Boudicca tenders- dead slow and stop!

The ship is fine, the food is fine, even the entertainment is fine and the crew is just lovely however today was the first of 4 tender port and it was chaotic. For starters they reserved all the early tenders for FO tours so the rest of us were clearly second class citizens clearly.

After a wait in a queue we got tender ticket no 2 and did not get off until 10.20 am! When we got to the pontoon they sent us down and there wasn't tender there- not exactly safe practice. One of the entertainment staff was dealing with the tenders and had clearly never done do so before, he was being "trained" in front of the guests, the same guests who had been sent down to an empty pontoon then sent back up again.

Once on the tender we then waited for an age for them to call group 3 to fill the tender, common sense would dictate that you call enough groups to fill the thing ASAP. When I commented I was told that the delay was a result of lots of older guests who were slow which I think (as someone in their 40s) is actually extremely disrespectful to the spritly and fun filled older clientele on this ship.

There are a lot of very unhappy guests and FO better get its act in gear for tomorrow or there will be an uprising, people did not pay to come on a cruise to sit around in lounges for hours on end because of lack of tenders and pretty poor organisation.we had ticket 2, some people had ticket 8 so would be long after us.

I had asked about FO tenders before coming on this cruise and got positive feedback from people on this forum so I sincerely hope that today was just a one of. We have private tours booked on other islands and I will not be impressed if I miss them.

I have now done 90 plus cruises with a wide variety of companies at various ports around the world and this was the worst waste of time I have ever experienced. I will be speaking to customer services but I fear the queue will be very very long as I am not alone in being peeved.

I can't believe what you are saying, just because you were not allowed to get off the ship at the same time as people who had paid for a trip and had to wait, you regard yourself as being treated as a second class citizen?

If used as a life boat, the tender will take 150, when used as a tender, I believe the number is reduced to 120, so as they say do the math. How far was the ship away from the dock and how long did each return trip take?

Just because you have private tours booked is no reason for you to be treated specially. It maybe be a little more expensive, but cruise line booked tours are usually better, imo, than private tours.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise and I hope all goes well.

Uprising.....? Come on, seems a touch extreme.

Must be a decent cruise if that's all there is to grumble about.

Most we have ever had to wait was around an hour when we were not on organised tour.

Ok it's not ideal and yes you have to watch yourself when tendering.

I don't expect to be treated specially, I just expect to be treated equally and I and many other independent travellers are being treated as second class. Today the trips have all the tenders from arrival until 10 am so the rest of us will not even have a chance to get off until after that time.

On other ships in my experience some of the tenders are used for ship tours and others for independents at the same time, not tours first and independent second (hence the factual second class comment).

Those on ship tours have paid for a trip yes but everyone else has paid for a cruise. If this is FO policy then it should be made clear, in advance. (The tender trips were about 15 minutes including docking). If I had known this was the case in advance I would have made other arrangements. I did a ships tour in Kirkwall and it was excellent however they are not offering what I have planned over the next few days so I could not book with the ship even had I wished to do so.

I am very good at maths and I agree that on a small ship the process should move quickly but it did not. The tender we were on had many spare seats which did seem strange to me give the number of people waiting.

Yes the uprising crack was extreme, it was meant to be ironic. There were however a lot of very unhappy people complaining and we have 3 more days to go of this. Let's hope it gets better.

Nice calm sailing at least which is great.

I will do a review of the ship with the mainly positive experience to date on my return.

On other ships in my experience some of the tenders are used for ship tours and others for independents at the same time, not tours first and independent second (hence the factual second class comment).

In my experience they are not doing anything differently to how other cruise lines manage tenders.

When we were on Celebrity and NCL ships neither of those allowed people who weren't on ship's tours to use the tenders until after the ship's tours had all offloaded.

It's fairly logical, when you think about it, there's a large number of people to organise, all on a fairly tight schedule.

In my experience they are not doing anything differently to how other cruise lines manage tenders.

When we were on Celebrity and NCL ships neither of those allowed people who weren't on ship's tours to use the tenders until after the ship's tours had all offloaded.

It's fairly logical, when you think about it, there's a large number of people to organise, all on a fairly tight schedule.

yes i agree, any cruise i have been on booked tours first then the rest of us.

yes i agree, any cruise i have been on booked tours first then the rest of us.

Me too - makes sense really or you are going to have half empty coaches waiting forever for passengers to get on before the FO booked tours start! One of the reason it is a good idea to book a cruise excursion when tendering; we did a walking tour once in Nessebar just so we wouldn't have wait ages to get off. (It was good too!)

With all due respect to the opinions expressed above I do not agree and I have been on other ships where they have most definitely not comedered all the tenders for tours and left everyone else to wait. They usually do one and one or two and one splits to get coach groups out together and still allow other people off.

This is by way of information for anyone planning to do the islands tour another time.

Kirkwall was along side as advertised but well out of the town so the port offered a shuttle which there was a fairly short wait for. We managed to get in, spend a bit of time and back in time for a Pm tour. (Lovely place to visit)

Lerwick was advertised and confirmed in the booking as along side but was at tender when we arrived, this was around 15 to 20 minute turnaround but dropped off in the middle of the town. Mull was a similar time and again right in the town.

Stornaway and Portree were about 45 minute turnarounds so the tendering process was extremely slow at both. For those who are less able Portree town is up a hill from the harbour and the the FO tours drop off up the hill so you need to walk back down.

The queue for tender tickets got earlier / longer each day but it was better to spend 30 minutes in the queue to get tender 1 or 2 than 2 hours in a lounge waiting to get off on a later tender.

There were a lot of unhappy people due to the long waits, some mornings the independant slots were well after 10 am when arrival was just after 7 am. The knock on meant that many people could not out to visit and get back onboard for lunch so full board became DBB which was an issues for some (we just enjoyed local restaurants, the sea food was amazing).

Imo they should have put down another tender to cope with the demand or fill the boats to (tendering) capacity which they only did towards the end of the cruise and after many,many complaints.

If you book your own tours, make them after 11.30 to ensure you actually have a chance to get off on time for them.

What actually amused me was that my comment made in jest about an uprising was not far off the mark. There was an elderly gentleman up on the prom deck doing what I can only describe as "rabble rousing" about the lack of tender spaces for those not on tour, he was advocating a visit en masse to reception - I did not stay long enough to find out what happened. As they say many a true word said in jest!!!

In spite of all the annoyances this was still a trip that was well worth while, the scenery was stunning, the people friendly and the places to visit and things to see and do made a most enjoyable trip.

I think both sides of the tender availability dispute have some validity.

When we were in Canada recently we did share an early tender with some people who were on trips, but that was only because the later trips were not due out at that stage. So it is better put that trips always have priority, (and I belive they do), but only if they are due to go ashore as they do not just take people ashore if their coach is not waiting for them. I would also say that on Black Watch the way of giving out the tender tickets was ridiculous as they would not give any numbered tickets for non trip people at that stage, but suddenly announced that xnumber of non trip people could come and collect tickets for the tender that was being boarded then, which caused a mighty scrum!!! I have a lot of other criticisms of the trips and especially tours staff on Black watch to Canada, which I will address in a review of the cruise which I hope to do in the next week, (will take a while for it to be published after that).

It is obvious that all ships must make sure trips go out as near schedule as possible and many are usually timed to go in the early morning, so spare availability is highly unlikely at that time. I am thinking that there are only two tenders as such, with the other boats being life boats that are not used as tenders, (admittedly that could be different on the larger ships, on which we do not travel). The other issue is the loading of the tenders which in my observation is usually the limitation regarding tenders. Fred passengers can take a bit longer than some as well, due to the older age profile especially on British and non fly cruises.

Eglesbrech, I think your latest post would be very useful for anyone considering such a cruise and am sure many people will be appreciative of the port information. I can see that the number of ports requiring tenders was a problem on that itinerary for some people, but it is something I would still like to do sometime because the ports are so different to what most cruises visit. We are finding on other cruises that Fred are far less likely to provide shuttles now that they say they are included for freedom fare passengers. We have seen shuttles provided for P&O but not Fred in one port and have not had shuttles when we have had previously in other ports. That is making us reconsider our use of Freedon fares - I think Fred are not doing themselves any favours with that or by saying that, for a very small charge, you can choose your dining time - but that is a different matter.

We would be happy to just chill and not rush to get off early anyway as we do on most of our independent port visits. We have always been happy to get off after a relaxed breakfast and return for afternoon tea or buy some sort of food or snack ashore, as we would be stopping for drinks anyway. Cannot say we have ever felt short of food on a cruise.