St Peter's Port Guernsey Tenders

[Canugess]

We have a day trip there coming up, my previous experience of tenders in monte carlo was a disaster, am I right to be worried about the ability to get off of the ship?

 

Anyone have experience of Guernsey?

[netchells]

Yes cruised to Guernsey twice....absolutely no problem with tenders.....we are going again in September :)

[Britboys]

Not called there on a cruise myself but having seen lots of reviews from others, it is a bit hit & miss. Pray for no wind and calm seas!

[Mysticalmother]

We have a day trip there coming up, my previous experience of tenders in monte carlo was a disaster, am I right to be worried about the ability to get off of the ship?

 

Anyone have experience of Guernsey?

 

Been to Guernsey 3 times now and no problem. What was the problem you experienced in Monte Carlo?

[Alan & Giselle]

We went to Guernsey in May. They let all the people off first on P&O trips and everybody else gets a tender ticket.

 

The weather was gorgeous and we had a fantastic day.

 

We got off early for a P&O tour and then had lunch in Guernsey and waited for our 2nd P&O trip in the afternoon.

 

There wasn't time to tender back and forth before the afternoon trip.

[Canugess]

Been to Guernsey 3 times now and no problem. What was the problem you experienced in Monte Carlo?

No enough tenders, we had planned to get the train to mote carlo and was very disappointed when our ticket wasn't called till gone 1pm. We had to be back on board by 3.30 so didn't have time to do the trip. (This was a RCCI Italian Med cruise)

[annieuk]

It all depends on the weather and the state of the sea. We managed to anchor there a year ago but it was very borderline. I was on a P&O excursion and when I went down to board the tender there were two officers ready to help people to board - they were each holding the passenger by the arm and practically lifting them aboard. Then it got really too rough when I was the next one to board the tender. They said, no, wait. Eventually they moved another tender to further back along the ship and we boarded that one. It was certainly choppy when we set off for the dockside. After the trip when we got back to the pier we found that P&O were using the larger Guernsey ferry boat which took many more passengers and was much more stable and easier to board.

 

According to some of the other passengers when they had been to Guernsey previously the weather and sea were calm and there was no problem but Guernsey does have a reputation for being one of those ports when sometimes the call has to be abandoned because of the weather. You just have to wait and see!

[Canugess]

We will just have to pray for a calm sea then. This is an overnight to guernsey and and overnight home trip! We haven't sailed P&O before so they have a lot to prove! lol

[Mysticalmother]

We will just have to pray for a calm sea then. This is an overnight to guernsey and and overnight home trip! We haven't sailed P&O before so they have a lot to prove! lol

 

I hope you do get ashore OK and enjoy your trip...but I'm afraid you cant blame P & O for the weather (although many try to...:D).The Captain will make any decision not to tender based on keeping his passengers safe.

 

From my experience P & O usually have sufficient tenders operating to keep waiting times down to no more than about 20 minutes at peak times. It can be a bit worse at the start of the day when everyone wants to get ashore.

 

We were in Monte Carlo in May on Azura when the Captain had to stop the tenders around lunchtime because of the weather. At that point there were still some 1800 pax ashore! Fortunately things calmed down again after a couple of hours but I think it was quite a hairy ride.

[Host Sharon]

I have cruised to Guernsey four times but only managed to get ashore twice, all due to weather. It is very hit and miss but nothing you can do about it. P&O usually have at least four tenders running. they fill them up with tours first but often pack a few independents in each one as well.

[Canugess]

Thank you for your replies. I totally get the weather situation! But if it does prove impossible to visit Guernsey, then I hope that P&O deal with the situation a whole lot better than RCI did!