I've just booked up my tickets for Alcatraz (very reasonable price IMO from the official website) so I now need to get to the pier 33.
Don't miss the self-guided audio tour. It's really good.
Am I right in saying I walk up to market street and get on the F line streetcar and then get off at Bay St.
If you're in a hurry, you may want to avoid the F, as it's slow. There are other bus lines that will get you close to the same pier -- check the systemwide Muni map. Also, you can use nextmuni.com to get real-time arrival times for each bus/train route, e.g., on your BlackBerry. Very useful.