Tender vs Pier ports

[magroo]

Which of our ports are tender serviced and which are docked at a pier?

Vairao

Huahine

Taha'a

Bora Bora

Moorea

[FlightMedic555]

No sure of Vairao but all the others are tender.

[SWFLAOK]

We've done the PG Society Islands and Marquesas cruise, and the Society Islands and Cook Islands cruise, and the only dock we stopped at was in Papeete where we embarked and disembarked. The rest were all tenders. The tender captain and the crew helping us on and off the tenders are the best we've experienced of the 5 cruise lines we've been on, none being more than 800 passengers.

But we have had some pretty scary tendering experiences with very large swells. A temporary staircase is dropped down to the platform where the tender boards. You need to be able to walk down that staircase which is about a deck high. Assistance will be provided, but you can't use a walker. From the platform, you'll need to keep your balance while 2 crew members get ready to tell you when to step to the tender. They will help you over to 2 other crew members waiting to take you onboard. But you need to react quickly to step aboard when they tell you to, and watch your footing as the crew onboard get you into the tender. 

 

[magroo]

Thanks!😊

[FlightMedic555]

On our last cruise one person was in a wheelchair.  The PG staff carried her down in her wheelchair to the tender at each port.  I'm presuming that if you can't walk down the stairs that they would the a PG wheelchair and physically carry you.  The crew will do anything in their power to assist.

[SWFLAOK]

9 hours ago, FlightMedic555 said:

not On our last cruise one person was in a wheelchair.  The PG staff carried her down in her wheelchair to the tender at each port.  I'm presuming that if you can't walk down the stairs that they would the a PG wheelchair and physically carry you.  The crew will do anything in their power to assist. 

That might work if the seas are relatively calm, but in the Marquesas, we had 8 to 10 foot swells at one port, and there would be no way a person could be carried safely down the stairs. in a wheelchair. Once at the shoreside dock, there was no excursions available to someone in a wheelchair.

We had the same large swells at Atu Taki on our Cook Islands cruise, with large swells . On the way  back to the ship, the swells covered the tender.  Carrying someone up the stairs in a wheelchair after that would have been dangerous for the crew, and it would have been frightening to everyone still sitting on the tender.

After taking a HAL cruise in the Caribbean where the number of disabled and obese passengers made the cruise unpleasant for the rest of us, I think cruise lines need to have cruises designed for those who aren't very mobile, and those that are. HAL would not stop at a tender port if it would be dangerous for anyone on board. Consequently, we skipped those ports, and had another day at sea. When we came in to a dock, a number of ambulances met us at the dock to take people away to the local hospital. Twice, we saw them bring people back in an ambulance before we left port. We wondered why they would be allowed back on board. 

The last thing I want to see is the Paul Gauguin skipping ports, or not allowing anyone off the ship in a port because there are people on board that are not physically able to get on and off the ship, and insist that they must be accommodated. 

Edited April 24, 2019 by SWFLAOK
typo

[FlightMedic555]

Wow....People who have a disability and the obese made the cruise unpleasant for you.  Your statement is almost unworthy of a response.  Perhaps you should stay at home where you can be assured that people that are unpleasant to be around will not show up.  Amazing to actually hear from people who feel/think like you do.  

[Wendy The Wanderer]

We were able to tender into Rarotonga, but just barely.  The swells were huge, and in retrospect the captain perhaps should have cancelled, as he had to for Aitutak the next day.  The staff manhandled us on and off of the tenders very carefully and successfully, but hate to think about someone partially disabled or in a wheelchair.  I guess all-in-all, FP is not a particularly wheelchair-friendly destination.  Sad, but inevitable I guess.

[SWFLAOK]

20 hours ago, FlightMedic555 said:

Wow....People who have a disability and the obese made the cruise unpleasant for you.  Your statement is almost unworthy of a response.  Perhaps you should stay at home where you can be assured that people that are unpleasant to be around will not show up.  Amazing to actually hear from people who feel/think like you do.  

Why should I be the one who stays at home. I'm still able to travel without assistance from the cruise line. Other than HAL, I pay an amount of money for a cruise that's significant to me, and I expect to get the most out of the cruise that I can. Life is short. When I can no longer travel without the crew's assistance, and have no one to travel with that can provide the assistance I need, then I'll stay home.

When people sign up for something beyond there own physical abilities, and don't travel with someone who can assist them, they should not expect to be able to tender into ports when the weather is bad, and they should not ask that no one be allowed to tender if they can't. 

And when 2 scooter chairs carrying an obese mother and daughter come down a corridor and knock you out of the way while chatting to each other and not looking where they're going, it does make the cruise unpleasant.