San Francisco Embarking

[jimlouisesophie]

We are on the Coral on November 14, 2019 and sail from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale going through the Panama Canal, and plan on being at the terminal around 11 am.  What is the process once the cab arrives at the terminal from our hotel?    Do we have to give up our bag to a porter, or can we just take it ourselves to check in?  Any further information would be appreciated.

[Outerdog]

Well, checked bags are checked with a porter. If you want, you can carry all of your luggage yourself, it just has to fit through the scanner. Typically the size of an airport luggage scanner.

 

Go through the doors, upstairs, through security, stand in line, complete check-in, and off you go.

 

Pier 27 is pretty small and the process will be fairly obvious once you arrive.

 

[Blondilu]

Yes, give your larger luggage (with proper tags) to a porter.  As stated everything you bring on board has to fit through the scanner which is just like the ones at the airport for size reference. 

 

There will be lots and lots of people at the terminal to point you in the right direction.

[neverbeenhere]

Have your cruise documents and passports at hand. 

Edited August 13, 2019 by neverbeenhere

[RSF Cruiser]

If you want to carry all of your bags on, you certainly can (we do it all of the time in San Francisco). Cruise ship staff will repeatedly tell you they will not help - you have to be able to manage the bags yourself, including lifting them up onto the scanner. We cruised from San Francisco a few weeks ago, and a porter told me we were not permitted to carry our bags on (we had two 24 inch and one 21 inch bags). I knew he was wrong and was trying to intimidate me to give him the bags. The only limit to carrying bags on is you need to be able to handle them yourself. We like having all of our things with us when we get to our room.

[jimlouisesophie]

2 hours ago, Outerdog said:

Well, checked bags are checked with a porter. If you want, you can carry all of your luggage yourself, it just has to fit through the scanner. Typically the size of an airport luggage scanner.

 

Go through the doors, upstairs, through security, stand in line, complete check-in, and off you go.

 

Pier 27 is pretty small and the process will be fairly obvious once you arrive.

 

So, we can avoid the porters and carry the bags ourselves to the scanner,  then do we leave the bags there, or take then upstairs?

[RSF Cruiser]

If you place your bags on the scanner, you have to take them to your cabin. The only way not to take them to your cabin is to give the bags to a porter when you are dropped off.

[aimee0715]

We had to carry on all of our bags when we embarked in San Francisco in May.  We waited 20 minutes for a porter to take our bags and they just ignored us or said they would be with us in a minute but then just kept taking the bags of people who arrived after us.  The Princess representative said that they could not speak to the porters.  So we carried all of our luggage on board ourselves for the first time.  Actually, it was nice to not have to wait for it.  We got on board about 10 minutes before cabins became accessible so we just hung around in a public area near our cabin for a few minutes and then we were able to get everything unpacked and luggage stowed before 1:30. 

[jimlouisesophie]

1 hour ago, RSF Cruiser said:

If you place your bags on the scanner, you have to take them to your cabin. The only way not to take them to your cabin is to give the bags to a porter when you are dropped off.

How much should we give the porter per bag

[Colo Cruiser]

34 minutes ago, jimlouisesophie said:

How much should we give the porter per bag

$2-$3 per bag

[The Mikado]

We are doing this tomorrow.

 

Issue is, we have a large roller bag with our 12 bottles of wine. We plan to carry it on so we can go through the wine check-in BS to remain on the up and up with Princess. Because they might go broke if they didn't get the $15 per bottle of wine we plan on drinking in the room. Anyway, is there a way to have a porter take this bag instead without running afoul of "the wine desk"?

[jimlouisesophie]

7 minutes ago, The Mikado said:

We are doing this tomorrow.

 

Issue is, we have a large roller bag with our 12 bottles of wine. We plan to carry it on so we can go through the wine check-in BS to remain on the up and up with Princess. Because they might go broke if they didn't get the $15 per bottle of wine we plan on drinking in the room. Anyway, is there a way to have a porter take this bag instead without running afoul of "the wine desk"?

Interesting question but I read  that any wine has to be on a carry on bag, that you personally have to put through the scanner, then  there is someone to check the wine and charge your account $15 per bottle,  then you will have to take it to your cabin.....keep us informed, please, after you get on board....we will be doing similar,,,,sometimes there is no one there to charge the $15 corkage, so you may be lucky and not be charged.

[The Mikado]

28 minutes ago, jimlouisesophie said:

Interesting question but I read  that any wine has to be on a carry on bag...

Well, we'll soon find out.

 

Thank you, I will update post-procedure.

[tailspintom]

51 minutes ago, The Mikado said:

Because they might go broke if they didn't get the $15 per bottle of wine we plan on drinking in the room. 

You seem to resent that Princess has a corkage charge for those bottles of wine beyond the allowed one per passenger.   I have found that , over the years, Princess has been very generous in their practices of allowing passengers to board with a wine of their choice, whether on embarkation or at wine producing ports. And , by the way, after you go through the "BS" you are free to enjoy your wine for which you have paid corkage anywhere on the ship no just your cabin. A $15 corkage fee is quite modest in any establishment.

 

Enjoy the cruise.

 

[The Mikado]

Yes, I do resent it. Any thinking person who earns their money does or should. 

 

First of all, Princess did and will do NOTHING to earn the $15 if we drink it in our room. Second, for $15, I want Princess to tote it for us from curbside to the room and then to the dining room for us if we should choose to enjoy it there. Instead, I have to lift the bag through x-ray and drag the thing all over the ship, INCLUDING to the dining room.

 

I am very curious to know why you think Princess is perfectly entitled to this fee, for which they will do nothing except stand at a table post-security with their hand out.

 

I do not mind in the least paying for value added or received. This fee does not add a cent of value to my cruise but must assuredly add a nice kicker to the Princess bottom-line when spread over dozens of ships and cruises. 15-20 years ago, cruise lines didn't care about passengers bringing wine onboard. I, myself, along with many cruising friends brought literal case-loads onboard in days past. And we didn't do gauche things like taking it to the dining room an expecting the waitstaff to serve it to us. Obviously, the cruise lines discovered they were missing a great opportunity to create another profit center for which they didn't have to do a damn thing. THAT'S the part I resent. If you want my money, EARN IT by doing something for me and not by simply placing a toll-booth where none existed before.

 

And, by the way, I live in wine country; a whole bunch of restaurants around here do not charge corkage. Last I estimated, it was about 50-50.

 

Now, in your mind--but not anymore here on the forum--you can engage me all you want on this. You're obviously a zealous guardian of the Princess financials and I commend you for your loyalty. But I'm not interested in why you think I should take it and like it.

[Papa Yoda]

 

I have a friend who routinely takes a case box of wine on board.  Only once out of 5 times recently has the wine desk been staffed when he was boarding so only once did he get charged the corkage.  He uses one of those fold up hand carts from Costco, case of wine on the bottom, carry on on top, held on with bungee cords.  Of course he pays corkage when he takes a bottle to dinner where I guess you'd grant that waitstaff earned the corkage.

 

He also brings on a couple bottles of wine at port calls - never been charged.

 

Your mileage may vary.

[The Mikado]

26 minutes ago, Ferd Berfle said:

 

I have a friend who routinely takes a case box of wine on board...

This is somewhat the way it used to be. There was, perhaps, some kind of “wine policy” which, based on my firsthand experience, was completely ignored by the cruise staff. 

 

And then there was NCL and the ruination of my late mother’s birthday that put me on the warpath on this particular issue. 

 

However it comes out tomorrow, $150 or $0, we will have a great cruise and won’t give our wine another thought except how wonderful it tastes. 

 

Thank you for sharing your friend’s experiences in this regard. It’s nice to know we have a fighting chance. 

[The Mikado]

The wine police were alert and on the job. 

 

$150. 

[VentureMan_2000]

On 8/13/2019 at 10:57 AM, Colo Cruiser said:

$2-$3 per bag

 

😲

First... Porters work for the Port of SF and are Union and are paid Union wages.  These Porters are being paid with the Port Fees that you paid as part of your cruise, to deliver luggage to the ship.   That being said, you do not need to tip them anything.  $1 per bag is sufficient if you feel you must. 

[Colo Cruiser]

29 minutes ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

 

😲

First... Porters work for the Port of SF and are Union and are paid Union wages.  These Porters are being paid with the Port Fees that you paid as part of your cruise, to deliver luggage to the ship.   That being said, you do not need to tip them anything.  $1 per bag is sufficient if you feel you must. 

Don’t lecture me brah. 

[soremekun]

On 8/16/2019 at 6:31 PM, VentureMan_2000 said:

 

😲

First... Porters work for the Port of SF and are Union and are paid Union wages.  These Porters are being paid with the Port Fees that you paid as part of your cruise, to deliver luggage to the ship.   That being said, you do not need to tip them anything.  $1 per bag is sufficient if you feel you must. 

Those porters are some serious tip hustlers.