Kazzlazz Posted December 23, 2010 #1 Share Posted December 23, 2010 We will be in the Bay of Islands in January on the Sun Princess. I believe we use a tender to get to shore. Does anyone know where we get off the tender and how long the trip in the tender takes? :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaJ+ Posted December 23, 2010 #2 Share Posted December 23, 2010 I'm on Volendam in Jan. ... but my itinerary indicates that is a tender stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjcox9 Posted December 23, 2010 #3 Share Posted December 23, 2010 Tender will drop you off at a location that is a ways from the main part of the town. A shuttle was provided when we were there on the Volendam, however, it wasn't allowed in the small parking area until after some of the tour buses got underway. We did get the first shuttle and got around to the drop off point right in front of the local tours and were able to book with Fuller's for a nice tour of the Bay with just a few minutes to spare. The distance is fairly far but could be walkable as we saw some people doing that, but since we wanted to catch the Bay tour, we took the shuttle. After returning from our independent tour, we had a nice lunch and then strolled through a local market before taking the shuttle back to the ship. Sorry, but can't tell you the name of the drop off point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjcox9 Posted December 23, 2010 #4 Share Posted December 23, 2010 Just remembered that the OP's question was about the distance, not where........ My rather fragmented memory remembers that we could not see the tender dock from the ship but that was because we were outside the cove where into which we were tendered............ And unfortunately, cuz we cruise too much and I don't take notes, I really don't have a clue, but it may have been more than five or ten minutes. Perhaps someone else can help. I love it when someone responds to a question with an "answer" to other than what the question was, don't you? :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glaciers Posted December 24, 2010 #5 Share Posted December 24, 2010 I made a note of the tender ride in my journal as it took 15 minutes that I thought was a little long. We then took a shuttle bus into Paihai that took another 10 minutes or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazzlazz Posted December 24, 2010 Author #6 Share Posted December 24, 2010 Thank you both for your replies, you've both given me useful information :) Getting an answer to a question you didn't ask can be good, especially when you meant to ask the other question as well but forgot! ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MERLOTCHAMPAGNE Posted December 29, 2010 #7 Share Posted December 29, 2010 As this will be our first port in NZ, will we have to wait to clear immigration before we get on the tender? This happened on our fall Canada/NE cruise as the immigration officials boarded an hour late and delayed us enough that we missed our independent tour. We are due to arrive at 8a and our tour begins at 10a. Hope we make it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moyaroo Posted December 29, 2010 #8 Share Posted December 29, 2010 Civilized nations such as NZ put their customs officers on board and you clear as you cross the Tasman. (At least that is what we did on Celebrity two years ago.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Big_M Posted December 29, 2010 #9 Share Posted December 29, 2010 Celebrity also had AU customs officers onboard going the other way. I'm not sure if all the cruise lines do this though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budget Queen Posted December 30, 2010 #10 Share Posted December 30, 2010 This is a great port for a car rental. Cheap easy way to tour the interesting areas. As noted this is a short tender ride. I had a car delivered right to the tender dock. There is also a visitor center at the shuttle bus drop off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly Doble Posted January 5, 2011 #11 Share Posted January 5, 2011 HI We are wanting to do a cruise with Fullers and i was worried about whether we would make the tour in time, considering we have a tender and bus to catch. I sent them an email and they said to allow 40 minutes to get to Paihia but we should still make their tours. I hope so! Tania :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazzlazz Posted January 6, 2011 Author #12 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Hi Tania, Which one of their tours are you doing? We are looking at their 4 hour Hole in the Rock Dolphin Cruise. I'm just a bit concerned about getting off the ship and getting to the departure point in time. :) Karen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly Doble Posted January 6, 2011 #13 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Hi Karen We are going to do the excitor boat adventure it goes for 1 1/2hrs and looks fun. We originally looked at the 4 hour one but i didn't think we could make the morning one in time. Tania Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazzlazz Posted January 7, 2011 Author #14 Share Posted January 7, 2011 That's my worry too! When I was looking at Fullers, I didn't even see the Excitor tour :o I don't know how I missed it! LOL. I'm sure the family would enjoy it :):) I'll have to go back to them now and see if there are any vacancies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeniePrincess Posted January 14, 2011 #15 Share Posted January 14, 2011 We did the hole in the Rock cruise through Princess, main reason being is that we didn't have to want to wait in line to get off on the tender boats (if you aren't in line early, it cam take more than a half hour just to get off the ship). Because we booked through Princess, we had priority tender and were off the ship quickly as soon as the boats were running (i'm sure we paid a bit more, but it was worth it as you don't get much time in the ports). THe boat picked us up right at the tender port, and after we got back, we took the shuttle into town (no wait). We walked around for a bit, then decided to walk back to the tender port rather than take a shuttle. It took about 25-30 minutes to walk back from town at a slow pace. It was a really nice walk. Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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