Tendering

[canadiangirl77]

Question - what happens if we book an excursion on our own, and we end up having to tender that port? Is there any way of getting off sooner?

My DH and DFIL have booked a fishing excursion for 630am in Alaska but not thru the cruise line.

Any experiences??

[RSWBADGER]

Question - what happens if we book an excursion on our own, and we end up having to tender that port? Is there any way of getting off sooner?

My DH and DFIL have booked a fishing excursion for 630am in Alaska but not thru the cruise line.

Any experiences??

 

Be the first in line to get a low number. NCL shore excursions will get off the ship first, then low number tickets and VIP passes. You may have to wait 45 minutes to an hour even if you have a low number.

[CruiseGuy12345]

This isn't by any means guaranteed to work, but I met someone who couldn't sleep and was wandering around the ship at 4:30am and asked about tender tickets. They said they don't hand them out until 8am but the person felt bad and gave them to her!

[cruizinwithkids]

What time are you getting to port? Other than overnight visits, I've never seen a ship arrive in time for a 6:30AM shore excursion.

[KeystoneCruiser]

Question - what happens if we book an excursion on our own, and we end up having to tender that port? Is there any way of getting off sooner?

My DH and DFIL have booked a fishing excursion for 630am in Alaska but not thru the cruise line.

Any experiences??

 

 

Looking at the itineraries, it appears that you are talking about Ketchikan on the Pearl. The ship arrives at 6:00 a.m.. Depending on the number of ships in port that day, you will either tender or the ship will dock. If the ship docks that day, you should be off by 6:30 a.m.. If the you have to tender that day, forget any chance of getting to shore by 6:30. It generally takes 30-45 minutes after arrival to get the tenders ready, another 5 to load the tenders, 10-20 to tender to shore and then another 5-10 to unload. Even those on the first tender won't get to shore until probably close to 7:00 a.m. (and like RSWBadger said, those on NCL Excursions will be taken directly to the front of the line and those with VIP passes (the high end suites), will be next.)

 

There is no way of knowing whether you will be tendering or docking. When I was on the Star in 2005, we docked in Ketchikan (along with 2 other ships), but the HAL ship was anchored and tendering. A crew member told us that the week before it had been reversed, the HAL ship docked and the Star tendered.

[Falcon164016]

This may be a stupid question, but do the tenders cost anything? I know they take the place of a dock, but at the same time, it costs $ to run them...

[Vampire Parrot]

This may be a stupid question, but do the tenders cost anything?

 

I can't resist.. sorry :

Yes, they cost many tens of thousands of dollars to build - the larger tenders can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

But passengers use them for for free! (Well.... strictly speaking, the cost is already accounted for when you pay for your cruise...)

[CruiseGuy12345]

This may be a stupid question, but do the tenders cost anything? I know they take the place of a dock, but at the same time, it costs $ to run them...

 

The cost of the tender is included in the price of the cruise. I guess they just factor it in.