tender in Akaroa

I understand Akaroa is a small port that requires tendering. I'm planning a private excursion with 22 people. I know we all will not have priority for tenders. Can anyone tell me what time to expect we can start our excursion? I know some ports can take up to 2 hours to clear all the folks who want to get into port, while others handle tendering more efficiently.

I understand Akaroa is a small port that requires tendering. I'm planning a private excursion with 22 people. I know we all will not have priority for tenders. Can anyone tell me what time to expect we can start our excursion? I know some ports can take up to 2 hours to clear all the folks who want to get into port, while others handle tendering more efficiently.

you'll have to get all your party down at the dining room early and when they start giving out tender tickets try and get an early tender....if you have any elites in your group they could get an earlier tender and make contact with the tour operator

Tendering is not a high point of a Solstice Cruise. If Tendering was the equivalent of water in a desert then one would die on the Solstice.

One person could collect all the tender tickets for whole party but ensure you are all on the same tender.

If the pick is dropped at 8.00 I would plan on commencing the excursion no earlier than 10.30. There will be a lot of ships excursions at this port and probably a lot of priority tenderers as well.

Suggest you contact your operator and plan for 10.30 with proviso that it may have to be moved back half an hour

We weren't in a hurry to get off the ship on our last Solstice cruise, so we waited until 10:30am to go down for tickets, thinking the rush would be over by then. It wasn't! It took over an hour before we stepped off the tender on to Akaroa wharf.

Oddly enough it was much quicker on the previous Solstice cruise that we did.

On our Solstice cruise a few weeks back trying to get off the ship at Dunedin (docked) was disastrous. We missed part of our tour as it took us over an hour to get off the ship and we were one of the first to line up. Hubby tried to get off sometime later and was in line so long the dog went past and sniffed him 3 times.

So we thought "we have a 10.30 tour - no way are we going to miss it, get an early tender". We went down and got our tender tickets at 8.30, got straight onto a tender (number 11 for the day) and it was painless. A bit of a wait for our tour to go but then we could look around Akaroa.

However getting back on the ship was another question. Last tender was supposed to be 4.30. I was in line by 3.45 and I didn't get on a tender until 4.30 and the whole dock was still full of pax waiting to get back to the ship.

Returning to the ship at any tender port late in the date is always a dogs breakfast with everyone cranky after a days excursions and having to wait in line until one gets to the front with no priority boarding

Thanks everyone for responses. Our tour guide has given us a window of 9 to 10:30am for starting. We dock at 7am, so hopefully we can be off the ship by 10.

We didn't get to tender at Akaroa, despite the sea being calm. Seems the previous cruise to ours, the passengers didn't get back on board until 9 pm!

Getting back on board isn't really the issue. As long as you are at the pier by the latest advertised time the ship wont go without you. In Esperance a couple of years ago the ship was due to sail at 5.00pm but didn't until well after 11 because of difficulty in getting the tender passengers back on board

The good thing about re-boarding in Akaroa is that there are a couple of bars from where you can keep an eye on the wharf queue.

The good thing about re-boarding in Akaroa is that there are a couple of bars from where you can keep an eye on the wharf queue.

Good idea. However the cruise lines would prefer that you do that drinking on board, which is why they board so early.