Tender Tickets

Hi,

We are arranging some private tours on our next cruise & a few of the passengers have mentioned getting tickets to get off in port. I know this is the case when we tender but I have never done this when I have docked. Please could someone verify this for us? We are cruising New Zealand.

Many thanks

Tickets are just for tendering but they usually still allow the ship's tours priority when docked. After that it is every man for himself. The only place I have ever seen or heard of a problem is in St Petersburg where the Russians make EVERYONE go thru immigration and it takes about an hour to get everyone off and settled.

Hi,

We are arranging some private tours on our next cruise & a few of the passengers have mentioned getting tickets to get off in port. I know this is the case when we tender but I have never done this when I have docked. Please could someone verify this for us? We are cruising New Zealand.

Many thanks

We have been in the same situation. I generally organize tours and have found that when tendering, getting everyone on shore to meet your tour guide can be a hassle.

Tendering can be a huge problem or not, depending on the location. How far does the ship anchor from the port (how long for the tenders to make the trip? In some places tendering can be a real pain. We tendered into Bali from the Solstice in 2013 and the local authorities (probably had their hands out for something) delayed us for 2 1/2 hours from even leaving the ship. Then, we had to use some of the local boats, which took a very long time to load and unload. In other cases, like Yalta in the Black Sea the weather resulted in our tendering being cancelled, so we never reached the port. Hopefully, your tendering process will be smooth.

First, Celebrity gives priority tender tickets to its elite passengers. This will help you quite a bit, unless of course not all your tour group qualify.

Check with your group and determine who needs the priority tickets. Sometimes others can pick up one or two extras.

If someone on your tour is zenith, you are in luck, have them arrange for your group to exit from the ship as a group.

If none of this works, warn those of your group to stand in line early to get low tender tickets, so they won't delay the rest of the group.

Good luck.

We are elite level (finally). Can someone tell us where on the ship to go for tender tickets? We've always just stood in the line & waited our turn, but we have some private tours coming up on our next trip and would love to get off as early as possible.

The only place I have ever seen or heard of a problem is in St Petersburg where the Russians make EVERYONE go thru immigration and it takes about an hour to get everyone off and settled.

That is because everybody needs to have a valid visa to enter the country - it's no different than going through immigration everytime one enters US from a foreign country (Canada not included).

We are elite level (finally). Can someone tell us where on the ship to go for tender tickets? We've always just stood in the line & waited our turn, but we have some private tours coming up on our next trip and would love to get off as early as possible.

I believe the Captain's Club welcome letter in your cabin will tell you when and where to go, as with all other elite events.

Priority tender tickets can be handled in two different ways.

We most frequently have had priority tender tickets delivered to our stateroom during the nightly turn-down service (delivered the night before the tender port). Look on the reverse side of the ticket for instructions where to go.

But a few times we've been told, in the welcome letter from the Captains Club hostess, where to assemble. Once a certain number of folks with priority tender are in that particular lounge then the group is escorted to the tender dock.

Demonyte , I know that, but to date St Petersburg is the only port we have visited that we were required to have a visa and stand on line for when leaving the ship. All thru the Caribbean, the Med, and lots of other European ports you just walk off the ship and go and enjoy. Hobbsie65's question is about getting his group off the ship and to their tour..and if the the ship is docked it is pretty easy, if it is a tender port, you need tickets so it gets complicated.

We are elite level (finally). Can someone tell us where on the ship to go for tender tickets? We've always just stood in the line & waited our turn, but we have some private tours coming up on our next trip and would love to get off as early as possible.

If you are elite or above, you will receive priority tender ticket in your cabin. For others, the ship will announce the location and time of distribution of tender tickets.

Never been to OZ or NZ, so I don't know the particulars of tendering there. But, we just did three tender stops (all in the US) on Infinity's Pacific Coastal. Not only can the procedure vary from ship to ship -- but it can change from port to port. At our first stop (Monterey) we called to inquire why we had not received Elite priority tickets (or information). We were told that there were no tickets -- it was "open tendering". Apparently, that did not work very well, as there were long lines, throughout the day. By our second stop (Catalina) they had instituted a tender-ticket system, where everyone was assigned to a lounge, and escorted off the ship -- in order of priority. This method worked much better, so it was also used for the third port (Santa Barbara).

I've always felt that tendering was one area where RC absolutely trumped X. It was very encouraging to see Infinity's staff working to improve the process. :cool:

Demonyte , I know that, but to date St Petersburg is the only port we have visited that we were required to have a visa and stand on line for when leaving the ship. All thru the Caribbean, the Med, and lots of other European ports you just walk off the ship and go and enjoy. Hobbsie65's question is about getting his group off the ship and to their tour..and if the the ship is docked it is pretty easy, if it is a tender port, you need tickets so it gets complicated.

If you cruise to China, India, Brazil, you will need a visa from those countries before you board the ship. Countries like Indonesia, Viet Nam, and UAE allow blanket visas acquired by the ship.

Other countries like Australia, Argentina (reciprocity fee) and Turkey (if you stay after or before cruise) require a visa, but it can be obtained electronically prior to travel very easily for a modest cost.

Russia allows a visit to SPB without a visa if you use a local tourist firm for your tours.

If you are elite or above, you will receive priority tender ticket in your cabin. .

If your steward forgets (or does not pay attention), you can simply walk to the front desk the night before and request them.

Hi,

 

We are arranging some private tours on our next cruise & a few of the passengers have mentioned getting tickets to get off in port. I know this is the case when we tender but I have never done this when I have docked. Please could someone verify this for us? We are cruising New Zealand.

 

Many thanks

I did the Australia/New Zealand cruise on the Solstice in 2013. If memory serves correctly, the only tender port in NZ was Akaroa and like with any other tender port, you will need tickets. Otherwise you will dock normally and no tickets are needed. No visas are needed for NZ.

Been to Turkey, never had to stand on line for a visa check at either stop but the ship did collect our passports before we arrived. Going to Australia in November and already have the visa done and linked to our passports. No interest in the other countries...but St Petersburg the "official" word was the tour companies covered your visa as long as you were with them. You had to present your passport and your tour ticket at immigration to leave the ship. It was a long, slow process that was typically Russian. "Give us your money and we will hassle you"....

We are Elite + on our most recent Summit cruise we had 2 tender ports. We recevied a letter in our stateroom the evening prior to our tender port telling us to go to Normandie Restaurant and pick up a Priority Tender ticket when we were ready to go ashore.

I did the Australia/New Zealand cruise on the Solstice in 2013. If memory serves correctly, the only tender port in NZ was Akaroa and like with any other tender port, you will need tickets. Otherwise you will dock normally and no tickets are needed. No visas are needed for NZ.

Thanks Paula - that is what I thought so thanks for clarifying.

Been to Turkey, never had to stand on line for a visa check at either stop but the ship did collect our passports before we arrived. Going to Australia in November and already have the visa done and linked to our passports. No interest in the other countries...but St Petersburg the "official" word was the tour companies covered your visa as long as you were with them. You had to present your passport and your tour ticket at immigration to leave the ship. It was a long, slow process that was typically Russian. "Give us your money and we will hassle you"....

Sorry...going off topic for a minute...

We were in SPB this summer on the Serenade and as you mention, the Visa process was handled by our wonderful private tour company, SPB-Tours (I can't recommend them highly enough). We were a group of 17, and all of us were off the ship and through Russian Immigration within 30 minutes. The Russian immigration officials were very efficient, but did not crack a smile. Don't try to say anything lighthearted to them. :)

Despite what cruise lines will tell you, if you are booking with a private tour company in Saint Petersburg that is accredited (licensed and registered by the Russian Ministry of Culture Federal Agency for Tourism), the tour company is legally authorised to collect your passport information, and take care of applying for the necessary Russian visa on your behalf. Beyond providing your passport information, there will be no additional work required by you. A fully-licensed tour operator is legally authorized to provide you with a document called a Tour Ticket which acts as a "blanket visa" for the duration of the stay. Do NOT forget this Tour Ticket when you leave the ship, and bring it with you every day of your stay in SPB. We had no problems whatever with the Russian immigration authorities as everyone had the necessary Tour Ticket documentation. Our SPB-Tours tour guides were waiting for us on the sidewalk, just outside of the main doors to the terminal, a few feet beyond the Immigration kiosks.

-----tender port telling us to go to Normandie Restaurant and pick up a Priority Tender ticket when we were ready to go ashore.

I followed instructions to the letter when we were on Eclipse in Split in 2010.

We were told to pick up our tender ticket after breakfast. When I picked them up, we were on tender #34. It took us 3 hrs to exit the ship.

2 years later, we were in Maui which is also a tender port. I was terrified that we would be unable to get off the ship for our private ' Rd to Hana' tour.

After much discussion on C.C it was decided to ask the CD if we could get priority tender. He said that the only way to ensure that was to book on the ship's tours.

However, a number of our group leaders( we had a total of 4 mini busses booked) went to Guest Services and it was arranged that we were taken off on the first tender.

Since then we have become Elite, so are now eligible for Priority tendering. However, we have always been docked ever since.

Good luck.

We have found that there are times that priority tender tickets do not exist for elite and elite +. Speak with the Captain's Club Host for priority tendering in these cases.

Hi,

We are arranging some private tours on our next cruise & a few of the passengers have mentioned getting tickets to get off in port. I know this is the case when we tender but I have never done this when I have docked. Please could someone verify this for us? We are cruising New Zealand.

Many thanks

hobbsie - Tender tickets for private groups are not an issue. All you need is one member of your tour that is Elite or above. Nicely go down to Guest Relations and let them know on the day after you board. A day later ask for the guest relations manager and provide them with a list of your passengers. I have always found a couple things - they initially say no can do and the day before hand me a stack of tender tickets. Second is you will probably have lots of Elites or better and if you find out who they are you will probably have a problem much smaller than you think. I was even given 30 tickets in the Falklands!