Video: QM2 To tender or not to tender

[gui888]

We were on the Christmas western carib. cruise. The morning of the 26th the ship took her position outside the harbor in Grand Cayman. Looked a bit dark, but nothing to worry about. We were put on an early tender for an 8am Atlantis Sub tour. When we left the ship I counted seven additional ships at anchor. The ride to shore was a bit rough, but nothing too harsh. When the sub srfaced, there were ony three ships left at anchor and we were told that our tender station had moved to the south pier and that the last tender would now depart at 2pm rather than 4:30. The other ships had already left passengers on shore and I did not want to get stuck. We were back at 1pm. It took over three hours to get four tnder loads of passengers back to the ship, the waves were unbelivable! Later captain Rynd remarked that by 10am he realized the situation was getting worse and stopped putting people ashore, but he already had over 500 passengers ashore and did not want to leave anybody. Upon approching the ship the waves were so rough the window next to my wife on the tender cracked when the tender was thrown against the tender platform. Any similar experiences?

 

 

Take a look:

[stowaway2k]

Wow!

 

I've not seen anything similar...just nice and easy...

[Shellie1964]

Hello GUI888

My husband and I were on the same cruise (wasn't it fabulous). We were detered from venturing onto the shore that day as the swell looked quite bad and not long after there was an announcement asking for passengers not to tender ashore unless absolutley necessary.

We spent a couple of hours in the Golden Lion Pub (on board) watching the tenders struggling to get alongside the tender platform. As entertaining as it was it looked quite scary and I for one was glad to not have been in a tender that day.

When we have get round to editing our vidio I will post our 'tender trip' where we had had a little to much shoreside hospitality;) .

Shellie x

[pnhmrk]

Any similar experiences?

 

I've visited ports in the Carribbean when it's been too rough in the morning for the tenders. Then nobody's been off the ship so it's just been a case of waiting until after lunch. Likewise Geurnsey (not carribbean) is well known for being a port where the tenders may not run - I've been there three times on cruises but only actually made the island once!

[RobertQM2]

Hello pnhmrk, although I know it's "off topic" but I'm interested how you liked the Island of Guernsey.

 

We stayed there for a couple of days last summer and it was great. The only thing we missed was to meet Peter the "guernseyguy" who is famous amoung all of us. Unfortunately we had to learn later, that we nearly cycled along his house (or castle?).

Regards

[pnhmrk]

I'm interested how you liked the Island of Guernsey.

 

Pleasant enough. We didn't do a lot there except wander through the town, visit the fort and see the noon day gun fired. Many years ago we visited on a day trip from Jersey - then we went to the German Underground Hospital, again pleasant enough but not earth shattering. I suspect that Guernsey is an island you need to spend days on; as a cruise port it's OK but not one I'd be desperate to go back to.

[FuranzuMaru]

Sadly I do not have any video clips but the return tenders from Ushuaia on the Rio to LA cruise last February were slightly alarming. One tender took over 45 mins and at least 8 attempts to dock at the tender platform. I will post some photos when I find them.

[lannp]

We had a similar experience last year tendering into Cozumel from the Coral Princess. They had to halt loading the shoreside ferry until the boat stopping pitching up and down so much because it was impossible to step off the ship's platform onto the ferry. We had several crew going ashore with us and they were also looking hesitant about going ashore.

[guernseyguy]

While not a tender, VOYAGER did certainly rock & roll in a storm in the Med:

 

 

Peter

From his bungalow in Guernsey!

[stowaway2k]

While not a tender, VOYAGER did certainly rock & roll in a storm in the Med:

 

 

Peter

From his bungalow in Guernsey!

 

Mama Mia! :eek:

Hold on to your wigs!

[patwell]

YIKES!!!! That is frightening! Guess no one went to the dining room that day!

 

Cheers, Penny...safely home in SC