Tender boats?

If you have to tender to a port, do they use the lifeboat tenders that are attached or different open air boats? I have never had to tender so I am unsure.

If you have to tender to a port, do they use the lifeboat tenders that are attached or different open air boats? I have never had to tender so I am unsure.

I think it depends on the port. I have done both.

With Carnival it is usually a local vendor. What port are you asking? You will probably get a more accurate answer.

Nassau and feeeport. I know they aren’t tender ports but wasn’t sure if you ever ended up having to use them there.

Nassau and feeeport. I know they aren’t tender ports but wasn’t sure if you ever ended up having to use them there.

Nassau is not a tender port. Not sure on Freeport. When in a tender port I have had more carnival life boats as teners than local vendors.

Freeport is not a tender port.

Neither are tender ports and I have never heard of them being used there.

I know other cruise line do it, but none of my Carnival cruises have yet used a lifeboat for a tender. They are very big 100+ passenger ferry boats most of the time.

Nassau and feeeport. I know they aren’t tender ports but wasn’t sure if you ever ended up having to use them there.

If there was some reason they couldn't dock it would probably also rule out tenders so you'd probably just be diverted elsewhere.

In my 17 cruisers all but once were the tenders local boats, the only exception was Hawaii where we were in the lifeboats

We had both on one sailing with NCL and it was because the port we went to didn’t have a tender service in place so lifeboats had to be used. I assume that would be what dictated it anywhere but as others said Freeport and Nassau are not going to be tender ports.

At kotor and santorini with royal Caribbean it was a mix of both local boats and 2 lifeboat tenders from the ship.

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On the Mexican Riviera Carnival uses port tenders. The ones on Catalina are ADA compliant.

In Kona they use the ship’s tenders.

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Also have never been on a Carnival cruise that used the lifeboats. Certainly could happen but it's not the norm.

In Grand Cayman they used the local boats as tenders. The waves were tough and knocked the boat around and as people got on board. One had to hold on while boarding.:rolleyes:

Local boats for all the tenders I have been on

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It's local tenders almost exclusively...except at private island stops like HMC and CocoCay, where the tenders are owned by the cruise lines and designed expressly as tenders. The ones at CocoCay can hold almost 300 people per trip.

One cruise line that DOES use their own lifeboats as tenders a lot is Holland America, probably because on average, their ships have smaller capacities. I've seen them anchor off Cozumel when it was (presumably) full and use their own lifeboats as tenders, since Coz doesn't have locally-provided tenders. (That'd be a very crowded day there, too. :o )

Here In Oz (Australia); they generally use life-boats from the ship.. We call them Hot-Boxes. As there Very hot & don't have much ventalation...