Cabo Tender Question

[mindy2]

Our itinerary for Cabo says we are there 11a.m. to 8 p.m November 4 on Princess Royal.   I'm looking at an excursion (private) that's leaves at 11:30 from the Pier.  Just wondering about experiences people have had getting on the tender and to the pier and how long it took?  Wondering if I'm cutting it too close for getting there on time.

Edited October 16, 2019 by mindy2

[Mike45LC]

Warning:  I have never tried to rush ashore at Cabo to see how quickly I can do it.  

 

Supposedly, the ship will be arriving in Cabo at 11.  I find that the ship actually arrives much earlier.  Once the ship arrives and anchors, and the Mexican authorities do whatever paperwork is needed, Princess has to drop a few of its lifeboats that are used as tenders, and some launches from a Cabo-based company come up to the ship to serve as additional tenders.  I do not know what time they start putting passengers on the tenders, vis-à-vis the 11:00 arrival time.

 

There is a priority for passengers who wish to rush off once passengers are allowed to board the tenders.  First, guests who have booked early excursions through Princess are allowed to board the tenders.  Then, suite passengers and Elites (and Platinum, maybe?) are allowed second place.  Then, the rank and file passengers are allowed out on a first come, first served basis.

 

Back when the visit to Cabo was from 7 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., there was a huge line-up of passengers rushing off.  Now that the port visit is a far more humane time, with 11:00 a.m. as the start, there are even more people wanting to disembark as soon as possible.  (I for one found 7:00 a.m. far too early, I was still in bed!!  11:00 a.m. is far more civilized, after a leisurely breakfast!)  So the mob of people wanting to grab a tender is huge.  Princess uses a ticket system, handing out tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.  So if you want to get off quickly, you and your entire party have to be in the line waiting for the tender tickets pretty early.

 

If you are not on a Princess excursion, in a suite or Elite/Platinum, you might be on the ship, still waiting to get on a tender, at 11:30 or even later.

 

Once you get on the tender, it will probably take about 20 minutes to get ashore.  

 

I doubt that you will be ashore by 11:30.

 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Mike45LC

[TiogaCruiser]

It will also depend on how many other ships are in port. I was on Veendam, which was the fourth ship to arrive and it took well over 2 1/2 hours to get ashore on a cruise line shorex. It took forever to clear, and once done, we got no additional shoreside tender (the other ships were still using them, or perhaps they were not contracted for us).

[mindy2]

Thank you for your replies.  I think we will have to look at something else for this port.

[SadieN]

On 10/17/2019 at 6:07 AM, TiogaCruiser said:

It will also depend on how many other ships are in port. I was on Veendam, which was the fourth ship to arrive and it took well over 2 1/2 hours to get ashore on a cruise line shorex. It took forever to clear, and once done, we got no additional shoreside tender (the other ships were still using them, or perhaps they were not contracted for us).

Princess uses its own tenders in port.  Carnival contracts with the port tenders.   

[Mike45LC]

3 hours ago, SadieN said:

Princess uses its own tenders in port.  Carnival contracts with the port tenders.   

Princess uses a mix of both lifeboats and "private" tenders" at Cabo. 

[CRUZBUDS]

1 hour ago, Mike45LC said:

Princess uses a mix of both lifeboats and "private" tenders" at Cabo. 

 

That has been our experience -- it would help if there are not a lot of ships in port.  The Royal Princess is not a small ship 

 

 

 

[Mike45LC]

There will be three ships in port when Mindy is there.  I don't recall which the others are, but they will also be in port at Mazatlán and PV when Mindy is there, and there is a fourth ship (Celebrity, I think) for one of these other ports.  

 

I might have posted this on the Roll Call thread.

 

Edited October 25, 2019 by Mike45LC