Falkland Islands Tender

[Somerset Steve]

We have booked a private tour to Volunteer Point with an associate of Patrick Watts. He has told us that we must be off the ship within an hour and a half or there will not be sufficient time to get there and back. I do realise that we may not be able to land at all and that people booked on HAL tours will get preference but does any body know of a way of getting on an early tender ? We will be on the MS Veendam arriving in Port Stanley on 28/2/12. Any information or suggestions from people that have done this trip would be much appreciated.

[paul929207]

I don't know HAL's policies, but most cruise lines give priority to passengers on their excursions and possibly passengers in suites and/or high level in loyalty program.

 

Usually, all others must go to a lounge and get a numbered ticket. Passengers with these tickets are accommodated as space is available. Best thing to do is get to the lounge early to be at the front of the line and get a low numbered ticket.

[Keith1010]

I would post this question on the HAL board with respect to tenders.

 

As you correctly note there is a chance you will not stop there because of the weather or the tenders may not begin operating on time.

 

Keith

[Somerset Steve]

Thanks Paul and Keith. Looks like we may have to get up early :(

I have re-posted on HAL board to see if anybody else can supply any suggestions.

[harbormaster]

We just returned from a Seabourn cruise in South America which included the Falkland Islands. We also booked a private tour to Volunteer Point. It was amazing and totally worth it. However, you should be aware that it is about 1 hour on paved and gravel road and then 1-1/2 hours off road on peat moss with the driver finding his way through mud and ruts.There is a real possibility of getting bogged down if it is raining. You are usually 4 to a 4x4 along with your driver. It is definitely not for anyone with back problems. But it was something we will never forget and we loved it!

 

HAL does usually give priority to their excursion people and to suite passengers. However, it might be worth it to speak with Shore Excursion staff to see what the process will be. To give you an idea, our ship dropped anchor at about 8:15 am, the first tender with us on it went at 8:50 am for a 15 minute ride, and we were in the car on the way to Volunteer Point at 9:20 am. (We had a car and driver and were the only ones in it and traveled alone).

Please realize that Patrick, and other tour guides, all of whom we met, do say that the possibility of actually being able to get into Stanley on the tenders varies from 45 to 60 per cent depending on the time of year and of course, sea conditions..

Also, the ships book the same guides and 4x4s - an associate of Patrick's actually led the caravan of ship's tour people on the cruise. Some of the cars got bogged down and one broke an axle- it is that bumpy.

Patrick himself and his guides had about 24 people in, I think, 7 different cars and they went together in a group. They did wait for several tenders to arrive before leaving.

We, my wife and I and driver, spent about 1-1/2 hours at the Point and on the beach and the group arrived about 12:30, just as we were leaving.

We highly recommend this trip. The penguins are amazing.

[ldog]

When we were on the Veendam two years ago a bunch of us were able to get on the first tender before the tours. We spoke to excursion staff and were waiting in the lounge very early. We're going to try that again in January but we won't be in port long enough to go to Volunteer Point.

 

It's a long drive but really interesting! Worth every minute.

[Somerset Steve]

Thanks everyone for all your replies :)

[whimsical123]

We just came back from the holiday cruise for South America and Antarctica cruise on Veendam and we joined the HAL tour visiting the Volunteer Point. If you booked through HAL you will get priority tender ticket to get ashore before everyone else can get on a tender. You'll have to get to the showroom early (time marked on the ticket).

[WarEagle76]

Not sure if HAL offers it but we just returned from a two week cruise to South America on Princess and not wanting to endure the longer ride to Volunteer point, Princess had a tour to Sparrow Cove which was a 20 minute boat ride (picked us up right from ship) to a dock, then a 30 minute off-road ride to Sparrow Cove where we had about an hour. There are more penguins (especially King penguins) at Volunteer point but we had one King along with hundreds of Magellenic penguins at Sparrow Cove. If someone is reading this thread and wants a somewhat more leisurely option in Stanley if offered, I would recommend it. We were brought back to the ship and then tendered into Stanley and had plenty of time to tour there. I've posted pictures of the cruise and the Sparrow Cove experience begins at picture 145 if you want to get an idea of what the tour was like.

 

http://smengelt.shutterfly.com/1665

[piper28]

On the same cruise as WarEagle, we were booked independently for our Volunteer Point tour, and just made sure we got to the dining room where they handed out the tickets early. I think we made the second tender off the ship (they may have been doing tenders for tours from another spot on the ship, I think they were filling in multiple spots). That's Princess, but my guess is it'll be similar on HAL.

[ScottishMaid]

We have booked a private tour to Volunteer Point with an associate of Patrick Watts. He has told us that we must be off the ship within an hour and a half or there will not be sufficient time to get there and back. I do realise that we may not be able to land at all and that people booked on HAL tours will get preference but does any body know of a way of getting on an early tender ? We will be on the MS Veendam arriving in Port Stanley on 28/2/12. Any information or suggestions from people that have done this trip would be much appreciated.

 

Hal suites and 4 star mariners plus HAL shore excursions all go first. If tendering is slow due to rough sea conditions, it could take a long time to get all these people off. However if the ship gets organized for tendering ahead of the first tour time, you may be in luck.

 

Our HAL shorex wasn't till 10 am (Bluff Cove) but we were able to go to Stanley on the first tender at 8 am (nobody ready that early). Very lucky that we did that as they stopped tendering completely by 9:30 am due to weather deteriorating, so only 200 passengers had the day ashore.

[Coolcruise02]

Looks like those posting here had good weather. We did not and tendering was way behind schedule. We had a ship tour that was one of the first scheduled off and we waited in the theater for 1.5hrs until it was safe to tender. According to the crew, this is NORMAL. The weather is very unpredictable here! Those with private tours lost out.

 

We do not do ship tours but this was one place I did not want to take the chance and miss seeing penguins! :)

[jasonflk]

If the ship comes in earlier than expected as it did for the veendam this last time, then there are a lot more tenders before the official tours start coming off when getting on one of thoose can be a problem for non ship excursion passengers.