Tendering

[10child]

Hello,

 

My family and I will be taking our first cruise this December aboard the Century to the Western Carribean. I am a little worried about the tendering process. With the rooms we have booked we get priority embarkation/disembarkation.

 

My question is the "tendering" process fairly easy, or is it as hard as it sounds?

 

Thanks!

[spearmint]

Hello,

 

My family and I will be taking our first cruise this December aboard the Century to the Western Carribean. I am a little worried about the tendering process. With the rooms we have booked we get priority embarkation/disembarkation.

 

My question is the "tendering" process fairly easy, or is it as hard as it sounds?

 

Thanks!

 

The tendering process is very easy. There are continuous boats -- usually one or more lifeboats but can also be land-based boats-- taking passengers to and from the ship. It's never been a problem for us in wait times or in actually boarding from the vessel to the boat. Others may tell you differently, depending on their experiences.

[Mysticks1]

It can be very easy if the seas are somewhat calm. We have tendered with it very windy and it made it more difficult. In one case it was so windy that the ship had to reposition every 30 min or so because the wind was too strong for the thrusters to keep the ship in place. We got stuck on a tender back to the ship while the ship repositioned and were on it over 30 min in higher seas, that trip was not easy.

The priority embarkation/debarkation does not give you priority tender tickets. (I emailed Celebrity and asked).

[excitedofharpenden]

If it's Western Caribbean you are probably talking Grand Cayman. I've been there a couple of times and haven't had a problem although once there was quite a swell and it's a fairly long tender to the island. The thing to say is the crew are excellent at making sure you are safe at getting off and on and if it is too rough then they won't try to tender at all. That can happen quite often with Grand Cayman. The weather of course is a crap shoot. Having priority tickets is great and saves messing around, but the first passengers off will be those on Celebrity excursions.

 

Personally I think tendering is a pain in the neck because it always seems to take a long time to do it. A necessary evil to visit these nice places, but give me a dock and let me walk of the ship anytime.

 

Phil

[jojun24]

IMHO tendering is a pain in the 'you know what'. There are many negatives to tendering and few positives. It is a time consuming process both getting off the ship and getting back on.

 

You have to wait to get on tenders. Priority goes to passengers with ship sold shore excursions, elite Captain's Club members and passengers in certain staterooms. Everyone else has to get a ticket and wait for their turn. Last year when we sailed to Hawaii we had a day and a half in Lahina so there was plenty of time to waste riding tenders. However, in Kona there was only six hours in port. Getting in and out on the tender wasted about two of those hours.

 

Boarding a tender can be very slow if the water is rough. There are plenty of crew to help but when the tender is moving up and down by two or three feet, boarding has to be timed to when the tender and the platform are at the same level. People with physical difficulties have trouble with the transfer to the tender while they watch their feet for balance and try to keep their heads from striking the tender door.

 

Once inside the tender may be very crowded, hot and humid. Local tenders are better here because the are larger and typically have open decks. Local tender ride better in the water and are not as affected by waves as the ship's tenders might be.

 

On the way back to the ship there is typically a line if it is close to sailing and you get to do the rough seas dance in the opposite direction.

 

If the water is calm getting on and off is easy but you still have the lines, the crowding, etc.

 

The only positive I see is that tenders generally take you to the center of the town. If you dock you may have to take a shuttle to town. If the seas are calm and the crowds light tendering may be faster than a shuttle.

[10child]

Thanks to everyone for their responses. I now have a good idea of what to expect.

 

Thanks again!:)

[mardon]

If you have to be tendered into a port, so be it. If that is the only way to get ashore, you do it or you stay on the ship. We have never had a problem. Doesn't take a long time, lines move very fast

[Mysticks1]

Attached is a photo from the trip that I referred to earlier with the rough tender process. My DH and DD were on this one going into Cozumel - the wind was really strong and the ship needed to reposition frequently and it took longer for them to get the tenders tied up to the ship even though they positioned the ship to block the wind.

If you look at the photo you will see there is a top level of seats. Everyone up there was completely soaked when they got ashore. The spray from the bow was going completely over the top.