Eurodam Tender Experience on Canada/New England Itinerary

[CruiseCacher]

I just noticed that our 10-day Canada/New England itinerary from Quebec City to Fort Lauderdale has 4 tender ports:

- Gaspé, Quebec

- Bar Harbor, Maine

- Gloucester, Mass

- Newport, RI

 

If you have tendered from the Eurodam in these ports, I'm interested to learn your experience.

 

Considering the size of the ship, I worry that the queues could be frustrating and the tender ride itself may be long. :confused: And, how much time should be allowed for getting to shore and back?

 

What has your experience been? Good, bad, or indifferent?

 

Note: We are not in a suite, so we do not have priority tendering.

 

Thanks,

CruiseCacher

[RuthC]

I know that the Newport tender ride is very short. Not only do I live here, I've done that ride several times. Figure 5 minutes from ship to shore. It's a fairly smooth ride, as the ship is anchored in Narragansett Bay, not broad ocean.

You come in at Perrotti Park, right by a very busy street in town. There's loads of shops right across the street, and it's a short walk into the heart of downtown.

The Bar Harbor ride is also quite short---again, maybe 5 minutes. You arrive at the base of a hill, which is a short walk to town.

[Jemima]

We were at Gaspe and Newport on our Eurodam cruise. Tendering was quick and there were no problems except fog in Gaspe.

We always do ship shore excursions in tender ports. We also do early excursions in these ports so that we don't have much wait getting ashore.

[trophy_23]

We were at Gaspe and Newport on our Eurodam cruise. Tendering was quick and there were no problems except fog in Gaspe.

We always do ship shore excursions in tender ports. We also do early excursions in these ports so that we don't have much wait getting ashore.

 

We were on the same cruise as Jemima in 2009 and agree the tendering was no problem at all. The fog was amazing in Gaspe, about 50yards away you couldn't even see the ship! Both rides were short and lines were not really an issue, they seemed to have the tender process well sorted.

[realnurse2]

Have been on the Eurodam twice and have had no problem tendering. The filling of the tender often takes longer than the trip. Only a few minutes to shore at all of these spots. There is always a posted time as you leave the ship when to be back and also when the last tender leaves the dock. If you don't like lines though, don't wait until the last tender!:eek:

[SailBadtheSinner]

The tender ride is about 12 minutes for Newport and about 7 minutes for Bar Harbor, excluding loading and unloading times. The tender dock in Newport can handle at least 4 tenders at a time, and in BH, only one. The tender docks in each location are easy walks to the business centers. In both ports of call, the streets that border the tender dock area can get very congested with tour buses.

 

 

SBtS

[Tobermory]

Hello Jemima:

 

Do you remember us (Allen and Gail) from the Eurodam cruise in 2009? Remember when we were sitting and talking quietly with you and your daughter in the Explorer's Lounge when we were asked (rudely) not to talk? We enjoyed getting to know you and your daughter on that cruise, and hope that we will meet again some day. Say "hello" to her for us.

 

In any case, the tendering at Gaspe was not really a problem but, as you pointed out, there was very heavy fog on our return tender to the ship. On our tender, it appeared that they had to use GPS to locate the exact position of the ship. Nevertheless, everything seemed safe enough. It was our opinion that the captain would not have let the tenders operate that day if he had known the weather (i.e., fog) would become worse in the afternoon. But I do remember that we had a fairly long line-up waiting for the return tenders.

 

Tendering at Newport was no problem at all. It was a beautiful day, and the whole tendering process went quickly and extremly smoothly.

 

The worst tendering experience that we ever had occurred in Monaco during a Noordam cruise. In the afternoon very strong winds developed suddenly. It took the tenders at least 30 minutes to return to the ship. We bobbed up and down and sideways in the water. We were in the second row of seats on the tender, and we could see the water coming right up and over the top of the tender. It was very rough and quite scary. During the whole tendering process, four of the tenders were damaged and at least four passengers were injured (probably from falling) but, from what we understand, all of those injured paniced and/or were not following the directions of the crew to remain seated until you were asked to disembark. The bobbing at the landing to board the ship was unbelievable -- you'd go 3 or 4 feet up, and then 3 or 4 feet down. You then had to get off at just the right moment when the tender was level with the ship. It took four crew members (2 on the tender, and 2 on the ship's landing platform) to help each person off. Several people "froze" at this point since they were so afraid to get off the tender in these conditions. We later heard that the captain had seriously considered suspending tendering operations later in the afternoon which would have stranded dozens or even hundreds of passengers in Monaco, but we were told that HAL would have made arrangements for everyone to get to Barcelona, our next port of call, two days later.

[CruiseCacher]

Thanks for the information. Looks like tendering won't be an issue. :)

 

Regards,

CruiseCacher