Cruise ships return to San Francisco after 19-month pandemic pause

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It's been 19 months since San Francisco has seen a cruise ship dock in the city.

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Passengers disembarked the ship this morning and boarded tour buses that are taking them all over the city to go sight seeing. But there are heavy COVID restrictions in place for the ship

Majestic Princess, based in London docked in San Francisco early Monday morning.

Passengers say it will only be here for a day before the ship leaves to tour the coast the California.

Everyone on board has to be vaccinated and have a negative COVID test before boarding the ship.

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The city says this will spark the return of more cruises to San Francisco.

Ports will have 21 more calls for cruise ships through the remainder of the year, and over 100 for 2022.

Passengers say it feels nice to part of an interesting point in history.

"I am happy to be a part of history so to speak that we are back aboard and cruising," said ship passenger Robert Espudo.

San Francisco officials say cruise ships brought around $27 million to the local economy in 2019. That is money the city would like to see return as more ships dock in the city.

And as far as safety protocols on board, passengers say masks are required everywhere indoors and hand sanitizer stations are in place nearly on every corner.

They say they feel pretty safe on board.