cee.lynn Posted June 4, 2006 #1 Share Posted June 4, 2006 Hello. I have never been to a port that required tendering, but my upcoming cruise will have one such port. I am wondering how this works... is it best to sleep in, enjoy breakfast, and wait for most poeple to get off the ship? Can you tender out whenever you want? What about coming back? Are there scheduled times that you can go back to the ship? Thanks! C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherylandtk Posted June 4, 2006 #2 Share Posted June 4, 2006 If you have an excursion scheduled through the cruiseline, you will be told where and when to report--sometimes on ship, sometimes on dock. It is usually busy the first hour or so with many folks on excursions, as well as those who want to get ashore early (perhaps for a privately booked excursion). In that case, depending on what you want, just wait until they stop passing out tender tickets/numbers (usually they announce it on the PA)and stroll on to the tender when you are ready. Note however, that some busy ports (notably Grand Cayman and Cozumel) use the ferry size tenders holding many more people, taking longer to load and unload and jockeying for limited shore dock space when there are too many ships in port at one time. It does happen that there are continuous lines to get on the tenders, going both ways, and the experience is an unhappy one for most passengers when that occurs. Not always, but enough that it can be a concern. If you are at one of these ports on a busy day, get up early and get an early/low ticket to go ashore, and give yourself plenty of time before sailing to return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted June 4, 2006 #3 Share Posted June 4, 2006 If you are not on a ships tour you will have to wait till they are ashore but then it is open tendering ...just show up at gangplank. returning Most cruiselines you just line up on the dock & the tender is there or in a short ime they run continously throughout the day. Be sure to check the time for "all aboard" the ship will not wait for you if late. some of the mega ships you may have to get up early to get off allow plenty of time to re-board in that case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caribbean dreams Posted June 4, 2006 #4 Share Posted June 4, 2006 yes, sleep in and have breakfast before you head down tothe gang plank, by that time maybe you will have missed most of the cattle hurd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofmeg Posted June 4, 2006 #5 Share Posted June 4, 2006 Hello. I have never been to a port that required tendering, but my upcoming cruise will have one such port. I am wondering how this works... is it best to sleep in, enjoy breakfast, and wait for most poeple to get off the ship? Can you tender out whenever you want? What about coming back? Are there scheduled times that you can go back to the ship? Thanks! C If you have an early excursion you booked through the cruise line you will get to go first. Sometimes you have to stand in line and get issued a time for the tender if you are not on an early excursion. Not always though-every cruise is differant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted June 4, 2006 #6 Share Posted June 4, 2006 What ship - What port?? Are you taking a ship's tour? Are you planning on taking an independent tour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvery Seas Cruiser Posted June 5, 2006 #7 Share Posted June 5, 2006 yes, sleep in and have breakfast before you head down tothe gang plank, by that time maybe you will have missed most of the cattle hurd. That works only if you do not have a scheduled shore excursion. If you do have a scheduled shore excursion, you could miss it by waiting until the "cattle herd" has left the ship. Our first trip to Grand Cayman without a prepaid excursion, we had to wait a couple hours before we could board a tender. Learning from that experience, we always booked a shore excursion so we would be allowed to leave the ship early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasetf Posted June 6, 2006 #8 Share Posted June 6, 2006 Hello. I have never been to a port that required tendering, but my upcoming cruise will have one such port. I am wondering how this works... is it best to sleep in, enjoy breakfast, and wait for most poeple to get off the ship? Can you tender out whenever you want? What about coming back? Are there scheduled times that you can go back to the ship? Thanks! C As you can see from comments above it depends what port you are talking about. Many get crammed with other ships competing for precious landing spaces. Others have long runs to make which means less number of runs per hour (they usually run 4 tenders on most Princess ships we have been on) (Grand and Sun classes). It also depends what you want to do in the port. Cabo for us is just wander around the harbor area. No need to rush getting off. Grand Cayman you need to get off early if you hope to do anything like Stingray City. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsfuzzmo Posted June 6, 2006 #9 Share Posted June 6, 2006 If you are NOT taking an excurison here are some things to think about: If you arrive in port and the tenders start running early, many times the shops and restaurants in port are not open yet, so therefore take your time getting off. You do have the option to take the tender as many times as you want in the day. If you beach in the morning, then want to go back to the ship to shower and change, then back to shore for shopping or something, you can do that. We like to spend as much time onshore as possible and therefore like to be on the last tender.....BUT.....we always get to the tender area at least an hour prior to the last tender and hang around there. We usually catch a cold beer or cocktail onshore and watch everyone scrambling back! Then hop on the last tender. Be prepared, that if the weather is windy or the seas are too rough, the island MAY be cancelled and you will spend the day at sea. This happens fairly often at tendered ports. It can be very dissappointing! But if you know about it ahead of time, you can prepare yourself. In my 13 or so cruises, we've only had 2 ports cancelled, so that's not too bad. If you get seasickness at all, tenders can be bad. They can be very rocky and a rough ride (or they can also be smooth as glass). If it is wavy it is can be difficult to board a tender as well. Take your camera with you (of course). Photos of your ship from the tenders can be awesome! All in all, I like tendering. No, it's not as convenient as being docked, but to me it's part of the cruise experience. Mrsfuzzmo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsfuzzmo Posted June 6, 2006 #10 Share Posted June 6, 2006 Sorry, double post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunflowerstarr Posted June 6, 2006 #11 Share Posted June 6, 2006 does anyone know if the half moon cay tender if you buy like the cabana would that be considered excursion and therefore get on the earlier tendering? and to make sure i have this right even if you are booked on something you can still get off later as lng as it doesnt interfere with getting there?(in my case not a problem its just the beach lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsfuzzmo Posted June 7, 2006 #12 Share Posted June 7, 2006 Sure, you can get off the ship at any time after all of those booked on early excursions get off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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