Newbie Question About Disembarking On Summit/alaska

[MontiD]

Someone PLEASE help this probably very easy question! Summit shows a schedule in Juneau from 8am until 10pm. I want to do an excursion (fly-out fly fishing) that is for 9am. Will we be able to leave the ship at approx 8am or is that the time it pulls up to the dock? If it gets to dock at 8am, how soon would be be able to leave the ship? And what time would we need to be back onboard? It's going to be a very tight sched for that day. We want to do the fly-out fishing from 9am-2pm and then whale watching from 330pm to 7pm. Is it possible??

One more question: what does "tender" mean? I've seen it referenced a few times.

Thanks for the reply and input.:) BTW cruise is 6/24/05

[42trvl]

We just did the same cruise you are asking about on Summit. Most ports, the ship was docked before the scheduled arrival time. In Juneau we had no trouble getting off the ship and to the necessary location in time for a scheduled 9am excursion. Most vendors seemed fairly accommodating in waiting if there was a delay with a cruise ship since so many of their clients are coming off the ships - I would just make sure to let them know what ship you are on. At the back end, the cruise line usually wants you on board by 30 minutes before the planned departure time.

 

By tender, they mean that the ship does not pull dockside at the port, but rather stops a bit out in the middle of the water then uses the lifeboats to shuttle passengers back and forth. It's usually a fairly smooth process, but at those ports you may want to allow some extra time when scheduling excursions independently as it does take quite a bit more time that just walking on and off the ship.