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FTTF - Water Taxi


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Does having FTTF provide you access to the water taxis earlier? I thought I had read that it does but can’t find the information again. (Specifically for getting onto Princess Cays)

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Right, it offers a priority water shuttle service (or tender as I call them.). On my cruises to Belize and Half Moon Cay, we reported to one of the bars and then proceeded to the tender. We board first and then the other passengers came on. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
13 hours ago, DeniseTr said:

Too bad, at the end of the day when I'm tired, hot and hungry is when it would be most needed

I agree, getting back to the ship as priority would be even more of a selling feature to me than getting off the ship

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I think the issue on the return trip might be the need for a second and separate line for Priority guests and FTTF. That would be logistically difficult for most tender companies on their pier. And obviously you can't have people 'skipping' others by using a single line. That would never work and result in frustration and conflict. So I think all cruise lines have gone with the existing policy for essentially forever.

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1 hour ago, jsglow said:

I think the issue on the return trip might be the need for a second and separate line for Priority guests and FTTF. That would be logistically difficult for most tender companies on their pier. And obviously you can't have people 'skipping' others by using a single line. That would never work and result in frustration and conflict. So I think all cruise lines have gone with the existing policy for essentially forever.

For sure, the logistics make it very difficult. Just a wishful thinking thing. A more useful thing would be a VIFP/FTTF line to get back on the ship at a pier, sometimes those lines can be killer lol.

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Not sure how much of a perk this is. You end up sitting for awhile waiting for everyone else to board. Sure you are not standing in line to wait. But now you are just waiting in the sun(maybe) and on a bobbing boat.

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12 minutes ago, CruisinArn said:

Not sure how much of a perk this is. You end up sitting for awhile waiting for everyone else to board. Sure you are not standing in line to wait. But now you are just waiting in the sun(maybe) and on a bobbing boat.

True, and if they don't allow you to sit where you want, you might end up the last to get off the thing.

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42 minutes ago, CruisinArn said:

Not sure how much of a perk this is. You end up sitting for awhile waiting for everyone else to board. Sure you are not standing in line to wait. But now you are just waiting in the sun(maybe) and on a bobbing boat.

I’ve been told that when the tendering first starts, the non-priority lines for a tender ashore can be very long.  Having priority status is a great perk.

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I don't recall it meaning you get on the boat first. I recall it meaning they send you to the line that's waiting for the next boat rather than to the area where the mass of people are waiting to be called to wait in the line. The perk is for if you want to get onto an early tender. After the first hour or so, it doesn't matter and they usually announce that people can just head straight to the gangway rather than whatever lounge is the staging area earlier. 

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They normally tell you to meet at another venue, then walk you over to the tender to board. I've never sat on the tender to wait for it to be filled when I've done it. Other than waiting for everyone that was in the venue with me to board the tender. In my experiences, there's been enough to fill the tender, but maybe not always the case. If there's not, there are plenty of people waiting around in the stairwell to fill up the first tender if the folks with priority don't fill it up.

 

I've also gone down after tendering has started and there was still a regular line. In that case, we told the person directing the line and they had someone lead us to the front of the line to get on the tender right then. This was at HMC. Only place I've done that. 

 

If it's a few hours after tendering starts, normally you can just go down and get on a tender and when there's no more people waiting, the tender leaves. They may wait a few min to make sure no one else is coming, but they don't wait for it to fill up. 

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13 hours ago, CruisinArn said:

Not sure how much of a perk this is. You end up sitting for awhile waiting for everyone else to board. Sure you are not standing in line to wait. But now you are just waiting in the sun(maybe) and on a bobbing boat.

 

Yes, but it is likely to be the FIRST or second bobbing boat.  🙂  

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