Delayed Departure

[siegi1230]

Does anyone know why the Grand princess was late leaving San Francisco this afternoon?I saw it on the news ,the ship was delayed almost 3 hours and no one was allowed to board.

[pris993]

Don't know... kinda of wonder if delay may be due to authorizities looking for drugs, ship arrived from So America. Have heard of similar situation on HAL sometime ago with arrests for drugs, when a HAL ship came in to SF from So America.

 

This is just speculation though on my part.

 

I am curious too - we are booked on the Grand for September.

[caribill]

Maybe because when it arrived today it was after nearly 7 weeks away from the USA and needed a Coast Guard inspection. Until such an inspection is completed, nobody is allowed to board.

 

From posts on the roll call for this cruose:

 

"Customs hasn't cleared them yet we are told."

 

"Latest announcement is the coast guard is still searching the boat."

[gcvt]

Does anyone know why the Grand princess was late leaving San Francisco this afternoon?I saw it on the news ,the ship was delayed almost 3 hours and no one was allowed to board.

 

She still hasn't left - she's still here in port. Word is that Coast Guard was searching the ship and Customs was trying to clear. They didn't even begin boarding Elite/Platinum until 3:30pm and the line was blocks long. We went down to the beach to watch her sail but gave up around 6:30 and came home with our wet, sandy dog :)

 

Oh well, sailing out under the Golden Gate Bridge at night doesn't suck.

 

You can see her in the middle of the picture here: http://webmarin.com/

[gcvt]

Okay, now five hours late leaving port and no sign of movement yet. What would you be doing right now?

 

We tend to eat late, so we'd probably be at dinner right now. If we were eating right now and felt the ship move, we'd totally bail on dinner and get up on deck with a cocktail to sail out under the GG Bridge. Then we'd head for the hot tubs!

 

Where would you be? What would you be doing? ;)

[bellebaby]

Okay, now five hours late leaving port and no sign of movement yet. What would you be doing right now?

 

We tend to eat late, so we'd probably be at dinner right now. If we were eating right now and felt the ship move, we'd totally bail on dinner and get up on deck with a cocktail to sail out under the GG Bridge. Then we'd head for the hot tubs!

 

Where would you be? What would you be doing? ;)

 

Keeping the champagne cold (at least the 2nd bottle) and enjoying the evening with my husband on the balcony.

 

B

[scanditaly]

Has the grand left yet?

[gcvt]

Has the grand left yet?

 

Nope. She's still here. 5-1/2 hours behind schedule.

[gcvt]

Looks like she's backing out! ...a full six hours late.

[Whoo]

We were there today also - and saw the HUGE line of people waiting to board. Some did not look happy! One story was that drugs were found, and the other story we heard was that "the registry for the ship" had expired during the 49 day cruise. I asked a Princess employee what time the ship was leaving (at 4:00 pm), and he said that was a good question. He said they had "problems" today.

[gcvt]

[c-legs]

My $0.02....

 

Any disembarkation following a long time away from USA ( i-e: a T.A., a long SouthAmerica ''around the horn'' voyage, a return from Australi/NewZealand winter season sailings ) is always exceptionnally long,time consuming,frustrating, involved, etc.etc.etc....USCG, C&BP, Homeland security, and others all have quite an involved processus....

End result?? Takes a whole long longer to process disembarkation, therefore, delays the following embarkation proportionnately..

 

That's almost standard in such disembarkations. Almost 100% constant when ships arrive in SanDiego from Florida every spring, thus back ''West'' after a long stay away, after a 15-18 days voyage thru Panama, Columbia, Mexico, etc....

 

JMHO

[gcvt]

My $0.02....

 

Any disembarkation following a long time away from USA ( i-e: a T.A., a long SouthAmerica ''around the horn'' voyage, a return from Australi/NewZealand winter season sailings ) is always exceptionnally long,time consuming,frustrating, involved, etc.etc.etc....USCG, C&BP, Homeland security, and others all have quite an involved processus....

End result?? Takes a whole long longer to process disembarkation, therefore, delays the following embarkation proportionnately..

 

That's almost standard in such disembarkations. Almost 100% constant when ships arrive in SanDiego from Florida every spring, thus back ''West'' after a long stay away, after a 15-18 days voyage thru Panama, Columbia, Mexico, etc....

 

JMHO

 

The problem is that most new cruisers don't know what experienced cruisers on these forums know. If you booked your first cruise through Princess and didn't get the emails/notifications sent out by travel agents, you're sitting on the sidewalk in SF for 4-5 hours...and you don't know why. That's a horrible experience for new people who we want to enjoy the cruising experience. It's just bad in every way.

[Pam in CA]

Even experienced cruisers don't always know this if you don't take many repositioning cruises. Had no delays a couple of years ago after a Southampton-to-NY cruise so it didn't occur to me when I booked my Star cruise that I took a year ago from Santiago to SF. Disembarkation was delayed for hours which meant that embarkation was a nightmare.

[FritzG]

Would a cruise to Mexico cause a delay? We're going to Hawaii on the Grand on April 10th, and the cruise before ours goes to Mexico.

[caribill]

Would a cruise to Mexico cause a delay? We're going to Hawaii on the Grand on April 10th, and the cruise before ours goes to Mexico.

 

Unlikely

[paul929207]

We got off the Grand yesterday. Our disembarkation group was near the middle of the list, and we got off about 15 minutes after we were scheduled to be in the lounge.

[R&V]

Dropped my sister and mother off at 1:30pm yesterday for the current sailing and the sidewalk area in front of the pier was packed. Thank god they let my mother inside as she is disabled and couldn"t stand outside in the sun. I looked at the web cam around 7:30 and noticed the Grand still along side the pier so I called my sister. They had just returned from early dining, she said the word was that port authorities were inspecting the ship as something illegal had been found, possibly drugs. They and all others were at least offered free wine with dinner, she said there were alot of unhappy cruisers on board do to the long wait. :(

[aaerobear]

Customs was not the problem for a change, that went fine, it was the Coast Guard this time. They simply showed up late and when they are one the ship NO-ONE else can do a darn thing. we started check-in at about 12:30 but had to stop about 1:15 or so as the waiting areas in the terminal had filled up. The fire marshal has rules on how many can be in there at one time. so the terminal had to be closed until boarding started.

 

I have no freakin idea what they were looking for what they found (if anything) but they finally finished about 3:45 pm or so and we resumed check-in and were finished with everyone by 5:20pm.

 

I know both new and very well seasoned travelers were outside of the terminal and it had turned into a mob scene with everyone screaming about being special and elite and platinum etc etc and there was simply NOTHING that could be done. The people working the curbside were telling people what was going on, but, of course, nobody believed them and stayed inline (or rather in a mob). They tried to tell them to go to pier 39 or to any of the restraunts along the embarcadero but many many refused to move. (just not sure why they stayed in place when it was hot and sunny. were they afraid someone was gonna get on before them or take their stateroom???)

 

Anyway, it was, as others have said, one of those first of the season fiascos where the feds screw up the operations and Princess and the ground crews get the blame.

[aloha43]

Customs was not the problem for a change, that went fine, it was the Coast Guard this time. They simply showed up late and when they are one the ship NO-ONE else can do a darn thing. we started check-in at about 12:30 but had to stop about 1:15 or so as the waiting areas in the terminal had filled up. The fire marshal has rules on how many can be in there at one time. so the terminal had to be closed until boarding started.

 

I have no freakin idea what they were looking for what they found (if anything) but they finally finished about 3:45 pm or so and we resumed check-in and were finished with everyone by 5:20pm.

 

I know both new and very well seasoned travelers were outside of the terminal and it had turned into a mob scene with everyone screaming about being special and elite and platinum etc etc and there was simply NOTHING that could be done. The people working the curbside were telling people what was going on, but, of course, nobody believed them and stayed inline (or rather in a mob). They tried to tell them to go to pier 39 or to any of the restraunts along the embarcadero but many many refused to move. (just not sure why they stayed in place when it was hot and sunny. were they afraid someone was gonna get on before them or take their stateroom???)

 

Anyway, it was, as others have said, one of those first of the season fiascos where the feds screw up the operations and Princess and the ground crews get the blame.

 

They may have tried to tell people to go to pier 39.....but for some, like my mom with copd and my uncle who was 83 years old, they couldn't just "go to pier 39". It was a really hard trek for them just to use the restroom.

 

Did you take note as to how busy pier 39 was? If everyone in line went to pier 39, it wouldn't have accommodated a fraction of them. There were ridiculously long bathroom lines, no where to sit once they got to the pier....for the elderly, it was miserable.

 

It was complete chaos.

[trbarton]

Customs was not the problem for a change, that went fine, it was the Coast Guard this time. They simply showed up late and when they are one the ship NO-ONE else can do a darn thing. we started check-in at about 12:30 but had to stop about 1:15 or so as the waiting areas in the terminal had filled up. The fire marshal has rules on how many can be in there at one time. so the terminal had to be closed until boarding started.

 

I have no freakin idea what they were looking for what they found (if anything) but they finally finished about 3:45 pm or so and we resumed check-in and were finished with everyone by 5:20pm.

 

I know both new and very well seasoned travelers were outside of the terminal and it had turned into a mob scene with everyone screaming about being special and elite and platinum etc etc and there was simply NOTHING that could be done. The people working the curbside were telling people what was going on, but, of course, nobody believed them and stayed inline (or rather in a mob). They tried to tell them to go to pier 39 or to any of the restraunts along the embarcadero but many many refused to move. (just not sure why they stayed in place when it was hot and sunny. were they afraid someone was gonna get on before them or take their stateroom???)

 

Anyway, it was, as others have said, one of those first of the season fiascos where the feds screw up the operations and Princess and the ground crews get the blame.

 

I was on the Grand last weekend for the Bon Voyage Experience and ask at the terminal about the delay. I was told that the reason for the inspection was because the ship had never been to San Francisco before and they were required to inspect it. When I asked they said that it had nothing to do with the ship being on a 49 day cruise only that the ship was new to San Francisco.

 

Thanks for your information.

 

Tom:)

[PunkiC]

We were once delayed in SFO for three hours because a crew member had gone missing and they had to search the entire ship.

 

We were supposed to have departed at 1:00 p.m. but didin't leave until 4:00 p.m., which was fine with us. It was a gorgeous day and we were having a wonderful time watching the Oracle sail the harbor. That was, BTW, the same boat that flipped the next day. Here is an amazing video where you can see the crew falling off into the water: