Worst Disembarkation EVER in SF

[Pam in CA]

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.

[cherylandtk]

Oh Pam, I am so sorry to hear of the unglorious end to your cruise. And the uncomfortable balcony furniture. I know you are fair and evenly disposed in your assessments, so this news (on top of a few other things that have gone wrong in the last few days for Princess) is just more disappointment for many

 

Have a safe trip home, and thanks for letting everyone know about the debarkation. I do hope there were some wonderful parts to the cruise, and I know you will share those with everyone later.

 

I have had a similar (but not as awful) debarkation experience when the ship was late in returning to port. Became a free-for-all with everyone piling into the lounges at their assigned time before others had left. When the timing is right, Princess does well. But when the timing is off, they don't do a very good job of crowd management or traffic flow. It is bad enough to have to leave the ship, but that feeling of being dumped off the ship with no guidance or assistance at the end just leaves a bad final impression of the cruise.

[Vexorg]

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.

[Shogun]

Hi Pam

 

Sorry to hear you had so much stress not the way to end any cruise.

 

 

 

yours Shogun

[DougH]

Sorry to hear you adventure had to end on a sour note. I've got some friends and neighbors who sailed with you that I'm anxiously awaiting to hear about the cruise from. I'm sorry I didn't get to sail with you and hope you all had a fantatsic trip

[Astro Flyer]

Pam...sorry about your terrible disembarkation experience in SF. :(

 

While there may have been a customs/immigration problem, there is no excuse for Princess not reacting to the problem nor for their lack of communication. I've been lucky to not have such a bad experience because generally it's such a smooth process.

 

I know that you generally go with the flow & that it takes a lot to get you upset and I completely understand your frustration with your screwed up disembarkation experience.

 

I hope the remainder of your trip home goes smootly...if you're looking for a "silver lining" at least the rain has stopped & it's getting warmer. ;)

[Cruzn ELM]

Pam, did you make your own flight arrangements or use Princess air? Just wondering if priority disembarkation went to those who booked through Princess.

 

I'm in a Caribe balcony room on the Star in 3 1/2 weeks. Have sent an email to Mr Buckelew, hope you will do the same when you get a chance.

[califgary]

Pam so sorry the ending of your cruise was so frustrating - hopefully everything before disembarkation went smoother! We had this issue on a HAL ship returning to San Diego - from the time our ship docked until about 11AM, they just kept calling names of people they needed to see....by the end, most of the ship was piling up near the exit ramps even though they kept telling people not to do that.....Luckily we were parked across the street so no flights missed but Im sure many folks had to rebook......the politics of getting back into the US can be so frustrating - safe flight home!

[PrincessE]

Sorry to hear of the bummer way to end a cruise. I've never disembarked in SF so I can't speak to any experience there, but every Princess cruise I've ever taken has disembarked amazingly well.

 

Maybe it is the SF port or maybe just a bad disembark? Since you are such a Princess fan maybe they will take heed to your posting and make some adjustments.

[Pam in CA]

I just boarded my new flight so will arrive home three hours late. Not a biggie. My frustration was with Princess and the lack of priority for those to whom they'd already given priority as first to disembark plus the lack of communication.

 

Anyway, had a nice cruise and met some incredible people who will be lifelong friends. :)

[califgary]

Sorry to hear of the bummer way to end a cruise. I've never disembarked in SF so I can't speak to any experience there, but every Princess cruise I've ever taken has disembarked amazingly well.

 

Maybe it is the SF port or maybe just a bad disembark? Since you are such a Princess fan maybe they will take heed to your posting and make some adjustments.

 

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.

[Astro Flyer]

I just boarded my new flight so will arrive home three hours late. Not a biggie. My frustration was with Princess and the lack of priority for those to whom they'd already given priority as first to disembark plus the lack of communication.

 

Anyway, had a nice cruise and met some incredible people who will be lifelong friends. :)

There you go, I knew that you'd find a 'silver lining'. :)

[Seafoam Green]

I just boarded my new flight so will arrive home three hours late. Not a biggie. My frustration was with Princess and the lack of priority for those to whom they'd already given priority as first to disembark plus the lack of communication.

 

Anyway, had a nice cruise and met some incredible people who will be lifelong friends. :)

 

So sorry to hear about the 'ugly' part of your cruise - you are always such a positive voice here, it must have been pretty bad.

 

Good to know that the cruise was a good one.

[donna5]

I wish people that didn't need to get off the ship right away, would just wait until those with early flights get off. A few times we needed to get off early and it is such a hassle, when we are doing a post cruise or have a late flight, we just go to the pursers and get tags for the last group and stay out of the way of those that do need to get off. I don't know what the hurry is for those that don't have early flights.

[isujim]

Sorry to hear that Pam........coming from you it had to be pretty bad. :)

[rlmosher]

Live on a bus trying to get to the pier.

 

 

We are at the pier going around and around to get into a lot across the street where we can get off the bus. The line to get into the pier is about two block long. We might be on at 4:00pm or not. I don't think it will depart at 4:00, maybe 6:00.

 

 

Same mess gettin on Pam.

[califgary]

Live on a bus trying to get to the pier.

 

 

We are at the pier going around and around to get into a lot across the street where we can get off the bus. The line to get into the pier is about two block long. We might be on at 4:00pm or not. I don't think it will depart at 4:00, maybe 6:00.

 

 

Same mess gettin on Pam.

 

yup. There is little to zero space in front of the "terminal" with the Embarcadero regular car/bus/trolly traffic and the tourists walking along Fisherman's wharf!! It's a mad-house coming in and going out....

[Times Prince]

I just boarded my new flight so will arrive home three hours late. Not a biggie. My frustration was with Princess and the lack of priority for those to whom they'd already given priority as first to disembark plus the lack of communication.

 

Anyway, had a nice cruise and met some incredible people who will be lifelong friends. :)

Wow, I am really sad that they ended your cruise that way - it really showed a total lack of appreciation for the passenger mix and priorities. Such a sad way to end a cruise.

 

Glad you met some really good friends.

[gertz]

You had a good cruise, you met nice people. The delay will soon be forgotten.:):):)

[lovevacadays]

So sorry to hear that Pam. But sounds like there were some really positive things about your cruise. Welcome back to So Cal. I thought about your cruise over the weekend with the crazy storms we had along the Pacific coast. At least we are back to sunshine today and the rest of the week.:)

[almare]

.........(edited)

 

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

 

 

Totally agree!! Our day started with walking down to deck 7 to go through our 8:40 a.m. onboard immigration in the Vista Lounge. We found that the line went from the Vista Lounge, past Wheelhouse, past Explorers, past Crooners, past Shore Excursions, turned the corner at the Princess Theatre. I've never seen something that long before. Passengers were confused and upset at the length of the line but it did seem to go rather well, just slow. It took about an hour for us to reach the immigration officer who just stamped our card and we were out of the Vista Lounge and went to await our color tag call in Wheelhouse.

 

An hour past the time Princess had said we were to be called, a Star Princess rep escorted us down to the gangway. For some unexplained reason, we were kept in the lobby area with some of us winding back up the stairs for another half hour. Many people had mobility challenges, so standing in those confined spaces packed in with others was not the most pleasant experience.

 

Finally, we moved. I couldn't see why we had been detained but was glad to finally be off. The taxi situation was a total mess once we reached the street as another ship had discharged their passengers earlier and cabs seemed to be limited. Many passengers appeared to be upset at missing their flights due to lack of transportation and the very late disembarkation.

 

Luckily, we are spending a few days in San Francisco, so we were able to calm ourselves by continually reminding each other that we have no place to be right away.

 

Ron

[isujim]

I might add Pam was lucky.........to go through that and only get home 3 hours later is pretty good. Unfortunately there may be those who missed connections that might be getting home 12 hours later....hopefully lessons will be learned by Princess. I would hope this isn't a normal occurance out of SF, but admit I have never had that port as a embark/disembark port.

 

Those still in the air or by some chance still in SF......this won't be as easily forgotten. To me this should be improved on and quickly.

[lois1112]

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.

I had one bad experience on the Sapphire in LA. too many ships in port...they had to have a Holland american ship move so we could pull in. no Lounges set up at all (I had a dream cabin stewart who let my elder parents stay in our room) we stood in the stair well for about an hour...didin't get off the ship until 2pm. None of the crew was anywere..people were pushing shoving one lady fell and was almost trambled. mostly my experiences have been wonderful. Sorry this happened to you as well

[sassyredhat]

Wow !! :eek: As much as you travel, I know to listen to what you have to say.

Last Sept. I took a PCL transfer in SF and it was wonderful. :confused:

However embarkation was awful !!

Glad you're home. Looking forward to your review when you get rested. :)

Pat

[Sea Fan]

Wow the Star is still sitting in San Francisco, it's 8:50 right now:eek: