Bridge and send it to them while they still have cellular data available.

My mom did a cruise out of San Francisco. The Sacramento Travel agent for $35 extra offered a chartered bus ride from their office to the ship. She said she literally walked out of the bus into the cruise terminal.
My wife and I did a cruise in 2019 that overnighted in San Francisco. Funny being docked 90 miles from home, but soooooooooooooo much easier than driving into the city. Everything we wanted to do was within walking distance of the ship. The next pier over was where the ferry to Alcatraz left from. Walked down to Boudins for a crab omelet for breakfast the second morning, then to Ghirardelli for a hot fudge sundae for lunch.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Getting dropped off for a trip makes things so much less stressful, and I bet they will love the photo.

 

[bcla]

I’m starting to think about it, and this is their first cruise out of San Francisco. They did an Alaska cruise before, but it sailed from Seattle. They arranged for transfers.

 

[Nora03]

We did an Alaskan cruise that sailed out of San Francisco. Loved it. We spent four days in SF first and took a cab to the cruise terminal. We just got dropped off in front and porters were waiting to take our luggage. It was pretty amazing sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. We also sailed under the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver as our final stop. We’ve got good footage of both. Hope your parents have a wonderful cruise.