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Tendering: Regal/Royal Pray Tell


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Past passengers who have sailed before on Regal/Royal please tell me your experience when tendering.

Procedures, problems, stories and ways to get onshore in an expedited manner would be appreciated.

 

Especially those who have done independent shore excursions at tender ports versus Princess excursions.

 

I ask this because of the sheer number of people on these ships.

 

Thanks,

Ron

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Don’t remember any significant differences or issues I haven’t experienced on other ships, including independent tours. Most independent tours I’ve taken off the Royal met either in Club 6 or the Piazza. On one cruise, the tour organizer worked with the Shore Excursion Desk to arrange for us to all disembark on the same tender, just as if we were on a Princess tour. I’ve seen that many times on a variety of Princess ships.

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When we were on the Royal all passengers except those on Princess tours had to report to the Symphony DR. Those who receive priority tendering were asked to wait in one area. Others were provided tender tickets. As always it was one tender ticket per passenger. I remember the process going fairly smoothly. The Royal has larger tenders than grand class ships.

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Past passengers who have sailed before on Regal/Royal please tell me your experience when tendering.

Procedures, problems, stories and ways to get onshore in an expedited manner would be appreciated.

 

Especially those who have done independent shore excursions at tender ports versus Princess excursions.

 

I ask this because of the sheer number of people on these ships.

 

Thanks,

Ron

 

I see you're on the Regal doing New England...

Just a heads up, we were on the Regal last year doing the same itinerary and the problem you'll encounter in Bar Harbor (the only tender port) is that EVERYONE onboard has to clear immigration with USIS before the tender process can start...

 

So in a word, it was hard to get off early

Srpilo

Edit: I just remembered we also tendered in Newport RI, and as stated above by others the process was a standard tendering time frame ... But beware with planning Bar Harbor

Edited by srpilo
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Be aware that coming back to the ship the lines for tendering will be very long starting about an hour before you're required to be back on board. No one in line will be left behind, but the waits are considerably longer. Elites and suites no longer have priority in tender lines.

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Be aware that coming back to the ship the lines for tendering will be very long starting about an hour before you're required to be back on board. No one in line will be left behind, but the waits are considerably longer. Elites and suites no longer have priority in tender lines.

When did they?

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The only issue we had was tendering back to the ship from the Princess private island. The line was long and once we finally tendered back we sat bobbing next to the side of the ship for over thirty minutes. I'm not sure why this happened. Having said that, I've read other people saying when they bring supplies back to the ship they make the passengers wait while they load those tenders. I suppose if one or more of those made it back faster than a tender full of passengers we could have waited while they unloaded them as well.

 

Otherwise it's been easy sailing.

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We were in a club class mini suite on Royal Princess last month on a B2B in the med, and I'm not sure how we managed it but we got priority tender passes for both cruises. Maybe there were just so few elites on board that they decided to give the perk to CC guests? Anyway, out of the 4 tender ports we only needed to use the passes once. At 1 port we were on a shoe excursion so assembled in the casino before going to the tenders, and for the other 2 ports the queues had cleared quickly enough for them to make the announcement to proceed directly to the tender boarding area. So all in all, the size of the ship and number of passengers did not appear to cause any problems at all with regards to tendering.

 

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

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  • 3 weeks later...

Last December we sailed and took a tender to Princess Cays. 19 Knot winds. My problem was I was wearing flip flops (sneakers were happy at home in Texas). I'll never let that happen again.

My backpack I take with me has a closure zipper vs open bag that if dropped may be a challenge to get everything back into it.

 

I wear glasses but can see ok without them. I secure them into my backpack.

It's all about the wind which no one can control. Royal, in my case is a pretty large ship so she will be anchored a little further out.

Hope this helps. Travel is adventure

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Last December we sailed and took a tender to Princess Cays. 19 Knot winds. My problem was I was wearing flip flops (sneakers were happy at home in Texas). I'll never let that happen again.

My backpack I take with me has a closure zipper vs open bag that if dropped may be a challenge to get everything back into it.

 

I wear glasses but can see ok without them. I secure them into my backpack.

It's all about the wind which no one can control. Royal, in my case is a pretty large ship so she will be anchored a little further out.

Hope this helps. Travel is adventure

Why not the flip flops? Many people do wear them.

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We were on the Regal, actually a year ago today. We had two tendered ports (Newport and Bar Harbor). I don't know the problem in Newport, but it took forever to get inland and then back to ship. Lines were LOOOOOONG.

Would suggest arriving early for debarkation to avoid the masses.

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Just got off the Regal yesterday and many said the tender ride in Newport was long. Ride in Bar Harbour was less than 15 minutes. Go to Symphony Dinng room for tender pass then depart when told too. Always allow plenty of time for the trip. Coming back n ME. was no problem as we came back earlier and got right on a tender.

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That would be one great perk having priority tendering back to the ship. ;)

 

Depending on the port, those long returning lines are easily handled. We are sometimes able to find a nearby bar where we can keep an eye on the queue. While folks are waiting in that long tender line, we are sipping our adult beverage and relaxing. Once we see that the tender line is getting short....we stroll over to get on a tender (it might be the last tender). Just one more example of "queue avoidance" which is our middle name.

 

Hank

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We were on the Regal last week. We tendered in Newport and Bar Harbor with no problem at all. We didn't try to get off in Newport until 10:00, and we had to wait about 20-25 minutes. We passed the time by playing cards. There were two reasons for the wait...it was prime time, and it was very choppy. We disembarked in Bar Harbor at 8:30. Our group of 10 got tender tickets and were directed straight onto a tender with no wait. I thought tender operations were very smooth in both ports.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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I based my flip flop comment on our last tender. Be prepared for anything. I didn't realize what 19 knots meant. I wasn't ready for the bucking of the tender. As I stepped forward to get onto the tender the staff had to grab and stop me because the tender went down and separated from the ship by several feet. Hey it's vaca so have fun!

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