Costa Deliziosa at Port of San Francisco

Drop-off: Pier 27 sits on the northern waterfront of The Embarcadero, between Chestnut and Lombard streets, and the Port's instruction for arriving passengers is a single sentence: taxis and vehicles may drop off cruise passengers at the terminal hall entrance. The Port publishes no driving directions of its own on that page, so approach it as you would any Embarcadero address — the waterfront boulevard runs the length of the city's northeast edge and the terminal fronts directly onto it. The Port measures the terminal at about a 20 minute walk from the Embarcadero BART and Muni station, and names The Embarcadero/Sansome Street as the nearest streetcar stop, which is across the road from the building. Because there is nowhere to leave a car afterwards, treat the curb as a drop-off and nothing more: unload passengers and bags at the terminal hall, then take the car on to one of the Francisco Street garages.

Parking: There is no passenger parking at the pier. The Port states it directly — temporary or overnight parking is not provided at the cruise terminals — and directs passengers instead to Metropolis, which it says offers cruise parking at 55 Francisco Street and 80 Francisco Street, roughly a half-mile walk south. The Port adds two cautions of its own: book the reservation directly with Metropolis, and confirm it with the parking company before the trip, because the Port provides the information as a courtesy and does not manage the lot. Two details are worth knowing before you drive. The garages publish a drive-up maximum of $21.60 a day and close at 7:00pm, and their own lot data records that overnight parking is not allowed unless you are a cruise passenger — which is to say the prepaid, dated cruise reservation is the only compliant way to leave a car for a sailing, not merely the cheaper one. And 80 Francisco Street posts a 6-foot-5 height restriction, which rules out most roof boxes and raised trucks; 55 Francisco Street posts 7 feet. Separately, there is a surface lot physically on Pier 27, run by Impark as Lot #81, and it is the one thing here most likely to catch a driver out: the operator's own listing says that if a cruise ship is docked, no parking is allowed, and that on a day before an arrival all vehicles must be off the pier by 6:00pm. It shows up in map apps as parking at the terminal, and it is closed on precisely the days a passenger would want it.

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