Disembarkation times/times to queue for Tender

[MrandMrsCoz]

Hi all,

We are trying to plan a few things to do for our port trips on our upcoming cruise. We have read a few reviews where it has been said that P&O aren't very organised when arriving at ports and how it can take a long time to get off to enjoy the port. We've also heard that the people who've booked P&O trips at the port, get priority for disembarking. We now are reluctant to book specific trips because we don't know if how long it's going to take to get off! Can any experienced cruisers please help us and tell us approximately how long we can expect to wait to be able to get off or, is there a ticket system for each decks on each day etc? thanks in advance 🙂

[grapau27]

46 minutes ago, MrandMrsCoz said:

Hi all,

We are trying to plan a few things to do for our port trips on our upcoming cruise. We have read a few reviews where it has been said that P&O aren't very organised when arriving at ports and how it can take a long time to get off to enjoy the port. We've also heard that the people who've booked P&O trips at the port, get priority for disembarking. We now are reluctant to book specific trips because we don't know if how long it's going to take to get off! Can any experienced cruisers please help us and tell us approximately how long we can expect to wait to be able to get off or, is there a ticket system for each decks on each day etc? thanks in advance 🙂

On every cruiseline including P&O we have been on if you are on an early tour you usually are the first ones off the ship.

You usually meet in the theatre where you are given a sticker with your tour number on it.

When your tour is ready your number will be called and you are led to your tour bus.

In ports where you dock it is then at your leasure to get off the ship.

It is only when the ship has to tender and you are anchored around half a mile from port that you need to get on a tender.

On P&O you queue for a tender ticket then you wait in a lounge until your tender number is called then you are escorted to the tender station to get on the ships tenders ( small boats) to take you ashore.

Edited April 26, 2019 by grapau27

[daiB]

9 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

On every cruiseline including P&O we have been on if you are on an early tour you usually are the first ones off the ship.

You usually meet in the theatre where you are given a sticker with your tour number on it.

When your tour is ready your number will be called and you are led to your tour bus.

In ports where you dock it is then at your leasure to get off the ship.

It is only when the ship has to tender and you are anchored around half a mile from port that you need to get on a tender.

On P&O you queue for a tender ticket then you wait in a lounge until your tender number is called then you are escorted to the tender station to get on the ships tenders ( small boats) to take you ashore.

In most ports you juts get off and meet the coach on the dock side. Meeting ar a venue on the ship is a thing of the past.

[grapau27]

Just now, daiB said:

In most ports you juts get off and meet the coach on the dock side. Meeting ar a venue on the ship is a thing of the past.

Thanks daiB it is a while since we did a P&O ship tour.

It is still done this way for tours on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line a cruiseline very much in the present.

 

[wowzz]

As DaiB says, unless you are at a tender port, all you have to do is make sure you are off the ship with sufficient time to meet your guide/get in the coach, at the designated time. Not sure where you got the idea about disorganised trips, although if the occasional excursion goes wrong,  someone will always post about it, whereas the thousands that proceed smoothly go unmentioned. 

 

[grapau27]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

As DaiB says, unless you are at a tender port, all you have to do is make sure you are off the ship with sufficient time to meet your guide/get in the coach, at the designated time. Not sure where you got the idea about disorganised trips, although if the occasional excursion goes wrong,  someone will always post about it, whereas the thousands that proceed smoothly go unmentioned. 

 

Maybe they are tours organised by a third party and not the ships official tours.

[Mewat]

We always do our own things at ports and by checking the times that the majority of ship tours will be disembarking (listed in the Horizon), we can then avoid the busy times.  We usually get up and about early on port days to miss any queues.

 

Likewise for returning to the ship.

 

Michele

[yorkshirephil]

On the cruises we have been on the only time we have had any issues is when the ship has docked late or the ship gets into port after 09:00-10:00 as more people are ready for getting off. Sometimes it seems poor organisation by ship staff, sometimes passengers just not following instruction. If you have booked trips via the cruise line you should be fine, if the trips are booked privately you have no guarantee.

[Jim Cox]

Never had any problems. Check the time, get off ship, walk to coach. Easypeasy.

[MrandMrsCoz]

Thankyou everyone - sorry, I think I didn't explain myself properly on the original post. We are booking our own tours rather than use the P&O tours. In answer to 'wowzz', I'd heard the disembarkation and queue for tender process was disorganised after reading recent reviews to say as such. 

So it seems after reading above that tje passengers who book the P&O excursions are given priority in the queue to disembark?  I think we will just be patient and book any excursions when we arrive at the ports as it still would seem we might be some time getting off the boat if I'm reading right. 

[kruzseeka]

I would be wary of pre booking tours independently at tender ports - not least because tendering can be problematic and ports are sometimes missed on account of that.  I think your idea of waiting until on land a sensible one as the situation is unpredictable.   

We have just returned from a cruise on Oriana and decided to do our own thing in Calvi.  We were ready early and yes, the organised excursions were called first but once you have collected a numbered tender ticket you will be called as space is available on tenders - sometimes this is ahead of those on excursions if it's not time for them to transfer.  We were on shore by 10.00am when we only anchored at 9.00am so quite quick considering organising the tendering operations.

However, it became problematic later - apparently some who went later to get tender tickets waited for over two hours to get off - many gave up and by mid afternoon tendering off the ship was stopped.  

Conditions had deteriorated but when we went back for the tender to go back to the ship around 1pm, we waited for over an hour on the quay without seeing any sign of a tender.  There were in excess of 200 passengers waiting.  Tenders arrived eventually and continued to fetch people back to the ship but we couldn't understand why more weren't in operation to speed up the process.  More had been in use to take off passengers earlier in the say.  No good speculating except that it all goes to show that you can't guarantee timings when tendering.

Our tender call at Cuidedella later in the cruise was cancelled altogether and we had an extra day in Gib.

In the light of these experiences, I'd definitely try to get off as early as you can, then organise a tour or whatever once ashore.  

Edited April 27, 2019 by kruzseeka

[Vampiress88]

I’m wondering the same. We are tender at St. Peter port soon and I haven’t booked anything cos god knows what time we will be off the ship

[P-L-B]

9 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

I’m wondering the same. We are tender at St. Peter port soon and I haven’t booked anything cos god knows what time we will be off the ship

To be honest imo if you haven’t been to St Peters Port before it’s a nice enough place to have a wander around without the need to book tours.

The last time we were there we were lucky and got off the ship early and had an enjoyable day.

Edited April 27, 2019 by P-L-B

[Jim Cox]

12 minutes ago, P-L-B said:

To be honest imo if you haven’t been to St Peters Port before it’s a nice enough place to have a wander around without the need to book tours.

The last time we were there we were lucky and got off the ship early and had an enjoyable day.

Likewise - unless you've been before, why spend a fortune on a tour when you can have a very pleasant day doing it yourself? Nice place, plenty to see and do for a day.

[happy v]

On 4/27/2019 at 4:32 PM, Vampiress88 said:

I’m wondering the same. We are tender at St. Peter port soon and I haven’t booked anything cos god knows what time we will be off the ship

If I were you I would get a local bus from the terminus where you come off the tender and take the kids to the beach for the day.

We were there last week and the beaches are perfect for children lots of rocks and pools to play in. There is a kiosk at the bus station and they are very helpful. It only costs a pound each way.