Tender question

[Mrs f.]

I'm planning an excursion.  Tender port. Ship leaves at 5pm.   I know we always have to be back a half hour before. But when might the last tender be?

[pinotlover]

37 minutes ago, Mrs f. said:

I'm planning an excursion.  Tender port. Ship leaves at 5pm.   I know we always have to be back a half hour before. But when might the last tender be?

4:30

[njhorseman]

2 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

I'm planning an excursion.  Tender port. Ship leaves at 5pm.   I know we always have to be back a half hour before. But when might the last tender be?

Typically the last tender is 30 minutes prior to the all aboard time, so 4 pm is likely, but it could be earlier in ports where the tendering process is difficult or the tender has to travel a long distance due to the ship being anchored far offshore.

If you name the port someone who is familiar with it may be able to give a more definitive answer.

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

4:30

You're not being serious, are you? 

Usually the last tender departs shore before the all aboard time. 30 minutes is common. 

[MEFIowa]

It will be in your CURRENTS the night before and on a sign at the gangplank as you exit the ship.

[Mrs f.]

3 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

It will be in your CURRENTS the night before and on a sign at the gangplank as you exit the ship.

I'm trying to get a group tour together and want to give the provider a heads up.

[Mrs f.]

23 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

Typically the last tender is 30 minutes prior to the all aboard time, so 4 pm is likely, but it could be earlier in ports where the tendering process is difficult or the tender has to travel a long distance due to the ship being anchored far offshore.

If you name the port someone who is familiar with it may be able to give a more definitive answer.

Port is Sao Tome in Western Africa 

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, Mrs f. said:

Port is Sao Tome in Western Africa 

Sorry, I can't help you with that one. 

[vlthom]

3 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

I'm planning an excursion.  Tender port. Ship leaves at 5pm.   I know we always have to be back a half hour before. But when might the last tender be?

I believe that the last tender is typically an hour before the scheduled departure time.

[Mrs f.]

Thanks 

[pinotlover]

I believe there isn’t a rule. It depends upon the port and length of tender. In Wellington,NZ we had something like a 40 minute tender on Marina. Other ports, we’ve had 5 minutes tenders. Different circumstances, different rules. Read your Current or check the “ Port of Call” forum here on CC.

[Travrat]

6 hours ago, pinotlover said:

I believe there isn’t a rule. It depends upon the port and length of tender. In Wellington,NZ we had something like a 40 minute tender on Marina. Other ports, we’ve had 5 minutes tenders. Different circumstances, different rules. Read your Current or check the “ Port of Call” forum here on CC.

I thought Wellington, NZ was a docking port. Our upcoming cruise doesn’t have it as a port with tenders

[pinotlover]

1 hour ago, Travrat said:

I thought Wellington, NZ was a docking port. Our upcoming cruise doesn’t have it as a port with tenders

You’re right! Wellington was the port with the big terminal and where the dogs caught the really ignorant guy trying to take bananas ashore from the ship. This was after Carr, our CD, announced repeatedly not to take any food from the ship ashore. The passenger was eat up with stupid, and the authorities had him instantly. Now I can’t remember which NZ port had the long tender in. 

 

[Travrat]

6 hours ago, pinotlover said:

You’re right! Wellington was the port with the big terminal and where the dogs caught the really ignorant guy trying to take bananas ashore from the ship. This was after Carr, our CD, announced repeatedly not to take any food from the ship ashore. The passenger was eat up with stupid, and the authorities had him instantly. Now I can’t remember which NZ port had the long tender in. 

 

Maybe Bay of Islands. That is a tender port on our upcoming cruise. I hope it’s not that long because I want to do a non-O shore excursion there and I am afraid I won’t make it on time because of O’s policy of not allowing independent passengers get on early tenders. 

[basor]

9 hours ago, Travrat said:

Maybe Bay of Islands. That is a tender port on our upcoming cruise. I hope it’s not that long because I want to do a non-O shore excursion there and I am afraid I won’t make it on time because of O’s policy of not allowing independent passengers get on early tenders. 

I have never found that O "does not allow" independent passengers on early tenders.....they give priority to their tours and fill in with independent passengers.  We have been able to get on one the early tenders every time we wanted to...

[Travrat]

8 minutes ago, basor said:

I have never found that O "does not allow" independent passengers on early tenders.....they give priority to their tours and fill in with independent passengers.  We have been able to get on one the early tenders every time we wanted to...

Perhaps “not allow” was an incorrect choice of words but giving priority to those on O excursions leaves few if any spaces for independent passengers. I am hesitant to book the excursion I would like to take because I cannot be guaranteed a place on one of the early tenders which I would need to be on.

[EJL2023]

1 hour ago, basor said:

I have never found that O "does not allow" independent passengers on early tenders.....they give priority to their tours and fill in with independent passengers.  We have been able to get on one the early tenders every time we wanted to...

Same here. If you get down early no problem. We were on the tender right after the first excursion tender. In fact I think it was same tender, just after the first excursion group. I would also note this was for Mykonos, probably one of the most popular excursions, both ship and private, places. 

Edited February 8 by EJL2023

[EJL2023]

42 minutes ago, Travrat said:

Perhaps “not allow” was an incorrect choice of words but giving priority to those on O excursions leaves few if any spaces for independent passengers. I am hesitant to book the excursion I would like to take because I cannot be guaranteed a place on one of the early tenders which I would need to be on.

Have you missed a DIY excursion before on Oceania because of this?

[Tranquility Base]

1 hour ago, Travrat said:

I am hesitant to book the excursion I would like to take because I cannot be guaranteed a place on one of the early tenders which I would need to be on.

Is your excursion fixed timings, are is it a private tour for you ?

At what location will you meet the excursion, the tender pier or in town ?

What time does the excursion leave versus the ship's scheduled arrival time ?

What is the previous port ? 

[ORV]

13 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

Have you missed a DIY excursion before on Oceania because of this?

Maybe a better question is have they cruised on Oceania before? Like so many things that people worry about I have found this to be a non issue over the years. But if it’s that important just book the owners suite. You’ll have priority. 

[shepherd really]

18 minutes ago, ORV said:

Maybe a better question is have they cruised on Oceania before? Like so many things that people worry about I have found this to be a non issue over the years. But if it’s that important just book the owners suite. You’ll have priority. 

The only stop where a private tour operator has asked us to be on an early tender is Stanley, I assume no one was mumbling about how they missed their excursion due to a late tender there.   One would think the tour operators would wait a few minutes for a nice payday. 

Cruise hack alert: I travel with friends in a named suite, I just follow them and their butler.  That works well at a significant savings over actually paying for an owner suite. 

 

Choose your friends carefully. 

[Travrat]

17 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

Have you missed a DIY excursion before on Oceania because of this?

No. I don’t usually schedule DIY excursions in tender ports.

[Travrat]

3 hours ago, ORV said:

Maybe a better question is have they cruised on Oceania before? Like so many things that people worry about I have found this to be a non issue over the years. But if it’s that important just book the owners suite. You’ll have priority. 

This will be my fifth O cruise. I find their shore excursion program to be weak and the shore excursion team unknowledgeable about most ports of call. They couldn’t tell me where their drop off location was on their “London on your

own” tour. They said it is somewhere in Central London- we’ll that narrows it down lol. This is just an example. 

[Travrat]

17 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

Is your excursion fixed timings, are is it a private tour for you ?

At what location will you meet the excursion, the tender pier or in town ?

What time does the excursion leave versus the ship's scheduled arrival time ?

What is the previous port ? 

That’s a lot of questions. The excursion is a catamaran tour in Bay of Islands, NZ. It is not private. I believe there are maximum of 14 participants. According to the current info from O we anchor at 8:00AM and depart at 6:00PM. The tour begins at 10:00AM in Paihia.  From the tender wharf there is a shuttle to a different location(it is supposed to be 5 minutes) then a 5 to 10 minute walk to where the catamaran is in Paihia. The excursion I would prefer to take is in another location, Russel, which would require a 15 to 20 minute ferry from Paihia. I think that one is too risky so chose the one that leaves from Paihia. 
It seems that I should not have a problem getting there by 9:45 but if all the O excursions have priority and I can’t get on one of the earliest tenders I may not make it. The tour company explicitly says they will NOT wait for cruise passengers under any circumstances. I am not sure how long the tender ride is to the location where we get the shuttle bus. This is why I asked the person who said the tender took 40 minutes in a port in NZ if it was Bay of Islands.

[EJL2023]

44 minutes ago, Travrat said:

That’s a lot of questions. The excursion is a catamaran tour in Bay of Islands, NZ. It is not private. I believe there are maximum of 14 participants. According to the current info from O we anchor at 8:00AM and depart at 6:00PM. The tour begins at 10:00AM in Paihia.  From the tender wharf there is a shuttle to a different location(it is supposed to be 5 minutes) then a 5 to 10 minute walk to where the catamaran is in Paihia. The excursion I would prefer to take is in another location, Russel, which would require a 15 to 20 minute ferry from Paihia. I think that one is too risky so chose the one that leaves from Paihia. 
It seems that I should not have a problem getting there by 9:45 but if all the O excursions have priority and I can’t get on one of the earliest tenders I may not make it. The tour company explicitly says they will NOT wait for cruise passengers under any circumstances. I am not sure how long the tender ride is to the location where we get the shuttle bus. This is why I asked the person who said the tender took 40 minutes in a port in NZ if it was Bay of Islands.

There is a current thread on Bay of Islands in the Port of Calls section. Perhaps you could go there and ask time for tenders there as they are mentioning tenders, etc.  I don’t see where you have been on that thread. It may be helpful for you since it is a current thread and they should have a good recollection of timing, etc.