Cruise Ship Lastly Leaves San Francisco After Pier Crash With Tons of Fewer Passengers

After three unscheduled days in San Francisco, 1000’s of passengers and crew aboard the Ruby Princess cruise ship might lastly wave goodbye to town’s Pier 27.

After ultimate checks and clearance from the U.S. Coast Guard over the weekend, the Princess Cruises ship pulled away from the pier Sunday afternoon to renew its travels with 2,677 passengers—or 579 fewer than final Friday—and 1,161 crew, two extra crew members than it docked with. 

“Repairs on Ruby Princess have been accomplished and following inspection and certification by america Coast Guard, the ship is protected and match to sail,” Princess Cruises mentioned in a press release on Monday.

The 951-foot Bermuda-registered Princess Cruises ship struck the pier early Thursday morning, inflicting injury to each the port and the vessel earlier than setting sail for Ketchikan in Alaska.

The 113,561-ton ship will go to Prince Rupert in Canada on Thursday earlier than returning to San Francisco subsequent Sunday, July 16.

The ship’s unique load of three,328 passengers and 1,159 crew members returned to San Francisco after leaving town on a 10-day round-trip cruise to Alaska, however its deliberate 4 p.m. Thursday departure was additional delayed by repairs to the pier and ship.

Boris Delepine, the Port of San Francisco’s legislative affairs supervisor, mentioned on Friday crews are nonetheless figuring out the extent of the injury to the pier and required repairs.

“The port continues to evaluate the injury to Pier 27 and can work to make the required repairs for continuity of operations,” Delepine mentioned. “With a number of berths all through the Port of San Francisco, we stand able to obtain our scheduled cruise calls within the week forward and don’t count on cruise circulation to be impacted.”

The port didn’t reply to a request for updates on pier injury by publication time on Monday.

By Friday, Princess Cruises mentioned all company and crew had remained on board after boarding the ship Thursday. Groups from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Port State Management store inspected the ship that afternoon and situated varied areas of the hull that wanted further repairs, a spokesman mentioned Saturday morning.

“Princess has thought-about all attainable options and has chosen this itinerary to protect as a lot of our company’ treasured trip time as attainable,” the corporate mentioned in a press release Saturday.

Princess Cruises mentioned those that resolve to cancel their journey will obtain a full refund with an extra 50% of future cruise credit score. Passengers who proceed their cruise will even obtain a 75% refund with an extra 75% of future cruise credit score.

In line with KRON4, 4 members of the family touring aboard the Ruby Princess to San Francisco contracted Covid.