The Arcadia is a P&O cruise ship. P&O is a Carnival Corp. brand.
Not long after the Arcadia docked at Pier 35, buses full of cruise passengers began heading out on guided tours. But some people chose to tour the city on foot.
"We're going to have a walk around. We're going to go on the tram. But this evening we're going over to The Rock, Alcatraz," said English tourist Sharon Butler.
This year, San Francisco will welcome 66 cruise ships.
"The ships are getting bigger so 66 cruises will bring close to, over 200,000 passengers to San Francisco," said Port of San Francisco Maritime Director Peter Dailey.
Carnival has canceled 12 cruises after a month of mishaps, including an engine fire that left passengers stranded at sea. However, none of those cancellations affect San Francisco which is good news because just one ship equals $500,000-$1 million in economic benefit for the area.
"Our stevedoring, ship chandlers, tug and tow operations; we have a large shipyard down at Pier 70 that cruise ships regularly go into for their scheduled maintenance. That is one of the last generators of large numbers of union jobs in San Francisco," said Dailey.
While 66 cruise ships in a year is not a record for San Francisco, the Port Authority says that since the number of cruise passengers keeps increasing, there could be a record number of passengers visiting San Francisco by next year.
The Arcadia leaves on Saturday.
