Live from the Marina ... Sorrento, Italy

[ChatKat in Ca.]

There are several ports where tendering if often a problem. Positano/Amalfi is one of those ports that routinely gets bypassed and redirected. That happened to us on a Regent Cruise 2 years ago. We even had it this year in Santa Barbara on an annual trip we do on Princess. One year on that cruise we had a tender ticket and they forgot to call our number all together.

 

On our upcoming Med, we tender in two ports. I did not book a tour either private or Oceania just because it is so common to have issues when tendering. We will just take a cab in those ports.

[ORV]

There are several ports where tendering if often a problem. Positano/Amalfi is one of those ports that routinely gets bypassed and redirected. That happened to us on a Regent Cruise 2 years ago. We even had it this year in Santa Barbara on an annual trip we do on Princess. One year on that cruise we had a tender ticket and they forgot to call our number all together.

 

On our upcoming Med, we tender in two ports. I did not book a tour either private or Oceania just because it is so common to have issues when tendering. We will just take a cab in those ports.

 

Kathy, I have Lesbos, which is the other one? I can't find it noted on Oceania's page.

[ChatKat in Ca.]

Kathy, I have Lesbos, which is the other one? I can't find it noted on Oceania's page.

 

I had Crete in my notes as being a tender port - but happy to see we dock there. Thanks, Orv!

[wripro]

Pacehco18,

 

Completely agree with you that it's outrageous to penalize those who do not purchase O's expensive bus tours. When I book a cruise one of the first things I check is the amount of time in each port. That is what I am buying and if that time is severely limited by not being allowed to tender in for two hours then O is not delivering what I bought.

 

To those who think that if I'm so worried about tendering first I should buy a ships tour I say no way am I going to get on a bus with forty other people. EVER. I don't do ships' tours period.

 

And TC2. I agree that first come, first served is the best way to do this. I am not in school and I don't want to be handed a color card to tell me when I can get off the ship.

[TKS]

This type of thread has appeared before, with varying responses.

 

I personally have never had a problem, because I go down as soon as tender tickets become available and push DH to get on an early tender - this is aboard both R and O ships - and we seldom take ship tours (actually never again, after I found CC - thanks everyone!!!). I agree that taking precautions, ie. talking to destinations the night before, is wiser than trying to do crisis management on the day of the tour.

 

I will be doing that on our upcoming cruise with 33 people on two busses to serve. I'll let you know how well it works.

[brian_uk]

The situation was so out of control. I felt like I was at a European football playoff game.

 

What on earth do you mean ?

 

Brian

[TKS]

Maybe pushing, shoving and trampling? By the way, that happens at American football playoffs too.

[TERRIER1]

What on earth do you mean ?

 

Brian

 

LOL. Massive pushing and shoving to get through the gate. It was scary.

[LHT28]

LOL. Massive pushing and shoving to get through the gate. It was scary.

 

Seriously :eek:

That is ridiculous behavior for adults on a cruise ship

 

Yes everyone wants to be the 1st off but when tendering they do have some order to follow

If everyone were to just go to the loading area it would be more dangerous

 

Lyn

[TERRIER1]

Seriously :eek:

That is ridiculous behavior for adults on a cruise ship

 

Yes everyone wants to be the 1st off but when tendering they do have some order to follow

If everyone were to just go to the loading area it would be more dangerous

 

Lyn

 

This wasn't a tender port. We had docked about an hour late due to wind and everyone was trying to get off at the same time.

[LHT28]

This wasn't a tender port. We had docked about an hour late due to wind and everyone was trying to get off at the same time.

 

Then that is even worse

I just wonder where all this bad manners & bad behavior is coming from you see it everywhere these days not just on cruise ships

 

Pretty sad IMO

 

Lyn

[computerworks]

Originally Posted by TERRIER1

The situation was so out of control. I felt like I was at a European football playoff game.

 

What on earth do you mean ?

 

Brian

 

TERRIER1 must have meant 'rugby'.. we would never 'push' in a soccer game. :cool:

[Paulchili]

TERRIER1 must have meant 'rugby'.. we would never 'push' in a soccer game. :cool:

 

You might not but the fans (as in fanatics) surely will :D

They have been known to bring down the stands with many casualties; not to mention the pre and post game fights between the fans of opposing teams.

Yes - I believe Terrier1 did mean European and S. American soccer.

...and Brian knows exactly what I am talking about :)

Edited October 24, 2013 by Paulchili

[BarbaraB2]

The Sorrento tender experience WAS as bad as it was described and never should have occured. With that being said, I think the situation warrants clarification. Afterwards, I complained directly to the Destination Service dept and received a written response apologizing for the mishap and discussing what went wrong. The letter claimed that the problem was with the 'port' of Sorrento not being able to handle the three cruise ships that were in port that day but O took responsibility for not handling the situation differently.

As for private tour passengers getting off the ship, I PERSONALLY, was the FIRST person in line to receive tender tickets for my group of 8 and got the FIRST tender off the following day. There was a separate line for O tours and one for INDEPENDENT passengers. They were each called to the stage at the same exact time! Of the three tender ports, two went smoothly one did not. No excuses, it should NOT have occured at all!

[TERRIER1]

The Sorrento tender experience WAS as bad as it was described and never should have occured. With that being said, I think the situation warrants clarification. Afterwards, I complained directly to the Destination Service dept and received a written response apologizing for the mishap and discussing what went wrong. The letter claimed that the problem was with the 'port' of Sorrento not being able to handle the three cruise ships that were in port that day but O took responsibility for not handling the situation differently.

As for private tour passengers getting off the ship, I PERSONALLY, was the FIRST person in line to receive tender tickets for my group of 8 and got the FIRST tender off the following day. There was a separate line for O tours and one for INDEPENDENT passengers. They were each called to the stage at the same exact time! Of the three tender ports, two went smoothly one did not. No excuses, it should NOT have occured at all!

 

What I don't understand is how many times does something like this have to happen before O puts in a sort of "standard" operating procedure for disembarking O tours and independent tours in less than ideal situations.

[caviargal]

Be thankful that you arrived at the designated port....last week Marina and Riviera were both docked in Naples for two days, instead of Amalfi and Sorrento;)

 

We were on Riviera last week and we docked in Amalfi and Sorrento as planned. Only Taormina was changed.

 

The tendering process was a joke - totally chaotic and disorganized. It was one of the few negatives of our first cruise with O.

[caviargal]

The official policy is definitely NOT to preclude independents from getting off until all O shore excursion participants get off the ship

 

We were aboard Riviera Oct 18-25 and they would not allow us to disembark until all O tours were off the ship. The process was very slow and cumbersome. Very poorly managed.

Edited October 31, 2013 by caviargal

[TERRIER1]

We were aboard Riviera Oct 18-25 and they would not allow us to disembark until all O tours were off the ship. The process was very slow and cumbersome. Very poorly managed.

 

The tendering process is hit or miss. I have been on cruises where they allowed only the O tours off first and I have been on cruises where they allowed both. It seems if there have been a lot of complaints then they switch to letting off both at the same time. It is also my experience that the only time it has been chaotic is on the Marina and Riviera. We never experienced this on the R ships. The only tender problems on the R ships were due to weather and the captain and crew handled everything very well.

[llarsen]

We were on the Marina two weeks ago, Oct 9-19 2013

 

I didn't have time to read through all the pages of this thread, but wanted to give our experience with tendering on our cruise.

 

We had no problem getting off the ship as independants in any of the ports. The ports in which we tendered, we arrived early to the Marina Lounge, asked for 4 tender tickets and were told on all but one occasion that we could get on the waiting tender.

 

Only one time we had to wait a few minutes. We never saw any mass confusion. We had cars reserved in three ports and independant arrangements in others. We never had to wait for the Oceania tours to disembark first.

 

Also, we did not tender in La Spezia but docked instead! Our itinerary indicated that we would tender, but La Spezia has a new dock. Not sure if Oceania uses it everytime...but they did two weeks ago.

[junewl]

Very surprised this would happen on his watch. Whether you like him or not, he is SUPER organized.

 

i saw David at every embark/debark in the stairwells and at reception areas; he is professional, well organized and personable. Marina Venice to Barcelona Oct/Nov 2013.