Alcatraz closes temporarily for dock repairs, canceling spring tours and ferries

Alcatraz Island shut down April 20 for dock repairs just as spring tourism was filling up, cutting off ferry access to one of San Francisco’s most recognizable landmarks and disrupting visitors who had already booked the trip across San Francisco Bay.

The National Park Service said the island would stay closed through April 24, with all scheduled tours refunded. Travelers were told to reschedule through Alcatraz City Cruises, which operates out of Pier 33 and is the only ferry provider authorized by the park service to dock and discharge passengers at Alcatraz. The company also offered refund and rebooking help through its customer service line at 415-981-7625.

The closure lands at a busy moment for a site that draws about 1.4 million visitors a year. Alcatraz does not charge an entrance fee, but ferry transportation is required, and tickets often sell out well in advance, sometimes a month or more ahead of summer dates and holidays. Departures normally run about every half hour beginning at 8:45 a.m., and visitors usually spend a few hours on the island before returning to the city.

That made the shutdown more than a routine maintenance pause for the operators and businesses tied to the waterfront. Ferry seats, tour reservations and the stream of tourists moving through Pier 33 were all interrupted during a period when nearby shops, restaurants and other operators depend on Alcatraz traffic to fill up. Alcatraz City Cruises has also been steering some travelers to its Bay Discovery sightseeing cruise as an alternative.

The repair work is part of a larger preservation effort on the island. In 2022, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced about $35 million in Great American Outdoors Act funding for infrastructure work at Alcatraz, including repairs and seismic strengthening for the concrete wharf. In July 2024, Tutor Perini Corp. said its Perini Management Services subsidiary won a $48.6 million National Park Service contract for the Alcatraz Island Historic Structures Stabilization and Rehabilitation Project, with substantial completion expected in summer 2027.

The island’s shutdown also came against a broader political backdrop. KRON reported that the closure was not tied to Donald Trump’s separate proposal to turn Alcatraz back into a prison. For now, the park service says the repair job is routine and should be finished in time for service to resume Saturday.