Tendering on Brittainia

[Eglesbrech]

What is the experience of tendering like on Brittania? 

 

With it being it a large ship is the wait particularly long or do they put down more tenders to compensate for the greater numbers? Any suggestions re the best time to go ashore / come back to avoid the worst of the queues.

 

Last time we were due to tender on Brittania the weather was too rough so I have no idea what to expect, any information greatfully received.

 

 

 

[Ian T]

We used a tender a couple of years ago in Cannes, it all went smooth. You get the usual peak times as any of the large ships but outside of this all was ok. We have also used the tender on Ventura and the Britannia experience was similar to this if that helps

[groovechick]

When we tendered from Britannia in the Caribbean, we had to go to the theatre, collect a ticket, take a seat in an area allocated to those ticket numbers and wait to be called. Disembarkation was delayed a little because of the heavy swell - the previous night the Captain had said we might not be able to call at Grand Cayman at all. They started as soon as it was safe, but there were the usual impatient people chuntering about the delay and getting stroppy with the Ents staff who were doing their best. Supposedly people who were on P&O tours were given priority, but I can't say I particularly noticed that. System also fell apart a bit because pax had been asked to enter the theatre and take tickets at stalls level, but people were coming in higher up and just sitting down without tickets or jumping the queue of people coming in at stall levels to take tickets.

Once it got started it went smoothly and havinf gone down to the theatre around 9ish, we were ashore by 10 am at the latest (we had a rum distillery tour booked for 11). No problems with queues coming back.

Edited March 21, 2019 by groovechick
Addition

[Denarius]

It depends on how many tenders the port can handle which determines the number the ship can launch.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Denarius

[Clodia]

I am rapidly going off tendering especially on the larger ships.If I've been to a port before and it's a tender, I just don't bother and have a relaxed day on the ship. I consider waiting an hour to be unacceptable.

[Eglesbrech]

15 minutes ago, Clodia said:

I am rapidly going off tendering especially on the larger ships.If I've been to a port before and it's a tender, I just don't bother and have a relaxed day on the ship. I consider waiting an hour to be unacceptable.

 

I must admit that I avoid tender ports whenever possible (and shuttle ports as well when I can). I don’t mind 20 to 30 minutes but as you say waiting an hour is unacceptable.

 

Here is hoping that the que is not too bad.

 

 

[groovechick]

The hour was mainly dictated by the need to decide whether it was safe to tender or not, given the swell, and then by a passenger who was very nervous stepping from the ship to the tender and took quite a while. i didn't think an hour from entering the theatre to stepping ashore was bad under these circumstance.

[Eglesbrech]

4 minutes ago, groovechick said:

The hour was mainly dictated by the need to decide whether it was safe to tender or not, given the swell, and then by a passenger who was very nervous stepping from the ship to the tender and took quite a while. i didn't think an hour from entering the theatre to stepping ashore was bad under these circumstance.

 

You won’t find me arguing with anything that is to do with safety (although dithery passengers do annoy me).

[Monorail Orange]

I agree - critisising crew for following proper safety proceedures is beyond words.

Long story short, I was on a tender last year that took quite a few attempts to berth with the ship as the swell had picked up. Cue one 'know-it-all curmudgeon' who declared rather loudly "you're all useless😡". Honestly... do they think the crew do it for a laugh?

 

On a brighter note, thanks for the all the info on Britannia's tender process. I had wondered if there was a different process on a larger ship - I think I prefer the ticket system rather than just queuing.