Using tender in Cannes- advice needed!

[!MSteacher]

During our Mediterranean cruise on Epic, we booked a tour with ItalytoursEu in Cannes.  However, the tour company has instructed that we "take the early" tender off the ship.  It is a possibility that the tour group will leave us if we do not meet them at the scheduled time.  My fear is that we won't be able to book a reservation on an early tender.  Therefore, we would be out of $300.00 for a tour we didn't get to take.  If anyone has used this tender before and has advice or suggestions - please pass it along.  We leave in 5 days!!!

The company gets FANTASTIC reviews, so any information regarding this company would be appreciated as well. 

[erdoran]

I took that tour and had the same instructions.  Do you know who else is in your group?  They had emailed me a day or two before the tour with everyone else's name/emails and suggested we all meet up and tender together (we were all on the Jade TA and in the rollcall).  I think we had three groups for the tour!  Each group who had someone platinum or Haven asked the concierge if their entire group could go with them for the priority tender - that's a hit or miss thing.  If that's not an option, I'd recommend the entire group go together to get tender tickets so you are all on the same tender.  If it turns out that your entire group is NOT on the first tender, let italytours know via email what tender you are on so they know you are coming. 

 

We found that as soon as Jade anchored, there were tenders lined up to take people ashore, but of course there are only so many that can be accommodated at one time.  Be sure you know the process to get tender tickets/reservations and to tender.  We were in one of the Haven groups so I don't know how it worked.

 

Italytours is great, we did 3 tours with them!  You will be pleased.

[Sunkissed Mommy]

I have this same concern!

 

My tour indicates the same thing (I think I am on your sailing too).

We are boarding in Rome, which means all the people boarding in Barcelona will get the early tenders and I fear I will be left with much later options.  I plan to email the tour operator with my concern to let them know I will get the earliest available but since I board at a later port I may not get the first.

[!MSteacher]

2 minutes ago, Sunkissed Mommy said:

I have this same concern!

 

My tour indicates the same thing (I think I am on your sailing too).

We are boarding in Rome, which means all the people boarding in Barcelona will get the early tenders and I fear I will be left with much later options.  I plan to email the tour operator with my concern to let them know I will get the earliest available but since I board at a later port I may not get the first.

We are on the ship with you.  I was hoping we would be in the same group.  I called the company this morning, and it wasn't very helpful.  Let me know what you found out. 

[!MSteacher]

I am waiting on an "updated email" with my group names.  At that point I will try to connect with the others to see if we can find a way to reserve for those getting on the ship in Barcelona. 

[seemoreroyals]

We did Cannes last year with the same concerns of the tour not waiting for us.  As it turned out although we were not on one of the first tenders, we ended up being the first in our group to arrive for the tour.  Don’t mess around, get on the earliest tender possible, follow the tour’s instructions and you will be fine.

[kochleffel]

When I did this last year, it was possible to sign up for a tender group through the television in the cabin a few days before. I don't think that it was open for signing up right from the start out of Barcelona. Just start trying as soon as you get into your cabin, again before leaving the ship at Livorno if it wasn't available the evening before.

 

Our group was split among tender groups 5, 7, and 9. I was the only one in group 9, but I went with group 7 and just said that the rest of my tour group was on that tender. It was OK, but I was alone and NCL generally accommodates the whims of solo passengers. This might not work for a larger number.

 

What can be a problem is that sometimes the tendering is interrupted because of high winds or rough sea. However, your excursion operator will see that tendering has stopped and should wait for it to resume.

[Sunkissed Mommy]

49 minutes ago, !MSteacher said:

We are on the ship with you.  I was hoping we would be in the same group.  I called the company this morning, and it wasn't very helpful.  Let me know what you found out. 

 

Our tour is booked through Liven Up, so I don't think we're on the same one 😞

[keywest1]

As advised, start checking on your room TV as soon as you are able to.  If you see that there are no early slots, I would advise booking the first tender available and then going to guest services to see if you can change.  I do know that they were making folks who tried to get in line before their tender time wait until there was no one behind them who was booked for the current time. The first tenders were at 7:30 am on our cruise.  There were a lot of folks who waited until later in the morning to get off the ship if they didn't have an early excursion since lots of things aren't open in Cannes that early.  

[!MSteacher]

Thank you for the information!  I appreciate your advice. 

[!MSteacher]

4 hours ago, Sunkissed Mommy said:

I have this same concern!

 

My tour indicates the same thing (I think I am on your sailing too).

We are boarding in Rome, which means all the people boarding in Barcelona will get the early tenders and I fear I will be left with much later options.  I plan to email the tour operator with my concern to let them know I will get the earliest available but since I board at a later port I may not get the first.

 

2 hours ago, kochleffel said:

When I did this last year, it was possible to sign up for a tender group through the television in the cabin a few days before. I don't think that it was open for signing up right from the start out of Barcelona. Just start trying as soon as you get into your cabin, again before leaving the ship at Livorno if it wasn't available the evening before.

 

Our group was split among tender groups 5, 7, and 9. I was the only one in group 9, but I went with group 7 and just said that the rest of my tour group was on that tender. It was OK, but I was alone and NCL generally accommodates the whims of solo passengers. This might not work for a larger number.

 

What can be a problem is that sometimes the tendering is interrupted because of high winds or rough sea. However, your excursion operator will see that tendering has stopped and should wait for it to resume.

Thank you for the information and advice.  My plan is to seek out help from the excursion desk or concierge as soon as we get on the ship.   

[DakotaDisneyLover]

No worries.  We just got off the Epic on Wednesday.  I went to the desk and explained the situation (we too had an early excursion in Cannes).  There was a specific person handling this and we were able to get the first tender time slot, no problem.  They were extremely accommodating.