Love the complaint about no beer on the ride over??? Unless that was advertised as part of the tour that seems like a wild thing to remove half a star for.
Haha for context, most of the other ferries that run on the SF bay have snack counters that also sell coffee and booze. I guess they assumed the dedicated ferry to the tourist prison did the same?
"Tourist prison" is our issue here. This person just... I am so glad not to have been exposed to their freewheeling reactions to Dachau concentration camp. ("They wouldn't allow our kids to climb on the narrow bunks.")
There are some sites whose nature is such that major renovations to make them accessible to strollers, let alone provide Gummi bears, are not possible or appropriate. Alcatraz prison strikes me as one of those sites.
I think the renovations done were originally for wheelchairs at historic and culturally significant places. Now parents think it means it’s for them specifically. I wouldn’t bring a child to any of those sites until they were old enough to understand why it was that and what happened. But that’s common sense which unfortunately is not as common anymore.
I’ve been to Alcatraz. They tell you SPECIFICALLY when you get your tickets what you’re getting into re: terrain. Anyone who actually thinks they can bring a stroller is a fucking moron. Furthermore, they tell you that the tram is small and ONLY for medical purposes, not because you felt the need to lug a fussy 4 month old all over the place.
I work at a historic lighthouse on a point with no water supply source. I've had people complain that there's no elevator in the lighthouse and no Starbucks on the grounds.
Historically, lighthouse keepers lost their marbles on the job at a higher rate than other lifesaving workers, due to isolation, stress and inhaling mercury vapours
Just for curiosity, how do you handle a whole shift? Do you bring a gallon of water? (And if there's no water supply, where do you use the bathroom when you drink that water?) Totally irrelevant questions, but like I said, curious. :)
Work provides a water bottle. One of those big ones on a stand. We also pit toilets. Not the nicest, but they work. I think it's probably a fairly common set up for National, State, Historical Parks etc.
Also, this is a world famous former prison. Of course the terrain would be fucking difficult - they didn't want inmates to escape. What were they expecting, some kind of Disney attraction?
Actually, Alcatraz has some beautiful gardens with plants cultivated by the former guards and their families. It’s fascinating, but hardly an amusement park.
The “photo board BS” at the end of the day has nothing to do with appealing to tourists. It’s a safety feature. It isn’t optional because when you travel somewhere secluded that has a last tram/boat out at night they need to make sure everyone has left. If someone is lost or left behind, then they have a photo of what you look like and what you were wearing. It’s a brilliant tactic that saves a lot of time and manpower while also making people feel like they are getting more out of their experience and ticket price as a souvenir.
I’m not surprised this person couldn’t have figured that out.
I'd be surprised if most visitors didn't figure this out. I'm not surprised at all that this reviewer didn't. Let's just hope she's too lazy to home school.
You know, all of this is laid out very clearly on the Alcatraz City Tours website.
And yes, I know this is an 11 year old review. I checked the National Park Website on the Wayback Machine, which had a link to the previous website for their approved tour company, which at the time was Alcatraz Cruises. It has the exact same description of the hike and the SEAT accessibility tram, which clearly states that parents with strollers and small children who can walk the trail should be walking the trail, and that they have limited space on the tram.
So this is a person who did not read the very prominent description of the hike (which is everywhere) and states that it is steep, they didn't look at photos of the place and think "oh wow, the old prison is on top of a sheer cliff", and they didn't read the requirements for the tram.
I’m sorry, is the person who planned a trip to see a tourist destination surprised that there are lots of tourists? Of course it’s a tourist trap? It has literally just been maintained for tourists? What else did she expect?
But also, why on earth would you think a prison would be a child friendly destination?
They turned it into a park to keep the tribes from laying claim to it. Which they had ever right to do being it was an abandoned fort. One of the treaties signed by the US government was any abandoned forts that land went back to the tribes.
Really? Thousands of people at one time on the Alcatraz tour? Doubtful. I mean I understand parents want to vacation too, but you should have realized that having kids meant that for a while you won't be able to go on all the trips you might want. You might not be able to go on every excursion. Babies on Alcatraz? Yeah I am not a parent and yet this sounds like a horrible idea.
Also not a parent, so I asked a friend with a young grandchild (he’s in the crawling stage.) she agrees with us that this person had a really dumb idea.
Anytime you go to a historical old site usually in the middle of nowhere it means it's not a regular walk at Disney with mobility scooters, rentable strollers or wagons etc. It just isn't. Sounds like maybe these people should have put this trip on the back burner for another time OR wear the baby in one of those carriers and been more prepared for the hike.
Also sounds like the people running this tour were actually being smart trying to look out for people's health by making sure the elderly, the obese or unfit, parents with strollers or little kids with them could even make it safely to the final destination of the tour. Because ya know what happens if they don't if they fall, pass out, get tired or need to be air lifted out of there or rescued? It's not cheap! And you the person who got ill and had the emergency are the one who gets charged for the first aid help most of the time. They just don't want you to get out there and not being able to make it back to the boat because you exhausted yourself so much.
I'm absolutely the kind of parent who will chuck my kid in a carrier and go wherever I want with them, but that means I actually pay attention to what I'm getting into and PREPARE for it. Some people expect the world to bend over for them.
Well, the reason Alcatraz isn't stroller-friendly is because that's how inmates used to escape back in the day. Their wives would come to visit them and bring along strollers with either a baby or a dummy (both were quite common back then). When no one was looking, the inmates would climb into the strollers and switch places with the baby (or dummy, whichever was being used). Then the wives would wheel the strollers past the unsuspecting guards and help their inmate husbands escape. Alcatraz banned strollers after the fifth or sixth time this technique was used, IIRC.
We did Alcatraz 20 years ago when our oldest was just under 2 years old. We had internet of course but didn't really rely on it like we do now for reviews and ideas and such. It was common sense to us that with the ferry and assuming the terrain of the island a stroller wouldn't be a wise idea. We drove to the dock and carried him when he couldn't walk.
Exactly. I did this with my son when he was an infant. I carried him the whole way in a Baby Bjorn, and brought a diaper bag with everything we needed for a couple hours. We just gave ourselves extra time for the tour knowing we’d have to stop to attend to our infant a couple times. With a little basic common sense, this is a fine place to take kids of any age.
Not yet. The proposal is facing several major hurdles and pushback from the mayor of San Francisco and California's governor, citing its status as a protected historical landmark. Add the billions of dollars to bring it up to current corrections code standards and refurbish, along with the simple fact that logistically it's a huge expense to operate (one of the major factors in it being closed in the first place). There's still hope 😁
What tour? I was there in 2011, the park people give a little speech about the place and you're on your own after that to wander around as you pleased. I went with my half-sister and we got separated. I was fascinated by the place, she was bored. She got a little annoyed with me because I was really taken the place in and I think she wanted to head home.
funny thing is that strollers are allowed on Alcatraz but they have NOT modified Alcatraz to appease the soccer moms who want to load up on every imaginable baby accessory 'just in case'. If you want to go on the tour, you take the bare minimum....and if you can't then it's probably not time for you to go on the tour. I mean your kid isn't gonna remember it if they are still in a stroller and more than likely they're gonna get irritated just like they would anywhere else you take them. Just shows how parents of today are not great compared to those of yesteryear who knew better. My mom had 4 boys to take care of growing up and when we were out of school, we would take short road trips to get us out of the house and living in Central Texas, we ended up in San Antonio alot of the time (we lived in Austin), so we went to the SA Zoo, the Alamo.....and even a few times out to the LBJ ranch in the Texas hill country. No problems. These days it seems like parents want to complain about anything and everything......guess what attractions of old locations are NOT generally going to be friendly to get around, after all it was a prison so it was NOT built for comfort
It was actually tops on my list of touristy things to do when I went, lol. I was prepared to go by myself but my mom agreed to come with me, bless her. She hated it 😂
It is, went there for my 44th birthday back in 2011. My 24 yo half sister wasn't into it. I love history, so I was really into and wanted some goofy pictures of me in cells and she wouldn't be bothered to take them.
A lot of the reviews on here are funny.... but this one is just rage inducing I want to chuck rotten produce at this persons face ... I guarantee both were obese swill pits with cankles who think the world revolves around them .... that poor child
Yep. I’ve been to Alcatraz multiple times, even w a stroller. I don’t remember it being a struggle. I also can see the island all the time and know it’s on a hill just like everywhere else in the city, so I’m not a moron.
Love the complaint about no beer on the ride over??? Unless that was advertised as part of the tour that seems like a wild thing to remove half a star for.
Imagine what a pleasure this person would have been if they had a few beers in them.
Lol yeah
Haha for context, most of the other ferries that run on the SF bay have snack counters that also sell coffee and booze. I guess they assumed the dedicated ferry to the tourist prison did the same?
"Tourist prison" is our issue here. This person just... I am so glad not to have been exposed to their freewheeling reactions to Dachau concentration camp. ("They wouldn't allow our kids to climb on the narrow bunks.")
There are some sites whose nature is such that major renovations to make them accessible to strollers, let alone provide Gummi bears, are not possible or appropriate. Alcatraz prison strikes me as one of those sites.
I think the renovations done were originally for wheelchairs at historic and culturally significant places. Now parents think it means it’s for them specifically. I wouldn’t bring a child to any of those sites until they were old enough to understand why it was that and what happened. But that’s common sense which unfortunately is not as common anymore.
So this person’s plan was to knock back a couple brewskis and then traipse around Alcatraz with their 4-month old?
I’ve been to Alcatraz. They tell you SPECIFICALLY when you get your tickets what you’re getting into re: terrain. Anyone who actually thinks they can bring a stroller is a fucking moron. Furthermore, they tell you that the tram is small and ONLY for medical purposes, not because you felt the need to lug a fussy 4 month old all over the place.
I work at a historic lighthouse on a point with no water supply source. I've had people complain that there's no elevator in the lighthouse and no Starbucks on the grounds.
Are you telling us that lighthouse keepers didn't have Frappucinos to help them get by? How did they ever manage?
Well the thing about that is-
Historically, lighthouse keepers lost their marbles on the job at a higher rate than other lifesaving workers, due to isolation, stress and inhaling mercury vapoursThey didn't
Just for curiosity, how do you handle a whole shift? Do you bring a gallon of water? (And if there's no water supply, where do you use the bathroom when you drink that water?) Totally irrelevant questions, but like I said, curious. :)
Work provides a water bottle. One of those big ones on a stand. We also pit toilets. Not the nicest, but they work. I think it's probably a fairly common set up for National, State, Historical Parks etc.
Oh
Also, this is a world famous former prison. Of course the terrain would be fucking difficult - they didn't want inmates to escape. What were they expecting, some kind of Disney attraction?
Actually, Alcatraz has some beautiful gardens with plants cultivated by the former guards and their families. It’s fascinating, but hardly an amusement park.
Imagine, an inescapable prison, built on an island, and it's NOT STROLLER FREINDLY!
The steps down to the yard are step as step can get for stairs. They were sketchy to walk down. I visited it in 2011.
I think that was the same complaint Al Capone had when he was there.
The “photo board BS” at the end of the day has nothing to do with appealing to tourists. It’s a safety feature. It isn’t optional because when you travel somewhere secluded that has a last tram/boat out at night they need to make sure everyone has left. If someone is lost or left behind, then they have a photo of what you look like and what you were wearing. It’s a brilliant tactic that saves a lot of time and manpower while also making people feel like they are getting more out of their experience and ticket price as a souvenir.
I’m not surprised this person couldn’t have figured that out.
I'd be surprised if most visitors didn't figure this out. I'm not surprised at all that this reviewer didn't. Let's just hope she's too lazy to home school.
You know, all of this is laid out very clearly on the Alcatraz City Tours website.
And yes, I know this is an 11 year old review. I checked the National Park Website on the Wayback Machine, which had a link to the previous website for their approved tour company, which at the time was Alcatraz Cruises. It has the exact same description of the hike and the SEAT accessibility tram, which clearly states that parents with strollers and small children who can walk the trail should be walking the trail, and that they have limited space on the tram.
So this is a person who did not read the very prominent description of the hike (which is everywhere) and states that it is steep, they didn't look at photos of the place and think "oh wow, the old prison is on top of a sheer cliff", and they didn't read the requirements for the tram.
I’m sorry, is the person who planned a trip to see a tourist destination surprised that there are lots of tourists? Of course it’s a tourist trap? It has literally just been maintained for tourists? What else did she expect?
But also, why on earth would you think a prison would be a child friendly destination?
They turned it into a park to keep the tribes from laying claim to it. Which they had ever right to do being it was an abandoned fort. One of the treaties signed by the US government was any abandoned forts that land went back to the tribes.
Really? Thousands of people at one time on the Alcatraz tour? Doubtful. I mean I understand parents want to vacation too, but you should have realized that having kids meant that for a while you won't be able to go on all the trips you might want. You might not be able to go on every excursion. Babies on Alcatraz? Yeah I am not a parent and yet this sounds like a horrible idea.
You're right, I've been on this tour, it's not that big. And I definitely wouldn't want to bring a stroller!
Also not a parent, so I asked a friend with a young grandchild (he’s in the crawling stage.) she agrees with us that this person had a really dumb idea.
I’m a parent to two teens and I wouldn’t even bring them. They’d bitch and whine about the walk.
Anytime you go to a historical old site usually in the middle of nowhere it means it's not a regular walk at Disney with mobility scooters, rentable strollers or wagons etc. It just isn't. Sounds like maybe these people should have put this trip on the back burner for another time OR wear the baby in one of those carriers and been more prepared for the hike.
Also sounds like the people running this tour were actually being smart trying to look out for people's health by making sure the elderly, the obese or unfit, parents with strollers or little kids with them could even make it safely to the final destination of the tour. Because ya know what happens if they don't if they fall, pass out, get tired or need to be air lifted out of there or rescued? It's not cheap! And you the person who got ill and had the emergency are the one who gets charged for the first aid help most of the time. They just don't want you to get out there and not being able to make it back to the boat because you exhausted yourself so much.
I'm absolutely the kind of parent who will chuck my kid in a carrier and go wherever I want with them, but that means I actually pay attention to what I'm getting into and PREPARE for it. Some people expect the world to bend over for them.
Well, the reason Alcatraz isn't stroller-friendly is because that's how inmates used to escape back in the day. Their wives would come to visit them and bring along strollers with either a baby or a dummy (both were quite common back then). When no one was looking, the inmates would climb into the strollers and switch places with the baby (or dummy, whichever was being used). Then the wives would wheel the strollers past the unsuspecting guards and help their inmate husbands escape. Alcatraz banned strollers after the fifth or sixth time this technique was used, IIRC.
Can confirm. I was a baby left at Alcatraz so my dad could escape.
I live in SF and have gone to Alcatraz many times since I think it's the best tourist experience in the Bay Area. I love taking new visitors there!
The climb from the ferry to the prison is a bit steep, but it's not all that far. Any able bodied person should be capable of doing it.
I didn't even know about the tram. I'm disabled enough to maybe need it now, so that's good to know.
We did Alcatraz 20 years ago when our oldest was just under 2 years old. We had internet of course but didn't really rely on it like we do now for reviews and ideas and such. It was common sense to us that with the ferry and assuming the terrain of the island a stroller wouldn't be a wise idea. We drove to the dock and carried him when he couldn't walk.
Exactly. I did this with my son when he was an infant. I carried him the whole way in a Baby Bjorn, and brought a diaper bag with everything we needed for a couple hours. We just gave ourselves extra time for the tour knowing we’d have to stop to attend to our infant a couple times. With a little basic common sense, this is a fine place to take kids of any age.
They could have at least offered Toilet Merlot.
A baby in tow isn’t easy. You need to get soused up for that.
I'll have you know that, in prison, it's called "Pruno".
Well I guess we’ll never know how the tour actually was, it’s an actual prison again😭😭
Not yet. The proposal is facing several major hurdles and pushback from the mayor of San Francisco and California's governor, citing its status as a protected historical landmark. Add the billions of dollars to bring it up to current corrections code standards and refurbish, along with the simple fact that logistically it's a huge expense to operate (one of the major factors in it being closed in the first place). There's still hope 😁
Me too 😭
What tour? I was there in 2011, the park people give a little speech about the place and you're on your own after that to wander around as you pleased. I went with my half-sister and we got separated. I was fascinated by the place, she was bored. She got a little annoyed with me because I was really taken the place in and I think she wanted to head home.
I just did it back in August.
What the heck did this person expect? A food court on the island? A hotel? An amusement park?
For the love of God, it's one of the world's most famous prisons, not Disneyland.
funny thing is that strollers are allowed on Alcatraz but they have NOT modified Alcatraz to appease the soccer moms who want to load up on every imaginable baby accessory 'just in case'. If you want to go on the tour, you take the bare minimum....and if you can't then it's probably not time for you to go on the tour. I mean your kid isn't gonna remember it if they are still in a stroller and more than likely they're gonna get irritated just like they would anywhere else you take them. Just shows how parents of today are not great compared to those of yesteryear who knew better. My mom had 4 boys to take care of growing up and when we were out of school, we would take short road trips to get us out of the house and living in Central Texas, we ended up in San Antonio alot of the time (we lived in Austin), so we went to the SA Zoo, the Alamo.....and even a few times out to the LBJ ranch in the Texas hill country. No problems. These days it seems like parents want to complain about anything and everything......guess what attractions of old locations are NOT generally going to be friendly to get around, after all it was a prison so it was NOT built for comfort
This seems like a wild birthday activity choice
It was actually tops on my list of touristy things to do when I went, lol. I was prepared to go by myself but my mom agreed to come with me, bless her. She hated it 😂
It is, went there for my 44th birthday back in 2011. My 24 yo half sister wasn't into it. I love history, so I was really into and wanted some goofy pictures of me in cells and she wouldn't be bothered to take them.
It's an island-a rocky island-with an unused (re: abandoned) prison.
From the pier you can see that a) you're gonna need a bigger boat & b) it's a rock with a building on it!
You brought your baby to a prison?
It's supposed to be inescapable. You expect a pleasant walk? Really?
A lot of the reviews on here are funny.... but this one is just rage inducing I want to chuck rotten produce at this persons face ... I guarantee both were obese swill pits with cankles who think the world revolves around them .... that poor child
Yep. I’ve been to Alcatraz multiple times, even w a stroller. I don’t remember it being a struggle. I also can see the island all the time and know it’s on a hill just like everywhere else in the city, so I’m not a moron.
In Re: the title: It actually may be.
IIRC, there's been a significant increase in the emphasis people put on physical health and activity, especially among younger Americans.
Again IIRC, It's being driven by fitness influencers, and thus the motivations and goals people have may not be healthy. But it's a thing.
I’ll tell you it’s been YEARS since I walked as much as I walked in SF. 😂