Getting to the Grand Princess in San Francisco

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Geo: 37.7792, -122.42

Up this morning at 7:30am with Mom making coffee and feeding the animals and me finishing some paperwork, taking up the garbage to the street and checking out the news. Mom's still packing a few things and I have to admit, she's doing much better than the last 10 day cruise we took: 2 1/2 bags compared to 10 before. Our ride will be here at 11:30. Alan arrives around 10 with a load of suitcases to start. He'll return later with the rest. Mom is content with the situation the cats will be facing, having left them with a ten day supply of food and water. I hope they don't eat it all on the first day.

Alan & Min arrived right on time, with Min's parents in tow. The luggage is not all that I imagined and when the Super Shuttle driver showed at a few minutes later, we easily stashed all the luggage, 4 cases of drinks and water along with the six of us into the van with room to spare. Off to San Francisco.

The Grand Princess carries 2600 passengers and a crew of 1200. When it was built in 1998, it was the largest cruise ship. Refurbished in 2011, it's still bigger than the ones we're used to sailing on.

The 45 minute trip proved uneventful and our driver brought us right up to the Pier 35 to unload. A porter loaded our stuff on a cart and zipped off with our stuff (and $30 tip) which we won't see again until it's in our rooms. The boarding process was simple and we were on the ship by 1pm. With just a few personal items in our possession, we made our way to level 14 to check out the buffet. Having lunch out by the pool was nice, albeit a bit cool. Now it's time to check out our staterooms.

Whoo!!! These rooms are small! No window. We're not used to these. The cabin is ok, just small. After unpacking, it's time for the muster. That's where they explain what we need to do if an emergency occurs. They used to allow up to 48 hours after leaving port before performing this but after the Costa Concordia incident, it has to happen before we can get underway. Once that was done, we wandered around the ship waiting for it to leave at 4pm. Finally at 5:30pm we left. It was just about dark when we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and out to sea. Bbrrrrr.......it's cold. Mom wants to check out the stores. Oh boy.

We all walked around the store area. Mom found some perfume, Bvlgaria jasmine. We watched an acrobat but finally, we succumbed and joined the "old timers" returning to our rooms by 9:30. Even Min was done. Tomorrow is a full sea day.

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Photos

Up top waiting for the ship to leave
Good thing Min brought her tripod.

To the lifeboats already?
No, just a drill

Might as well take more pictures
Now 1 1/2 hours late.

Under the Golden Gate Bridge
I can't believe it's almost dark.