Background information: We are a couple in our mid 50's / early 60's traveling with my brother and his wife, both in their 50's. This was our 50th cruise, with over 20 cruises on Princess and our second time within a year on the Grand Princess. My brother and his wife were enjoying their 2nd cruise and their first cruise on Princess. It was their first and our ninth cruise up to Alaska.

We all live just a few miles from San Francisco and took the opportunity to treat our driver that transported us to the pier to the Bon Voyage Experience.

We arrived at the port by 10:30 AM, went through security and stopped by the wine table to pay our corkage fee. Since we live close to the port, we brought a case of wines that we enjoy onboard and paid the $15 per bottle corkage for each bottle above our 1 per person limit. Security did not have a long line and neither did the wine table, so we were on our way to the check in table. Since we booked the BVE package for our guest, they directed us to this line but there was a mix up here and we were passed up by many other passengers in both the regular and elite lines. I think someone was new as she didn't provide us with the correct pass to board the ship and also forgot to give us a map of the ship. We were finally checked in by 11:45 but had to wait another 30 minutes or so in order to board. There seemed to have been an issue with some passengers on the previous cruise that weren't disembarking as instructed. Maybe so, maybe not, but that is what we had been told. Read more