tendering into Cozumel from the DAWN

[xodezi]

OK people, no one is making me feel any better about this!! :) I've yet to hear about either the Star or the Pearl tendering in Cozumel when there are 7 ships in port, so I'm pretty certain we WILL tender (plus as I mentioned it's stated "anchored" on our edocs)... anyone with any other direct experiences this year off the Dawn? Was it as chaotic and disorganized as I'm hearing? If you don't have an NCL shore excursion will there be any chance you'll get ashore in a reasonable time (before noon?)

 

my response probably won't help you much BUT i tendered off the Sun in cozumel 2 years ago... and had absolutely no problems. it was my first ever cruise, and my first time tendering.. I was terrified but honestly the experience was smooth sailing. No long lines for us.

[10s nut]

RJM,

 

You are in a suite and have priority disembarkation. You will get off the ship in plenty of time, don't have to stand in line to get a number, and wait for a tender.

 

RELAX and enjoy the other three ports. See you on board! :D

[Laszlo]

Ugh.......

 

Will be in Cozumel on the Dawn in November, thanks for the heads up:eek: I guess I should be happy as we have an excursion planned to Xcaret Eco Park

[martinchem]

The Dawn was tendering every other week till the Triumph was pulled from service, then they seemed to get a weekly slot.

[rjm11]

The Dawn was tendering every other week till the Triumph was pulled from service, then they seemed to get a weekly slot.

 

The Dawn and the Triumph were not scheduled to be there the same days, so that shouldn't affect the Dawn.

[aam3]

We returned from the Dawn today. Tendering in Cozumel was a nightmare! Tickets were given out in the Spinnaker lounge. I got mine at 8:30 a.m, number 725. They said it would be at least an hour. I then found that since I had a shore excursion ticket for a tour that met on the pier at noon, I could get off without a ticket.

 

The priority folks from the suites went in the lifeboat tenders first. They then decided that the water was too choppy for the tenders. NCL got 2 ferries that are used to go to mainland Mexico as tenders. At about 10 a.m. we were allowed to board the ferries along with those holding ticket numbers 75 and under.

 

We had friends that were going to Nachi Cocom. They had tickets in the 400's. They got off about noon.

 

The last tender back was to be at 4:30 p.m. We got in line at 3:30 p.m. after our excursion. The line laced all round the shopping village, all the way to Los Cincos Soles. We didn't move. About about 4 p.m. passengers began talking that NCL was moving the ship. Since the line was so long they would stop tendering and take the spot the Mariner of the Seas was vacating shortly. We stood in line until about 5 p.m. We were then directed to the RCCL boarding area where we went through metal detectors and screenings. We were then allowed to walk on the pier. We finally got on the ship at 5:15 p.m. after going through metal detectors and screening again on the ship. The last passengers boarded at 5:45 p.m.

 

NCL provided us with cool wash clothes, half glasses of water and frozen OJ and apple juice in small triangular pouches.

 

Security took pictures of the length of the line. Some officers also took out their cell phones and took pictures.

 

A lot of line jumpers, drunk people and otherwise ANGRY FOLKS!

 

We were on the same sailing as Marym. Worst tendering experience ever! If you do need to get tendering tickets, go early. They say that they will start handing them out at 8:00am, but they actually begin the process around 7:30. In both Belize and Cozumel, I got to the Spinnaker at 6:45 and was 2nd and 3rd in line. Thankfully we got on the first tender and made it to our dolphin swim excursion in time!

[hladygirl]

Ugh.......

 

Will be in Cozumel on the Dawn in November, thanks for the heads up:eek: I guess I should be happy as we have an excursion planned to Xcaret Eco Park

 

It looks like you will be one of five ships docking. We are on the dawn 11/1/2013. We will be one of four ships docking. Looks like we both are safe to assume we won't be tendering. Any islands that we have to tender to we stay on the ship and enjoy the quiet poolside.

[Laszlo]

It looks like you will be one of five ships docking. We are on the dawn 11/1/2013. We will be one of four ships docking. Looks like we both are safe to assume we won't be tendering. Any islands that we have to tender to we stay on the ship and enjoy the quiet poolside.

 

Hopefully you are right!!!

[totech]

We were on the same sailing as Marym. Worst tendering experience ever! If you do need to get tendering tickets, go early. They say that they will start handing them out at 8:00am, but they actually begin the process around 7:30. In both Belize and Cozumel, I got to the Spinnaker at 6:45 and was 2nd and 3rd in line. Thankfully we got on the first tender and made it to our dolphin swim excursion in time!

 

On the same cruise too. Went to the Spinnaker as requested at 8, and finally got off the ship just after noon.

 

I agree, Worst tendering experience ever!!! In line (yeah for hours to get on and off) many of my fellow cruisers said last time with NCL for this reason.

 

 

When the boat finally docked, they had one line front and midship to allow everyone back on board... Where were all the rest of the staff to allow 2 lines?

 

Another fellow cruiser in line said he was distressed to hear that the lifeboats that they were going to use to tender were deemed unsafe by the Captain, so where does that put us if there was a real emergency!

 

Tendering at Belize was no picnic either - One guy trying to hold back hundreds of people. Why can they not do this better?

 

Since Costa Maya is not a very compelling stop for us, and Cozumel was basically taken from us, we will be looking to other cruise companies that can either get a dock at port, or are able to figure out how to tender.

 

Disgusted at NCL

[shelly11]

Tendering was easy for us in January. We tendered back early. Those cutting it close to all aboard time had to deal with a broken down tender. The ship waited a few extra hours to leave.

 

All in all if you need to leave early get a tender ticket. if not take your time and go when you feel like it.

[molole]

It looks like you will be one of five ships docking. We are on the dawn 11/1/2013. We will be one of four ships docking. Looks like we both are safe to assume we won't be tendering. Any islands that we have to tender to we stay on the ship and enjoy the quiet poolside.

 

I also sail in November. Right now it shows there will be 6 ships. I really hope it does get even more as the time gets closer. Will we have to tender if Dawn is one of 6?

 

It really seems unfair to Dawn's passengers.

[TryingCruising]

I was on last week's sailing too. We booked a ship excursion so got off around 9:15. It was a bit scary getting on and off the tender boat due to bouncing seas. Such a short distance but took so long getting everyone on and off. Youd step on one end of the walk pff and the other would fly in the air!

 

We waited about 40 minutes in the hot sun around 3pm only to be told no more tendering...I had to take everyone's word since there wasn't anyone coming down the line from NCL to tell us. It all worked out, but I do wish they informed us better. We were lucky to have a ship excursion. We met many that missed their activities. I can say though, from experiencing it first hand that the morning was tricky due to the waves.

[bluesea777]

 

Disgusted at NCL

 

 

Why?

 

Belize is always a tender port as is Cayman. So when you cruise an itinerary, avoid those ports.

 

As for Cozumel, blame it on Mother Nature, not NCL. She made the sea too choppy for smooth tendering. Dawn did try using the ship's lifeboats but it didn't work well so they used the local tenders.

 

Fortunately we had a NCL excursion so didn't have problem getting on the tender.

[BubMunkeyBles]

Just looked and there will be 8 boats in port when we go next January. Bummer we'll have to tender it seems. :( We'll just get a tender ticket though I'm sure.

 

Edit: nevermind, I'm blonde and was looking at the wrong dates! :)

[totech]

Why?

 

Belize is always a tender port as is Cayman. So when you cruise an itinerary, avoid those ports.

 

As for Cozumel, blame it on Mother Nature, not NCL. She made the sea too choppy for smooth tendering. Dawn did try using the ship's lifeboats but it didn't work well so they used the local tenders.

 

Fortunately we had a NCL excursion so didn't have problem getting on the tender.

 

Luckily you were on an NCL excursion in Cozumel, so were not inconvenienced, but this is their business, I cannot imagine that this is the first time that this has happened, and their contingency plan was ineffective. There were people still just getting off the boat after 2PM.

 

I see your point about expecting tendering in Belize, my comment about tendering in Belize was more about the unorganized chaos, as people all tried to push past the one person controlling the line.

[Laszlo]

People all tried to push past the one person controlling the line.

 

We had that at GSC last year. What a cluster F. My wife and I had paid for a clam shell, which gave us priority tendering tickets. Great we thought, tendering was called and we began making our way down the stairs. We got lots of evil stairs and comments from other passengers as we passed them on the stairs. I one point I found myself holding our tickets out showing people we signed up for an excursion. At the bottom it became one big shoving match, the NCL folks did what they could. One you have a few dozen a holes in line all bets are off.