Tenders

[Ruelle2]

We are considering Crystal Symphony Grand Journey Italy and the Greek Isles, May 1, 2021.  The itinerary looks wonderful except for the number of ports that require tender transfer.  We have never been to this area so I don't know about how rough the seas can get.  I had some trouble with tenders on a North Atlantic cruise.  I would appreciate any input you can offer.  Thank you.

[ColeThornton]

Like anywhere else, seas can be rough, seas can be calm.  What happened in the past is not necessarily  indicative of what your experience will be like a year from now. 

[Heidi13]

Have tendered at many of the Greek islands multiple times and only experienced 1 squall. However, as per the previous reply, weather can vary anytime.

[wheezedr]

Have missed tender ports because of rough seas but have also missed docks for the same reason.  Nothing is a guarantee 

[lenquixote66]

I was on a tender for the first and last time in 2013.Leaving the ship was fine but returning was really bad.

[ontheweb]

We had a tender once in Corfu because there were 3 ships and only 2 docks. The sea got a little rough on the way back. One passenger fell while boarding and landed directly on his elbow. I cringed wondering what would it have been like if it was my DW who has a surgically repaired elbow because she once slipped on ice and fell on it. Even having it touched causes her pain.

 

But as has been said weather can vary tremendously.

[lenquixote66]

1 minute ago, ontheweb said:

We had a tender once in Corfu because there were 3 ships and only 2 docks. The sea got a little rough on the way back. One passenger fell while boarding and landed directly on his elbow. I cringed wondering what would it have been like if it was my DW who has a surgically repaired elbow because she once slipped on ice and fell on it. Even having it touched causes her pain.

 

But as has been said weather can vary tremendously.

Friends of ours were on a cruise that had a tender port .On the way back to the ship my friends wife fell on her way back in to the ship and broke an ankle.

[navybankerteacher]

Tendering back to a HAL ship many years ago, at the end of a day at Half Moon Cay, we spent close to two hours bobbing around as it was too rough to safely come alongside - finally after they maneuvered the ship broadside to the seas we were able to reboard — hand-by-hand, as there was still a lot of pitching - and many were looking pretty green.

[jeremyosborne81]

Had a tender in Satorini in 2017. The harbor there is pretty calm, so it's not much of a problem.

[John Bull]

18 hours ago, jeremyosborne81 said:

Had a tender in Santorini in 2017. The harbor there is pretty calm, so it's not much of a problem.

 

Yes, ships anchor in the caldera - exceptionally well-sheltered by islands.

https://goo.gl/maps/J6AyF4LQEFa2DYqu5

 

JB 

[CruiserBruce]

Tendering in ports is not a rare event. Most tendering goes just fine. Probably less than 10% have any notable issues...certainly from our experience its under 10%. But some of the most beautiful places in the world might only be available if you tender.

[GrJ Berkshire]

Tendering could be a real problem in the future. As the process of loading and disembarking cannot be socially distanced and the way people are packed into tenders an issue, I am not sure how cruise lines will adapt these is an issue for the 'new normal'

[ALD18]

Agree with above.  We have an upcoming cruise with multiple tender ports and are wondering how they will deal with it as well.  Suspect face masks will be mandatory and/or they may add additional tender craft with fewer guests on each.

[cruisemom42]

What are your ports?

 

The weather in the Med can vary, just like anywhere else. I've had calm seas -- like glass -- in April when we tendered to Monemvasia. Gorgeous! 

 

And I've hit terrible weather in Rhodes, where they were trying to tender us in to Lindos -- the tender smashed against the pier so hard that many were thrown out of their seats and they had to help us off one by one, even after the boat was secured. (That was the second tender; after us tendering was discontinued and they ended up bussing us all to the city of Rhodes after our tour, where the ship had sailed round with the other passengers.)

 

Mykonos is frequently impacted by winds that can make it difficult to tender. 

 

 

 

 

[Hlitner]

On 5/27/2020 at 1:46 PM, jeremyosborne81 said:

Had a tender in Satorini in 2017. The harbor there is pretty calm, so it's not much of a problem.

I like anecdotal information.  What you really mean is that tendering WAS not a problem at a certain time in 2017!  That has absolutely no bearing on tendering today, tomorrow, next week, etc.  Having spent over forty years cruising extensively around the world there is one piece of anecdotal information that never changes.  Sea and weather conditions are always changing and never guaranteed.

 

To the OP I would just echo what a few others have posted which is that nobody can predict what will happen on your particular cruise.  If you are cruising the Greek Islands during the summer months, the odds are in your favor that there will be decent sea conditions.  But this is not a guarantee.  Even a storm that is located 1000 miles distant can cause swells that impact tendering.  Frequent cruisers understand that the weather and sea conditions are like rolling the dice and it is part of cruising.

 

Hank

[ontheweb]

23 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I like anecdotal information.  What you really mean is that tendering WAS not a problem at a certain time in 2017!  That has absolutely no bearing on tendering today, tomorrow, next week, etc.  Having spent over forty years cruising extensively around the world there is one piece of anecdotal information that never changes.  Sea and weather conditions are always changing and never guaranteed.

 

To the OP I would just echo what a few others have posted which is that nobody can predict what will happen on your particular cruise.  If you are cruising the Greek Islands during the summer months, the odds are in your favor that there will be decent sea conditions.  But this is not a guarantee.  Even a storm that is located 1000 miles distant can cause swells that impact tendering.  Frequent cruisers understand that the weather and sea conditions are like rolling the dice and it is part of cruising.

 

Hank

Just echoing what you said, we once had a tender in Corfu, not normally a tender port except there were 3 ships and 2 docks. Not a storm or anything nearly that bad, but someone on our tender when the tender rocked some fell directly on his elbow. Sitting next to my DW I cringed as I thought what if that had been her as she had previously fell while walking on ice and shattered her elbow. Even having it touched caused her much pain.

[MBP&O2/O]

....... and don’t forget the P&O ship in Monaco that had several hundred tendered passengers stranded ashore after a squall [emoji16]

[KnowTheScore]

Tendering is common yes but can present many adverse issues

 

For one, in the new world, social distancing would be almost impossible.  Waiting for tenders to get ashore on large ships is a real ball ache and waiting on the dockside to get back equally so and often much worse if you are left standing in long queues in searing heat.

 

On a Venice cruise that called into the notorious hot port of Dubrovnik and was tendering passengers, an elderly gentleman collapsed on the quayside in the blistering 40 degree heat whilst standing in long queues waiting for the tenders.  He sadly did not survive.

 

Last year as previous poster highlighted the P&O ship Azura tendered over 1000 people ashore and by the time it was time to come back the sea state had changed and it wasn't safe to use the tenders.  So over 1000 people had to spend the night ashore and P&O put them up in a gymnasium as I recall.  Pretty rough experience I'm sure.

 

Personally I find the tendering experience pretty awful, the little boats are very choppy in even slight swells and waves and there is very little fresh air as the windows are generally kept closed.   The wait in the morning and faff of having to get a ticket and wait until your number is called is frustrating and the queuing and waiting on the return is generally uncomfortable and undesirable in hot weather.  I definitely would not want to be on a ship in distress that required an "abandon ship" via the tenders. 

 

In summary, and on a personal basis, if the itinerary I was looking at had multiple tender ports I would avoid it and look for an alternative cruise unless there was some burning reason I needed to be on that cruise.   If I were faced with that situation I would likely just stay on-board at the tender ports to avoid the faffing and queuing and delays.  Much depends on the size of the ship and the number of passengers.  And that's before we have COVID-19 to contend with.   If they are forced to restrict the number of passengers in tenders from say 150 to 50 then goodness it's going to take forever to ferry 1000s of passengers to and fro.  No, I'd definitely be looking for an itinerary without tender stops but each to their own.

 

.

 

 

[Hlitner]

Our worst tendering experience was not due to the weather but rather due to the stupidity of Princess cruise lines.  Last year Princess sent the Caribbean Princess (one of its larger ships) on a cruise to Greenland.  There were about 3400 souls aboard.  Two of the Greenland ports are very small villages (far less population then our ship) that are tender ports without any decent tender facility.  Nanortalilk can only handle one tender at a time and even this is a problem since any of the boat excursions also uses the same pier.  So, Princess needed to tender ashore 3400 folks which meant about 40 tender loads (each way).  Because many of the passengers were older (including me) it took 10-15 minutes to simply off load (and re-load) a single tender.  So, if you simply do a little math (which the cruise line should have done) it would take nearly 10 hours to simply get everyone ashore (we were not even in the port 10 hours).  It was a fiasco with folks having to wait over 4 hours to board tenders on the ship.  Many gave up even though Greenland was the primary reason many took the cruise.  Princess, in their infinite wisdom, did again schedule that same cruise this coming August although it has since been cancelled due to COVID-19.

 

Hank

P.S.  If you are thinking about going to Greenland on a cruise make sure to choose a smaller vessel.

[MBP&O2/O]

On out last cruise we had zero problems with the tenders. The first one of the day was for booked excursions, and after that they were every 30 minutes to shore and every 30 minutes return.
On the return to the ship at Mykonos we were the only two people on board.