Tenders were tubs

[bobpell]

Visited Belize City Feb. 5 on NCL Dawn.

There were 3 other cruise ships (9,000 passengers) and we all anchored approx. 4 miles from the dock due to shallow waters in front of the town. Tenders were stripped down 40 to 50 foot pleasure craft with insufficient life jackets.

Not one cruise ship used their own life boats to ferry their passengers ashore.

We turned back and stayed aboard when we saw the overloading taking place.

No Coast Guard in Belize.

[overthehillcruiser]

Is this the smaller tender you are referring to ? Just wondering as it was comfortable and pretty fast..Enjoyed the ride. We tendered on our last Belize stop on a huge tender that took about an hour to load all the people.

 

 

screencapture

[OCruisers]

The last time in Belize we were taken in a large, very fast tender! :)

 

LuLu

~~~

[CaribbeanBound]

On the way to port we were stuffed into a boat like in overthehillcruiser's picture. I think there were like 100,000 people stuffed into the boat with us.

 

The return trip featured a huge catamaran that held maybe 300 people. It was indeed nicer.

[bobpell]

The tender shown was one that came to our ship. There were life jackets on board for approx. half of the squished in cruise passengers.

If you feel safe go for it.

My wife and I look for a safe ride in foreign ports not a potential unscheduled swim.

We exited the small craft prior to the lines being let go and directed our concerns to the cruise ship's officer upon reentering the side of the Dawn. He just shrugged his shoulders and welcomed back on board.

bobpell

[overthehillcruiser]

I guess we were lucky the time we were there in the smaller pictured tender as it was not crowded at all...Overall though I much prefer a dock as the tender process is a pain, especially if you meeting up with an independent tour..

[overthehillcruiser]

Talk about small. This is the one engine boat we were crammed in by Coral Breeze to go to Shark Ray Alley, getting plastered by sea spray 1 1/2 hours each way...I don't remember if there were even life jackets..It made those small tenders look like an ocean liner. What fun..:mad:

 

 

 

image hosting

[blue_water]

They typical tenders there are either the open single or double-deckers, or the fully-enclosed boats that look like lifeboats. We were the only ship in port Tuesday, Feb 4 and were very lucky. We were glad to be in the fully-enclosed boat tendering into Belize City because a very heavy storm hit. But once we got to port and made our way out of the port area it turned out to be a beautiful day for our water taxi to Caye Caulker and time there.

[Cruise2014Fanatic]

Visited Belize City Feb. 5 on NCL Dawn.

There were 3 other cruise ships (9,000 passengers) and we all anchored approx. 4 miles from the dock due to shallow waters in front of the town. Tenders were stripped down 40 to 50 foot pleasure craft with insufficient life jackets.

Not one cruise ship used their own life boats to ferry their passengers ashore.

We turned back and stayed aboard when we saw the overloading taking place.

No Coast Guard in Belize.

 

How many people were on the tender? How many life jackets were on the tender? After you asked about the number of life jackets on board vs the number of passengers, did you say anything to the crew of your ship? What was their response?

[Miaangel2000]

I was on a tender in Belize last week. All were large Catamarans that had plenty of life jackets and space, we left on the first tender and it was not overcrowded. Maybe we were just lucky with Princess but the 2 NCL ships had large Catamarans too.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[mccbeh]

I was on a tender in Belize last week. All were large Catamarans that had plenty of life jackets and space, we left on the first tender and it was not overcrowded. Maybe we were just lucky with Princess but the 2 NCL ships had large Catamarans too.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

We also had one of those large cats, I don`t know if it makes a difference whether you tender early or later....maybe that is the issue?

[blue_water]

No rhyme or reason, just luck and timing. We were the only ship anchored and we saw everything - double decked cats, single decked cats, fully-enclosed lifeboats, and smaller cats with enclosed sides. Looked like an all out invasion of the ugly boats!