We actually walked from North Beach to Pier 33 for the Alcatraz Night Tour. We arrived a little early so I thought we could look around a bit but there really isn’t much to see at the Pier itself although the ocean view is great. Oddly, there are very few bathrooms there too in case you were wondering. They had us line up at 5:25 for the 6:10 evening cruise. I think the main reason for this is so they could take everyone’s picture prior to boarding the boat. The pictures can be purchased at 2 for $22 at the end of the tour. You have to buy two which is strange since I can’t think of anyone who would want a picture of me standing in front of an Alcatraz sign. I guess it would work out if you had two separate families in your group. Those who wanted/needed a van ride up to the prison were the first group off the boat. We were in the first walking group. I asked our guide where we sign up for the dungeon tour that I had heard about. She said it wasn’t being offered tonight. I was very disappointed but was still excited about our impending tour. She gave a great history of Alcatraz island during our walk up the hills. We were given our head sets for the audio tour after entering the prison. Still being in denial that we would not get to take the dungeon tour, I asked someone else about it who then asked someone else and was again told that there would be no dungeon tour that night. The audio tour was wonderful. It is narrated by former prisoners and guards and both the narration and sound effects are wonderful. It is very clear and informative as well as a bit eerie. Fifteen minutes into our tour a wonderful guide came up to us and said he had a few extra minutes and could bring us on a tour of the dungeon/former moat area!!!! Well, he didn’t have to ask us twice and away we went. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there with us. He said he could take four more with us, but no one came!???! My husband tried to goad some people to come along with us and finally two teenage boys and a middle aged woman and her mom joined us. We crept down to the basement and were given hard hats to put on. As we toured we kept hearing clunk, clunk, clunk as members of our group kept banging their heads on the beams. Our guide was fantastic and made the tour exciting, a bit spooky, humorous and fascinating. The daughter in the group said she had two goals in life-one to get her degree and the other to visit Alcatraz. I’m glad her visit was made extra special. If the tour is offered, be sure to sign up! After having our picture taken with the guard and thanking him profusely we continued on with our audio tour. It really brings the prison to life. The park service did a great job of staging the cells to look the way they did when the prisoners lived there as well as recreating the daily lives of the prisoners and the guards. As we were just about done with the audio tour, our magnificent tour guide approached us again and subtly motioned for us to follow him. With hundreds of eyes upon us, we followed him up to the second tier of cells. It was a very ominous and unnerving climb. He had us follow him into a cell and then told us we were now standing in Al Capone’s cell. Could our vacation get any better? This was so cool!!! He took our picture and we headed back to the masses. He really made our wonderful trip extra special. I'm guessing this doesn't happen very often and we were so thrilled with the opportunity. We completed our Alcatraz adventure with a trip up to the hospital area. This is very spooky at night! It was mostly dark with the glow of only a few lights. Actually, it might be a little too scary for younger children. I think there were perhaps other tours going on later that night, but I think my husband was toured out at this point and we decided to head back on the first of the two night ferries which departed at 8:45. Luckily the weather was pretty decent this day and with just sweatshirts on we had a comfortable, picturesque, romantic ride back on the top deck to the mainland. I would rate this as a don't miss attraction!